Wolven Meat Thieves!

[NardoLoopa]

I think this is new behavior.

I stole a Deer from a wolf.  He scampered off with my favorite twig lodged in his back.  I harvested the deer and dropped 9kg of steaks into the snow right at the deer.  The wolf's big brother decided to see what I was up to.  I grabbed one of the steaks to lure him in, but the terrain kept messing with his tracking, so when I dropped the decoy, he lost interest.

I danced around a bit, trying to lure him in.  At one point I created a path that went near the deer and the stake carpet I was weaving.  In the middle of the Wolf's stalk, he all of a sudden lost interest again, even though I was still holding the decoy.  The deer, and he, were on top of a berm, so I couldn't quite see what happened.  But trying to lure him back, the same thing occurred. 

Then I got wise to what might be happening.

With all 7kg of remaining meat in my sack, I decided to let this wolf enjoy his full belly for the moment, and return to base.

I've never seen a wolf eat something that I didn't drop as decoy when he was already in pursuit.  Walking him over meat-stakes, and him taking a bite, makes complete sense.  But I hadn't seen this before 1.45.

Anyone confirm this is new?

[MatoroTBS]

Apparently now any food in the ground works functionally identical to the bait food. Animals are capable of interacting with any meat on the ground, not just specific baits. I had them steal meat from my outdoor fish pile I was using as sort-of-freezer.

[Ice Hole]

2 hours ago, MatoroTBS said:

them steal meat from my outdoor fish pile I was using as sort-of-freezer

This idea was mentioned in the wish list IIRC.   It makes sense too.  When I first started playing the Long Dark the frozen corpse outside the camp office used to be where the fish were stored just so the wolves and bears would not come around.  Ah those naive days.

Now I might not leave the meat in a pile by the doorstep anymore and go back to using the dead frozen dude  instead.

[s7mar7in]

Thanks for the update.
Was fishing on ML this week.
Caught a couple fish, dropped them on floor, placed a fish onto pot belly stove to cook...
Wolf walked in through the fishing hut door, walked right into the stove, turned and tried to leave, got stuck in wall.

But he did not take the fish off the stove.

[UTC-10]

At one time a decoy had a nominally unlimited life. You drop it and if a wolf eventually happened by it would eat it. That got changed quite a while ago to where (it seemed) only if a wolf was actually agroed on you would a decoy work. 

I recall once, taking a carcass,  harvested the meat and had to leave it for some reason, then (I would swear) perhaps the same wolf came by the now harvested carcass and consumed some of the venison. Since I play Pilgrim, a wolf that runs away tends to have a very hard time pathing back to the same carcass, but I never had that experience repeat itself so I don't know for sure what happened. 

[Blankshield]

I haven't noticed any thievery from meat stored outside (yet), but have noticed that in 1.45, it behaves differently when you drop it.

It used to be that meat dropped anywhere would be 'flat' like this:

Now only meat dropped indoors looks like that.  Meat dropped outdoors looks exactly like decoys deployed from the radial menu (pic one is dropped from inventory, pic 2 is decoys)

[s7mar7in]

12 hours ago, UTC-10 said:

At one time a decoy had a nominally unlimited life. You drop it and if a wolf eventually happened by it would eat it. That got changed quite a while ago to where (it seemed) only if a wolf was actually agroed on you would a decoy work. 

One of my new year resolutions for TLD was to test more in-game tactics and try not to look under the hood at the game mechanics as often, but a little peeking at the mechanics may be necessary for survival…and just a little may be interesting to think about and discuss here.

Long ago:
While still a wide-eyed wolf bait player, someone here at the Hinterland forum provided this basic guidance. Back then, if you dropped meat out of sight of a wolf then it was not a decoy or a lure and would simply act as a slab of meat stored on ice.

This has consistently been the observable wolf behavior for a long time in most situations.

The game since the Redux updates:
The new wolf behaviors in-game suggest that if the wolf is not alerted to the scent of the dropped meat then it is not a decoy, nor will it function as a lure, (so scent and/or sight) …but this is only speculation.

Speculation:
Wolf is pathing not alerted, (meat dropped does not trigger as a decoy/lure)
Wolf is investigating due to sound radius, (???)
Wolf is investigating due to scent radius, (meat dropped triggers as a decoy/lure)
Wolf is tracking due to line of sight, (meat dropped triggers as a decoy/lure)
Wolf is aggressive, (last opportunity for decoy/lure...or flare???)
Wolf is charging, (decoy is not effective)

Please feel welcome to comment and correct anything above and help us all be better players.

[UTC-10]

Oh, I noticed the odd behavior of dropped meat and fish on snow (does not happen on ice) too. So it might be treating the dropped meat/fish as a decoy? I never actually dropped decoys, I'll have to try it. At least that may explain it. I found it to be consistently odd anywhere there is snow in Mystery Lake and also in Broken Railroad. 

[Strategizer]

On ‎1‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 10:42 PM, Blankshield said:

It used to be that meat dropped anywhere would be 'flat' like this:

That was a bit before 1.45... 1.41 perhaps but the last few updates were cluster one on top of the other and its irrelevant.

Anyhow my Test of this behavior is if "drop" is now somehow equal to "decoy" and what occurs if we "place" the meat on the ground so they look like the old style "drop".  Will the wildlife interact with "placed" items?