Safe space - Verandas, Hunting and Fishing Huts

[druffzilla]

I have been wondering about everyone's thoughts on this "safe space" which keeps you safe from wolf and bear attacks.

And for the devs, is that working as intended or is it actually a bug that animals can't reach you there?

Everyone who has been playing this game for a few hours will notice that there are certain places where you are safe from animal attacks, using this as an advantage to hunt bears is a very common tactic.

To me this is a little bit boring, I have not shot a bear from out in the open for a long time but doing so would feel stupid and getting into risks like that simply feels wrong when there is a safer way available, after all this is a survival game.

Removing this safe space completely would be a bit to harsh imo, on hunting huts for example it feels like you should be protected from animals, although the stairs would be no serious obstacle for animals in reality.

So I thought about how great it would be if bears would reach over the fence and if they hit you with their claws your clothing tears and you get lacerations. They should run around and try different spots and angles so you have to move from one side to the other.

For wolves, a low chance of them coming into fishing and hunting huts and onto the porches would be good.

[Hesha]

I do find the safe zones on verandas problematic. I think they could be done with altogether.

The raised hunting stands are fine as they are, just see it like this: They are meant to be higher with a proper ladder, but they game currently cannot deal with ladders (and few games can, you know how annoying it is to fall off ladders all the time). So just imaging you were 3m above ground.

The fishing huts are a major nuisance for me for a different reason. They would make an ideal base if the character was able to install a door (quite easy to do, really). All you need is a bit of wood and you could hole up in there for a long time. So, seeing as they quite randomly don't have doors, I am fine with them giving protection. It would be better, though, if entering them did reset animal health just like entering cabins does.

[Scyzara]

I agree that there are too many safe spots in general when hunting bears, but I don't find all of them equally problematic.

Hunting blinds for example don't bother me much as there are rather few of them in the game and they're usually located in pretty remote areas. If you hunt a bear in the midst of the wilderness getting all the meat back to your base is pretty much work. You're so to say trading convenience for safety if you decide to use a hunting blind. It's kind of a choice and having choices is usually a good thing in survival games. At least I for one like such choices a lot.

Fishing huts and porches are (imho) more of a problem as there are plenty of them and they're often in close proximity to houses. There's thus no real tradeoff between safety and convenience here, they simply offer both at once. Druffzilla's suggestion sounds fine for these two in my opinion.

I would certainly like it much better if bears could actually injure you (or at least shred your clothes) if you're standing inside a fishing hut or on a porch. An alternative would be to at least always trigger flight behavior if bears are shot from a place they can't reach.

But by far the most serious issue for me are campfire-safespots. They're available everywhere, offer perfect security and even freeze the wounded bear in place until it dies. Maximum convenience and maximum security without any downsides or risks at the moment. This really needs to be addressed.

I personally would like it much better if bears were able to deal with campfires in a smarter and less predictable way.

The following course of action would be awesome:

You built a campfire while a bear walks towards you. When the bear is about 40 steps away from you (= has reached its maximum detection range), the game does a 50:50 roll whether the bear will escape right away (event A) or approach you further (event B).

If you shoot the bear before it has reached the detection range, the same 50:50 roll is made and either event A (escape) or event C (attack) happens.

A - Escape

The bear runs away. If you've shot if before, it may bleed out. If you haven't, you can only wave it goodbye.

B - Stalemate

The bear (which has NOT been shot yet) behaves like it does currently. It will approach you, but stand still in front of the campfire and growl. As long as your fire keeps burning and you don't shoot the bear, this stalemate stays in effect and you can retreat in the opposite direction. If you shoot it, the stalemate ends. The bear will now either run away (event A) or attack you (event C). An attack might be more likely now (75% or something) as the bear is already standing more or less in front of you (and you thus had your chance for an easy headshot).

C - Attack

The bear attacks you. If shot from a great distance, it might hesitate for a brief moment (really only one or two seconds) in front of the fire to give the player the chance for a headshot. Afterwards it will ignore the fire and maul the player. (If it was already standing right in front of the fire when you shot it, the bear should attack immediately of course).

This or any similar not completely predictable behavior would add a lot more thrill and entertainment to bear hunting for me. And it would certainly make hunting blinds a pretty attractive alternative to other strategies.

[Hesha]

I would like to add one more thing: I think all animals that aren't already attacking the player should automatically flee when they get shot. Why does the game just assume that bears and wolfs are aware that it was the player inflicting the pain the feel after the loud bang?

[druffzilla]

I agree with you both that hunting huts should be safer then verandas/porches, they offer a little more of a height advantage and are more closed up so it would make sense that you are harder to reach.

I disagree about the point that animals should restore health when you are entering a building, I think what currently happens is a save issue/bug and for a final system I would rather see a little random chance of healing when the wounds aren't severe.

And its good that you bring up the safezone around a fire, Scyzara, I've only seen that recently that bears stand still, even after you shoot them and that is indeed a huge flaw. I'm pretty sure it's not meant to be like that though.