Questions about bears


Relo

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Got a few questions about bears and how they work in the game.

Are the bear numbers fixed per each map?  I've been told only one bear on DP map but more depending on which map you're playing?

If you kill a bear, does it re-spawn later in the game?

I shot a bear in the face at point blank range only to be mauled nearly to death, how come a head shot at 10 meters wont kill a bear? (rifle, fully cleaned to 100% condition)

I shot a bear with an arrow about 30 meters away and jumped into a car, only to find that most of my clothing had been ripped to shreds, the beast was no where near me, how can it do that?

Can you bait a bear by leaving out raw meat or fish?

Can I sprint faster than a bear can run if I am carrying under 30 kilos and have a full stamina meter?Running_Bear.thumb.png.d0c718bbd13f518e7

I'm gonna get you yet...

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Hey @Relo. These are all good questions but you'll get much better (and faster) responses if you post in the "how to play" forums. So that's where I moved your post to.

I'll address your questions best I can but since I generally take the "light flare, brandish and flee" approach I'm not an expert on hunting them ^_^

  • There's usually one bear per map. There are a number of bear caves per map. One will have bones in it and that is where the bear spawns
  • Bears do respawn but I don't know the delay
  • That is also a problem I have. It comes down to realism vs gameplay. Gameplay won in this case. Each shot from a bow or rifle has a critical percentage depending on the body part hit. The head is ~30% with the rifle if I remember correctly. Therefore, you have slightly worse than a 1 in 3 chance of killing the bear outright. Essentially, if you don't want to wait for the bear to bleed out, be prepared to shoot multiple times.
  • If it didn't maul you that would be a bug and you should log it as such.
  • You can bait bears. I don't know how effective it is.
  • I don't know if you can sprint faster than a bear. I suspect not :side-eye:
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2 minutes ago, cekivi said:

Hey @Relo. These are all good questions but you'll get much better (and faster) responses if you post in the "how to play" forums. So that's where I moved your post to.

I'll address your questions best I can but since I generally take the "light flare, brandish and flee" approach I'm not an expert on hunting them ^_^

  • There's usually one bear per map. There are a number of bear caves per map. One will have bones in it and that is where the bear spawns
  • Bears do respawn but I don't know the delay
  • That is also a problem I have. It comes down to realism vs gameplay. Gameplay won in this case. Each shot from a bow or rifle has a critical percentage depending on the body part hit. The head is ~30% with the rifle if I remember correctly. Therefore, you have slightly worse than a 1 in 3 chance of killing the bear outright. Essentially, if you don't want to wait for the bear to bleed out, be prepared to shoot multiple times.
  • If it didn't maul you that would be a bug and you should log it as such.
  • You can bait bears. I don't know how effective it is.
  • I don't know if you can sprint faster than a bear. I suspect not :side-eye:

Hey @cekivi

appreciate the heads up on the venue, thanks for taking care of business for me.    you said "If it didn't maul you that would be a bug and you should log it as such."  so are you saying that every bear encounter ends in a mauling unless you get an instant kill?  What if I shoot the bear from a hunter's blind?  He can just come right in there too?  At any rate, so far in my experience I have been mauled every time I shot a bear, once with a bow and once with a rifle.  So I guess the maul algorithm must be functioning perfectly! lol :bear:

 

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I haven't tested it with hunting blinds but whenever you shoot a bear it will attack you. In order to avoid mauling you must either be in a place the bear can't path to (e.g. a rock you dropped down onto) or be in a shelter that the bear can't enter. You cannot go inside an area with a loading screen though since this will cause the bear to despawn!

So, a safe way to hunt a bear would be to shoot it and then jump into a parked car and wait for it to bleed out for instance. If the bear catches you you'll normally lose a huge chunk of condition and also have most of your clothing wrecked if not ruined.

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2 hours ago, cekivi said:

Hey @Relo. These are all good questions but you'll get much better (and faster) responses if you post in the "how to play" forums. So that's where I moved your post to.

I'll address your questions best I can but since I generally take the "light flare, brandish and flee" approach I'm not an expert on hunting them ^_^

  • There's usually one bear per map. There are a number of bear caves per map. One will have bones in it and that is where the bear spawns

No, that's not right. I don't know if a zone is capable of spawning a bear in every available bear cave, but it can definitely spawn bears in more than one cave at a time. I've had 3 active bears in CH at the same time, at least 3 in PV at the same time, and at least 2 on TM at the same time.

 

2 hours ago, cekivi said:

I haven't tested it with hunting blinds but whenever you shoot a bear it will attack you. In order to avoid mauling you must either be in a place the bear can't path to (e.g. a rock you dropped down onto) or be in a shelter that the bear can't enter. You cannot go inside an area with a loading screen though since this will cause the bear to despawn!

So, a safe way to hunt a bear would be to shoot it and then jump into a parked car and wait for it to bleed out for instance. If the bear catches you you'll normally lose a huge chunk of condition and also have most of your clothing wrecked if not ruined.

This, so very, very much.

If you're unlucky enough to encounter one in the open (like when it's windy and you think you'll get a view of the land from this little rise and your eyes clear the crest just as the bear's do :shock:), you better hope that crit rolls in your favor. Or if it's in an area you must absolutely get to, you need to use range to put the first round in its head from far enough away that you have time to cycle the bolt before it gets to you... and good luck with that, because they are fast when charging. But boy is it thrilling when you put a second round in its head and it drops at your feet.:geek:

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3 hours ago, Relo said:

Hey @cekivi

appreciate the heads up on the venue, thanks for taking care of business for me.    you said "If it didn't maul you that would be a bug and you should log it as such."  so are you saying that every bear encounter ends in a mauling unless you get an instant kill?  What if I shoot the bear from a hunter's blind?  He can just come right in there too?  At any rate, so far in my experience I have been mauled every time I shot a bear, once with a bow and once with a rifle.  So I guess the maul algorithm must be functioning perfectly! lol :bear:

 

if the bear can't reach you it won't maul you.  My favorite bear hunting spot is in CH - it has a porch that the bear walks right by.  Shoot the bear, back up on the porch watch it run around like a mad thing.  And since it walks right by the porch its a whole lot easier to get that sweet head shot.  The car at the crossroads in PV also works well.  Did your condition drop?  Or was it just the condition of your clothes?

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10 hours ago, cekivi said:

You cannot go inside an area with a loading screen though since this will cause the bear to despawn!

I believe this bug/feature/whatever got fixed again, presumably to "compensate" the increased bear hunting difficulty because the campfire strategy doesn't work any more. I've shot a bear near the Red barn in V.302, escaped inside afterwards (the bear tore my clothes apart albeit it was at least 20m away from me when I clicked the door, but I'm fine with that^^) and when I left the barn the next morning I found its corpse in the birch forest nearby. Haven't tested this strategy with other bears yet, but I assume it should work and the clothes wear is the "price" you have to pay for using this escape into buildings method. I'll report back once I know for sure.

Apart from that, I agree that it also works very well to shoot bears from hunting blinds, porches, high rocks or cliffs or fishing huts. Every place where it can't reach you works. Just lure the bear into the area where you want to kill it, drop a decoy where you want it to stand, retreat into the safe area (porch/rock/etc), cower (to avoid being seen which may cause unwanted behavior) and shoot it when it starts to eat the decoy.

The bear will bolt away afterwards and is usually extremely hard to follow, hence I personally don't bother with that any more unless I've hit the bear's head with an arrow and know it's going to die within the next hour. If I only hit the back or shoulder, I just return to the area where the bear usually lives to retrieve its carcass the other day.

 

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16 hours ago, Jolan said:

if the bear can't reach you it won't maul you.  My favorite bear hunting spot is in CH - it has a porch that the bear walks right by.  Shoot the bear, back up on the porch watch it run around like a mad thing.  And since it walks right by the porch its a whole lot easier to get that sweet head shot.  The car at the crossroads in PV also works well.  Did your condition drop?  Or was it just the condition of your clothes?

I was fully clothed and all clothing was in top repair.  the clothing all dropped down below 50% but my health remained at 100%.  pants, coat, sweater and boots were damaged.

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7 hours ago, Relo said:

I was fully clothed and all clothing was in top repair.  the clothing all dropped down below 50% but my health remained at 100%.  pants, coat, sweater and boots were damaged.

I'm going to have to go shoot a bear and see if the same thing happens to me.  It hasn't in the past but .... maybe its to simulate your mad scramble to get out of its way?  hm, off I go to hunt a bear mhuaaa, er, cough, right this is for SCIENCE!

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1 hour ago, Jolan said:

I'm going to have to go shoot a bear and see if the same thing happens to me.  It hasn't in the past but .... maybe its to simulate your mad scramble to get out of its way?  hm, off I go to hunt a bear mhuaaa, er, cough, right this is for SCIENCE!

Outstanding!  Just in case you want to try to see, the clothing ripper took place at the car in Desolation Point almost right by the bear spawn cave at the end of the washed out bridge.  oh, and btw, I answered my own question, NO, you cannot out sprint the bear after he starts charging you...  yeah, I tried, I was only carrying 24 kilos and that included the rifle.  I took a standing pot shot at him from half the distance between the fishing shack and the bear spawn cave on the CH map.  It kinda got his attention, so I was crouching for a better aim and let him have it one more time.  Almost immediately he starts bolting towards me, I spin around, and start to run, but snap, I'm still crouching so by the time I pop up and hit the sprint/shift key I can hear the bear getting real close.  anyways it takes a few steps to get up to sprinting speed and by that time POW!  yeah, hard to out run a bear...

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I've found two in Pleasant Valley, one at Signal Hill the other at Rural Crossroads (sorry to spoil it for anyone that is watching my Road to Desolation Point Series :D ) I think it was like three days or maybe four between the time I saw the one on Signal Hill and the one at Rural Crossroads.  I've only encountered the one bear at Mystery Lake ON Mystery Lake.

Also, and I don't know if this is accurate, but I've heard that the game doesn't render bullets, so it's really all about distances and you're choice of aim (head, foot, butt, etc.).  If you're too far away, doesn't matter the aim or the shot, it won't be a hit.  It has to be at a certain range to count.  Bow and Arrow I'm not sure about, it's hard to justify carrying the bow around when a gun just..., I don't know..., makes me happy.  

I've never been able to outrun a bear.  I've been lucky and I've been able to get to high ground or on a slope that the bear doesn't like, but flat out outrunning it when it's close never fairs will with me.  

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2 hours ago, SpoonyMass said:

Also, and I don't know if this is accurate, but I've heard that the game doesn't render bullets, so it's really all about distances and you're choice of aim (head, foot, butt, etc.).  If you're too far away, doesn't matter the aim or the shot, it won't be a hit.  It has to be at a certain range to count.  Bow and Arrow I'm not sure about, it's hard to justify carrying the bow around when a gun just..., I don't know..., makes me happy. 

Unfortunately, as far as I know, this is still the case. One player did extensive testing and posted the results (I can't remember the thread, sorry :(). Essentially, after a certain distance your bullet disappears.

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19 hours ago, cekivi said:

Unfortunately, as far as I know, this is still the case. One player did extensive testing and posted the results (I can't remember the thread, sorry :(). Essentially, after a certain distance your bullet disappears.

Thanks for the verification. 

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On 5/8/2016 at 3:14 PM, Relo said:

Got a few questions about bears and how they work in the game.

Are the bear numbers fixed per each map?  I've been told only one bear on DP map but more depending on which map you're playing?

If you kill a bear, does it re-spawn later in the game?

I shot a bear in the face at point blank range only to be mauled nearly to death, how come a head shot at 10 meters wont kill a bear? (rifle, fully cleaned to 100% condition)

I shot a bear with an arrow about 30 meters away and jumped into a car, only to find that most of my clothing had been ripped to shreds, the beast was no where near me, how can it do that?

Can you bait a bear by leaving out raw meat or fish?

Can I sprint faster than a bear can run if I am carrying under 30 kilos and have a full stamina meter?Running_Bear.thumb.png.d0c718bbd13f518e7

I'm gonna get you yet...

I love this pic.

 

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On 5/9/2016 at 0:09 PM, Relo said:

I was fully clothed and all clothing was in top repair.  the clothing all dropped down below 50% but my health remained at 100%.  pants, coat, sweater and boots were damaged.

I've tried to duplicate this but haven't been successful.  I've either gotten away scott free or been mauled badly.  The interesting thing is in the maulings my clothing took mostly 40% damage... with the exception to my hat, evidently the bears really hate the hat.  Perhaps its the pompom.

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On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 1:36 PM, cekivi said:

I haven't tested it with hunting blinds but whenever you shoot a bear it will attack you. In order to avoid mauling you must either be in a place the bear can't path to (e.g. a rock you dropped down onto) or be in a shelter that the bear can't enter. You cannot go inside an area with a loading screen though since this will cause the bear to despawn!

So, a safe way to hunt a bear would be to shoot it and then jump into a parked car and wait for it to bleed out for instance. If the bear catches you you'll normally lose a huge chunk of condition and also have most of your clothing wrecked if not ruined.

Affirmative on avoiding mauling by being on a high ledge.  There's a bear spawn cave just down from the blue trailer a short little jaunt from the Silent Clearing area on the CH map where I was able to climb up to a high precarious perch roughly kitty corner from the bear spawn area.  I was able to get an excellent downward shot that struck true right behind the left foreleg.  The beast immediately turned and started to scramble up towards me and it looked like it was going to make to where I was standing.  I fully expected to get munched but miraculously it turned at the last moment and ran back down the way it had come.  The blood trail it left came so close to where I was standing that I'm surprised I didn't get mauled.  I didn't want to push my luck by coming down off my perch too soon, so I decided to hunker down for a bit and spend a little time sharpening my tools, take a bite to eat and drink some water.  I worked my way down and by that time the bear was gone and the blood trail had vanished.  Ended up finding the bear body days later and nowhere near where I had shot him.  The meat had already spoiled down to 16% so I ended up taking the hide and guts and roughly 6 pounds of meat.  Went back the next morning and the remainder had vanished.  Got my arrow back though!  bonus:durbear:

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On ‎5‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 10:32 AM, cekivi said:

Glad to hear it worked!

Was it snowing or windy though? Blood trail persistence was one of the things that was supposed to be fixed in a recent patch.

It was a lightly blowing wind at first that got progressively stronger as the morning passed.  I honestly didn't think I was hunkered down for that long, obviously less than an hour in game time, maybe upwards of 25-35 minutes in game time. 

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