Befriending wolves

[PhilththeTanMan]

Hey Long Darkers,

I have been thinking about if you could gain the trust of the solo wolves, the same process as we turned wolves into man's best friend.

I keep thinking, when I make a fire to harvest a freshly killed dear it scares the wolf away when he gets too close. But lets say, when he comes back I put out a piece of meat for him so he starts to associate me with an easy meal. After repeating this process multiple times, trust is made for the ultimate goal of the wolf becoming your companion.

This process can work only for the lone black wolves and only in the bonfire environment. The lone wolf doesn't have a pack to make killing easier and is more opportunistic to getting a free meal from a human. So the desperate/hungry wolf is willing to accept meat from your character but reluctant to get closer because of fear of the fire. Both of these mechanics are already integrated into the game by dropping decoys and running from fires. 

These are my suggestions and thoughts!

1) Each successful feeding attempt brings the wolf closer and closer to your fire without it growling/getting aggressive. Showing any kind of aggression towards the wolf while gaining trust resets the process and the chance of befriending it becomes increasingly and significantly less. If you decide to leave during the process, the wolf remembers you and you can continue the process if you find him again.

2) Once you gain the wolf's trust he becomes a deterrent to other lone wolves, fighting partner (pack/timber wolves and bears), hunting partner (rabbits, deer, moose). He can get scared/run off from bears, wolf packs/timber, moose, and gun shots. Maybe increasing your bond can decrease this fear probability. If he runs you have to go get him by line-of-sight and/or maybe a treat.

3) He can die from attack wounds if you don't bandage him up. He can die from starvation, dehydration, infection, and exhaustion in lesser rate than your character. He does not get cold lol maybe he can help keep you warm! You cannot feed him wolf meat and the only "loot" food he can eat is dog food.

4) There is no book to read but you can increase your bond over time.

5) He doesn't like going indoors except for caves and cave systems, no cabins

6) I was also thinking you should only have access to this feature after a certain amount of time (like 100 days).

There is a lot to gain by befriending a wolf but at the cost of resources/time. Its a fun thought and I would like to hear what you guys think!

-Tan Man

[RegentRelic]

Okay there are several things wrong with the tames period in the long dark.

1) The long dark at it's heart is about loneliness adding companions undermines that theme.

2) No matter how hard you make taming it will always make the game for giving. Every other thing in the game once you get them it makes the game easier not more forgiving.

3) Make perpetual survival practical. When you have a tames that i'm assuming can pay for them selves in calories each day you've effectively created a passive food source that doesn't and any more of that and then any area with to rabbit groves can be lived in for ever with very little skill.

Edited May 20, 2020 by RegentRelic

[RegentRelic]

Okay that last post was about tames in general this one is about your wolf ideas.

23 hours ago, PhilththeTanMan said:

6) I was also thinking you should only have access to this feature after a certain amount of time (like 100 days).

I pretty sure hinterland is above arbitrary day requirements to unlock features.

 

23 hours ago, PhilththeTanMan said:

Its a fun thought

That isn't a reason when it comes the long dark.

23 hours ago, PhilththeTanMan said:

Both of these mechanics are already integrated into the game by dropping decoys and running from fires. 

Sort of. Yet the big work would come from writing a whole new set of behaviors behaviors and at least thirteen new animation cycles at the minimum.(eating dog food, fighting bears, fighting moose, fighting wolf, fighting wolves, fighting timber wolf, fighting timber wolves, slowly approaching, a new eating animation and a way of showing starvation, dehydration, infection, and exhaustion status.) \

18 minutes ago, RegentRelic said:

1) The long dark at it's heart is about loneliness adding companions undermines that theme.

2) No matter how hard you make taming it will always make the game for giving. Every other thing in the game once you get them it makes the game easier not more forgiving.

3) Make perpetual survival practical. When you have a tames that i'm assuming can pay for them selves in calories each day you've effectively created a passive food source that doesn't and any more of that and then any area with to rabbit groves can be lived in for ever with very little skill.

 

[PhilththeTanMan]

2 hours ago, RegentRelic said:

Okay there are several things wrong with the tames period in the long dark.

1) The long dark at it's heart is about loneliness adding companions undermines that theme.

2) No matter how hard you make taming it will always make the game for giving. Every other thing in the game once you get them it makes the game easier not more forgiving.

3) Make perpetual survival practical. When you have a tames that i'm assuming can pay for them selves in calories each day you've effectively created a passive food source that doesn't and any more of that and then any area with to rabbit groves can be lived in for ever with very little skill.

Thank you for your feedback!

1) I figured it as not a requirement to gain a wolf’s trust, so if you want to be alone you can go without it. 

2) I think the need to feed the wolf would mean you would have to hunt more often and thus make survival still difficult. Plus there would be no 100% guarantee that the wolf would survive or even help you fight and hunt.

3) I’m sorry but I don’t quite understand your words. But killing the rabbits with a stone is really easy for me, I find this not challenging to begin with. 
 

 

[PhilththeTanMan]

3 hours ago, DerpyLemon115 said:

I think I said something like this before but I will say it again.

Befriending wolves wouldn't really make sense in TLD. It's strongly hinted that the aurora that is effecting all the electrical appliances, and machines through the world is also effecting the wildlife, specifically the carnivores (However there is a buffer memory that hints that fish could be effected as well I think?). It makes them more aggressive towards humans, especially while the aurora is out at night. So because of that I don't think taming wolves would make any sense with the established lore.

Wow that is really interesting with the auroras, I didn’t know that about the fish! Very cool.

but I can see possible fixes for that. What if the wolf went aggressive to you as usual during the aurora and “forgets” you? You must take the chance that the wolf will turn on you at night! But when the aurora is finished he “remembers you”.

thank you for your feedback.

Edited May 20, 2020 by PhilththeTanMan

[PhilththeTanMan]

2 hours ago, RegentRelic said:

Sort of. Yet the big work would come from writing a whole new set of behaviors behaviors and at least thirteen new animation cycles at the minimum.(eating dog food, fighting bears, fighting moose, fighting wolf, fighting wolves, fighting timber wolf, fighting timber wolves, slowly approaching, a new eating animation and a way of showing starvation, dehydration, infection, and exhaustion status.) \

 

I think this would be the greatest obstacle to my wolf ideal. Greatest argument against it.

 

[Willy Pete]

No

[PhilththeTanMan]

8 hours ago, Willy Pete said:

No

Lol

[odium]

14 hours ago, Willy Pete said:

No

^

 

hard no from me too, just way too far off from what i want TLD to be

[Moll]

No. Also i would tame it and lure it into range of my .303 Lee, so its not worthy anyway. Maybe as living tincan of meat, but thats morbid even for Long Dark (level 666: eating of human corpses).

[PhilththeTanMan]

Alright guys. I think you have some serious and valid points. I agree that the game would change too drastically and doesn’t quite fit into what Hinterland has created. 
that’s ok, I’ll just continue to enjoy! Starting with this new update 👍🏽

 

-Tan Man

[Ice Hole]

Awhile back in The Long Dark I sort of befriended a wolf. 

 

This idea has merit and with a little trimming of features it might be feasible.

The wolf in the video takes bait and does not run off scared.  Even when pointing a weapon in its direction did nothing to the wolf demeanor.  It plodded along wandering around.

 

[Grignard_TN]

If it's doable Im not against the idea. How about a unique wolf/dog hybrid ( they aren't uncommon apparently) in each zone ( maybe excepting challenge areas like TWM) that you could eventually give limited commands. To keep from farming it it would yield no skin and the meat would have a high chance to inflict parasites ( more likely to have been eating feces or garbage than a wolf I guess)

To deal with the aurora thing....it can turn against you until the aurora passes. That would help balance it out and be consistent with the other animal behavior.

[PhilththeTanMan]

On 5/22/2020 at 1:59 PM, Grignard_TN said:

If it's doable Im not against the idea. How about a unique wolf/dog hybrid ( they aren't uncommon apparently) in each zone ( maybe excepting challenge areas like TWM) that you could eventually give limited commands. To keep from farming it it would yield no skin and the meat would have a high chance to inflict parasites ( more likely to have been eating feces or garbage than a wolf I guess)

To deal with the aurora thing....it can turn against you until the aurora passes. That would help balance it out and be consistent with the other animal behavior.

Lol thanks for your feedback 👍🏽. I would be so happy to see the ideal come to life. I keep thinking about it! I would think to just not let it drop anything from the befriended wolf 🤔

[ManicManiac]

  Even purely from a lore perspective, I just don't think it would be feasible to have an carnivorous animal companion.  I've mentioned it before so I will echo what I've previously mentioned: 

On 5/20/2019 at 11:16 PM, ManicManiac said:

I used to think it would be cool to be able to have an animal companion.  Then I considered not just how difficult it might be to implement that kind of thing, and about the lore itself.  Animal companions really wouldn't seem very feasible due to the Aurora's effects on wildlife... especially the carnivores.

On 8/31/2019 at 5:37 AM, ManicManiac said:

but reasonably consistent with the lore of the game, even if we did find a dog... it would probably immediately try to eat our faces off due to the effects the aurora (in that carnivorous animals are preternaturally aggressive and blood thirsty)

On 9/11/2019 at 2:01 AM, ManicManiac said:

I just don't think it would fit with the lore of the game very well.  I've had this subject on my wish lists before (a while back).  The conversation sort of came to the realization that wolf-hybrids/dogs are carnivores, so they would most likely just turn hyper-aggressive like all the other carnivores in the game.  Making this particular type of animal companion somewhere in between "extremely dangerous" and "just not possible under the circumstances."

On 10/16/2019 at 12:42 AM, ManicManiac said:

and from the lore we already know the "reason why" the animals in the game behave the way they do (i.e. the "geomagnetic event" that gives rise to the auroras in the game).  This is the reason given for their uncharacteristically aggressive behavior and elevated territorial ferocity.

Don't get me wrong, it's a neat idea (one that I wished for a long time ago)... but the more I thought about it; I just don't think it would be consistent with the lore of the game.

[Jacob0522]

This is a very interesting idea, only having the lone black wolf as a possible tamed pet. To help balance it, it should become aggressive at you during aurora, and only be able to help you kill deer and rabbit (maybe other wolves), reason I say it shouldn't attack other wolves and other animals is because that would take a great deal of code to change behaviors for this wolf. To make the idea of a tamable wolf feasible, it should still keep most of a wolf's normal behaviors like fleeing when bear and moose are near, this way it would keep the developers from having to make a ton of new animations for this.

[PhilththeTanMan]

16 hours ago, Jacob0522 said:

This is a very interesting idea, only having the lone black wolf as a possible tamed pet. To help balance it, it should become aggressive at you during aurora, and only be able to help you kill deer and rabbit (maybe other wolves), reason I say it shouldn't attack other wolves and other animals is because that would take a great deal of code to change behaviors for this wolf. To make the idea of a tamable wolf feasible, it should still keep most of a wolf's normal behaviors like fleeing when bear and moose are near, this way it would keep the developers from having to make a ton of new animations for this.

I think that is very well said. I like they way you think 👍🏽

[Jacob0522]

On 5/31/2020 at 10:51 AM, PhilththeTanMan said:

I think that is very well said. I like they way you think 👍🏽

Thank you my friend. 🙂

[DestructiveFur]

I do like the idea, but I also agree that it would take the loneliness from the game, but I would see the idea being added to the story mode of the game or something!

Edited June 6, 2020 by DestructiveFur

[Jacob0522]

Possibly, I could see the reasoning behind taking away from the feeling of isolation, but I feel since it would be an optional thing it creates a happy medium for both types of players if they choose to pursue the mechanic or not.

[melcantspell]

I think your idea is great for a survival game with similar mechanics like TLD, but with a different atmosphere / backstory. 

Maybe let's take it one step back. Animals were domesticated because they followed humans around for food. That took a VERY long time, and it's not very likely this will happen in the lifespan of a grown, individual wild animal. 

But it would be so cool if meat that is kept outside actually attracted wolves (or bears?) from a wide range (without the option of taming them). Mix that with the new rule that meat that is not frozen (=kept inside) will spoil completely and not be brought up to 50% by cooking, and it could be a nice addition to balance out the food storage options we currently have (meaning: food kept inside will spoil quicker, if it's down to 0% it's rotten and you can't eat it anymore; food that is kept outside will "freeze" and keep for a long time, but attract wild animals. Could even make the new stone storage more useful if stone storage prevents meat from attracting animals)