Not finding wolves after shooting them

[Leeanda]

The last week I've shot about 12 wolves with the bow..   out of all of them I've only found two ,one because it died right next to the trailer I left next morning and the other was walking past me (no arrow or blood visible) which I shot and killed but when I clicked on it I got two arrows back..   I shot a cannery wolf this morning and I literally scoured about 75% of bleak and no sign..   I've lost ten arrows as i never found those either..

Also the three I tried to follow the blood trails just stopped after a short while.

Anyone else having similar issues?   

 

I also shot three with the rifle in pv,got the blood splats but didn't find them and they didn't register on the stats,but I never saw them again .

Edited July 5 by Leeanda

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

5 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

I also shit three with the rifle

Oh no!

6 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

got the blood splats but didn't find them and they didn't register on the stats

It's worth noting that if an animal is bleeding out, and a blizzard starts, that animal can vanish.  Often leaving your arrow suspended in mid-air.  It seems like the despawn only happens if the animal is outside a certain radius from you.  Really not sure about that last point, but I can tell you a blizzard definitely can make them vanish.

[Leeanda]

1 minute ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

Oh no!

It's worth noting that if an animal is bleeding out, and a blizzard starts, that animal can vanish.  Often leaving your arrow suspended in mid-air.  It seems like the despawn only happens if the animal is outside a certain radius from you.  Really not sure about that last point, but I can tell you a blizzard definitely can make them vanish.

Edited...  Damn autocorrect... My apologies..

I didn't have any blizzards ..weirdly... For most of them I didn't even go inside.. 

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

@Leeanda Did you look out on the ice.  Those timber wolves seem to die out there a lot.  They have more health than regular wolves (I think) so they can run longer if you just "wing" them.

[Leeanda]

12 minutes ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

@Leeanda Did you look out on the ice.  Those timber wolves seem to die out there a lot.  They have more health than regular wolves (I think) so they can run longer if you just "wing" them.

I literally checked everywhere from the cabin areas ,to the sea and all the way to the exit..    didn't think they'd go past the rope climb or as far as the bears cave so I gave up on that side of the map..

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

@Leeanda  That would be funny if they all ran up the rope to the lookout and you find a bunch of arrows up there 🤣

[Leeanda]

Just now, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

@Leeanda  That would be funny if they all ran up the rope to the lookout and you find a bunch of arrows up there 🤣

Lol...  😅.  Having said that ,there is a thing with bears getting to the top somehow in some areas.. I woke up at the lodge one morning to find the bear outside and I know I closed the gate..  he got up there somehow

[Veskaida]

8 hours ago, Leeanda said:

I've lost ten arrows as i never found those either.. Anyone else having similar issues?

Ouch! 10 missing arrows in one region, that's rough! Yes Timberwolves in particular can be very annoying to retrieve arrows; especially if they're Aurora TW (more health: so less likely/less bodyparts result in critical hits).

The best trick I've found to find fresh carcasses is to harvesting all the Hinterlands-placed Deer/Wolf carcasses in a region (that don't decay until you touch them), so the only sources for circling crows are Frozen Corpses of humans or recent kills, or new carcasses that wash up via beachcombing. This helps a lot with trying to locate dead animals, especially on hilly or steep terrain.

Also Blizzards damage the condition of carcasses, which will cause them to decay/dissapear faster. This (and harvesting) doesn't affect animal respawn times however.

If you spent more than 15 in-game minutes inside of another area (another region, indoor loading screen area, etc), or if an Aurora transition (coming or going) occurs animals can despawn, or if you save+quit. If they do, then it's likely the animal will despawn and the arrow(s) attached to them will drop to the ground where the animal was last standing; it's also possible that the Blood Loss/Damage to the animal may be undone.

8 hours ago, Leeanda said:

I also shot three with the rifle in pv,got the blood splats but didn't find them and they didn't register on the stats,but I never saw them again .

Don't fully understand how the footprint/blood trail system works, but it isn't very reliable for tracking: only in the absolute short-term. I think as soon as an animal leaves the player's LOS it becomes simulated, so it will instantly vanish, which can cause odd behavior where e.g. you walk over a hill tracking a deer you saw, but then it is nowhere to be seen with footprints trailing off for many km, often in zig-zagging directions.

Your arrows should still be present somewhere in that same region they were shot in, but they can be quite far from the shooting site. I've found arrows (sometimes in very weird/sloped terrain far from a shooting site) many hundreds of days later.

Another trick I use is writing in the Journal/Note whenever I lose an arrow, ideally with:

• how many arrows are missing
• what region(s)
• roughly where an arrow was shot OR where animal w/ an arrow stuck to them was last seen

Edited July 6 by Veskaida

[Laxgoalie]

Did you happen to go inside after hitting those wolves? There's been a lot of discussion about bears who are bleeding out despawning when you enter anything with a loading screen. They then respawn uninjured in a random place in their range. This is pretty noticeable in DP where the bear appears to be "immortal" if you keep shooting at it from the deck of the Riken and then run though the ship only to find nothing and the bear has teleported across the map uninjured. Maybe this bug has worked its way into wolves now? Getting 2 arrows back from an animal who appear uninjured is understandable as there is either no bleedout from hitting them in the foot or something like the, or they were hit in a location that takes a really long time from which to bleed out.

[Veskaida]

1 hour ago, Laxgoalie said:

Did you happen to go inside after hitting those wolves?

Unsure if this happened for OP's situation, but yes like my post above mentions there are at least 3 current situations (likely intended optimization mechanics) where animals can despawn because of player loading screens/transitions.

Yes, this can and often will result in arrows falling from the animal (to the location they were unloaded at), and it can also remove Blood Loss (not entirely sure if it resets the animal's Condition as well, but it likely does). There appears to be some ambiguity/simulation with this behavior (like mentioned in my above post for 'footprints/blood trails'), as animals subject to this mechanic will often travel much faster/further than they normally could.

Wildlife mobs unload when the player transitions (e.g. "uses" the door in Mystery Lake to enter Trapper's Cabin, indoor caves/mines, separate regions, etc.):

• Player transitions and ~15 in-game minutes pass (60 real-world seconds) in the new area (including Time Acceleration)
• Player transitions and RNG call changes the weather to/from Aurora, or Blizzard except for

Spoiler

aggressive Timberwolves outside the player's transition area, who have dedicated AI behavior to remain active/partially loaded beyond this check.

• The animal moves beyond a certain radius of the transition point the player used (e.g. animal is fleeing or 'patrolling' and moves beyond X distance)
• Player transitions then saves+quits and reloads gameworld

• Player dies in a region and chooses "Cheat Death" and the "Near" option. Far as I've tested this unloads many assets (mobs) but can also load new ones (e.g. you died to a wolf, but Cheat Death respawns you near a separate wolf/same wolf in a different location).

Edited July 7 by Veskaida

[Leeanda]

3 hours ago, Laxgoalie said:

Did you happen to go inside after hitting those wolves? There's been a lot of discussion about bears who are bleeding out despawning when you enter anything with a loading screen. They then respawn uninjured in a random place in their range. This is pretty noticeable in DP where the bear appears to be "immortal" if you keep shooting at it from the deck of the Riken and then run though the ship only to find nothing and the bear has teleported across the map uninjured. Maybe this bug has worked its way into wolves now? Getting 2 arrows back from an animal who appear uninjured is understandable as there is either no bleedout from hitting them in the foot or something like the, or they were hit in a location that takes a really long time from which to bleed out.

In the case of most of them I didn't go inside at all for all of the day..,they had plenty of time to die .I really only went inside when I'd more or less given up looking for most of them..    aside from that one that died outside the door,literally when I woke the following morning I didn't find any..

[Laxgoalie]

A problem with retrieving arrows from wolves who have bled out has also been discussed in the Steam forums since the last hotfix. This issue was fixed previously when arrows becoming "trapped" and inaccessible under a carcass. The poster there also said there were issues with blood trails as well since the last hotfix. Sounds like your issue may be related.

[UTC-10]

You need to nuke them from orbit that's the only way to be sure.  Orbital lasers targeted using the killer dolls* would work too. 

* Would that we could use those teddy bears for the same purpose but they won't work for some reason.  

Being in Pilgrim and having gotten to Archery 5 I haven't needed to hunt wolves for quite a while.  Assuming it didn't drop when hit, I typically try to follow the bleeding animal with a purpose and hope to get some idea of its direction of travel, which can change radically, before I lose the trail of blood drops.  I have been surprised at how far a bleeding animal can get when I do find the carcass.  

Good luck or maybe Better Luck would be more appropriate.  

[Leeanda]

8 hours ago, Laxgoalie said:

A problem with retrieving arrows from wolves who have bled out has also been discussed in the Steam forums since the last hotfix. This issue was fixed previously when arrows becoming "trapped" and inaccessible under a carcass. The poster there also said there were issues with blood trails as well since the last hotfix. Sounds like your issue may be related.

I didn't have any problem getting the arrows back from the few carcasses I've found, but the other wolves that I didn't find ,I also found no arrows any where either..

I've had the disappearing trails for quite some time..,with both wolf and bear.. it's why I don't really bother chasing them very often any more,unless I've got nothing else to do..

1 hour ago, UTC-10 said:

You need to nuke them from orbit that's the only way to be sure.  Orbital lasers targeted using the killer dolls* would work too. 

* Would that we could use those teddy bears for the same purpose but they won't work for some reason.  

Being in Pilgrim and having gotten to Archery 5 I haven't needed to hunt wolves for quite a while.  Assuming it didn't drop when hit, I typically try to follow the bleeding animal with a purpose and hope to get some idea of its direction of travel, which can change radically, before I lose the trail of blood drops.  I have been surprised at how far a bleeding animal can get when I do find the carcass.  

Good luck or maybe Better Luck would be more appropriate.  

Most were from crouched in the face head area..  it's quite easy to sneak into the cannery crouched without spooking the twolves... 

The trails I followed were in mystery lake and they looked like they were heading up the creek but just disappeared between two rocks..

I always check quite a distance in all directions as long as the terrain lets me..

Wouldn't dream of using those teddy bears as anything except cuddle toys lol..

But thank you..  I've decided to save my arrows for a bit.. I might try using the revolver for a change

Edited July 8 by Leeanda