LostRealist

Which is why there is no such thing as a Hunter's Rev- ... Either way, I agree. If you already have variants of the weapons (which I find a little too gimmick-y for this game anyway tbh), there's really only a point to it if the payoff/tradeoff for choosing a specific one is actually noticable and significant.

While it's definitely not nice that it's giving you outright headaches when playing the game, my instant thought on that is "Try that in real life then"... so long as we're talking about dipping in and out of Townhomes or something on a loot run, it's pretty spot on. Without artificial lighting, coming indoors after spending hours surrounded by white is very hard on human eyes. I honestly never thought much about the darkness of interior locations in TLD. Yeah, many times you can't see jack, but light sources are available and I always considered "conservation of resources vs. ability to see things" as part of the balancing of this game. But that's just my two cents. I'm obviously far from pleased to hear that it causes physical symptoms for you, that's nasty. I just don't see an easy way to fix it. The stark contrast between the snowy outdoors and the mostly wooden, brown or dark grey interiors would always remain...

Oh man. But that first one that comes into view when visibility isn't perfect and you know there's a bear around here... yikes.

I share this suspicion, seems like some bears don't bleed anymore. But more on the topic: Those gosh darn hay bales around PV...

Anyone? Pair of binoculars? Their effectivity could be adjusted whichever way seems to suit the balancing, their distribution might be very rare, make it unique if you have to, whatever, already going to Ash Canyon for a backpack every time. It's just the one item I have always wished this game had and now that I'm out looking for Ptarmigans, I want them even more. Anyone?

Scratch that, please - I'm ingame no five minutes after I said that and found him deep within the birch forest.

I second this. I also find equipping weapons to be even more ridiculous, I'm not even sure if there is any rhyme or reason to it. When having multiple revolvers in the inventory, the game will often pull the higest condition one - but not always. Usually when there's a wolf fast approaching is when it'll instead pull out the 22%, unloaded one you just looted. Allowing you to select which particular variant of an item you'd like on the hotkeys is quite needed in my opinion. The whole point of hotkeys is somewhat defeated otherwise.

What a vicious guy. Love how unceremoniously he dropped before he could finish the job by himself.

I am currently in PV in my current run. As this conversation neatly implies already, I find wildlife there to be the most interesting. I have bear spawns set to "Low" and the three common culprits are all there - and I had a pretty interesting meeting with a bear up at the crash site who totally got the drop on me while I was looting suitcases. Turns out the cargo hold on the bottom of the fuselage is a safe spot to shoot him in the snout from. That's four bears already - quite a bunch for "Low" in my opinion but the math kinda makes sense: Three "free" bears you always get, +1 for Low setting, +2 on Medium, +3 on High... and then you're really wedged. I had never run into the bear at the crash site before and I do spend a lot of time in this region. The den close to the transition to Winding River appears to be empty - although without a distress pistol and after a gruesome treck to get the technical backpack on day one I find myself not curious enough at the moment to investigate that any closer. No moose yet. I had the birch forest moose on my last run and it stood in a very neat spot - just at the edge of the forest, almost due north from the outbuildings, within range of the shed and tractor standing around between the hay bales. That was quite convenient, as I imagine getting a decent shot on him inside the forest would be fairly difficult. What I'm noticing about PV in my current run is that it is absolutely crawling with wolves. My setting is at Medium for them I believe and they are everywhere and the packs are huge. There were six wolves roaming the area around the Outbuildings when I first got there, four wolves directly west of Thompson's Crossing and massive litters of them across the river east from there almost all the way up to the Point of Disagreement. Interestingly, the pack that always, always, always spawned for me in the orchard behind the farmstead is missing completely. Feels like the Wildlife Reset has already begun for me here.

Just now ran into him again as well, I think that bear is indeed a fixed spawn, and the bear that lives in the beach forest and patrols around the outbuildings might also be. Where there definitely is variation is in the two bears that are kinda "stacked on top" of one another if you head uphill south from the farmstead. Those guys seem to be dependant on your game difficulty/spawn rate settings. Then there's the bear east of Thompson's Crossing who is my third bet on the fixed spawns in PV. Interesting what you say about the moose though, with it having several exact spots around its spawn there. I only ever met the birch forest moose there once, so I can't confirm, but the way the marking are spread in that forest would surely suggest it. And since this is turning into the "Wildlife advice" thread, I have another quick one: Ptarmigans do appear in a custom run that was started before installing the DLC, right?

Yes, please. I would love it so much if the hunting mechanics were more involved like that, at least for the big fat trophy game. If it took you much more than a passing glance at an area to know whether it spawned or not because it's either standing around there or it isn't. And then even knowing that it did spawn not being enough to find it super easily, because it can cover half a map. I'd love it. On a related note, I believe what you state about their markings to be generally correct. My theory is that it works the same way as bears afterall - at the start of a game, the game decides on a number of spawns depending on your settings, that will actually be active and have the chance of spawnin a moose, and these locations will recieve the markings and are the only places that can spawn them during that run. Much in the same way that a bear cave that is not active at the start of a game will never be active. The active spawns are marked with the rubbings and if the game ever decides to spawn a moose in that region, it will be there. So yeah, basically what you said. I believe bears are a little less random than moose though. It seems at the same settings, you always get more or less the same bears, with some of them always being absolutely guaranteed and very little variation. I can't say that appears to be the case with moose spawns - which ones get activated at the start seems to be much more random.

Such a cute little pussycat? 😻 Nawwww....

Oh yeah, I'm really looking forward to both of them. If I could make a wish, I'd love for most animals to roam a little further. Tracking is a lot of fun in my opinion.

I agree about the bears, I believe so, too. I think there's a "base line" of bears that spawn on every spawn rate setting, then some more that spawn on the next higher setting and so on. The moose apparently seem to differ a little, although I did always believe specific spawns have higher chances of spawning them than others.

That's so crazy, I've spent many, many days at the mountaineer's hut, it's by far my favourite safehouse in the game and I've never had that moose. There's another location on the other side of crystal lake by the wing that has rubs and all, but I've never met one there either. Only the bear over there, that guy spawns 100% of the time for me.

Interesting. The Milton Basin is a common spot for me as well, but can't recall ever meeting one at TWM. Pensive Pond in PV has worked multiple times for me, as has the one by the hunting lodge in BR.

That is my take as well. I actually play with no regeneration while awake and only low regeneration while asleep. My base settings are somewhere around Stalker difficulty-wise, but the very low regeneration makes your decisions so consequential. Death is not only possible by singular, major events like a fall, a blizzard or a bear, but can be the result of many small decisions that add up because I can't just sleep them off in a day. And I agree, NOGOA is step too far in my opinion as well, because as I play now I can at least do something to improve my health rather than just keep staring into the ever-approaching abyss the whole run. And this is basically my question. I know that that's the mechanic they were introduced with, but with the wiki stating the moose may "randomly generate markings" when passing by a suitable tree I'd just like to know if I'm being trolled there or not.

I do like the thrill of the big game being able to hurt you bad, because I find that hunting them is too easy as it is, but I harbour massive respect for them for sure. I play very Custom rules with the least amount of condition regeneration possible short of none at all, so it can take very long to recover from a chomping. Haven't been trampled yet though 🤞

Exactly. Just recently: "Oh well, nothing much left to do here in Pleasant Valley, nothing interesting around, let's spend three days preparing and then head out the door haul all my stuff up to the Mountaineer's Hut, punch on through to Ash Canyon for a quick backpack and then see where we'll take it after that since Pleasant Valley is com-... is that a moose!?"

I don't doubt it. I guess that's one way to get back the feeling of running into your first bear in TLD...

Now that's some Oof right there. I'd probably report that one about the bear, since that one is quite clear.

Well, since they don't really wander I tend to see the moose before I see the rubbings anyway. That's why it would be great if they were more mobile - combined with "true" rubbings that actually indicate active spawns this would make for some amazing search and hunt expeditions I'm sure. Indeed I also had a hunch that the wildlife spawns were a bit odd as of late. The wolf density seems to be lower than I would have expected for my settings, while a "Low" spawn setting for bears still leaves very, very few caves unoccupied. In fact I'd say moose are still the closest to what I would have expected with one encounter in 30 days on "Medium".

This is what I have been going by as well all this time and even though I took quite a break from the game for a while, I certainly remember seeing the rubbings on the same trees every time, whether the moose had spawned or not. My current run appears to differ though and the wiki even includes this peculiar screenshot (that I can't seem to be able to embed as an image): https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/intothelongdark/images/4/47/Moose-mark.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200127074440 Showing the same tree once with and once without the rubbings. This has my hopes up. I guess now I'll be the one doing some verifying.

Bumping this thread because for one I'd be interested what came of this And also plan to sidetrack it with this: Is this still actually the case? I know the scratch marks used to only indicate possible locations, not active locations, but the fandom wiki says this: "While wandering within close proximity of a suitable tree, a moose may randomly generate an antler rub on its stump." Indicating that the rubbings are now dynamically generated by proximity of a moose, meaning they do indeed show active spawns now. Around Day 30 in a Custom run where Moose spawns are set to Medium I am seemingly able to confirm this - spent some time at Quonset with no moose around (thankfully all of the bears though, so I wasn't all alone with the dogs) and there were no rubbings on any of the trees. Moved on to PV where I ran into a Moose on the edge of the birch forest near the outbuildings where rubbings were indeed present. Some exploring revealed no second moose at Pensive Pond - and also no rubbings. Can anyone confirm this? I would very much love if this mechanic was a thing now. All we'd need then is for them to actually wander around a bit more, since they're usually right next to their rubbings anyway...

I am aware of this. But then, I already have my lantern. And I don't want to pick that busted one up because they're heavy and I don't need one. Because I have one. It's just a shame about the fuel.