Wolf stalking from 100-150 yards away .. new scent mechanic?

[Wasteland Watcher]

 But having the animals come and eat your meat that's stored on the ground in the snow should be part of the fun  

[JAFO]

1 hour ago, Wasteland Watcher said:

But having the animals come and eat your meat that's stored on the ground in the snow should be part of the fun

Only if there's somewhere outdoors you can store meat, without having it stolen.

[Wasteland Watcher]

1 hour ago, JAFO said:

Only if there's somewhere outdoors you can store meat, without having it stolen.

 That would not be very realistic, and at least in Voyageur, I'm all about it being as close to realism as possible.  

Maybe if there is a metal box outdoors, meat could be stored in that without wolves eating it at least. I'll bet bears could get to it though. They are pretty smart. 

 Maybe having animals not steal meat at all in Pilgrim would be good. 

 I'm guessing people who play Stalker and Interloper would want animals to be able to sense meet all the way across the map

 

[tnbp]

8 hours ago, Wasteland Watcher said:

 That would not be very realistic, and at least in Voyageur, I'm all about it being as close to realism as possible.  

Maybe if there is a metal box outdoors, meat could be stored in that without wolves eating it at least. I'll bet bears could get to it though. They are pretty smart. 

 Maybe having animals not steal meat at all in Pilgrim would be good. 

 I'm guessing people who play Stalker and Interloper would want animals to be able to sense meet all the way across the map

 

Containers would actually be very realistic.  I live in northern Minnesota, near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and when I go canoeing in there, my partner and I always use a bear canister, which is basically a thick, molded plastic barrel.  Having in-game canisters that aren't specifically bear canisters that still allowed for safe storage is a smaller suspension of belief than many others things in the game are (like the inability to make a spear for basic protection, the fact that we are incapable of jumping, or that hot breath in cold air makes a massive plume of smoke even in darkness.)

[Wasteland Watcher]

1 hour ago, tnbp said:

Containers would actually be very realistic.  I live in northern Minnesota, near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and when I go canoeing in there, my partner and I always use a bear canister, which is basically a thick, molded plastic barrel. 

Having in-game canisters that aren't specifically bear canisters that still allowed for safe storage is a smaller suspension of belief than many others things in the game are

(like the inability to make a spear for basic protection, the fact that we are incapable of jumping, or that hot breath in cold air makes a massive plume of smoke even in darkness.)

Much appreciate your real life input as well as game comments  

I've never been around bear canisters so I always especially appreciate people sharing their real life hunting, trapping, fishing, and camping experiences here. 

 In the past year and a half I've seen The Long Dark go through many iterations, and a lot of improvement.  I would not be surprised at all to see those things you mention (a LOT of ppl have requested those things) added at a later date, as well as tuning of the player-character's steamy breath. 

 

 I have a comment regarding the new scent mechanic: 

 Now I think it works really well for smelly items you are carrying, but I think it's a little out of whack for how wolves actually capture the player-character's scent.  Heading back home, I had to pass some wolves and did so crouching, lighting small campfires every 20 feet or so.  

The wolf that got closest to me passed just within what looked like '15 feet' of me as I was crouched by a campfire I had just lit and it did not notice either me or the campfire, so apparently it didn't smell either as well. I believe this needs to be tuned to make it more similar to how a wolf's sense of smell might be in real life.

Then again, I have to ask, "have wolves' sense of smell been altered by the geomagnetic event?"

[BIGwooly]

I'm now positive that the scent mechanic was enhanced.  I was watching a pre-update interloper playthrough and watched someone walk into the coastal townsite with 4 uncured guts, 2 uncured deer hides, a cooked steak and 4 cooked fish on them .... and not one of the three wolves prowling around even gave him a look.  He got to within about 5-10 meters before the first wolf noticed him, and he wasn't even crouched.

By contrast, I was at the front of Misanthrope's cabin a few nights ago and had left 2 pieces of raw rabbit at the door.  I saw a wolf way down on the ice ... at least 150 if not 200 meters away ... and the second I picked up the pieces of meat the wolf began tracking me.  So the distance has definitely been dramatically increased.  Play at your own risk, haha.

[Wasteland Watcher]

3 hours ago, BIGwooly said:

I was at the front of Misanthrope's cabin a few nights ago and had left 2 pieces of raw rabbit at the door.  I saw a wolf way down on the ice ... at least 150 if not 200 meters away ... and the second I picked up the pieces of meat the wolf began tracking me.  So the distance has definitely been dramatically increased.  Play at your own risk, haha.

 There's only one problem I have with the new "scent system." It is that wolves cannot smell meatt unless you pick it up. 

 Realistically they should be able to smell meat on the ground as well regardless of whether the player-character is interacting with meat or not. 

[BIGwooly]

39 minutes ago, Wasteland Watcher said:

 There's only one problem I have with the new "scent system." It is that wolves cannot smell meatt unless you pick it up. 

 Realistically they should be able to smell meat on the ground as well regardless of whether the player-character is interacting with meat or not. 

I agree.  It would probably require some additional game balancing, though.

[Wasteland Watcher]

1 hour ago, BIGwooly said:

I agree.  It would probably require some additional game balancing, though.

I'd recommend setting boundaries to wolf "territories" so at least 45% of each map is "wolf-free."

Well, wolf free within reason. Maybe have it so packs are limited to their 'territory' and "lone wolves" patrol 35% of the remaining territory. 

But if you drop some meat close enough to the edge of the territory that they smell it, they'll leave the boundary to investigate

[BIGwooly]

I like that, but I would want the territories to be variable so that you don't always know where is wolf-free.  A big part of the fun is the unknown.  Also wouldn't want the boundaries to be identifiable, so maybe the boundaries could overlap by 25%.  This way you can never quite tell well the boundaries are.