# Cutting quality overhaul

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/cutting-quality-overhaul/27069>\
**Category:** The Drawing Board\
**Created:** [September 20, 2021, 1:41pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/cutting-quality-overhaul/27069 "2021-09-20T13:41:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NetSysFire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/97f17d/32.png) [@NetSysFire](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/NetSysFire)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 1:41pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/cutting-quality-overhaul/27069/1 "2021-09-20T13:41:34Z")

</div>

So I have been liking wilderness starts with rural mapgen only and city size = 0 (see [Living off the land - rural only](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/living-off-the-land-rural-only/26691/)) but the start is really rough, mostly because it is not possible to obtain a tool with cutting 1 without an enormous amount of luck, which is mostly bone shivs by finding bones in the bushes randomly since you can not butcher corpses without a cutting tool. This assumes of course that you choose a role which spawns without a cutting tool, such as naked and afraid.  
A stone chopper (which requires fabrication 2 and survival 3, which is kind of hard to get early on) has an equal cutting quality to e.g a butcher knife.  
It should be possible to get the basic tools, such as a digging stick and cudgel with simple equipment but require better cutting tools for more advanced things.  
It is also nearly impossible to train fabrication without a cutting tool, so it makes getting a cutting tool even harder.

The change I am proposing would even be possible via JSON: Modify the cutting quality of existing tools and tweak recipes.  
So e.g a flaking rock or flint could have cutting 1, a stone knife cutting 2 and a butcher knife cutting 3. A flint would be enough to create a digging stick. This is just an example of what I am planning to do, this does not have to be the end result.

I’d like to hear what you think of this before I work on it so it is not all for nothing in the end since this is will take some time.  
[Crafting system modification for tool speeds · Issue #49525 · CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA · GitHub](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/49525) and [Feature request: Bluntness for cutting weapon · Issue #49712 · CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA · GitHub](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/49712) are vaguely relevant.  
Unfortunately I can not help out with those since I am not a C++ dev.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NetSysFire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/97f17d/32.png) [@NetSysFire](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/NetSysFire)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/cutting-quality-overhaul/27069/2 "2021-09-27T19:39:48Z")

</div>

I was advised to potentially introduce a new quality, CUT\_PRIMITIVE, instead of shuffling qualities around. This would also be a good solution since one could add the CUT\_PRIMITIVE quality to a load of things. E.g axes have wood cutting but their blade is good enough to be used to create some makeshift tools.