Will robbers etc steal low quality items?

[Dirk382]

Does anyone know if robbers etc will steal low quality items like such as: rough axe/knife, inferior board and or poor paddle.

I'm curious because several of my characters been doomed to die on islands after robber encounters because I can't make a paddle. A board or a non-primitive axe will let you make a paddle which is the thing I'm usualy missing to get off the island. I'm running version 3.52.

[JP_Finn]

What I believe is that the robbers will take high value items. While they might not take a rough knife from you, don't think twice if they'll take your rough mail hauberk. They might let you keep your fine wooden cup.

When I suspect, or know from a quest, that there are robbers about, I go switch gear to rough/decent. When I find the robbers, I'll let them take what they will, then go raise a posse, arm up and go slaughter every single one of the robbers.

[Plotinus]

I managed to get a paddle in the version before it was implemented that you could make boardsd with a stone axe:

On the island in the summer there are nettles growing. Harvest all of them, and plant their seeds, and process the fibers for yarn and then cord and then rope. Try to get perfect or fine yarn and mix only those into cords. If you can get a fine nettle rope, you will be able to make a fine stone axe, and with a fine stone axe, you can make boards. There won't be enough nettles in the first year for this, but by the second year, there will be, if you plant a lot of them in spring.

Also practice swimming near the shore -- if you can train up to 100 swimming then you might be able to get to land faster than the nettles plan. Figure out how many tiles you can swim by swimming along the shore of your island, it will vary depending on endurance, then zoom out and consider your options. Always stop swimming before your fatigue is equal to your swimming skill, and stay just one step away from safety while training it.

It may also happen that when winter comes, the sea ice will freeze and you'll be able to get to a bigger island, or even the mainland.

[PALU]

I've had robbers not take low value low quality items. Like Plotinus, I gear up in a beggar outfit (low quality clothing and weapons) when looking for robbers, so I'm not losing anything important if they do take something.

In my remote island starts I've managed to train up swimming to 100 (or very close to it) and do island hopping swimming until I've reached inhabited islands where you've got the resources to make a paddle (this was when it was outright impossible to make a paddle with a stone axe).
I'm not saying I haven't failed (starvation early on is a huge risk), but I've never been stuck until winter (but note that there are only a small number of days when the water is warm enough for long distance swimming). Ice during the winter wouldn't help either, because I've started far out in the archipelago where there's open water between the islands.

Also, if you do such a start, start your swimming training as early as possible, even if it means you get chilled down. You need all the training you can get so you're ready when it's warm enough.

Also note that you can swim with a small amount of clothing and carry a small amount of items without suffering a penalty.