So About Butchering..

[Halinder]

Is the method of dying ever going to effect the output of meat by an animal? I feel like if I shoot a muffalo's legs off, it's going to have less meat. Same goes for animals dying of starvation. Just a thought I had while desecrating nature.

[byondtester]

Think this would be going a bit far in realism, even Dwarf Fortress doesn't do this.

[nuschler22]

It's certainly where the game is headed considering just about every body part is monitored. 

[Menuhin]

I feel like there could be a relatively easy way to implement this.  Once an animal is killed the corpse is given a health bar.  It could be made that the health bar of a corpse affects how much meat is acquired from butchering.  And then having the cause of death/health at time of death factor into the health of the corpse.

That being said, I don't think this would be needed.  The amount of meat actually lost in comparison to the whole of the animal from starvation or loss of a leg can be believably negligible.

[Col_Jessep]

Think this would be going a bit far in realism, even Dwarf Fortress doesn't do this.

Actually, if you drown an animal and have a necromancer resurrect it, it will have a lot more meat. Toady made the undead stronger by giving them a super-natural amount of muscles.... xD

Ehem, sorry for the off topic trivia! =3