Shot deer bahavior

[Sito]

I have seen 3 times now that a deer I shot runs around like mad then resumes the normal behavior. This is after the update.

The first time was in PV. It runs off and I try to follow but PV is so big that it gets out of sight so I zigzag the hay farm area looking for crows to tell me where it dropped. A game hour or two I spot a walking deer over by the barn, and I am hungry so I need a kill, so I saunter over to get me a new kill and find the other one later.... when it drops dead. Its my original deer.

Next time was in TWM. Shot a deer on the lake with the bad aiming system but I got splatter so I know it was hit. It runs off over a hill. I follow and find a deer just walking normally. Again I am hungry so I shoot it. It runs off. I follow around a hill and find another deer walking normal. So I shoot it. I'm pretty sure it is the same deer because there is only one spawn on the lake and nothing else around until the wing area. Anyway I assume the aiming is the problem because of the new rifle sights.

Third time after aiming is fixed I find a deer up at the lookout in CH. I don't need meat but it is right there and I want to up my revolver skill so I pop him from up close. It runs off like mad. I check my stats to make sure I had a hit. I go check the blood splatter. Sure enough... a hit. I run to follow it which is easy because it is following the road back and forth. There is a blood trail. I lose sight for a bit but I can hear it up a slope (of course they like to go where you will get a guaranteed sprain) running around. Then the running stops. I peak around a rock outcrop and see it casually strolling down the slope, pausing to scratch the ground and eat as they are prone to do. So I crouch to hide from it and start to follow it to see what is going on. Once on the road it starts to return to the lookout area and as I get on to its path I can see blood trail so I definitely hit it, it is the same deer, and it is bleeding out. So why has it not keeled over by now? I shot it early in the morning about sunrise plus 1 hour. It wandered about bleeding until about 2hrs before sunset with me watching, until it finally keeled over and died. So has behavior changed now? Used to be that you shoot deer. It runs for an hour then keels over hopefully within sight of where you followed it,

[UpUpAway95]

If you get a blood trail (not just a spatter) the deer will eventually bleed out and die.  There is no need to shoot it again.  The blood trail may cease as the animal slows down to a walk, but as long as you originally got a blood trial, it will bleed out and die... with an exception because of a bug.  If you go inside before the animal is logged in your journal as having died (indicated by your kill count going up), the animal may reset and return to health.  The blood trails can be tricky to follow and, as I said, can stop suddenly when the animal slows to a walk.  With deer, I usually follow the blood trail until it disappears then, weather permitting, I pass the time for an hour and check my log.  If the kill is registered, I listen for crows.  In this way, I've found most of them fairly easily.  With a bear, they can take a long, long time to bleed out so I often try to find a nearby cave to sleep in... One time I awoke to find the dead bear right beside me in the same cave (good thing I was in Pilgrim mode).

If you get a blood spatter but no blood trail, you have just hit it with a glancing shot and it will eventually recover its health and not die.

At any rate... it still seems to be working this way post update.  Other than one bear who did reset because I went inside the ML Camp Office, every animal I have shot who has left a blood trail has eventually bled out and my journal kill count has increased by 1 when they died.  I have found all the ones I have shot since the update.

Edited May 19, 2019 by UpUpAway95

[E_T]

I have had several Wolves and Deer entirely disappear, if I wound too many within a time frame.

[hozz1235]

I think this behavior is for all animals now.  I've seen this with bear, moose and wolf.  Even though they will bleed out, I will pop another shot off just for target practice (and maybe to kill it sooner).

[Guest jeffpeng]

Maybe it's my bad aiming, but I feel like especially revolver hits take forever to cause a bleed out. Might even be intentional to further emphasize the revolver as the abundantly available (opposed to the flare gun) defensive weapon.

Edit: On the realism side this isn't even far off. It would be even conceivable for a big animal like a bear or moose to fully recover from a non vital GSW, and it would take up to days to bring it down through infection and subsequent blood poisoning even if the bullet stuck and got infected.

Edited July 9, 2019 by jeffpeng

[hozz1235]

On 7/9/2019 at 1:38 PM, jeffpeng said:

but I feel like especially revolver hits take forever to cause a bleed out

Yeah, the revolver was not intended to be a hunting weapon.  I'm kind of surprised I get as many bleed effects as I do from it.