Bear Spray

[ThePancakeLady]

I know this was asked for on the Steam forums at one point in time, not sure if it has been brought up here or not.

But, with regular threads asking for new weapons, I think Bear Spray, a purely defensive weapon, often carried by loggers, hikers, Rangers, climbers, cavers and outdoors tour guides... I think it needs some consideration. 

For your viewing and reading pleasure:

How To Use Bear Spray Effectively

I would honestly expect to find this stuff on a remote island, like Great Bear, long before the first Aurora ever came. A deterrent to be used when an unexpected bear encounter might happen while out hiking, or exploring, tending your fields, or traveling to and from a tourist cabin. 

I would expect a chance of failure, if you do not aim the spray correctly, or spray it from too far away. But used correctly, with good timing, I would expect the bear, wolf or Moose to stop a charge or charge prep-stage, and back up, with a chance that the animal would turn and flee. Used incorrectly, like spraying inside a closed building or the back of a cave or mine, i would expect the blurred vision effect, and Pain affliction to occur, and perhaps a new affliction "Breathing Difficulty", that would require the survivor to get out of that building or area (in a large building like Hibernia and such), that would pass over time once you hit fresh air, with very slow condition loss if you did not get into fresh air. Affected animals would recover with no loss of HP over time as well.

Canisters would not be huge, a 2 usage limit, possible to find one at 50%- it has only one use left. Random loot, that may be found on a human corpse at times, and in the usual loot drop locations. (In containers and out in the open). 50% decay with each use. Decay over time... not sure about. Minimal decay, perhaps, with the canister becoming less effective if it has decayed below 40%? Almost ineffective (no chance to scare the animal away, but a *possibility* to make it stop its charge) at 20% or below? (With the possibility of it not working at all, or it needing to be sprayed from a much closer distance...).

 

Thoughts?

[Ghosty 1944]

Sounds like your spot on.👍

[Lurve]

That picture appears to be a potion of Summon Bear Spirit.

[Doc Feral]

Before that, we need grizzly bears to be added to TLD

[ThePancakeLady]

2 hours ago, Lurve said:

That picture appears to be a potion of Summon Bear Spirit.

Lol! Now that you mention it... it does. xD

[Ghosty 1944]

4 hours ago, Doc Feral said:

Before that, we need grizzly bears to be added to TLD

Screw pepper spray! I usually take my conceal and carry on hikes when I can. (Not all national parks let me bring it with me)

[ThePancakeLady]

11 minutes ago, Ghosty 1944 said:

Screw pepper spray! I usually take my conceal and carry on hikes when I can. (Not all national parks let me bring it with me)

Shooting an actual bear, Black, brown, or grizzly, in the head IRL, is often only a way to tick them off even more. They have incredibly thick skulls. If you don't get lucky and hit it in one of the soft "open" areas, you may just cause a dented or fractured skull and a flesh wound. We carried Bear Spray into the desert SW regions where we spent weeks backpacking each year, for many years. No bears there, but it was effective against the rare Cougar who would get curious about our campsite(s). Chased them off, and did not hurt them long term. As I said, this is to be a purely defensive weapon, not meant to kill.

[Pillock]

I think it's a really good idea.

In earlier versions we could scare bears off with flares, torches and campfires (sometimes!). I miss that: it provided some exciting and tense moments. Now there's no way to prevent a bear charge other than keeping your distance, shooting it with firearm, bow or flare gun, or moving yourself on to a bit of terrain that the animal can't get to (which feels pretty glitchy and exploity to me).

Bear spray seems like a good way to redress that, without making it too easy to avoid them.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Pillock

[ajb1978]

If bear spray becomes a thing, I hope wind speed and direction affects it. Spray it into a strong headwind, it blows back in your face and you suffer the effects. 

[ManicManiac]

It's a neat suggestion, and I like the points that have been discussed. 

Though... with the addition of the Revolver I think we have all the weapons/defenses we could ever really need in this game (stones, torches, flares, rifle, bow, flare gun, revolver... soon we'll have a bear spear too).

I like the idea - I do, but I am wary about adding too many weapons/defenses into the game.  I am worried that adding too much could undermine the intended experience of the game.  I don't want to ever feel really safe in this game, the fun of playing for me is the constant threat and danger... the struggle of not being super well equipped.

I think it serves the game better to have to be cautious and aware of surrounding wildlife.  I wouldn't want to be able to roam around with impunity because I know I can just drive off/kill anything that crosses my path.  I'm not saying this suggestion would do that... I'm just concerned about the cumulative effect on gameplay of having too many weapons and defenses.

[Pillock]

29 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

Though... with the addition of the Revolver I think we have all the weapons/defenses we could ever really need in this game (stones, torches, flares, rifle, bow, flare gun, revolver... soon we'll have a bear spear too).

Half of these don't work with a bear, though. And having played a 2 or 3 in-game months (across about 4 starts) since Steadfast Ranger came out without having found a single revolver yet, I'm starting to think that they might be some kind of urban myth.

[ManicManiac]

1 minute ago, Pillock said:

Half of these don't work with a bear, though

Yes, but in terms of gameplay, the Bear should be extremely dangerous.  I would never want to feel I was immune to the threat of the Bear.

Also, I can confirm... Revolver is real  and frankly I love that it's sometimes very difficult to find.  It makes finding it, a very satisfying moment. 

[ThePancakeLady]

2 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

Yes, but in terms of gameplay, the Bear should be extremely dangerous.  I would never want to feel I was immune to the threat of the Bear.

Also, I can confirm... Revolver is real  and frankly I love that it's sometimes very difficult to find.  It makes finding it, a very satisfying moment. 

Keep in mind, Interloper has NO rifle or revolver, only the distress pistol, and the bow and arrows (that must be crafted from scratch). With the lower loot frequency in Loper, the bear Spray would also be found less often than in other modes. It should not be terribly common in any mode. But it would make sense in all modes. Especially when you see certain Buffer Memories...

I would expect if someone was on the island doing studies on bear activity, they would have bear Spray with them, just in case. And yes @ajb1978, I agree wind speed and direction should play a part. Similar to my thoughts on spraying it inside of a closed structure, cave or mine, where the player would have it affect them negatively, the same should happen if they spray into a strong headwind. Though with most "quality" bear spray on the market IRL, it is designed to overcome certain wind velocities, with a warning to consumers that they will also suffer the effects if they do spray it into a strong a wind and there is any backspray. It is also explosive, lol, so perhaps not something you want to place next to a fire or the forges when lit. We had to always remember not to leave any canisters in our trucks if we were 4-wheeling in the desert in High Summer, because if it exploded due to prolonged high temps, the inside of your truck was now permanently painful to be in.  Not that we ever found that out the hard way (was not MY truck, lol, but the rental company my buddy rented his truck from was NOT at all pleased when he brought it back...).

 

So there would be risks to using it incorrectly, not just an OP tool to deter bears and wolves that always worked flawlessly.

[ManicManiac]

12 minutes ago, ThePancakeLady said:

Keep in mind, Interloper has NO rifle or revolver, only the distress pistol...

That is a good point.

And I didn't intend to imply that bear spray would be over powered or anything like that... I was just expressing a more overall concern about eventually having so many tools/weapons at our disposal that it might take away from that feeling of vulnerability that I love so much in this game. 

[Ice Hole]

I think this is a great idea.  Perhaps it could be a crafted item.

We do not have any pepper but maybe with the water purification tabs.

[ThePancakeLady]

2 minutes ago, Ice Hole said:

I think this is a great idea.  Perhaps it could be a crafted item.

We do not have any pepper but maybe with the water purification tabs.

Eh, I am against it having a crafted version. Where would the presurized container, with a spray nozzle come from? I think of it as something that might be found in a trailer at a logging camp, or in a backpack by one of the corpses, or such. Fairly low frequency of spawns in the world. And without the highly concentrated capsaicin, it is worthless. Iodine tablets would not make the bears eyes water and nasal passages and throat become irritated and painful, causing difficulty breathing. Crafting such a thing would be far beyond our survivor's capabilities, not to mention lack of needed materials and a proper *powered* manufacturing facility to put the pressurized contents into the can, and seal it.

[ajb1978]

Fun story about bear spray.  (I wasn't here for this, this is all third party storytelling.)  Back in '95 my friend and his family went on a vacation to Alaska.  They were each given some basic stuff on a hiking trip. The important part is they each had a can of bear spray.

Well I'll just cut right to the chase.  My friend's brother thought the bear spray worked like mosquito spray, and the moment they had set up camp, sprayed himself all over with it.  I guess nobody bothered to explain what bear spray was to him.

Yeah.  That first day was a bit rough for him.

[ThePancakeLady]

LOL! Oh... my. I am sure the rest of the group was not too eager to have him in their vicinity either. 

Edited June 1, 2019 by ThePancakeLady

[ajb1978]

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by ajb1978

[Guest kristaok]

I think I would rather see a Shotgun, not that I hate the Bear Spray idea or anything... I just wouldn't want to put my life on extra strength Pepper Spray.  

Edited June 1, 2019 by kristaok

[ajb1978]

26 minutes ago, kristaok said:

I think I would rather see a Shotgun, not that I hate the Bear Spray idea or anything... I just wouldn't want to put my life on extra strength Pepper Spray.  

I think the game has enough guns to be honest.  Leave it to The Long Dark to make a 6-shot revolver feel like a friggen Doom BFG.  We've got our rapid-shooter, and our heavy-hitter.  I'm good with that.

I'd prefer to see some alternative weapons, like the bear spray for one.  A crossbow for two...preferably the crossbow if I'm honest (hip-fire arrows!) but this thread is about bear spray, so...  Bear spray.

[Guest kristaok]

@ajb1978 I'm not sure how we have enough Guns already (not trying to be rude), but we only have the Rifle and Revolver... it's not realistic to not have other options, we should at least have the option to have a Shotgun and or a Pistol. As for the Crossbow I agree, I would also like to see a Hunting Bow, not just the Makeshift Bow we have now. As for the Bear Spray, again I would rather have more Guns. 

[ThePancakeLady]

43 minutes ago, kristaok said:

@ajb1978 I'm not sure how we have enough Guns already (not trying to be rude), but we only have the Rifle and Revolver... it's not realistic to not have other options, we should at least have the option to have a Shotgun and or a Pistol. As for the Crossbow I agree, I would also like to see a Hunting Bow, not just the Makeshift Bow we have now. As for the Bear Spray, again I would rather have more Guns. 

And again, the thread is asking for thoughts on the idea of having Bear Spray added. Not asking about "Should  we have MoarGuns™. If you do not want bear Spray, fine, that is your opinion and right. But leave the guns out of it. The game is not a shooter, and I also feel we have enough guns. I posted about adding a defensive weapon/tool to deter animal attacks, without permanent harm to animal or human. Lots of other threads about adding guns or "other weapons" in general. Please leave your opinions about guns there.

[Guest kristaok]

No I will not leave my opinions in another thread, why? because this is a Public Forum... I am free to Post here just as you are free to Post here. I already told you how I felt, and I stand by that. You will simply have to get over it my dear.

Edited June 1, 2019 by kristaok

[ThePancakeLady]

My dear, there is this thing called "Ignore user" that can be used to ...ignore people who seem to not understand what "staying on topic" means.