Has wildlife become harder to kill recently?


NotThatGuy

Recommended Posts

Maybe it's just me (and it really may be), but I swear I can't bring anything down with a single shot anymore. My hunting rifle is in good shape (70% or so), and I'm not tired enough to affect my aim. I'll locate a deer, sneak up nice and close to where I can't miss, line up a clean shot through the chest, and pull the trigger. The startled deer will then run off, leaving a blood trail. Unfortunately, said blood trail tends to disappear once I've gotten completely lost and/or have fallen and sprained something, while the deer is still merrily scampering off somewhere. (I've had a trail literally disappear as I was looking at it, in broad daylight and clear weather.)

Please don't suggest I use the makeshift bow; if I could hit anything smaller than Carter Lake Dam with it, I would. I'm pretty sure the only hits I've gotten with that thing have been on frightened deer who have run into an obstacle and come charging directly into me as a result. Even then I sometimes miss, although when I do hit from that distance, I do occasionally manage to bring one down.

(Oh, and I'm not suggesting that wildlife be made easy to kill; I'm just wondering if anything has changed recently, as I swear I used to be better at hunting.)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm, I don't know if anything was changed, to be honest. If it was, I personally didn't notice it. I usually kill my deer with a shot to the head or neck (both with rifle and bow) and they drop dead instantly 90% of the time.^^

You should clean your rifle until it has reached 100% condition, though. I somehow have a feeling that might be going to help.:winky:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wildlife kills depend all on where you place your shot, and rifle condition.

i keep my rifle at 100 percent. in real life, youre supposed to clean your rifle every single time you shoot it in order to keep it in full working order. so i do the same in game :P
rifle generally does MUCH more damage if its fully cleaned.

and in regards to your shot - don't be afraid to get close to your intended target. if you crouch down you can get 10 feet away from a deer without it seeing you. that's EXTREMELY unrealistic and something i always hated, by the way. especially without use of scent cover or camo. but it is what it is. so anyway, once youre at a comfortable distance, place your shot on the head, or in the heart. the heart is located just a hair above the front shoulder. will bring em down clean

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

i keep my rifle at 100 percent. in real life, youre supposed to clean your rifle every single time you shoot it in order to keep it in full working order. so i do the same in game :P

As in, after every shot or after every day out hunting/at the range? I don't have any guns, unfortunately, so please enlighten me here.

On the topic at hand, it seems to me personally that hunting has gotten more difficult, but that doesn't mean anything because I've always been a terrible shot at TLD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Wastelander said:

As in, after every shot or after every day out hunting/at the range? I don't have any guns, unfortunately, so please enlighten me here.

On the topic at hand, it seems to me personally that hunting has gotten more difficult, but that doesn't mean anything because I've always been a terrible shot at TLD.

every time you use it generally. whether youre firing 1 or 50 rounds, you should always clean your weapon afterward :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

im personally guilty of neglecting that rule, because of the amount of time and effort it takes. sometimes i just want to shoot something and go along my business as ususal, yknow?

however, its much easier and faster in a videogame :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@NotThatGuy It's something I've criticized in the past but chest shots are not a 100% instant kill. They can be but the deer will often be able to run away. Sadly, you have to try for head shots (which is really silly and gamey) to get a higher chance of instantly killing the deer.

Essentially, each body area has a critical hit percentage. If you get a critical then the animal dies instantly. If you fail the critical then you have to wait for the animal to bleed out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@cekivi In the interest of IRL realism, chest shots are not always insta-kill. Perforating wounds to the chest can kill, but not immediately. The heart and aorta (structures that guarantee a near-instant or instant death when damaged) are really rather small targets within a relatively large body cavity. In fact, because of the way the abdominal cavity "domes" into the ribcage in all mammalian species (even upright two-laggers like humans), you are more likely to hit the liver or lung than you are to strike the heart or aorta with a single bullet. That said, because even mortal wounds are not insta-kill, you will see deer running off before dying. Their instinct when injured is to seek a safe place to recover. In the adrenaline surge of the moment, they don't know that the bullet wound is mortal, they just want to get away from you as far as possible. 

That said, because the game isn't a pure realism survival game, it can be frustrating sometimes when you aim for that chest and the darn animal still runs off. Combine that with disappearing blood trails and it gets downright irritating. I don't mind the running off, mind you, cuz for me that's pretty darn realistic. What annoys me is that the blood trail disappears suddenly. It's a calm day with no wind and no precipitation. I should be able to follow that trail to the place where the animal finally drops dead. To me, that is a problem with the game.

@Tbone555, I agree with getting close to the target. I've done that with bow and arrow, and it's a one-shot insta-kill with a single arrow. Unrealistic, yes. I do find it difficult to believe that a single arrow landing in the meat of the butt is enough to kill an 100 lb buck. But I'll take it as opposed to disappearing blood trails as I've said above!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@hauteecolerider I know a chest shot isn't an instant kill but an animal with perforated lungs also won't run across the entire map and back. Sometimes, as you mentioned, without bleeding. I don't mind the critical hit system. Like you said, it does simulate the lucky heart shot. However, the fact that criticals are arbitrarily really high for the head is a little ridiculous. No hunter in their right mind shoots for the head. The target is too small and you're as likely to miss the brain/spinal column as to hit it. Then, unlike with a chest shot, you'll have an animal missing it's face but otherwise unwounded who then can run and hide until it starves. That's what bothers me about the current system: it encourages behaviours that are antithetical to good hunting practices. Especially an arrow to the head since it may not even have the energy to penetrate the skull or it can glance off if the angle's wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Tbone555 said:

and in regards to your shot - don't be afraid to get close to your intended target. if you crouch down you can get 10 feet away from a deer without it seeing you. that's EXTREMELY unrealistic and something i always hated, by the way. especially without use of scent cover or camo. but it is what it is.

Yep, I was surprised by how close I could get, even out in the middle of Mystery Lake in the daytime with no hint of cover nearby.

"Hey, what's that fellow doing crouching there?"
"What fellow? What are you talking about?"
*BLAM*
"Oh, that fellow. Looks like he's trying to kill us."
"Indeed. You've got a bit of viscera hanging out there."
"So I do. Shall we run?"
"Yes, let's."

 

2 hours ago, hauteecolerider said:

What annoys me is that the blood trail disappears suddenly. It's a calm day with no wind and no precipitation. I should be able to follow that trail to the place where the animal finally drops dead. To me, that is a problem with the game.

I agree. I can see a blood trail disappearing fairly quickly in heavy snow, but not when it's calm and sunny.

 

24 minutes ago, cekivi said:

you'll have an animal missing it's face

That tends to make for a rather disturbing trophy on your wall.

 

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Sounds like I need to get to cleaning that rifle!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, NotThatGuy said:

"Hey, what's that fellow doing crouching there?"
"What fellow? What are you talking about?"
*BLAM*
"Oh, that fellow. Looks like he's trying to kill us."
"Indeed. You've got a bit of viscera hanging out there."
"So I do. Shall we run?"
"Yes, let's."

I can hear John Cleese and Eric Idle doing this little exchange! See them doing it too! As deer, of course . . .

:D

@cekivi You'd be amazed at how many chest wounds completely miss any vital structures including lungs! In emergency practice I've seen my fair share, including a cat that was shot with an arrow. It went completely through its chest yet didn't perforate anything other than the chest wall on both sides. That cat still had all of its nine lives . . . 

Or the pit bull dog that was shot at close range (less than three feet away) by a police officer during a drug raid. Bullet entered her left temple. traveled down her neck and exited near her right collarbone. Yet she walked into the clinic, wagging her tail and giving kisses as happy as you please. Granted, pit bulls aren't the best example, as they are freaks of human breeding (and not the only ones, IMHO), but they do go to show you that many factors have to line up just right to get that insta-kill. 

I am with you about the unrealistic hunting practices this game encourages. But if we were to make in-game hunting realistic, I would starve to death within 24 hours. And I also like to see that these guys do eventually die. Like you, I'm irritated by how far they travel before they do drop. But realistically, they can go a long time before that wound kills them. I had a pup die of injuries incurred by a car accident a week later. He was discharged from the daytime vet in stable condition after 24 hours of monitoring at both my emergency clinic and his daytime vet's clinic. He came back to me a week later bleeding into the chest with no further trauma, and strict exercise restriction - i.e. no walks, no running or jumping, no frisbee catching. Just hanging out at home playing it cool. I would imagine that the right kind of bullet can produce similar results. And when you're trying to find something to eat, that has got to be frustrating as all hell. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True. Not to mention the abdomen also has the guts which are also not instantly fatal, empty space (that'll just be infected) etc. The amount of tissue damaged caused by a large caliber firearm will however drop the animal eventually if it did hit an organ. Arrows need to be more precise of course (less shredding/fragmentation) but, again, the animal will bleed out if shot correctly. But in all cases you're not going to aim for the head or legs since the former you may miss and the latter is not fatal. Still, I get that it's a game. The whole head shot thing just continues to irk me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

heart shots have always been an instakill for me, as long as my rifle is above 90 percent. maybe i've just had really good luck? but i've never had to track a deer after placing a shot in the front of the chest, or just above one of the front shoulders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, cekivi said:

True. Not to mention the abdomen also has the guts which are also not instantly fatal, empty space (that'll just be infected) etc. The amount of tissue damaged caused by a large caliber firearm will however drop the animal eventually if it did hit an organ. Arrows need to be more precise of course (less shredding/fragmentation) but, again, the animal will bleed out if shot correctly. But in all cases you're not going to aim for the head or legs since the former you may miss and the latter is not fatal. Still, I get that it's a game. The whole head shot thing just continues to irk me.

This.

9_9

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wolves I can kill no problem. Even if there's a couple of them in one area I can usually down them and pilfer their remains for hides without an issue. But the deer.. I seriously have deer related issues and so mostly resort to having what the wolves have left behind or the occasional one that falls off a cliff, which does happen from time to time. I witnessed one at mystery lake come down off the top of the cliff edge on some sort of suicide mission. My deer problem tends to be thus, I shoot it and it scampers off with me in hot pursuit until either the blood trail gets covered with snow or the deer somehow despawns, which is annoying when you get it cornered in an area where it definitely has not out flanked you and the blood trail ends near a wall, I guess the deer God too it into his hands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/16/2016 at 4:47 AM, cekivi said:

True. Not to mention the abdomen also has the guts which are also not instantly fatal, empty space (that'll just be infected) etc. The amount of tissue damaged caused by a large caliber firearm will however drop the animal eventually if it did hit an organ. Arrows need to be more precise of course (less shredding/fragmentation) but, again, the animal will bleed out if shot correctly. But in all cases you're not going to aim for the head or legs since the former you may miss and the latter is not fatal. Still, I get that it's a game. The whole head shot thing just continues to irk me.

It's a bit of a 50/50 as to whether or not a rifle will insta-kill something as big as a deer (assuming we're talking large caliber, .243, 7.62, 308, etc). However, it's almost always going to down it. That amount of force, pain, and damage is normally enough to render the animal more or less immobile. The animal will often stay down until it bleeds out, goes unconscious from shock/pain, or gets finished off by the hunter. This sort of thing is both a waste of time for the devs to spend resources on, and something I'd rather not see unless necessary, ie: irl. 

I think the best compromise considering these factors is for any shot to the head, neck, or majority of the torso (say 95% to factor skim-shots), should kill the deer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the forums @Kakapo ^_^

And, yeah, that's basically my argument. Instant kill is not realistic but neither is an animal that can run from one end of the map to the other while fatally wounded. I should clarify that a non fatally wounded animal can do that (run for a long time on adrenaline) but a lung/heart shot would make that moot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, cekivi said:

Instant kill is not realistic but neither is an animal that can run from one end of the map to the other while fatally wounded. I should clarify that a non fatally wounded animal can do that (run for a long time on adrenaline) but a lung/heart shot would make that moot.

I definitely find this quite odd, too. In TLD, the focus on hunting is not to find your prey (or to get close enough to it for a decent shot without being noticed), but it's rather not to lose the wounded animal while it's running a marathon. :crosseye:

This is not only a problem regarding deer, but pretty much regarding all animals. I find it especially immersion-breaking with regard to bears which are - at least to my current knowledge - not particularly animals one would expect to keep running at full speed for hours on end.

I think I personally would enjoy the process of hunting a lot more if the challenging part about it was to find and approach your prey (and not to run after it for several kilometers once it's lethally wounded). I'm totally fine if animals that don't die in an instant bolt away initially, but they should stop running and collapse after a somehow reasonable amount of time, imo. Like maybe 2-5 ingame min for a chest or neck shot and maybe 15-30min for a leg/belly/back or other shot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On June 22, 2016 at 2:36 AM, Scyzara said:

I definitely find this quite odd, too. In TLD, the focus on hunting is not to find your prey (or to get close enough to it for a decent shot without being noticed), but it's rather not to lose the wounded animal while it's running a marathon. :crosseye:

This is not only a problem regarding deer, but pretty much regarding all animals. I find it especially immersion-breaking with regard to bears which are - at least to my current knowledge - not particularly animals one would expect to keep running at full speed for hours on end.

I think I personally would enjoy the process of hunting a lot more if the challenging part about it was to find and approach your prey (and not to run after it for several kilometers once it's lethally wounded). I'm totally fine if animals that don't die in an instant bolt away initially, but they should stop running and collapse after a somehow reasonable amount of time, imo. Like maybe 2-5 ingame min for a chest or neck shot and maybe 15-30min for a leg/belly/back or other shot.

This.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.