Why did you like the implemantation of the couguar?

[kozka5]

With the annoucement of the removal of the kitty cat I came across a considerable amount of opinions of people that liked the previous implemantation of the couguar. I personnaly disliked it, however I would really like the opinions from people that liked it. In a nuthshell, why did you like the couguar, how it worked as the mechanic and the hud elements. In my opinion the couguar as it was added to the game disapointed a lot of the players, including me, and wasn't what everyone exppected, but I'm very much open for the disscusion about that matter. Share your thoughts!

[Hazelnut]

I thought it was fine for what it was, though of course it could always be improved / refined and I am looking forward to see what they do with it.

What I liked about it was the fact that it can't be hunted like all the existing wildlife, it hunts the player instead. I don't want that aspect to change so it simply becomes an easier to kill Bear essentially - with strategies for cheesing it etc. It should remain as a dangerous risk, where you have to plan to get mauled if you want to stand your ground and not leave a region, or want that trophy/hat/knife. (I definitely want the new items that can be crafted to remain!)

I think for the UI info I accepted it as a conservative approach to prevent players losing runs without realising they were in danger by missing in world signs. I'm okay with it myself.

Every thing is software is a trade off of effort/cost vs. value, and I feel that to have some of the wishes expressed by players in a 100% reliable way is a lot of effort for (maybe) not enough value as a result. However some of the suggestions I've read are really good. One I especially like is the idea that the cat is spawned a distance away outside player vision and slowly, quietly stalks towards, running away quickly if seen. That would scare players and keep them on their toes, while letting them know that a Cougar is definitely around. Maybe it has to be seen (i.e. on screen) N times before an attack will occur?

If it gets close enough for a potential shot is should charge at speed into the struggle with very little chance to be hit. It's a nice idea but think of all of the various terrain and places a player can be, the logic to make it reliable and un-cheesable would be very difficult to implement and test. Is the value to players worth, say for sake of argument, 2 new regions worth of dev effort. To me, no. To others, maybe yes.

I certainly don't have the answers but hopefully it gives an idea why I was happy enough with it. For me it's a lategame, done everything else, challenge.

Edited June 29 by Hazelnut
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[Enigmaecho]

I think that too many people forget that this game is a decade in growth and that players have come in at many different points, people too often look at new things from the perspective of where they are in that timeline the general feel of tales has been challenging new regions and mechanics with a generous amount geared towards people who just got the game when tales dropped the cougar was I feel meant to be a mechanic to push on long term players to be more explorative or be ready for a very hard challenge as always with this game it’s choices vs consequences but they had to consider newer players with less map and mechanics knowledge so that why there’s so much hud involvement, it’s difficult to predict where players will go so encountering the signs is mixed chance but as far as the struggle i didn’t think it was any worse than the bear it hit at me twice while fishing Brr and I got him the second time I lost 90% of my health but no clothing the jump scare wasn’t that bad made sense I was ice fishing “not paying attention” I think the slow time was a good implementation you get only one shot because you only need one shot I think 10 days to dry is a little annoying but I’m just impatient and the meat decent hope there’s recipes in part 6 for moose cougar and other fish recipes, possible improvements the cougar spawns in the region in a certain area where there is sign and the sound effects start playing  have it be in mostly wooded or rocky areas or edges of them this would let people stay in regions but regularly not go in certain parts as it moves around and having it able to move in an area you’re in already keep the jump scare an slow time but this would give a much better indicator of when the threat was highest and make more sense than it getting you anywhere no matter how open the area and view