Decoys not working?

[XaldinVii]

So I recently started a new custom game spawning in BR and choosing to stay there for the wolf gauntlet challenge. That being said there has been two occasions where I used a decoy and the wolf completely ignored it. The later being last night when the wolf  walked right over it, it was a piece of raw meat even! This nearly cost me the play thru as I was being cornered by two wolfs and was trying to distract one and escape. Needless to say he ignored the meat and got me and I just barely managed to skirt around the other and avoid another attack while bleeding. 

So I am wondering did something change? Is this intended? Has anyone else experienced this? I have placed decoys on the ground before and they always went for it, even when the wolves started to track me.

Edited August 7, 2019 by XaldinVii

[XaldinVii]

2 minutes ago, rancid0 said:

I've had this happen to me before I've even dropped multiple baits at one wolf and he still ignored them

In my experience this mainly happens in area's that have a lot of obstacles to "interfere" with their pathing I've never had this happen in a "open area" but other ppl may have. 

I could see that for the first encounter, it was next to the BR Lodge in between the fence and by the cars. The second one was on the other side of the BR pond among the trees, which I find hard to see it happening there but I guess the trees and rocks could of done it. 

[XaldinVii]

16 minutes ago, rancid0 said:

it's the only thing i can think of that it would be, I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure that this is not suppose to happen you could try reporting it to support maybe?

Yeah, that what I was trying to figure out, if it was a bug or not. I will report it then. Thanks @rancid0!

[UpUpAway95]

You mentioned that this is a custom game.  Have you messed with any of the settings relating to animal detection ranges?  There are settings relative to "wildlife Smell Range" and "Wildlife Detection Range," as well as "Scent Increase from Meat/Blood."

Edited August 7, 2019 by UpUpAway95

[ajb1978]

36 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

There are settings relative to "wildlife Smell Range" and "Wildlife Detection Range," as well as "Scent Increase from Meat/Blood."

I'm 82.71% sure that only pertains to wildlife detecting/smelling the player. I have noticed wolves seem to detect rabbits, deer, and bears normally even if you tweak these detection ranges in a custom game. 

Edited August 7, 2019 by ajb1978

[ManicManiac]

9 minutes ago, rancid0 said:

should make him focus on the bait instead of you

It may not always be 100% effective though... From what I've seen, dropping bait while a wolf is stalking will prompt a check to see if the wolf takes or ignores the bait.  While I agree that more often than not a stalking wolf will shift focus to the bait, I've also seen (though very rarely) a wolf not care about the bait and continue stalking.

Edited August 7, 2019 by ManicManiac

[ManicManiac]

@rancid0 we all build our understanding of things though our own experience and experimentation.  Consider this though, if it was always the case then it would be nice and predictable.  In my opinion, that there does seem to be some randomness in that behavior (whether intended or not) adds to the danger of the situation.   

Edited August 7, 2019 by ManicManiac

[UpUpAway95]

2 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

I'm 82.71% sure that only pertains to wildlife detecting/smelling the player. I have noticed wolves seem to detect rabbits, deer, and bears normally even if you tweak these detection ranges in a custom game. 

Shrug... it was just an thought.  Personally, I've never had much success using decoys.

[XaldinVii]

18 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

You mentioned that this is a custom game.  Have you messed with any of the settings relating to animal detection ranges?  There are settings relative to "wildlife Smell Range" and "Wildlife Detection Range," as well as "Scent Increase from Meat/Blood."

I did a stalker base, and just made the weather the worst it can be, reduced wolf population, and increased the Aurora because who doesn't want to see more Auroras. Went back to where I was jumped in the forest between the Lodge and the Garage, and the wolf ignored the bait again. Then later I was on the small pond, a more open area, in front of the BR Lodge and dropped a decoy and it work. Now it could all just be chance that is confirming what I am expecting, but I will try to do some more test to confirm. 

 

Also I have submitted a bug report so we will see what they say. I will post here with the response I get. 

Edited August 8, 2019 by XaldinVii
Added more to post

[UpUpAway95]

2 hours ago, XaldinVii said:

I did a stalker base, and just made the weather the worst it can be, reduced wolf population, and increased the Aurora because who doesn't want to see more Auroras. Went back to where I was jumped in the forest between the Lodge and the Garage, and the wolf ignored the bait again. Then later I was on the small pond, a more open area, in front of the BR Lodge and dropped a decoy and it work. Now it could all just be chance that is confirming what I am expecting, but I will try to do some more test to confirm. 

 

Also I have submitted a bug report so we will see what they say. I will post here with the response I get. 

Thanks.  I'll keep checking for your post of their response.

[hozz1235]

Prior to a recent patch, I would drop a decoy the instant I heard a bark and it would work.  Now, I actually have to wait for the wolf to be closer to me before dropping for it to be effective.

[XaldinVii]

40 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

Prior to a recent patch, I would drop a decoy the instant I heard a bark and it would work.  Now, I actually have to wait for the wolf to be closer to me before dropping for it to be effective.

That might be the case, as now that I am thinking about the three encounters; The third were the decoy worked was the closest I had been to the wolves when I dropped the decoy. 

[XaldinVii]

No reply from support yet. But I went hunting all the wolves in BR to test out the decoys I killed 5 wolves and tested the decoys 10 times. This test was done all 10 times when the wolf was on my trail. I did two tests per wolf one in sight and one out of sight while dropping the decoy with a tree or hill in the way. Every time the decoy was in the line of sight it went for it. Every time I dropped it out of its line of sight it ignored it even walking over one again. I did not test distance tho, as I wanted to keep the dropping of the decoys at relatively the same distance which was fairly close but still outside of the range that they charge you.