A suggestion i have for the game.

[TomZeRat]

1. Add tameable animals to the game. This will make hunting easier and more fun to play the game.

[Cranky]

How is hunting difficult? All one needs to do is make an animal bleed, whether that is with a range weapon or knife/axe, soon after it bleeds its dead. 
 

Having a animal companion is a fairly often wishlist request and tho personally I think it would be a cool addition it is very much unnecessary. 

[Omnijack]

I think an animal companion would diminish the sense of isolation that's core to the game.

[peteloud]

I would rather HTL use their resources to develop more important aspects of the game.

[odizzido]

On 5/20/2021 at 2:11 AM, peteloud said:

I would rather HTL use their resources to develop more important aspects of the game.

me too. I suspect it would actually make the game worse as the companion animal would be frustrating.

[Sito]

On 5/19/2021 at 6:15 PM, Omnijack said:

I think an animal companion would diminish the sense of isolation that's core to the game.

I agree. No animal companions, no NPCs. Nothing but loneliness, hopelessness, and just survive because of shear will. Or die.

[Mroz4k]

On 5/20/2021 at 3:15 AM, Omnijack said:

I think an animal companion would diminish the sense of isolation that's core to the game.

I think it would add to it. While I dislike the idea of taming, because it is so overused and just flat-out unrealistical, a sure-way to murder the immersion in so many games, I think that if by a random encounter the player could befriend a dog, the game and the sense of loneliness would not be disrupted, it just would get different feel to it. Having a canine companion could just make one wish for a human companion more. And when I say "chance encounter" it is not a figure of speech. If there simply was the option to help a dog one comes across, there is also a chance not to do it. Which means player can choose not to "befriend" the dog and continue on playing the game as they did up to this point. Same as it is with the ammo crafting - I personally used to be heavily against it, but I gotta admit it has made the game better, and it simply is there as an option. 

I dislike the idea of taming. One cannot "tame" wild animal, that process happened over a course of hundred years. While technically "tamed" a wild animal will always remain wild. But, there was a community on the island, which suffered with the event coming up. It is not unrealistic to think that once domesticated dogs would go wild, and such animal that has a memory of previous human owner and loyalty can be befriended again. 

I dislike the idea of using said dog companions for hunting. I also believe hunting is not really difficult as is. But I do need to point out that caring for dogs would actually means feeding them too, which means the food consumption and need for more meat would be presented into the game, which is a good thing as it taps into that aspect of survival that people often find too easy because of wast meat reserves. More need for meat means more hunting. If anything, dogs might be used in a similar fashion as timberwolf packs, but there should be a big risk to them in this manner. 

Finally, here is the reason why I do like the idea of befriended dogs - transportation. Long ago, on TLD roadmaps, there was an idea of a horse as a mount. That one just wont work because of no way to feed it and care for it... but dogs, and subsequently drawn dog carriage or combination of skis and dog to drag the player could present a new way to move about the map at higher speed, or load & transport more equipment easily. Unlike a horse, dogs would also be able to accompany you to most locations, unless its a flat-out climbing spot. 

[Old Hermit]

I ithink (and it was told elsewhere on forums) that it is impossible to have any animal companion, due the effects of Aurora on animals.

Even if by miracle there are dogs (or cats or whatever) that survived the island's harsh wildlife and weather, most probably trying to approach would lead to unpredictable attacks or fleeing.

(using google translator)