Starting A Fire Does Not Guarantee Protection From Wolves!

[Vince 49]

My character was just killed by three wolves by Quonset Gas.  From my experience, this is the most dangerous location in the Long Dark universe.  There are at least six wolves close by.  Because of the many snow berms, fences, and debris, line of sight is very short.  Almost all attacks are struggles as there is no time or space for running, dropping a decoy, or using a ranged weapon.  I knew this, so had maximized my clothing protection at 46%.  Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for three attacks in quick succession.  After the first two, I started a fire for protection with the idea that once it started, I could turn and rush (a couple of meters) back into the station.  Surprisingly, I was attacked during the fire starting animation.  I didn't think that could happen.  Even if I had known this, I probably wouldn't have had time to click the accelerant option.

The other surprising thing during this run, was a second moose spawned in the same location where another moose had been killed about 30 days earlier.  When I got to the hydro dam in ML on about day 35, I discovered a moose in the nearby river.  I successfully killed it and crafted the wonderful Moose-Hide Cloak.  I came back by the dam area about day 67 on the way to Coastal Highway via Ravine.  I was surprised to see another moose in the same place.  I only has three cartridges at the time, so decided to not try this second one, although I thought if I found enough ammunition at Quonset Gas, I might try later.  Of course, there was no later.

 

[Hotzn]

Valuable contributions to TLD science, +1

[Doc Feral]

That's weird, are you sure the fire was already starting or maybe you didn't click the start button in time? It may be a matter of split seconds, maybe the attack animation was already triggered before you clicked. Like my ghost bear (it attacks, I shoot, it dies but mauling starts anyway, it deals no damage because it's already dead) but since it was alive it killed you. Maybe it remembered to panic after the fight ("oh, yes, I should be running").

I once died from a wolf attack because of a failed attempt at firestarting (with accelerant and I failed anyway). There were two wolves, the first started the charge and came in range when the firestarting animation was active, so it turned tail and fled, the second one arrived just a split second late so there was no firestarting going on, it ran a circle around me (so I thought it was fleeing and didn't think about trying again) and then ate me.

[Jolan]

Hm, maybe it is that the firestarting "failed".  I could see a game mechanic where if the game decides the success/fail at the start of the animation sequence, then the wolves would not be detered by fire - as it was non-existant?  Now I have to go get jumped by wolves while firestarting. 

[Vince 49]

Relative to the fire starting, I already saw the animation (with the dark annulus being filled with white).  I kept one blank book, just for these situations.  I was on fire starting level 3 (Skilled), which gives a 65% default success rate.  Even with cardboard matches, the success rate with cardboard matches and a book is 100%. 

For reference, I was running version 1.29, not the new Vigilant Flame update.