Hunting ideas and discussion

[Euryon 16]

So one of the things I love to do in DayZ, especially when going solo, is to wander aimlessly in the Northern reaches, trying my best to live off the land.

 

After I've energized and found a decent gun and ammo, I try to go craft my own backpack, keeping whatever greenish clothes I can find, and live purely from hunted and gathered food.

 

I know gathering will improve over time, likely with squash, more fruit, vegetable gardens, etc.

 

Animal hunting, however, whilst a nice rush when you finally spy that buck 2 fields away, is really quite random.

 

Thus, to improve the process, I'd like to make some suggestions...

 

1) Animals leave spoor.

By this I mean evidence of their movement. Animal droppings (each individual for each animal) would be great. They could be 'touched' or smelt, much like taking a pulse, and the warmth or texture could give a clue as to their age. Thus, a warm deer poop would indicate a deer within a mile or so. A cold, hard dollop would be next to useless... Unless there are several, possibly indicating...

 

2) Animal territories.

Some (but not all) animals are territorial. Whilst in real life their habitat may include areas as large as Chenarus itself, for the sake of the game, a large buck might 'own' a solid square KM in the game, assuming it is not infracting on a town or high-traffic area.

 

This would mean, if you happened to find a reasonably large quantity of deer poop, and there's water nearby, you may be close to a buck's grazing area, and can be alert with such information.

 

Similarly, when bears and possibly wolves are introduced, we might get lucky enough to introduce a meta-game where driving the bears in a server to extinction (Assuming some persistence) allows bucks and pigs, etc., to increase their territory, and perhaps 'reproduce' more - effectively creating a form of in-game artificial selection. Perhaps this is too much though, just a thought.

 

3) Further animal spoor.

Broken branches, hoof/paw prints, genuine localized sounds, blood trails, etc., could all be incorporated using existing game functions (IMO), and give tell tale sign of animals nearby.

 

4) Animal psychology.

I like that cows tend to show up in herds of 3 or 4, whereas your average buck is by it's lonesome. This feels about right, considering the apocalypse is fairly recent, and other than hogs, most animals tend to retain their behavior when released into the wild (Cows will remain in herds, as an example).

 

Similarly, I like that animals run from you, but I would like the ability to creep up on some animals a bit easier. If moving in an animals blind spot, at the slowest possible crouch-walk, I certainly should be able to sneak up on a cow or pig - a buck, perhaps not, they're wiley for sure.

 

5) Gun shots should scare animals away. Dramatically so.

Sometimes if trying my luck with an unscoped Mosin from a couple hundred meters away, I will miss the headshot I try to go for (I'm still trying to figure out all what factors better meat carving - a buddy and I both carved 3 deer with pristine kitchen knives - he got an average of 80% quality, whilst I got 50% quality), but the deer won't budge an inch. If anything, deer and zombies should have their sound responses switched over - bucks bolt at most anything, whereas I can see the degenerated brain of a zombie/infected being slower to respond to specific noises.

 

6) Not insta-kill.

Depending on the caliber and range of the shot, not all guns should instantly kill an animal. I've known bucks of similar maturity to those in the game (I forget, are they 8pts or 10pts?) to bolt after taking pretty large rounds to the gut. Hogs (boars in this, I guess) might need a whole damn clip, having heard stories from buddies who've hunted them.

 

Either way, an extra level to 'the hunt' would be clipping an animal, and trying to mark where it goes to ground, and hunting it down, following blood trails, listening for struggling, etc.

 

(Edited additions)

 

7) Animals fleeing.

If a careless hunter, zombie or animal moves too quickly through a particular spot (by a tree, or through a bush, or whatever), a few birds could fly away screeching. This could give a cool audio addition to the paranoia-inducing environment, but also lend some further strategy. Chasing a *player* into the woods is often a bad idea, as the amount of cover it affords often allows them to escape. However, imagine chasing another armed player through the woods, and you hear birds screech 20m to your right, you quick-scope, but it's just a deer strolling through the woods...

 

This could also work the same as how Zeds will occasionally aggro on animals, with bears etc., aggroing on other animals...

 

----

 

Ultimately, I know hunting isn't entirely what DayZ is about, but it IS A survival game, and living off the land should be a viable option for those of us who like to challenge the system in this way. I don't think these sorts of ideas will require a massive time/money investment from the team, and I fully accept they would be low priority when compared to fixing technical issues, and getting other more important features opened up.

 

Nevertheless, we can discuss it here, and determine if it's something we, as a community, think is a good idea. IF not, no harm, no foul.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Euryon

[Whyherro123 2283]

I like it.

What I would like to see implemented is trapping, both for small and large game.

 

 

 

 

[Elle 562]

gees I just couldn't take it anymore..... its "spoor" not "spore". spores are seeds for mold.

[Yaddie 44]

I agree with this.

 

Especially the gunshot scare. I just killed a cow in Berenzino.

 

After the animal dropped and the gunshot echoed, the other cows just wandered around like nothing happened.

[Euryon 16]

gees I just couldn't take it anymore..... its "spoor" not "spore". spores are seeds for mold.

 

You are correct. Typing too fast without thinking. Beans for not being a dick about it.

[Elle 562]

You are correct. Typing too fast without thinking. Beans for not being a dick about it.

oh it gave me a good chuckle - not bad ideas concerning hunting too, maybe a bit more complex than the animals they original had planned but simple animals are boring imo. bears, we need bears.

[irl-calibre 744]

the biggest problem at the minute is, once you eat to the point of being energised you never get hungry again, only taking damage causes "hunger"

[pillock 850]

the biggest problem at the minute is, once you eat to the point of being energised you never get hungry again, only taking damage causes "hunger"

 

Yeah, but that surely won't be the same forever. The game is crying out for some more in-depth health/injury/nutrition mechanics. I cannot believe this will be neglected in the long run.

 

As for hunting, I believe there is an entire studio working on animal behaviour and hunting-related stuff for DayZ? This, also, is sure to get MUCH better. To be honest, it's pretty ignorable at the moment.

[Bigbadchuck 97]

So using the wildlife as target practice is no good? I never eat what I shoot

[CANUCKinNZ 108]

So using the wildlife as target practice is no good? I never eat what I shoot

Spoken like a true, gun lovin' Texan.

[ebrim 998]

the biggest problem at the minute is, once you eat to the point of being energised you never get hungry again, only taking damage causes "hunger"

That's not actually true. Stop eating and sprint around a lot, you'll burn down your calories eventually. Usually by the time you get your character to top energized though getting food is no problem so this is rarely seen.

[irl-calibre 744]

I haven't eaten anything for several days and i'm still energised & I run round a lot only having to  re-hydrate on numerous occasions.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Calibre

[Taiphoz 95]

on the subject of Deer, I think they need to flee all players who are walking/standing/running within 100 meters, a real life Deer is gone normally before a human even see's it in real life but last time I checked I could walk upto Deer and Pigs's easily, they need to be very very shy and dash off at the first sign of players.

 

Hunter Deer should be something thats done down the barrel of a rifle, not something thats done with a pistol or axe thats just crazy, a cow or sheep sure their both domesticated but boars, deer they should bolt if a player is ever remotely close..

 

I think..

 

Standing Tall <= 400 Meters Deer will Bolt

Crouched  <=300 Meters Deer will bolt

Prone <=200 Meters Deer will bolt.

 

Gunshots would bolt the animal if 

Rifle <=350 Bolts the Deer

AK <=250 Bolts the Deer

Pistol Bolts the Deer.

 

With those ranges players will have the option to take the risk of missing and get close but with the risk of a miss bolting the deer, while other players might play it safe and stay out of audible range so but at a greater distance making their shot harder but giving them more chance to get a kill, it will be a nice trade off.