Holy bears, Batman!

[WanderingPalm]

(I promise there’s a point to this)

So I’ve only ever played Stalker difficulty once before (and I don’t think for very long), when I was feeling super confident from Voyageur playthroughs and reading all the tips on these forums. Unfortunately, real life interfered and I haven’t played since October. So to celebrate getting a chance to play again (though, without access to my previous saves), I started a new Stalker game yesterday!

So I start in CH, being most familiar with that map, but was unsure of how much time I had before wolves spawn (I assumed the grace-period would be shorter than Voyageur’s). Before wolves had spawned, I spotted a bear on the western section at the Fishing Camp (I assume he came down the hill on the other side of the road from his spawn point up there). Later, a bear sneaked up on me and mauled my butt at Misanthrope’s Homestead (from the bear cave there, though I have no idea why he was so stealthy). Later still, and dying of food poisoning (from a 57% cooked fish...), I followed a path uphill behind Coastal Townsite that doubles back on itself (hoping the deer I’m following is trying to lead me to something that will stop my impending death). I saw tracks, assumed they were from the deer, then considered how large they were... and got mauled by a bear (I assume from the bear spawn that is really close to there).

So, in summation, I have three bears on my Stalker CH map. Is that normal? In Voyageur, I’ve only ever run into one occasion where I had two bears on one map. Does Stalker just have more bears by default, or did I get (un)lucky? And do bears have a different grace period timer than wolves, or none at all? And how soon before I get killed by a moose? Because I’m guessing within another two game days...

My poor girl has had a rough five days in this world.

[Cr41g]

I have seen all three bears you speak of... in Voyageur... I am currently I think 112 days in

[WanderingPalm]

1 hour ago, Cr41g said:

I have seen all three bears you speak of... in Voyageur... I am currently I think 112 days in

In a single game, I take it? Huh, maybe I’ve just been having weirdly low bear populations prior to this.

[Cr41g]

yes...in a single playthru...on my second 500 days attempt...

[hozz1235]

Rare, but obviously possible.

[WanderingPalm]

9 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

Rare, but obviously possible.

So this is a rare occurrence in Voyageur, but not in Stalker? Or rare for both difficulties?

[MarrowStone]

1 hour ago, WanderingPalm said:

So this is a rare occurrence in Voyageur, but not in Stalker? Or rare for both difficulties?

The decision on what bears spawn where may be per game and only guided by the difficulty setting by probabilities that a certain spawn location is active. Low bear population could mean the chances of a bear spawning is low but if the dice are rolled just right all the bear spawns in coastal highway for that game could be filled?

I could be wrong. Just throwing out a possible explanation. It sort of matches how loot spawns, difficulties don't have a set amount of rifles per game except interloper (0 can spawn) if Im not mistaken. But im sure theres a guarantee that at least one will be available?

Again, I dont really know how it works.

[Carbon]

 I play custom runs these days with bears admittedly set to low (I don't hang around anywhere for long; killing bears creates too much meat I can't carry an I don't do bearskin anything, so killing them seems wasteful). I haven't tried it with the setting on high - I feel the place would be littered with the beasts - but low seems to imply at least 1.

 In my 2 custom runs, I haven't seen the bear that patrols around the cabin below the lookout in CH, nor the one who hangs out up toward the bridge/creek area. Misanthrope's bear is present. In ML the bear(s) around Trapper's and Unnamed Pond also haven't made an appearance. The one on the lake is always there though. So maybe 'low' means 1 bear spawn per area...?

[shade_grey]

Since I haven't played voyageur in a years, I can only speak about stalker. I'll list the regions as well as the number of bears and the cave locations if I can.

• Mystery Lake - 2 bears
  • All from 4 random caves
    • Northeast shore of Mystery Lake
    • Clearcut
    • Clearing between Trapper's Homestead and Deadfall Area
    • Unnamed Pond
• Coastal Highway - 3 bears
  • All from  3 guaranteed caves
    • North of Coastal Townsite, near the trailer
    • East shore of Misanthrope's Homestead
    • West of Fishing Camp, beside the river
• Pleasant Valley - 5 bears*
  • 2 guaranteed caves
    • Just west of Long Curve
    • Southwest of Lonely Cabins, beside the river
  • 3 bears from 5 random caves
    • Between the cave to Winding River and Cascading Falls
    • South of the cave to Coastal Highway
    • North of Signal Hill, at the bottom of the cliff
    • West of Burned Ridge Cave
    • Between Mystic River Picnic Area and Derelict Cabins, beside the unpaved road
• Desolation Point - 1 bear
  • 1 guaranteed cave
    • Just west of Broken Bridge
• Timberwolf Mountain - 3 bears
  • All from 3 guaranteed caves
    • Just southwest of Echo Peak East
    • West of Andre's Peak, near the waterfall
    • North of the Summit
• Forlorn Muskeg - 2 bears
  • Both from 2 guaranteed caves
    • North of Poacher's Camp
    • Between Old Spence Family Homestead and the tunnel to Broken Railroad
• Broken Railroad - 1 bear
  • 1 guaranteed cave
    • Just southwest of Hunting Lodge, at the bottom of the cliff
• Mountain Town - 1 bear
  • 1 guaranteed cave
    • Just east of Spruce Falls Bridge

*There is a discrepancy in the Pleasant Valley region between cardinal directions of the drawn cartography map and the cardinal directions ascertained through observation (sunrise and sunset). This discrepancy has existed since the Faithful Cartographer update.