Hunting Mechanics Still Need Work

[cekivi]

While playing today on the Pleasant Valley map I was able to shoot a bear from the farmstead's porch. I felt awesome lying in wait as I put two rounds into the bear. Finally, I'd be able to harvest a bear without it first harvesting me!

Once the bear ran off I was able to see a blood trail so I knew I wounded it. A wolf was directly on the blood trail though so I circled around it (I already had a wounded bear to deal with) and went to where I saw the bear run into the trees. Unfortunately, the bear I found wasn't dead and no longer had any signs of being shot. No limps, no blood, nothing. The blood trail itself was nowhere to be seen and try as I might I couldn't tell whether this was the bear I had wounded (now miraculously at full health) or a new bear. So, I went from survivalist hunter extraordinaire to a rather confused gamer in roughly two minutes...

I shadowed the bear for half an hour in game time. In that time I had no idea if the bear was at full health again or just one shot away from being a new bedroll. This lack of feedback meant I wasn't comfortable shooting it as I had no idea what the bear's reaction would be and I didn't want to waste ammunition if my original quarry had disappeared. What's worse, I know from the forums and my own experience that attacking a wounded animal resets the wound timer/counter. Meaning an animal near death can suddenly attack and run away again if it is shot an additional time.

It would be nice if, in a future update, blood trails were more persistent (they have always disappeared before I find the carcass in the latest updates) and wounded animals had clearer behaviours to indicate that they are wounded. Yes, I know the wolves do have a distinct "near death" behaviour but there needs to be some more granularity than just "healthy" and "near death". Just some sort of feedback so I could made informed decisions in the game would be a huge improvement.

[Hesha]

Did you change maps (i.e. entered a building) during your chase? That resets animal health to 100% and removes wounds.

[selfless]

Bug Report Ticket #2840

Animals only drop blood when they are running away. Walking and charging stances do not drop blood. Encouraging animal to run again resumes blood (i.e. throw a lit flare at them). Regardless, animal dies when expected for the bleeding wound it received.

[cekivi]

Bug Report Ticket #2840

Animals only drop blood when they are running away. Walking and charging stances do not drop blood. Encouraging animal to run again resumes blood (i.e. throw a lit flare at them). Regardless, animal dies when expected for the bleeding wound it received.

Huh. That's annoying. How are you ever supposed to track anything then when running is so brief?

[nicko]

from my in game experience I also found it hard to track a bear I shot, they run for a bit only, so maybe that is issue, then they stop bleeding, deer tends to run a lot so they bleed more and fairly easy to track.

Maybe its something that still needs tweaking? I.E any animal shot will pretty much bleed, drop blood at a constant rate?

[selfless]

from my in game experience I also found it hard to track a bear I shot, they run for a bit only, so maybe that is issue, then they stop bleeding, deer tends to run a lot so they bleed more and fairly easy to track.

Maybe its something that still needs tweaking? I.E any animal shot will pretty much bleed, drop blood at a constant rate?

Even though they are not dropping blood, they are still bleeding. Watch them and they will die when they are supposed to.

Programmers just need to add the blood drops to the walking and charging animations when animals are bleeding. That omission is causing a lot of confusion.

[cekivi]

Programmers just need to add the blood drops to the walking and charging animations when animals are bleeding. That omission is causing a lot of confusion.

I agree. That is exactly what I find most frustrating about hunting right now.