Moving of animals, too mechanical?

[lem4ge]

I find that the routes of wolves and bears are too predictable. The path is always the same. Once understood  the movement and the behavior, it is very easy to trap them. 

And you ?

[Drifter Man]

I've done a great deal of wildlife observation in Forlorn Muskeg - I can say that bears follow a fixed path that starts and ends at their cave (but they can choose, apparently randomly, one of more possible paths for the day). All other animals move randomly within their patrol area, which tends to be roughly circular in shape, within limits given by the terrain. They pick a direction and walk straight in that direction until they hit an obstacle, reach the edge of their patrol area, or just decide to take a new direction.

In some locations the animal can be constrained by the terrain and follow repeatedly along the same path - such as on rocks or around rocks.

[Jolan]

I'm ok with the general pathing - particularly on harder levels where there's more critters so increases the chance of stumbling on a wolf when you think you're safe.  The pathing I have a problem with is the animals tacking.  If they were walking into the wind I could understand it.

[JAFO]

3 hours ago, Jolan said:

The pathing I have a problem with is the animals tacking.  If they were walking into the wind I could understand it.

That got a chuckle out of me.. never thought of it like that, but now you mention it...

[Pillock]

I think they could do with some more randomness. And I think it would be better if they were less restricted in their range, once spawned.

The relatively small zones where they 'patrol' leads to some problems (as I see it) with aspects of their behaviour - that is, when you scare them, they not allowed to run away very far, and will always come back to their 'zone' afterwards. On one hand, this makes it very easy to hunt deer, rabbit and moose, because even if you miss (or hit, in the case of moose) and they run away in fear, you only have to wait a little while and they come right back again for you to have another go. On the other hand, it makes wolves impossible to get rid of, except by killing them; this is especially highlighted if you play with animal detection settings on maximum - as soon as they finish their 'fleeing' behaviour routine, they detect you again immediately and come right back at you because they're restricted to not fleeing far enough away to be out of range. (which can get annoying)

[codfish107]

2 hours ago, Pillock said:

 On the other hand, it makes wolves impossible to get rid of, except by killing them; this is especially highlighted if you play with animal detection settings on maximum - as soon as they finish their 'fleeing' behaviour routine, they detect you again immediately and come right back at you because they're restricted to not fleeing far enough away to be out of range. (which can get annoying)

But then even killing them only gives you some respite. On Stalker living in the Mountaineer's Hut and the Farmhouse, it seemed like there were always wolves on the lake or in the fields even after i turned in them into pet cemeteries.

[Pillock]

15 minutes ago, codfish107 said:

But then even killing them only gives you some respite. On Stalker living in the Mountaineer's Hut and the Farmhouse, it seemed like there were always wolves on the lake or in the fields even after i turned in them into pet cemeteries.

I think the trick is not to completely harvest the carcasses. That way they stay 'dead' for longer before they disappear. After the carcass has disappeared, the wolf can respawn, and in those places they seem to respawn pretty quickly.

The other trick is to play with custom settings the same as Stalker, but with different wolf settings!

[Doc Feral]

43 minutes ago, codfish107 said:

But then even killing them only gives you some respite. On Stalker living in the Mountaineer's Hut and the Farmhouse, it seemed like there were always wolves on the lake or in the fields even after i turned in them into pet cemeteries.

And at night as the wolves cry out

Listen closely and you can hear me shout

...

You know a pet sematary is generally a bad idea?

Anyway, leaving something in a carcass to avoid its disappearence works just fine.

[codfish107]

32 minutes ago, Doc Feral said:

And at night as the wolves cry out

Listen closely and you can hear me shout

...

You know a pet sematary is generally a bad idea?

Anyway, leaving something in a carcass to avoid its disappearence works just fine.

Not the exact reference i was referring to but close enough 

I am aware they despawn faster when completely harvested.

When i was in PV on my current run i had stopped harvesting them after i got six skins, except for some meat occasionally. Do they despawn faster if you don't harvest them at all?

[Doc Feral]

I never tried keeping track of it, but I think it's the same.

There's the classic once in a million event. I was in CH, and a wolf I fought went to die at the Train Unloading area near the passage for ML. The carcass remained there for weeks, and when I clicked it said it was too ruined to harvest. I don't know why it happened and if it actually prevented a wolf to respawn, but I'm sure I have skinned it at least since CH was my crafting site.

[JAFO]

25 minutes ago, Doc Feral said:

There's the classic once in a million event. I was in CH, and a wolf I fought went to die at the Train Unloading area near the passage for ML. The carcass remained there for weeks, and when I clicked it said it was too ruined to harvest. I don't know why it happened and if it actually prevented a wolf to respawn, but I'm sure I have skinned it at least since CH was my crafting site.

This is a new bug, that I've seen quite a bit on some Twitch streams recently.. here's one example:

RestlessCorpse killed a wolf just outside the Jackrabbit Island house. Later, every time he came out of the house, the carcass would be there, "too ruined to harvest". If he went far enough away for a while, when he returned, the carcass would be gone.. enter the house and exit again, the carcass would be back. This went on for in-game months.

[MarrowStone]

@JAFO, Its obviously the beginning of zombies being implemented into the game.  Reanimated wolves.

[Doc Feral]

Anyway, the weirdest part in animals' movement is when they spiderclimb their way keeping perfectly perpendicular to slopes ignoring gravity and balance. More than a wolf dodged an arrow with this Matrix style movement when I aimed at their physically likely position...

[JAFO]

18 hours ago, MarrowStone said:

Reanimated wolves.

Needs work then.. "animated" implies movement.. these ones just lay there. 

 

17 hours ago, Doc Feral said:

the weirdest part in animals' movement is when they spiderclimb their way keeping perfectly perpendicular to slopes ignoring gravity and balance

[MarrowStone]

6 hours ago, JAFO said:

Needs work then.. "animated" implies movement.. these ones just lay there.

No, no, you forgot one crucial detail. They only lay there sometimes.   

Occasionally theyre not where theyre last seen remember?

[JAFO]

6 hours ago, MarrowStone said:

No, no, you forgot one crucial detail. They only lay there sometimes.   

Occasionally theyre not where theyre last seen remember?

Very good point.. so they're either really sneaky, or they teleport.

[s7mar7in]

On ‎9‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 10:18 PM, JAFO said:

Very good point.. so they're either really sneaky, or they teleport.

The animal pathing seems to have evolved quite a lot, (for the good), since the bear in the 'Hunted Challenge'...no matter how far or how quickly you traveled...that bear was leaning against a tree just chillin and waiting for the survivor to arrive totally exhausted, (proximity spawning).

[s7mar7in]

On a related topic, it would be such an amazing improvement if "by crouching and staying still" after an on-target bow hit you could "reduce the distance a wounded animal would be pushed" from the area of the hunt.

[lem4ge]

In  survival mode, I was surprised seeing a bear very near the pleasant valley farm. I went out of the farm, when I saw it arriving towards me. It was the first time I saw it here. I fired repeatedly above. The next day, I found it dead in front of the cave. It was after an aurora borealis.

[codfish107]

On 10/9/2018 at 9:20 AM, lem4ge said:

In  survival mode, I was surprised seeing a bear very near the pleasant valley farm. I went out of the farm, when I saw it arriving towards me. It was the first time I saw it here. I fired repeatedly above. The next day, I found it dead in front of the cave. It was after an aurora borealis.

I probably used the porch there to kill that bear 3 times before i had finally left PV. The Farmhouse is indeed a good farm.