Regarding the "Cougar Clock"

[ElSuperGecko]

I know @Raphael van Lierop  has done an excellent job of explaining the intent behind the cougar and it's implementation elsewhere, and has already said they have plenty of feedback on the initial release.  This is not intended to be a critique or a wish listing topic, I just wanted to see if I can clarify how it worked in the initial release of Tales Part 5, as my own experience was a little bit different from what has been described elsewhere.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't under a false impression of how the mechanic works.

As I understand it (and please forgive me if I'm wrong here), the cougar is a timed event which triggers if a player dwells for too long in a single region.  The amount of consecutive days before this happens varies, depending on the difficulty level:

Pilgrim:  70 (?)
Voyager:  50 (?)
Stalker:  30 (?)
Interloper:  20 (?)
Misery:  10 (?)

(I can't remember where I saw these numbers, so again, please forgive me if I'm wrong).  Once this time passes, you then start to see the UI warnings and countdown (Cougar Arrival:  5 Days)  etc.  Once this timer expires, the cougar becomes active in the region, the audible cues and menacing soundtrack starts and you're at risk of being pounced.

Assuming the above is all correct my questions is, are there actions (or mistakes) a player can make which may trigger this event early?

I ask this because my own experience after the update hit was a bit different.  I saw the "Cougar Arriving:  5 Days" message immediately after reloading the game, and it also immediately triggered in adjacent regions when I travelled there.  By the time it was removed, I had the "Cougar Arriving: 2 Days" message in Forsaken Airfield, Transfer Pass, Zone of Contamination AND Sundered Pass all at the same time, and the "Cougar Present" message in Far Range Branch Line.

I did manage to map the cougar's nest (completely by accident) in Sundered Pass, so I wasn't sure if the encroachment warning was triggering early because the nest was in an adjacent region (and I was effectively in the domain of a very territorial animal).  I wasn't getting the encroachment message outside of the Far Territory either - Broken Railroad, Muskeg, Mystery Lake etc were all clear.

The other players I've asked think this was just a bug and not intentional behaviour - either way, it was a very exciting and unnerving experience, and I really enjoyed the feeling of being trapped in hostile territory!

[Pencil]

It seems to be a bug for games that are several days in. My relatively new runs did not have the cougar encroachment warning, but my 20+ day runs did. 

The only way, as far as I know, to trigger a cougar warning before the timer starts is to... (spoiler because I assume this feature will be kept for the new cougar)

Spoiler

throw a noisemaker into the cougar den. There will be an immediate chance of a cougar attack, followed by the cougar threat icon appearing at the left of the screen. Then it seems like the chance for a cougar attack is rolled frequently after that until you get to a loading screen or destroy the den. I believe the threat will go away once you enter an interior and come back. 

[Raphael van Lierop]

There were definitely some bugs at launch. We had fixed most of them but ended up not hotfixing them b/c we removed the system instead. For this question:

Quote

Assuming the above is all correct my questions is, are there actions (or mistakes) a player can make which may trigger this event early?

Nothing we intended!!

[ElSuperGecko]

Thanks for the reply!   Makes sense - even if it wasn't intentional, I'm glad I got the chance to see it.  The sound effects and music when the cougar is present or when you're approaching the den are amazing - really eerie and unnerving.

I may have to start making some more noisemakers, just in case.

[peteloud]

There are other actions that trigger a cougar attack.