Hunting cabins

[The Selfish Meme]

Are they effective at all? I'm new to the game, what I see is that in 1-2 seasons absolutely no animals remain around the cabin so i suppose the production ceases... Do they come back? I have the forest preserved in that place.

[iamthemagicbonsaitree]

Don't worry about where the deer are. As long as there is plenty of unbuilt on land within your hunting cabins radius, and your hunters don't live too far away, you will get a pretty decent yield of venison and leather which will remain fairly consitant. Also try not to have the radius of hunting cabins overlap with each other, this will have a negative effect on yield.

[mbutton15]

As mentioned above, it's best not to overlap cabins or place too many buildings within their perimeter but the real value of hunting cabins is the leather, rather than the food. There is also no point having 4 workers at a single cabin, even 3 is not optimal. That's because there is only a set number of kills that will happen at a cabin per year so 2 workers is good enough.

[iamthemagicbonsaitree]

Yes, so having 2 hunters in 2 cabins will yield much more than 4 hunters in 1 cabin. 4 hunters in 1 cabin will usually produce more than if there were just 2 hunters though.

[jabbywocks]

The animals are just for show. They will hunt, even if you see no animals around. Every production build has a little swirly icon at the top, when you click on it. It will show how much you're producing each year from the building. If you check your hunters cabin, you will see how much venison and leather they are collecting.

[ebrumby]

The animals really aren't just for show. Same thing with the Herbs gathered by an Herbalist and foods gathered by a Gatherer.

[Taradyn]

I always have a Hunting Cabin with a Gathering Hut, not so much for meat but for leather. Your people will have ragged clothing after several years and they work much more effectively in warm clothing. If you get sheep from the traders, you can make hide coats and wool coats and your peeps will be effective all winter long.

[Jessabela]

Originally posted by ebrumby:

The animals really aren't just for show. Same thing with the Herbs gathered by an Herbalist and foods gathered by a Gatherer.

Yes they are. Case in point; you can DIRECT villagers to pick up herbs and food. You cannot direct villagers to kill deer. The game treats herbs and food like actual objects, but treats deer like they don't exist. I would say that in itself proves they're not the same thing. The game is treating them differently.
Multiple people have tested this, and the general consensus is that the deer you see in the game are cosmetic only. There seems to be NO difference based on whether there are visible deer nearby or not, and there in fact seems to be some kind of lock on how much a hunting cabin can produce anyway - meaning even if the deer were functional, it wouldn't make a difference because the hunters wouldn't be able to hunt more anyway. Please don't spread misinformation.

[ebrumby]

This isn't misinformation. I'm going by several articles and discussions with modders I've read. I know people who have followed hunters and watched them make the "kill". Tom Sawyer, the modder who created The North mod, has an excellent explanation regarding how the Hunting Cabin and Deer work based on the game code. It's a bit technical, but you can always skip to his summary at the end. http://www.banishedventures.com/deerandhunters/

[ROFLpl0x]

Originally posted by ebrumby:

This isn't misinformation. I'm going by several articles and discussions with modders I've read. I know people who have followed hunters and watched them make the "kill". Tom Sawyer, the modder who created The North mod, has an excellent explanation regarding how the Hunting Cabin and Deer work based on the game code. It's a bit technical, but you can always skip to his summary at the end. http://www.banishedventures.com/deerandhunters/

The problem with this is that you get the same amount per year of hunting resources from a radius that never has any visible herds of deer in it as you get from a radius that does, as long as they're both staffed and operating with the same efficiency. You can test this yourself easily enough with the debugger.

The information in the link doesn't appear to be anything but an explanation of how hunting and herd mechanics work. I don't see anything intrinsically tying it to the presence of actually visible herds, though, other than the claim that people have seen hunters "killing" deer. I've also seen this, but I've also seen hunters perform this same killing action infinitely more often with no visible deer at the location, in sight, or even in the radius and produce the same amount of resources by doing so. This is proof enough that visible herds of deer are neither necessary or an indication of how productive a particular spot on the map will be.

It's possible that the game uses visible herds as prey if a herd happens to be in the radius, but they certainly don't need to be, ever, ultimately making visible herds of deer "just for show".

[pdoan8]

When hunter targets a herd, he/she will follow it until he/she gets a kill.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1203943312
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1203936430

If there is no herd within the hunting area (within the cabin's circle) when hunting season start (every other month), there will be no kill.

[Hat8]

Originally posted by The Selfish Meme:

Are they effective at all? I'm new to the game, what I see is that in 1-2 seasons absolutely no animals remain around the cabin so i suppose the production ceases... Do they come back? I have the forest preserved in that place.

Yes. If you're using the space for nothing or for logging/herbs it's a good use of space. However, be ready to demolish hunters lodges to expand your town and build agriculture.