..and I'm ok, I sleep all night and I work all day!

[Guest]

Help skill_lumberjack says they can cut down trees with "use axe".. can non-lumberjacks do this, if a fletcher for example wanted some branches to work with?  Or is his skill in "use axe" so low that he'd practically never chop the silly tree down?

[Gorobei]

Yes, I believe that anyone can chop down trees, and eat lunch.  Unfortunately, bladders and bowels aren't coded (yet).

In fact, I don't think 'use axe' is reliant on any skill at all, like obsidian mining.

[Dakkon Black]

Man bladders and bowels.. thats such a scary thought

The rigid stern looking templar says "Stay here a bit, ahd like to speak with you"

<prompt> Score

You are niether hungry or thirsty

You are about to shit your pants.

emote swallows heavilly, sweat forming on his brow

Tell templar of course Lord Templar

The small man shits in his set of new bone-scale greaves


Ohh the RP possibilities!

[Callisto]

That's disgusting.

[Guest]

Ergs - got an axe, but sold my skinning knife too, as "view axe" gave me the "would work well for skinning" message.. whenever I try the axe for skinning, it tell me I need be wielding a knife.  Args - anyone else had this problem?  Tis a bug?

[Angela Christine]

It's not exactly a bug, more like a typo.  In order to use it for skinning you would need to hold it in your primary hand.  Unfortunately, because it is a giant axe, you can only hold it in -both- hands, etwo rather than ep.  All chopping weapons will tell you they are good for skinning, even if you can't possibly ep it.

It happened to me once too.  

Angela Christine

[John]

HOW would you skin something with an axe?  :shock:

[Gorobei]

To skin, say, a scrab with an axe  just chop off its head first, then hack around the shell and peel it off with your hands.  This will expose the meat, and you can just chop off the big hunks that you want.

I don't know, that's just my vision of it happening.  I don't think it would work as well on something more delicate, like jozhal.

[Delirium]

Actually, RL hunters use little axes if I'm not mistaken, to chop through bone and stuff. And remember this is Zalanthas animals we're talking about. Carapaces, etc.

[Angela Christine]

Some carcases, like scrabs, net a tasty head or a skull when skinned.   For most creatures it will be easier to remove the head with an axe than with a small knife (which is probably why small knives can't be used to behead a corpse without skinning it).  For tortise-like shells (bahamets, etc.) flipping it on it's side or back and hacking out the innards might be a perfectly reasonable way of seperating the valuable shell from the connective tissue.  For insectoid type shells, there is no openening because the creature is completely encased in it's exoskeleton.  Using an axe to split the shell open, allowing you to scoop out the innards, is as plausible as using a knife to widen and split percieved weak points.  With gigantic creatures trying to butcher them with a small knife would take all day, maybe more than one.  I once came upon a mek that was stunned and near death, and even with it just lying there not defending itself I couldn't hurt it with the small, cheap weapons my newbie character had on her, the hide is just that tough.  

With small to man sized creatures with actual skins rather than shells or thick hides, an axe may be over-kill.  An axe will certainly be cruder than a skinning knife, but not impossible.  You use your axe to remove the head and the legs or feet, because that is where the skin is least useful and hardest to remove.  Then you gently  slice the skin from neck to groin, a knife would be better for this but any sharp blade would do.  At that point the skin should just peel off, grab on and pull.

An uber-roleplayer might carry both a hatchet and a skinning knife, whipping out whichever one seemed most ICly appropriate, or holding one in each hand and emoting using both.  On the other hand, if you have low strength you may find even 1 or 2 extra stones of weight makes a difference, so you don't carry anything on your body that you don't have to.  In that case you choose between using a skinning knife in your off hand when you fight, or using a combat weapon for skinning.  Both options are a little dodgy.  Another way to go is code-using your combat weapon to skin, but emoting pulling out your virtual skinning knife and RP-using your skinning knife despite the fact that you still have the axe or halfsword in your hand.   Also a little dodgy.  You make do with what you've got.

If I can find a convinent way to do it, I'll usually have characters that skin things carry a tool designed specifically for skinning.  It seems logical that a skinning knife would be better at skinning than a dagger or a battle axe.  I don't know if the code actually backs this up and gives you a skill bonus for using a skinning tool, probably not, but it looks better.

AC

[John]

Thanks All good points. I've been trying to imagine skinning something the size of a deer and by literally trying to get the skin off the deer's body. I just couldn't quite imagine how to manage it. But you all made good points with using axes to skin stuff and I can definitely imagine using an axe in those circumstances

[ShaLeah]

The rigid stern looking templar says "Stay here a bit, ahd like to speak with you"

<prompt> Score

You are niether hungry or thirsty

You are about to shit your pants.

emote swallows heavilly, sweat forming on his brow

Tell templar of course Lord Templar

The small man shits in his set of new bone-scale greaves

I found that hilarious.

ShaLeah
-who once emoted peeing in the Gaj firepits cause she was drunk.

[creeper386]

Alot of skinning knives I see knwo of days are basically an axe. It has a knife handle, but the blade goes up and then almost has a curved head from it.

An axe with a wide curved edge may not be the best to make the initial cuts in the skin. But that curved edge could very well come in handy when removing the skin. Although an axe could be too large, the main problem is the awkwardness in the weapon being weighted for battle instead of other uses. Like how wood axes are different from a battle axe most the time.


Creeper