Poor Rabbits

[issabeepboop]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has to look away from the screen when snapping a rabbits neck. I remember the first time I stunned a rabbit by hitting it with a stone, I was so excited and happy till I picked it up and it gave me the choice to release it or kill it. I shrieked "NOOOO! WHY WHY WHY!" The guilt consumes me, those big brown eyes staring up at you. 

[odizzido]

I am one of those people who has no issue snapping those pixel necks. I guess 30+ years of playing games has given me a strong sense of non-reality to them.

[issabeepboop]

ah I wish I could do that but my love for all things that are tiny, fluffy, and make cute noises wont let me

[past caring]

Bears are far worse.

With rabbits it's one quick snap and they're off to that big Watership Down in the sky.

With bears, however, those groans of pain, tinged with dumb confusion at the dying of the light can go on for a very long time......

[nicko]

9 hours ago, issabeepboop said:

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has to look away from the screen when snapping a rabbits neck. I remember the first time I stunned a rabbit by hitting it with a stone, I was so excited and happy till I picked it up and it gave me the choice to release it or kill it. I shrieked "NOOOO! WHY WHY WHY!" The guilt consumes me, those big brown eyes staring up at you. 

its a game not real life get over it. eat a rabbit or dye of starvation game play?

[flakeinator]

I have no issue snapping its neck. I have to eat after all and I am horrible with the hunting rifle. I really like that if you release it they have the played pet its head first.

[ajb1978]

On 12/10/2020 at 8:32 AM, flakeinator said:

I have no issue snapping its neck. I have to eat after all and I am horrible with the hunting rifle. I really like that if you release it they have the played pet its head first.

Well in that situation you just whacked a rabbit with a stone hard enough to knock it silly, for no reason. Maybe even broke a few of its ribs. If you think about it, breaking its neck is a faster death than snaring them.  With a snare, the rabbit basically gets its neck caught, and systematically pulls the noose tighter and tighter in its panicked attempts to break free, until it essentially chokes itself out. It could take upwards of 20 minutes to die that way.

On the other hand, a very forceful breaking of the neck severs the brain stem, which causes near-instant death. It's functionally the same as decapitation. So it may seem brutal, but it's really the kindest choice. It reminds me of the part in story mode where

you have to decide whether to push the knife (kill Hobbs) or pull it out (spare him).  On the surface, pulling the knife may seem merciful. But a stab to the gut like that without proper medical care is an extremely slow, extremely painful way to go. It's not serious enough to bleed out, but becomes septic almost immediately, and it's the infection that eventually kills you. Pushing the knife the rest of the way in and killing him actually is the merciful choice, but it's not presented as such.

[UpUpAway95]

12 minutes ago, ajb1978 said:

Well in that situation you just whacked a rabbit with a stone hard enough to knock it silly, for no reason. Maybe even broke a few of its ribs. If you think about it, breaking its neck is a faster death than snaring them.  With a snare, the rabbit basically gets its neck caught, and systematically pulls the noose tighter and tighter in its panicked attempts to break free, until it essentially chokes itself out. It could take upwards of 20 minutes to die that way.

On the other hand, a very forceful breaking of the neck severs the brain stem, which causes near-instant death. It's functionally the same as decapitation. So it may seem brutal, but it's really the kindest choice. It reminds me of the part in story mode where

  Reveal hidden contents

you have to decide whether to push the knife (kill Hobbs) or pull it out (spare him).  On the surface, pulling the knife may seem merciful. But a stab to the gut like that without proper medical care is an extremely slow, extremely painful way to go. It's not serious enough to bleed out, but becomes septic almost immediately, and it's the infection that eventually kills you. Pushing the knife the rest of the way in and killing him actually is the merciful choice, but it's not presented as such.

 

I'm horrible at throwing stones at them, so I more often than not wind up snaring them... or shoot an arrow into them to level up my archery skills.  Sometimes I let the wolves tag them for me and then shoot the wolf as they are feeding.  On the rare occasion that I do manage to knock one out after nearly freezing to death tossing stones at the, I'm certainly not going to pet it and let it go.  I have no problem wiping the smirk off its face with a quick snap of its neck.

[odizzido]

I find it....interesting....that the devs put in all this brutal stuff in the game but then don't want people talking about it in the forums too much. It's like I want this game where you go around snapping necks and shooting bears and letting them howl in agony for hours but I don't want to be reminded that it actually happens. It's very dissociative.

[Catlover]

I used to also be very bad at killing the rabbits but after many months of TLD's brutality, I've learnt to value my own life and hunger more than the cute little rabbit staring desperately up at you. 

That's not to say that I don't feel any remorse over killing them. I always have to try and kill it quickly, because as @ajb1978said, you'd be doing more harm than good if you pet it and let it go. Plus those little squeaks are just so cute and sad. 

[ajb1978]

To be fair if I need rabbit hides, I will absolutely set up a trap line. It's a video game, no rabbits are actually being harmed, so it just makes sense to have the materials I need magically appear while I'm out hunting something bigger.

But yeah if I were in a real survival situation, I'd try to use a humane trap, then deliver as quick a kill as I can manage, out of sight of any of the other rabbits.

[dbmurph22]

It's not a video game.  There's some dimension of reality out there that is actively being influenced by your choices here.  That said, a survivor's life is also at stake.

I say, 1 out of every 5-10 rabbits, plunk on the head, pick up, stroke it a little, say some words of grace and then let go.  Then balance can return to your world.

[Sherri]

I definitely have to look away. The sound effects are brutal too.

[dbmurph22]

3 minutes ago, Sherri said:

I definitely have to look away. The sound effects are brutal too.

Oh, that sound is just some wrist arthritis, nothing else.

[flakeinator]

I have to say that I recently got the stone-age sniper achievement which really shocked me. Thankfully rocks bounce nicely off of the ice and travel a good distance. 🙂 In case anybody else is after that achievement that is how I got it. I was a bit of an accident and a shock that I actually hit the rabbit.

Am I the only one that thinks that "knock-out" time for a rabbit is a bit short? That is where I will fail the most with rabbits. I can do a decent job of hitting them with the stone but they get up sometimes before I can get my reticule to say rabbit and pick them up.

Edited December 15, 2020 by flakeinator

[Booch]

2 hours ago, flakeinator said:

I have to say that I recently got the stone-age sniper achievement which really shocked me. Thankfully rocks bounce nicely off of the ice and travel a good distance. 🙂 In case anybody else is after that achievement that is how I got it. I was a bit of an accident and a shock that I actually hit the rabbit.

Am I the only one that thinks that "knock-out" time for a rabbit is a bit short? That is where I will fail the most with rabbits. I can do a decent job of hitting them with the stone but they get up sometimes before I can get my reticule to say rabbit and pick them up.

Same for me at the start.  I have to sprint to get the rabbit before it become undazed.  Not a big fan of the neck-breaking sound and the chirp, myself.

[flakeinator]

22 hours ago, Booch said:

Same for me at the start.  I have to sprint to get the rabbit before it become undazed.  Not a big fan of the neck-breaking sound and the chirp, myself.

Not sure that I really noticed a chip noise but I do think that they did a good job ob the neck breaking sound. I think that for fun they should make the rabbit shed a tear a moment or two before you breaks its neck to mess with you. Maybe on April's Fool Day or something like that it would be funny.

[Booch]

5 hours ago, flakeinator said:

Not sure that I really noticed a chip noise but I do think that they did a good job ob the neck breaking sound. I think that for fun they should make the rabbit shed a tear a moment or two before you breaks its neck to mess with you. Maybe on April's Fool Day or something like that it would be funny.

That would screw with a lot of people's heads. There'd be lots of posts on that one.

[flakeinator]

On 12/16/2020 at 8:41 PM, Booch said:

That would screw with a lot of people's heads. There'd be lots of posts on that one.

That is why for April Fool's Day or some other type of joke it might be fun but it would really mess with people. Maybe make a random bear stand up and explain the dangers of forest fires. 😉

[Ape88]

On 12/10/2020 at 3:35 AM, nicko said:

its a game not real life get over it. eat a rabbit or dye of starvation game play?

I suppose but... were you this stoic when Mufasa died?

[wilsonaka]

I just shoot them with arrows or a bullet.  Stones takes too much time and they aren't very accurate, plus, you have about a 4 second window to pick them up before they run off. It gets frustrating.  I'd rather use snares if they wouldn't eat up all the cured gut all the time.