Arrowheads, am I missing something?

[s7mar7in]

Hello friends. Playing a long run in 'Stalker' and increasingly I am not finding my arrow in the animal corpse, especially with deer. Am I missing something? If the arrow was shot into the side of the deer the deer will sometimes flop to the ground and the arrow can not be seen or retrieved. How nice would it be if the list for harvesting included: Meat, Hide, Gut, and arrowheads.

[Doc Feral]

Have you tried quartering the deer? I didn't, maybe you did, but since you have everything on the ground the arrow may show up too. And if you pick the carcass clean it will disappear after a while, so maybe you'll find your arrow on the ground. Hypothetically speaking, again.

[s7mar7in]

That was a great suggestion; went back to the deer, (day after the hunt), and quartering did as you described, but no arrow. Thanks for the great idea though, and I will try using it immediately the next time I lose an arrow.

[CaveDweller]

@s7mar7in I've had this issue as well. How far the animal runs before dying seems to play a part in determining loss-rate. I always assumed the arrow just 'fell out' someplace.

However, as noted above harvesting the entire corpse then coming back the next day often makes the arrow 'pop' back intro existence. Keep in mind too that arrows will roll down slopes, can be blown by wind etc. More than a few times I've had an animal die on a slope and have found the arrow a couple of days later at the bottom of the slope/hill/snowdrift etc. Also, if on an open surface like the ice in CH then the arrow can be blown/roll for quite a ways. Noting the direction of wind/blizzards and then searching in that direction the next day will often turn up your lost arrow.

[s7mar7in]

On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 1:34 AM, CaveDweller said:

Noting the direction of wind/blizzards and then searching in that direction the next day will often turn up your lost arrow.

You are correct CaveDweller, and I have now recovered several arrows in this way lately. I believe that my archery skill is poor and/or my bow condition gets low and the arrows fall-out of the animal as it runs. By noting the last direction of travel, it has been surprising the number of lost arrows I have found. TYVM for the help.

[CaveDweller]

11 hours ago, s7mar7in said:

and/or my bow condition gets low

Interesting, I've often thought that low-condition arrows have a lower chance of causing a bleeding wound and a higher chance of 'bouncing' off the target. Never thought about bow condition, but then I habitually carry two and let them fight it out for condition  Will have to do some experimenting!

[s7mar7in]

1 hour ago, CaveDweller said:

I've often thought that low-condition arrows have a lower chance of causing a bleeding wound and a higher chance of 'bouncing' off the target.

So let's get right to it; at what condition do you discard your bow and at what condition do you harvest an arrow to replace the arrow shaft?

[CaveDweller]

21 minutes ago, s7mar7in said:

t what condition do you discard your bow and at what condition do you harvest an arrow to replace the arrow shaft?

Fair question. Arrows I use all the way till they break. HOWEVER - if it's an important shot I'll load a good arrow (from bag and selecting 'equip'). For example if I've been stalking a bear for ages for the perfect shot - no point in having a cruddy shaft nocked. I do wonder if % chance scoring a critical hit scales with % condition of arrow/bow.

Bows I use till they break, but always carry two when possible. It'll default to the good bow, but I'll manually equip the bad bow when I remember. Probably overkill, but hey.  

[cekivi]

While this may not be helpful an old, old glitch (feature?) was the animal would sometimes fall on top of the arrow. You wouldn't be able to collect the arrow until the carcass despawned. I don't know if it still happens (I personally have yet to master the bow) but I remember it being an issue a while back. 

[hozz1235]

5 hours ago, s7mar7in said:

at what condition do you discard your bow and at what condition do you harvest an arrow to replace the arrow shaft?

Arrows til they break.  Bows until I have an abundance of materials to make a new one - then replace it.

[CaveDweller]

5 hours ago, cekivi said:

You wouldn't be able to collect the arrow until the carcass despawned. I don't know if it still happens

It does, but it's not as bad as it was. There seems to have been a change at some point which allows the arrow to be selectable even though it's not visually present. 'Scanning' the animal with your cursor will at some point normally produce a small area where the arrow is selectable/ retrievable.

One odd change hat I've noticed recently is that arrows will now pop a short distance from the carcass. For example, I'll habitually leave .5kg of meat on a carcass and collect feathers from the area for a few days (re. a 'feather farm'). If the arrow isn't retrievable as noted above, then usually on the second day the arrow pops within a few steps of the carcass. This is on flat ground so wind/ rolling shouldn't be a factor. Not an issue as such, but I missed a couple of arrows as I was expecting them to pop directly next to the carcass as in prior versions.

[s7mar7in]

6 hours ago, CaveDweller said:

There seems to have been a change at some point which allows the arrow to be selectable even though it's not visually present.

Thanks for all the detailed replies, I am learning so much from you all. I have only some observations to contribute; exploring the last known direction of travel of a wolf with (2) non-critical arrow hits to the body, I was surprised to find (2) arrows together on the snow with no wolf. More recently I experienced an "arrow stuck in a tree" and was pleased to find it was retrievable. I thought I had scanned the deer using the curser very thoroughly with no arrow found. But just used bow to shoot a wolf in the chest...tracked and found the dead wolf with absolutely no visible arrow, when I scanned the neck the "Curser Tag" changed from "10% Frozen" to "Simple Arrow". TYVM CaveDweller. 

[CaveDweller]

1 hour ago, s7mar7in said:

Thanks for all the detailed replies, I am learning so much from you all

That's the great thing about TLD, on the whole it brings people together. Weird when you consider it's a post-apocalyptic game about being isolated!

You've probably already watched YouTube playthroughs, but if not look up Geltaz - beautiful guy who can really play the game. Learnt a lot from him when I first started.

Oh, if no-one else has said it - welcome to the forums  

[sierra 117]

On 27/04/2018 at 3:12 PM, CaveDweller said:

Fair question. Arrows I use all the way till they break. 

I suppose it's not a great trade off one more shot/ an extra feather but if I'm on Interloper.  Then until I've gathered  surplus  feathers I harvest the arrows at 5%/ below. As you gain all the feathers. 

Unless somethings changed fairly recently.

Not a huge thing but every little helps on loper.

[CaveDweller]

10 hours ago, sierra 117 said:

Not a huge thing but every little helps on loper.

I hear you on that, I've done the same thing. Had one run where feathers just didn't seem to spawn, infuriating. Ended up only making three arrows and keeping the few feathers I had to repair. Figured spending one feather to repair was cheaper than three to make. By about day 40 everything suddenly started spawning feathers so the arsenal grew proportionally  

[stratvox]

I have noticed that if you quarter a carcass with arrows in it they disappear utterly and forever. If you can't pull the arrows out of the carcass, then harvest, don't quarter. Made that mistake once with a moose, lost like seven arrows that way all in one shot. Very depressing once I figured out what happened.

Not that my guy died, managed to get some more, but still....

[s7mar7in]

At the risk of repeating an idea from earlier in this thread, it seems a good solution would be to add "Arrowheads" to the list of items to harvest from a bow-killed animal. It would be a realistic addition to the game and solve many of the current arrow behavior concerns.

[CaveDweller]

@stratvox Interesting, I must say that even on Loper I rarely quarter, so hadn't seen that issue. Seven arrows is a heck of lot to lose!

@s7mar7in I didn't initially agree, but now do. Initially it seemed like a band-aid solution but the more I think about it the more it seems efficient and a simplified implementation. I would assume though that the arrows would still graphically be embedded in the carcass, perhaps even still retrievable - but that their inclusion in the harvesting menu would ensure collection should the graphical interface glitch.

[s7mar7in]

11 hours ago, CaveDweller said:

graphically be embedded in the carcass, perhaps even still retrievable

I don't know the game-code, but for the sake of discussion among friends; let us just say there is several arrow hit types.

1. Complete Hit,
2. Hit breaks arrow,
3. Graze Hit,
4. Graze Hit breaks arrow,
5. Missed Hit to ground,
6. Missed Hit to tree,
7. Missed Hit to tree breaks arrow.

Adding the "Math" to the game-code to give the arrowheads back while harvesting an animal, (1, 2, and maybe 3, 4), with arrow shaft less retrievable, similar to current game mechanics. 

[CaveDweller]

@s7mar7in Looks fair enough to me, a good sound idea and one that would add a functional improvement to the game.