Wolf outside the door

[spencer]

While the overall wolf situation in the game seems to be being discussed to death on the forum, I want to bring up this particular aspect.

walking out the door and immediately being attacked by a wolf is no fun. There is literally no counterplay. No meaningful choice on the part of the player. There is no way to tell that there is a wolf outside when you are inside. And I don't know about this patch, but last patch I literally slept for 2 days and the wolf was still on my porch.

This patch I actually managed to kill the first wolf that attacked me immediately upon leaving a building. Then, a few hours later, it happened again, and that time I died.

It just doesn't make for a fun play experience and the prevalence and aggressive behavior on part of the wolves isn't realistic and really ruins the immersive nature of the game.

I understand that wolves are really the only "bad guys" in the game and are the only physical danger that the players face, but the antagonist in the game is the environment itself; and managing all of your stats and conditions and exploring and collecting is what makes the players heart pump.

Wolves really shouldn't be roaming around in the middle of town. They should be the boogeyman. The thing that frightens players when they make that decision that they will ultimately have to do to brave the wilderness in search of food, wood, supplies,etc.

Having them be so prevalent reduces this place of fear and replaces it with simple frustration. Wolves are still extremely scary, but not in a way that highlights the player experience, but in a way that simply exemplifies the issues with it being a game. It breaks immersion and ultimately leads to a worse experience.

So, I wound up going on a tangent about wolves in general, but for real, wolves at the door. Not cool.

[elloco999]

I don't have a problem with the number of wolves (in v.156 anyway, not talking about v.152) or their locations or their aggressive behavior. Their "unrealistic" behavior is explained by the geo-magnetic whatchamacallit so that doesn't break immersion for me.

I do have a huge problem with the wolves being so close to the door that they are on you the second you step out. That is seriously not fun at all. You have absolutely no indication as to whether there is a wolf outside or not, so going outside is every time just a game of chance. I died after a long run because I got attacked by 2 wolves after exiting a building. I fought the first one off, but immediately got attacked by the second. That one did me in. Not cool.

I think wolves should never get so close to the building the player is in that it's not at least possible to turn around an flee back inside. Also, we need a way of checking if there is a wolf outside before actually going outside.

[virodhi]

Agreed. I can live with the existence of super aggressive wolves, but leaving a building and getting instantly spotted by a wolf is just kinda cheap. The computer will always notice me before I notice it, so an additional second or two before I aggro NPC enemies when loading into an outdoor zone would be great.

[northerncities]

I'm with sneakybuffalo on this one -- though, to me, it's not so much the prevalence of the wolves as much as the predictability. I know there will be two in the townsite, one near the gas station. I know in the early mornings, I can expect to see two roaming on the ice. There will always be one or two outside of the lakeside cottages in Coastal Highway.

So I agree that because I basically know where the wolves will be, the fear of a wolf has been replaced, for me, with frustration. For instance, if I want to go to a specific location, there might be two primary paths to get there -- Path A and Path B. Now, I know a wolf is reliably going to be on Path A, so I will always take Path B. My decision is no longer a weighted choice, it's definitive and based entirely on what I know about game mechanics.

What would be great is if sometimes the wolf was on Path B, and sometimes there was no wolf at all. It would mean that every time I want to go to that location, I'm running the risk of being attacked no matter which way I go (and, importantly, I'm not able to predict that risk with 100% accuracy, which creates tension).

Now, I'm not sure the best way to do this. A purely random design (with, maybe, a bit of code saying "no more than N wolves in a particular area") would be nice, because that would mean if I wander up into the trees, I can still get attacked there (I've actually never been approached by a wolf outside of heavily traveled areas like the townsite). So even if I wanted to go to a specific place with Path A and Path B, but I decided "Heck, I'll try a totally DIFFERENT Path C, through the woods," I'm still at risk.

[mentored1]

Maybe having 'wolf lairs' that dictate a range of wolf-wandering. Such lairs could have random or rotating locations and the wolves that use them do so like navigational markers--the lair need not even be a location on the map or something seen by the player.

I'm not sure how the wolves work, though, other than what I'm reading here. If they appear in predictable areas and patterns, having them use a marker to space out a diameter of 'territory' and 'patrolling' that territory in unpredictable ways would go a long way toward making wolves less predictable.

[ChaosPinhead]

When your in a house there should be an option before leaving to somehow "Check for wolves", because realistically I would normally just look out the windows....but can't in this game. Having them 2 feet from a door when you step out is just irritating because I would have known pretty easily when thinking about being in this situation. I know its just a game but I feel the frustration of the situation as well. Maybe it could be a window action if you click on a window with an option if there is one to somehow distract it to another side of the house or scare it off a bit to give us a chance?

[JErosion]

Maybe having 'wolf lairs' that dictate a range of wolf-wandering. Such lairs could have random or rotating locations and the wolves that use them do so like navigational markers--the lair need not even be a location on the map or something seen by the player.

I was kinda of thinking of this, Like if a blizzard came up or the weather turned super cold, It would be interesting if the wolves found a spot to curl up and wait it out

[elloco999]

When your in a house there should be an option before leaving to somehow "Check for wolves", because realistically I would normally just look out the windows....but can't in this game. Having them 2 feet from a door when you step out is just irritating because I would have known pretty easily when thinking about being in this situation. I know its just a game but I feel the frustration of the situation as well. Maybe it could be a window action if you click on a window with an option if there is one to somehow distract it to another side of the house or scare it off a bit to give us a chance?

The way it works now is pretty much: you open the door, step outside, close the door behind you, look up and "ow shit, wolves!".

While in reality, even if you hadn't looked out of a window or already heard the wolves, it would be more like this: you start to open the door, before the door is even half open you see/ hear the wolves and go like "Ow shit, wolves!" and close the door before they can get to you.

Something like that should be implemented in TLD.

[JErosion]

Thats why i like that one seaside house on the Coastal Highway that has a porch. Caus' wolves can't stairs.

[elloco999]

Thats why i like that one seaside house on the Coastal Highway that has a porch. Caus' wolves can't stairs.

That's probably just a bug and not intentional. Wolves couldn't get to you on the porch of the Camp Office either in v.127, but that changed with the updates.

[JErosion]

nor can they enter a fishing hut or get you if your in a deer stand they just run back and forth forever

[elloco999]

The deer stand is by design, but Ralph did say they should probably do something about the stairs so it would make sense that a wolf can't come in. Fishing huts though shouldn't keep a wolf out...