PC Deer meat portions need adjusting.

[BananaOne1963]

So, I killed a deer... got 13 portions of meat.  Could only cook 10 of them for reasons(?), and ended up with only two servings of grilled meat which I ate in two clicks of my mouse.

Realistically, a 100 lb fawn can easily yield 45 pounds of meat, or ninety 8oz servings... So two servings of grilled meat for one deer seems a little weak.

 

[Pernicious]

And you think a wolf or a bear only supplies enough meat for a day?

 

[Jinx_DG]

Realistically

Going to have to stop you right there with trying to justify your complaint with that reasoning. One word.... Zombies, ok maybe two words.... Video Game.

It takes 5 meat to cook 1 portion (meal).  The amount of meat you get from any animal can vary depending on 1) what is used to "carve" it and 2) how much you damaged it after death (by bullets, arrows, ect.) A knife will yield more meat than a stone axe. Shooting an animal a few times after death will yield you less meat. (and can sometimes completely destroy the animal so it disappear)

IIRC there (may be) a skill to perk into that is helpful in some way for animals/hunting.  (You'll have to look that up when your in game for verification)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you are relatively new to the game or haven't played very far into the game progression. I say this because at some not to distant of a time you'll find yourself with more meat than you know what to do with and you'll have stacks of it sitting in a storage chest yearning to be made into something delisious..... 

The dificulty you're experiencing right now is part of the survival aspect of the game. An intended mechanic.  

 

[Crater Creator]

Expanding on the realism point, the game is pretty qualitatively accurate. You need to eat to survive. Deer exist. You can kill them with bows or firearms. You can harvest meat from them, cook that meat over a campfire, and eat it for sustenance. The game gets all these things right.

The fact that the game isn't quantitatively accurate is much less of a concern for me. The numbers are what they are for the sake of game balance and fun. This cuts both ways. Chopping down a big tree with a stone axe takes a minute or two instead of all day. Crops are ready for harvest three days after you plant them. One bird nest may contain fifteen fletching-quality feathers. And so on. One could try to get all these numbers true to life, but that doesn't mean it would be fun.

 

[Urban Blackbear]

The Huntsmen skill line will give bonuses to the amount of meat and hide you get from animals. Think of it as being unskilled and wasting most of the animal without it. It's usually not necessary since there are plenty of animals out there, especially if you go to the snow biome. Mountain lions and bears practically throw their meat at you.

 

[zztong]

So, I killed a deer... got 13 portions of meat.

It sounds like you either overkilled the deer or harvested the meat with using a tool that is not the best, like a stone axe. Your deer was probably also a doe. A doe can give out 15 meat and a stag gives 25.

I agree deer give out too little, but they're also really easy to hunt. Lately, I've been playing with some settings that make the deer harder to hunt, so I also gave them more meat. You might like this combination:

• See further, so flee earlier.
  
• Run faster, so harder to hit when on the move and harder for you to close with them.
  
• Enough health that I can't one-shot them day 1 with a crude bow.
  
• 35 meat from a Stag, 30 meat from a Doe.
  

<entity_classes>

    <!-- Make Deer (Stag, Doe) faster, tougher, more perceptive and with more meat. -->
    <!-- The goal here is to make them a more difficult hunting challenge, but worthy of the reward. -->

    <setattribute xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='animalStag']/property[@name='SightRange']" name="value">60</setattribute>
    <setattribute xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='animalStag']/property[@name='MoveSpeedPanic']" name="value">2.0</setattribute>
    <setattribute xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='animalStag']/effect_group/passive_effect[@name='HealthMax']" name="value">350</setattribute>
    <setattribute xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='animalStag']/drop[@name='foodRawMeat' and @tag='butcherHarvest']" name="count">35</setattribute>

    <setattribute xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='animalDoe']/effect_group/passive_effect[@name='HealthMax']" name="value">300</setattribute>
    <setattribute xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='animalDoe']/drop[@name='foodRawMeat' and @tag='butcherHarvest']" name="count">30</setattribute>
</entity_classes>

 

[Syphon583]

Others have already pointed out that 7DTD is in no way intended to be a realistic survival sim, so I won't go into that.

What I will say on a related note, though, is that this game also does not have food spoilage. While some players would like to see a return of that mechanic, without it the devs needed some other way to balance food. They did that by reducing how much is harvested and how much it takes to craft a meal. If food spoilage were a thing again, I could see them slightly increasing how much is harvested, but I doubt that mechanic is ever coming back without a mod.

 

[Roland]

If food spoilage were a thing again

again....?

When?

 

[BananaOne1963]

Others have already pointed out that 7DTD is in no way intended to be a realistic survival sim, so I won't go into that.

What I will say on a related note, though, is that this game also does not have food spoilage. While some players would like to see a return of that mechanic, without it the devs needed some other way to balance food. They did that by reducing how much is harvested and how much it takes to craft a meal. If food spoilage were a thing again, I could see them slightly increasing how much is harvested, but I doubt that mechanic is ever coming back without a mod.

Yeah, if food spoilage was a thing there'd need to be a skill book on making jerky or building a smoker.

So, yeah, I did butcher the deer with a stone axe... that'd certainly qualify as a crude job.  But then a day later (in game) I killed a chicken and cut it up with a bone knife and got 12 pieces of meat.  Recall that the deer gave me 13...

 

[BananaOne1963]

When I was reading things on the Google, I found interesting charts about meat yield.   Apparently the difference between average yield and ideal yield is about 30%.  My guess is a totally @%$#ty yield would be loss of 60%, or 40% of the ideal.

If we go back to the hundred pound fawn example, that means a stone age butcher job would yield thirty-six 8oz portions, and an expert butcher job would yield the full 90.

The one comment that made me laugh was the guy who caught my use of the word realistically. Good one. And yeah I haven't been able to play this game for about 3 years and I've had to start over.

But mainly the reason I posted this is it doesn't seem consistent for me to end up with the same number of meals from a deer as I get from a chicken.

 

[BananaOne1963]

Others have already pointed out that 7DTD is in no way intended to be a realistic survival sim, so I won't go into that...

This comment reminded me of something. Any of you guys ever played America's Army? I recall it was at least partially funded by the military to help teach group tactics. But what was interesting is that you had to go through training classes to qualify for different classes in game. If you wanted to be a medic, you had to sit in a virtual room watching presentations and then take a test... and then you could play a medic.  People have saved lives with the medical training they got in that game.  I think it'd be absolutely hilarious if 7D2D went in this direction even a little bit

 

[Syphon583]

again....?

When?

My mistake. I thought food spoilage used to be thing in earlier alphas (I've only been playing the last few)

 

[Roland]

But mainly the reason I posted this is it doesn't seem consistent for me to end up with the same number of meals from a deer as I get from a chicken.

If this was your experience then I highly suspect you over damaged the deer somehow. I’ve consistently gotten more meat from deer than chickens. 
 

But maybe it was that 2-hour film on deer and chicken slaughtering I watched before playing….

 

[zztong]

But then a day later (in game) I killed a chicken and cut it up with a bone knife and got 12 pieces of meat.  Recall that the deer gave me 13...

IIRC... A chicken gives 10 to a knife with no skill improvements. A deer (doe) gives 15 and a deer (stag) gives 25.

What's harder to take into account is what food you made from the meat. If you're grilling, boiling, or burning the meat you're not going to get a lot out of it. I think 10. If you pair it with two eggs you get 35. Pair it with potato and mushrooms then, well... you get the idea. The point is the volume of meat is a vague concept, not a well-defined amount, and then there's some argument to be made about what a better cook might get out of the meat.

Overall, I'm kind of with you though. I would like to think a deer (doe) is more than 1.5 chickens.

 

[theFlu]

If you're grilling, boiling, or burning the meat you're not going to get a lot out of it. I think 10. If you pair it with two eggs you get 35.

With that combo, the eggs are the limiting factor.. one steak for 10, two boiled eggs are 10 each = 20, the combo gives 5 (6?) extra. No reason to feel bad about eating the meats. Boil it for extra health in the early game, that turns jars of water into 10 health each.

(Your mileage will likely vary with A21)

 

[warmer]

I think we can all agree that not even getting more than an additional meal out of a deer vs. a chicken is waltzing into hilarious territory.  At least double it. Using a level 1 bone knife I get around 10 meat for a chicken. 20 meat for a deer seems absolutely reasonable, especially considering you cant just walk up and kill it with a single whack of your first club.

 

[BFT2020]

I think the solution is to reduce the meat drop from chickens, rabbits, and snakes

 

[zztong]

I think the solution is to reduce the meat drop from chickens, rabbits, and snakes

My first reaction to this was negative, but as I think about it maybe that's best. I was thinking a chicken or rabbit should provide about a day's worth of food, but I'm thinking of animals raised on a farm. I have no idea what wild rabbits or feral chickens would be like during this apocalypse. So yes, maybe 5 meat makes sense.

It also makes the game start a little tougher as a new character won't hunt the predators, other than the wimpy desert coyote.

 

[BFT2020]

My first reaction to this was negative, but as I think about it maybe that's best. I was thinking a chicken or rabbit should provide about a day's worth of food, but I'm thinking of animals raised on a farm. I have no idea what wild rabbits or feral chickens would be like during this apocalypse. So yes, maybe 5 meat makes sense.

It also makes the game start a little tougher as a new character won't hunt the predators, other than the wimpy desert coyote.

Yeah, but remember I am the guy that modded out the ability to repair equipment in my game. 

 

[Ramethzer0]

Can I add some extra realism to meat fabrication here for a moment to offset the 'Realism' argument, because there's more to that concept of realism than you think.  That is the realism of pitfalls.

It's far more complex than making the statement of 'Realistically, a 100 lb fawn can easily yield 45 pounds of meat, or ninety 8oz servings... So two servings of grilled meat for one deer seems a little weak.' 

I say this as a professional in the food service industry:   It's not as easy as you think it is and requires some education about spoilage, food preservation techniques, sanitation, proper tools, and proper working conditions. 

I for one, am grateful that in 7 days to die, a zero experience survival character in the end is able to identify how many portions of meat are actually healthy from the moment you slash at it with a knife.  In the real world there are bones, internal organs, chances to taint your meat, identification of parasites or contagions in game meats, and the ability to just ruin your fabrication and not get the cuts you are hoping for.  Sometimes, a person cannot tell with the naked eye which bits are actually healthy.  Anyone that has ever gone from farm to field to water body to garden all the way to table can tell you the path to the end product is a detailed path.   There are a lot of steps in this process, and a lot of moments when things can go wrong.

The perks can soften the blow in the argument between realism and a survival video game simulator.