v0.31 Talk:Butcher

Size and products of butchering

Strangely, larger creatures do not always translate into more meat at the butcher's shop. I've noticed dogs result in 13 meat, while the much larger donkeys result in only ten meat. I'm wondering if the size indicator results in a total number of parts, with random bits like hooves and intestines being subtracted from that and the extra bits being assigned as meat and fat.

Currently, killing dogs is more efficient for food production than killing donkeys.

I believe this has something to do with the physical characteristics of the particular animals. There was a thread on the forum not too long ago where someone was experimenting with Dwarf Fortress genetics(Apparently, genetics actually exist in some form), and in there it was shown that descriptive characteristics of an animal ("fat", "huge", "skinny", "muscular") alter the amount of various products from butchering. It could be that you were looking at the butchery results of a gigantic and very muscular dog and a very skinny and weak donkey. While the donkey may have a base meat value that's higher, the different characteristics tipped the balance. Try butchering a number of the same type of creature, and you'll get a whole spectrum of different results returned. --Kagus 17:53, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Caged, wild, untame animals

what are the conditions for these to be butchered? because despite me thinking they were just gonna be left in my animal stockpile forever (or until i can find a good use for them, without letting them loose in the fort), my butcher seems to have started butchering them. i have quite a few caged wild, untame animals sitting in an animal stockpile (easier to neutralise a giant cave spider with a trap, no?) of various different kinds (all underground - draltha, trolls, cave spiders, cave swallows, mole dogs, etc, etc), and my butcher didnt seem interested in them at all.. but now he seems to have started going through them (albeit very slowly), when i've not asked him to, and i'm unaware of any conditions changing (for example - there's still a little bit of wildlife on the map, and the 'dungeon master' hasnt shown up, to make them tame). i know he's started to because i've not had a 'naked mole dog' invasion for a while, so my hunters havent picked any up, yet there are two freshly butchered in the workshop, along with their cages (or, along with one cage (shortage in cage traps, so even the one there right now has been 'TaSKed' - highly likely the other one was swept away as soon as it was free)), but i have seen another cage in the butcher's not too long ago, and it perplexed me why it'd be there, but didnt think much of it (figured it could have been hauled, then accidentally put down in the butchers upon starting another task? iunno..). do caged wild animals actually get butchered, in time? or is it just a catalogue of random events that look like it happened? --DJ Devil 14:42, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

oh... it turns out the cage that was in the butchers actually contains a 'giant mole corpse', so.. either it's died in it's cage, and is now being butchered? or the butcher's killed it, in it's cage, and is now butchering it. which one's more likely? ..oh wow, i've found two more dead animals in cages, in a stockpile (not in the assigned animal stockpile, but they've been hauled back to the main one, where empty cages are kept). two 'naked mole dog corpses', still in the cage. did they die of old age and be hauled there? did they die of lack of food/water? (they've been there a long time..). did the butcher kill them, and have them stored for later? very strange - i've heard nothing about any of this anywhere on the wiki, and it's quite major re: the butcher, meat industry, leatherworking industry, wild animals in general, cage traps, animal storage, etc, etc.--DJ Devil 19:44, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

okay, i suddenly have 5 more naked mole dogs laying dead in cages back on the 'empty cage' stockpile. and since no-one else seems concerned, i've had a browse around, and i've come to the conclusion they're dying of old age. they have a "MAXAGE" tag of "2:3" ([MAXAGE:2:3]), and they've probably been there longer than that, so i shall presume that's why they're dying. imo, this should definitely be on several pages, because it's quite important for a cluster of them (e.g. caged animals, cage traps, or broader subjects like the meat industry, leather industry, butcher's workshop, animal storage, wild animals in general, etc.--DJ Devil 15:52, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

sorry, I know I should make a name, but I was just messing with this situation as well. What works for me is making sure you go into your Orders menu so people collect 'refuse from outside' that lets them drag a corpse to an outside refuse pile. Mine is directly adjacent. Once something dies and is dropped off in the refuse pile next to the butcher shop it triggers the butcher order, then the tanner order. Works out real well.