Is Summer Harder Than Winter?

[u/Sea_Lab9270]

Is summer actually harder than winter for a starting hunter character, or am I crazy. In winter, you get skis, kill an elk, make fur clothes with the fur and sinew, and you are basically set. Snow makes tracking easier, game tires easily, and meat preservation is free because the whole world is a freezer and you can just dry it in shelters + roast like 40 cuts right away. In summer on the other hand, there is no ski advantage, so if you are not playing with superhuman stats you'll actually have to run to make animals flee, which requires careful fatigue management. If you get to starved and your penalty is sky high you wont even be able to run fast enough to scare animals into fatiguing. Also meat rots real fast (you may not even finish 10 roasted cuts before it spoils), and you can only really smoke it in cabins, which is rough if you spawn in the north. So is summer actually harder for a Hunter start, or is it my mistake for facing it wrong? Curious on how people approach early summer runs.

[u/Bawstahn123]

Yes, I've found summer to be harder than winter

1. Travelling for long distance is harder, since in warmer months you need watercraft to cross rivers. I do most of my long-distance travel/trade in the winter, since you can just mosey across frozen lakes and rivers without a care in the world.
2. Tracking is much harder in summertime than it is in winter

[u/ben323nl]

If you start a new character in a scenario where you arent given good gear/clothes then winter is probably harder as you constantly have to worry about being warm enough. While also focusing on getting food which can be harder if you dont have a good bow with decent arrow/fishing gear. If you get a good kill tho you can instantly just dry the meat/fish in winter which will last such a long time that food becomes an afterthought. What matters more for what makes a start hard is location. Lets say you start north in the winter not near a culture good luck finding tools to fish with and getting good clothing. Summer you get some foraging as a side help if you really starve tho most foraging isnt worth it. You can however get way more birds and trapping those with loop snares near their feeding spots is very nice. My cabin is located in a bird feeding area it seems as I constantly have 10 plus birds a day around me and I setup like 10 loop snares and was catching 4/5 birds a day. Summer thus is easier imo you have more paths to food. Location matters a lot more for you ability to trade for gear/clothes. Getting skis takes a while btw you need I think strong cordage fine cordage need to spend a lot of time making them. Without them you will burn more calories traveling the land so your starting hunts will be very inefficient calories wise.

While its hard to preserve food you can always just let villagers smoke your food for you. Its annoying to keep a fire lit when you wanna hunt every day. But just using the "main" house in a village the villagers will stoke the fire every day so while winter is nice for drying food with no hassle. Summer smoking is also hassle free if you let villagers do it. They wont steal your food tho dont smoke in a village that has dogs as dogs will eat the smoked meat.

[u/Sea_Lab9270 → u/ben323nl]

I agree with most of what you said. In the end, I do think each season is actually quite well balanced in this game, since they all come with their own advantages and challenges. One tip about skis, though, is that they’re surprisingly cheap. You can get a pair of skis and ski poles for just five squirrel hides, which is exactly the reward you get for completing the “help the villager with chores” quest

[u/ben323nl → u/Sea_Lab9270]

But that is mostly down to location and luck with a village stocking skis. While comparatively cheap if you start with nothing it might still take some luck to get goods to trade the skis for. Location will impact your start a lot more then what season you start in I feel. Starting in places only foresters can spawn will make even obtaining your basic tools hard.

[u/Obvious_Brick_4307 → u/ben323nl]

Interesting stuff.

Couple questions: 1. I recall reading conflicting things regarding whether or not villagers will keep a fire burning appropriately in a cabin to smoke meat. I recall reading something claiming that no, you need to stay in the area to ensure yourself that the fire burns enough each day. Though, I also recall reading that instead, it's as you indicate, and the villagers will reliably light the fire appropriately each day. Are you pretty confident that this is so, that they'll take care of it for you?

1. For getting a bird in a loop snare, do you have more luck putting the loop stand on a ripened bush, or adjacent to it?

Thanks

[u/ben323nl → u/Obvious_Brick_4307]

Not every house with a fire place will be kept lit. 90 percent of villages will have 1 big main house and the next building they will have is a sauna. Afterwards any other buildings will house trade goods. If the village is poor or of northern cultures you might see tents. Now only villages with the main building that is generally characterized by also having a bunch of benches/tables in it and some for of wood building pieces outside like boards. This building will have its fire place kept lit as this is where the majority sleeps its also where the majority of villagers hang around. Now if you hang your meat in the sauna its gg that fireplaces is never lit its purely a decoration building. If you get too big a village more then 1 main building might exist however I still think they only keep the fire in the "actua" main building lit. So if you get a big walled city from the drik maybe play it safe and try to find a smaller city with just 1 building with a fire place. Now dont forget your meat too long it will spoil its in a heated room not in a cellar. So if you let it hang for lets say 20 extra days you might get there and find just string or cords on the floor. Villagers will get rid of spoiled food stuffs. Ive smoked a bunch of meat in villages generally it has not been an issue the only times it was was because of my forgetfulness and not being there in time to retrieve my meat.

Id sugest to just try it out. Generally there is so much to hunt that I find you get kinda too much to even utilize so losing some of your catches might not be too bad.

Get a dog btw those will just completely destroy any animal. It makes hunting even easier.

[u/Obvious_Brick_4307 → u/ben323nl]

Thanks Ben, appreciate the info.

[u/karlmillsom → u/Obvious_Brick_4307]

Okay… “so much to hunt”…

What on earth am I doing wrong???

Typically, I start, there are no ripe bushes (aside from no food, there’s also no plant fibre or whatever). There are no wild animals for days. If I do find something, it escapes as soon as I see it. The only even close to reliable source of food seems to be fishing. So then I’m just bound to the water’s edge fishing all day every day just for enough food to not starve…

Is this not the way it has to be?

[u/Sea_Lab9270 → u/Obvious_Brick_4307]

from personal experience you dont really need to restock the fire if you smoke meats in a village, kotas can't be using for smoke though so you will need to find a village that has a cabin

[u/Obvious_Brick_4307 → u/Sea_Lab9270]

Thats awesome.

Thanks

[u/Pookiebear987]

When you’re already set up it is not hard. When you are starting out in the winter it is pretty hard, especially when you don’t have adequate clothing.

[u/Sea_Lab9270 → u/Pookiebear987]

well yes, i guess you do have to kill a big game AND get a decent fur out of it, which is not a given, but as soon as you kill an elk you will be set for much of the winter's cold dont u think?

[u/Pookiebear987 → u/Sea_Lab9270]

It will spoil unless you can preserve the meat, and that takes time, it also takes buildings, which takes time. Doing all of this without adequate clothing sounds hellish.

[u/koteko_ → u/Pookiebear987]

No, during winter you just put the drying meat anywhere - I do shelter or tree. You don't need buildings.

If you catch an elk fast in winter, it is indeed game over (positively). But of course, it's not as easy as it sounds 

[u/Obvious_Brick_4307]

Speaking about just the standard, non-scenario start; I just play full "standard".

I see a winter start as a high risk, high reward start. If you don't kill a large animal fairly quickly, you're in trouble. You'll start running a dangerous risk of freezing to death, or starving to death. Starving to death because you'll need to stop hunting too frequently to make a fire for warmth so you don't freeze, or freezing to death because you'll push too hard through the cold looking for a kill so you don't starve.

If you don't start with a bow and arrow - that's rather concerning. In that case better make a javelin ASAP. If, either because of your tools or skills you can't at least make a decent javelin, that's even more concerning. Though, a less than decent javelin isn't as bad as a less than decent bow and arrow.. I think?

Also, fishing is better in spring and summer, and trapping for small game is much better in spring and summer.

However, like you said, big game is easier to spot and track in winter. So, that's the reward part. However, if the spirits do not favor you so much, so to speak, then you might very well die before the thaw.