Cooking without slicing

Glim · Post by **Glim** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 9:35 pm

I was wondering, but could there be a way added that you could cook and eat a corpse, without knowing how to slice? I mean, not only rangers and druids hunt for their food, i just thought it might work, roasting a boar or rabbit (or a crunchy knight or elf corpse for those orcs out there

) over a spit on an open flame without knowing how to slice.

Ursan · Post by **Ursan** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 2:52 pm

Actually, this already exists within the game - you can cook parts of the fallen animal as though they had been sliced from the corpse. This will depend on how you're melee with the animal goes, of course, but at least allows for a source of food.

Mmm, if I remember rightly, this is one of the first things that Newt tells you when you create a character....

Anyway..... ICly, I would say that the slice skill is linked with knowledge of the way to skin, bone and fillet your catch. If you are merely tossing it on the fire, best to stick to a drumstick or similar

Paxos · Post by **Paxos** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 4:25 pm

I think Glim is essentially suggesting a seperation of cremate and cook as commands.

Ursan · Post by **Ursan** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 5:32 pm

Nod, you are quite correct. However, I would say that there is no need for that separation since it is already possible in the means I noted above.

That and the fact that it would lessen the uniqueness of those character classes which have access to the slice skill.

As I said, the ICly ability to kill, clean and cook a hunted kill shouldnt really be taken to be something that all classes would possess.

If a bookish wizard who has never left a city street before could walk into the forest and find his dinner, what would be the point of having rangers...

Glim · Post by **Glim** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 12:27 am

Well, if not cook and prepare, perhaps there could at least be a way of eating a corpse raw. This would probably only be a RP type for orcs or malarites or such other savage types. I dont really think that depending upon randomly cutting limbs off to eat is all you could eat.

Or perhaps there could be a way to cut limbs off of dead corpses? It wouldnt take much knowledge of slicing to be able to hack off a limb.

Timaeus · Post by **Timaeus** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 1:15 am

There is a vast difference in getting a viable skin off of an animal and butchering an animal for meat. While I agree that rangers and those currently allowed slice should be the only ones to gather skins off the dead merely being able to gather meat from an animal (in most cases) is a relatively simply process and would be one rather common in the medieval time period that is roughly equivalent to the MU*s setting. I've personally taught 12-14 year olds how to butcher a deer for meat in a relatively short amount of time, usually it takes the processing of two deer. The skills could be divided as skinning and butchering with skinning being the same as slice is now providing both raw meat and the skin while butchering would provide only raw meat. The argument about the studious city bound mage is valid but what about the characters that were raised on farms and not in cities? Even in todays world many who are raised in rural areas are more than competent at butchering livestock. Whether or not it is appropriate for a particular character would be left more or less to the roleplay and history of that character.

Timaeus Valierius,
Warrior of Kelemvor.

Glim · Post by **Glim** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 7:19 pm

Couldnt have put it better myself Timaeus.

Essentially, hunting for food is not just something rangers do, and if other characters could prepare a meager meal from their kills I dont think it would take away the rangers uniqueness. They still have many things that allow them to be different. I mean, it doesnt take much to quarter a deer, or roast a rabbit over a spit or the like. Yes, I agree they should be the only ones allowed to gather useable skins, but cooking though?!? And plus, if the bookish city mage wishes to learn to cook wild game, then why not let them? Cooking a kill is really a very primitive skill, hunting has been a survival skill since time was time. Now, it might be very bad tasting food, but its still food.

Algon · Post by **Algon** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:00 pm

I would have to agree with glim on this. You can teach a child to cut a piece of meat off on an animal. So what would be the problem with having a mage be able to cut off a chunk of meat from a corpse? I also agree that rangers should be the only ones that can successfully skin an aminal, but most of us in the game have very big swords and it would not take very much skill to cut out a piece of meat from a corpse to cook.

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:10 pm

Perhaps coding to use the command "chop" or "cut" corpse could be implemented, allowing the removal of however many limbs the creature has. This would yield, at the least, four pieces of meat from a slain creature.

Rangers, of course, could benefit from this extension, using the above command to remove the limbs for cooking, and then still using the slice skill to get raw slices of meat and a skin from the corpse. So in the end, those who can train slice still get it better.

After all, there are other classes that can be forest bound, or more rural, according to their RP. Crude butchery just for the sake of getting meat could just as well be done by a Mielikkan wizard or a Chauntean warrior, I would think.