Other methods of stopping bears from attacking (Other than flare gun)


thekillergreece

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Currently, there are no methods to stop a bear. If one spots you, they will immediately charge you. If you alerted a bear for little to know reason (Even though you didnt provoke it), it will immediate chase and always catch up with you which can be unfair.

Flare gun is rare to find so why not add more methods to deter a bear from attacking?

1. Aiming your rifle at the bear MAY at LOW chance stop it from charging. If you are lucky, it should stop charging, roar at you and slowly retreat.

2. Standing still, unarmed and not moving at all, should give a good confident to the bear that you are no longer threat and can let you go.

 

What do you think of all these?

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1 hour ago, thekillergreece said:

If one spots you, they will immediately charge you.

This is not accurate.  The bears will only come after you if you get very close to them.  Once they stand up and then charge, there is nothing you can do but enjoy show.

The bears are much easier to avoid than the wolves are, because of their relatively small sensory radius.  I actually utilize the bears to stop wolves from following me.  All I have to do is run past the bear at a safe distance and when the wolves gets close it will be scared away by the bear.

There is only one strategy needed to avoid the bears, and it's the same as real life - just keep a good amount of space between you and the bear.

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I would like to see a kind of standoff mechanic included, as the bear decides if your worth taking on or not. Similar to what happens if your holding a flare/torch/brand and encounter a wolf. I know the devs have said this isn't a wildlife behavior simulator, but I think the game would benefit from some more realistic bear behaviour. Black bears are 90% bark and 10% bite, unless you encounter a mother with cubs! My grandfather has encountered several in his hiking trips and was never attacked by any of them. My favorite is a yearling bear he encountered on a trail in the Cascades. The bear saw him and charged, but he held his ground and the bear stopped short of him and veered off. Then it tried it again, and again. After the 3rd or fourth time grandpa had this bear figured out, so when the bear came back around, he charged the bear! He got close and then stopped, made a bunch of noise as he slowly backed off, and then did it again. The poor bear didn't know what to make of it all and eventually left. But the best part is he saw the same bear at a distance a mile or so down the trail and he said that poor bear was just moping around and completely dejected that he "couldn't bluff some old guy on a trail" 

Sam

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10 minutes ago, Rusty_Old_F250 said:

 My grandfather has encountered several in his hiking trips and was never attacked by any of them. My favorite is a yearling bear he encountered on a trail in the Cascades. The bear saw him and charged, but he held his ground and the bear stopped short of him and veered off. Then it tried it again, and again. After the 3rd or fourth time grandpa had this bear figured out, so when the bear came back around, he charged the bear! He got close and then stopped, made a bunch of noise as he slowly backed off, and then did it again. The poor bear didn't know what to make of it all and eventually left. But the best part is he saw the same bear at a distance a mile or so down the trail and he said that poor bear was just moping around and completely dejected that he "couldn't bluff some old guy on a trail" 

Fantastic story!

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It depends why the bear (or wolf for that matter) is sizing you up. A well fed, healthy bear could probably be chased off in a variety of ways. A hungry, old or sick bear may just see a human as slow moving lunch if it cannot catch anything else. Not a lot of berries in this game.

 

In northern Ontario, if you want to see some black bears, just go to any dump. They have absolutely no fear of humans, will continue foraging through the garbage and will completely ignore you while you unload your truck. Once you drive several yards away they will come see if you brought them anything good. The ministry will chase them away or relocate any "growlers" every now and again but there is almost always at least one or two there.

 

Just like in game, if you leave them alone and don't get too close, they will do the same.

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2 hours ago, Rusty_Old_F250 said:

Black bears are 90% bark and 10% bite, unless you encounter a mother with cubs! My grandfather has encountered several in his hiking trips and was never attacked by any of them. My favorite is a yearling bear he encountered on a trail in the Cascades. The bear saw him and charged, but he held his ground and the bear stopped short of him and veered off. Then it tried it again, and again. After the 3rd or fourth time grandpa had this bear figured out, so when the bear came back around, he charged the bear! He got close and then stopped, made a bunch of noise as he slowly backed off, and then did it again. The poor bear didn't know what to make of it all and eventually left. But the best part is he saw the same bear at a distance a mile or so down the trail and he said that poor bear was just moping around and completely dejected that he "couldn't bluff some old guy on a trail" 

Sam

That is a great story!

1 hour ago, thekillergreece said:

Thats a good story something which needs to be added in the bear mechanic as an example.

How are you thinking this might be implemented? Are you imagining a % chance that a charging bear will veer off without attacking?

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15 hours ago, thekillergreece said:

1. Aiming your rifle at the bear MAY at LOW chance stop it from charging. If you are lucky, it should stop charging, roar at you and slowly retreat.

Just aiming your rifle? I don't agree with this one. That would make it so much easier to shoot them, and would take away from how scary a bear attack is in this game. Even if this had a tiny tiny chance to work in real life, I wouldn't want it to be the case in this game.

Bear spray could be something...No idea how effective that is, but I've heard of it before. If it is something that actually works, I'd imagine you could find bear spray in areas where bears roam. If they do add bear spray, I would hope it would be a rare find rather than common, and would have limited uses before it runs out.

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15 hours ago, thekillergreece said:

Currently, there are no methods to stop a bear. If one spots you, they will immediately charge you. If you alerted a bear for little to know reason (Even though you didnt provoke it), it will immediate chase and always catch up with you which can be unfair.

As @Timber Wolf said, that's not accurate.

I'm intrigued by the use of the word 'chase' though. Yes, if you run from a bear that is agro'd on you, it will give chase and it is faster than you are; that's not unfair. Never run away from the bear, you will get mauled, period.

If it hasn't reared up on its back legs, then just turn around and walk away; you walk faster than the bear does. More specifically, if you know roughly what its patrol path is, or it didn't turn away from the path it was on to come toward you, then also feel free to head off at an angle taking you away from its normal path. Once far enough away, it will turn away and go about its business. Also, if you can break LoS long enough, it will lose interest.

If you want to scare one off, shoot an arrow into the ground at its feet.

You don't need a flare gun to deal with bears. Bears are easy.

Also, there's tons of warning that a bear is nearby. Crunchy paws and angry crows being the primary means and you can hear them a long way off. Snuffling, you can't hear unless the bear is closer, but still out of agro range usually. Granted, if it's windy, some of that can be hard or almost impossible to hear, but them's the breaks, can't have everything handed to us on a platter.

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6 hours ago, Mel Guille said:

That is a great story!

How are you thinking this might be implemented? Are you imagining a % chance that a charging bear will veer off without attacking?

I believe there should be 25% chance only.

 

3 hours ago, Bjern said:

Just aiming your rifle? I don't agree with this one. That would make it so much easier to shoot them, and would take away from how scary a bear attack is in this game. Even if this had a tiny tiny chance to work in real life, I wouldn't want it to be the case in this game.

Bear spray could be something...No idea how effective that is, but I've heard of it before. If it is something that actually works, I'd imagine you could find bear spray in areas where bears roam. If they do add bear spray, I would hope it would be a rare find rather than common, and would have limited uses before it runs out.

I don't think bears can be that stupid to get killed. Shooting should definitely get them to charge you but aiming should just.. Give them a "warning" or sort of. As I said, aiming your gun to bear shouldn't always cause it to retreat. The chance of retreat could be around 25% and 50% if aiming at it with flare gun. The protagonist automatically could begin shouting at the bear to cause it to retreat. Perhaps playing dead would be a better idea? Like standing and not moving as a bear is inspecting you with a chance that he might let you off or attack you.

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1 hour ago, thekillergreece said:

I don't think bears can be that stupid to get killed. Shooting should definitely get them to charge you but aiming should just.. Give them a "warning" or sort of. As I said, aiming your gun to bear shouldn't always cause it to retreat. The chance of retreat could be around 25% and 50% if aiming at it with flare gun. The protagonist automatically could begin shouting at the bear to cause it to retreat. Perhaps playing dead would be a better idea? Like standing and not moving as a bear is inspecting you with a chance that he might let you off or attack you.

I imagine that aiming a rifle may even aggravate a bear, rather than prevent it from attacking, as it may see it as a threatening stance. Same goes for aiming a flare gun at it...could look quite threatening, even for a bear that doesn't know what it is. Firing the flare gun is what scares it off.

The sound of the rifle going off may startle them and get them running away, and when a bear is hit by a bullet, if it hasn't killed them then they will most likely flee in real life, rather than continue the attack. Animals tend to decide to flee when they get wounded.

Shouting at the bear is an interesting idea. I don't know the chances of success for shouting at a bear to scare it off (smaller bears perhaps?), but maybe that could work in some cases? This seems like an all or nothing strategy, as if it isn't scared off by your shout, it will definitely take it as a threat and want to attack you...At least it seems more likely to have some affect than just aiming a rifle at it. Maybe a shout would have a 20% chance of success at scaring it off, 20% chance that it will only stop moving for a moment from being startled, a 40% chance that it will stand up and roar before attacking, and 20% chance of charging right at you...just an idea of how it could look. Then again, how would they add shouting? And what other uses could it have? If this is the only use, then I don't know if it would be a good enough reason to add it. Good brainstorming regardless!

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Like using the flare to wander off the wolves, the character automatically insults the wolve to leave. So, I dont think it would be any different when it comes to bears. Perhaps push a button? 

I believe I am wrong on aiming a gun to bear making it to leave but the fact bears will still attack you even though you are unarmed, standing/crouching doing nothing like playing dead is what something I dislike. On another strange fact, I shot the bear, the bear didnt even flinch which is practically impossible in real life not to flinch from an overpowerful weapon and it kept on attacking, disregarding it's life.

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46 minutes ago, selfless said:

These bears are easily distracted by meat, just like wolves.

Firing the rifle without hitting one of these bears will make it automatically walk towards you.

And running away from these bears is not dangerous and may break contact.

 

Happy hunting.

Easier said than done, mate. How can I run from bears if one is "provoked" and is chasing?

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I dont see pointing a gun at a wild animal doing anything. They don't know its a gun. They don't know that it can hurt them.

Yelling would be a good idea tho. Plenty of people will tell you that if you go out hiking in an area with dangerous animals, that you should make constant noise. Most, nearly all, wild animals will avoid people if given the chance. I've bumped into people walking around calling out 'Human' or 'Dingleberries' every few minutes just so as to give animals a chance to get out of your way. I personally just hook a bell to my bag, by each to their own.

Point is - animals in this game have a massive axe to grind. They don't act like normal ones.  I don't see pointing a stick at one that is more then 4 times your body weight doing much.

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My dad has always told me that in a confrontation with a black bear, you want to "be the bigger bear," literally and figuratively. You want to hold your pack over your head to make yourself look taller, yell, throw rocks, do anything that tells the bear your not a free lunch. Whatever you do, DONT RUN! And if the bear attacks you after all that, fight, fight like a man possessed. My grandfather told me another story about his father, my Great Grandpa Jay, who was working for a logging company at the time. He was carrying his double bit axe with him, an axe that he kept razor sharp, (a logger's "parlor trick" from the time was to roll up his sleeve and shave the hair off his arm with the axe!) Anyways, he was heading to or from the camp and came across a bear. The bear stood up and roared, so Jay stood his ground, held up his axe and started bellowing back "Alright bear, it's you or me! And if it's going to be me I'm taking a chunk of you with me! Come on!" He kept on yelling and eventually the bear decided he wasn't worth the trouble, dropped back down on all fours and wandered off. My grandpa finished the story mentioning that black bears are smart creatures, even if they know they could take you down, if your going to fight and potentially injure them, it's not worth it. An injured bear is a dead bear, even if the injury itself doesn't kill him, chances are another bear will finish him off fighting over territory, a kill or a mate.

Sam

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On ‎1‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 1:43 AM, Bjern said:

I imagine that aiming a rifle may even aggravate a bear, rather than prevent it from attacking, as it may see it as a threatening stance. Same goes for aiming a flare gun at it...could look quite threatening, even for a bear that doesn't know what it is. Firing the flare gun is what scares it off.

The sound of the rifle going off may startle them and get them running away, and when a bear is hit by a bullet, if it hasn't killed them then they will most likely flee in real life, rather than continue the attack. Animals tend to decide to flee when they get wounded.

Shouting at the bear is an interesting idea. I don't know the chances of success for shouting at a bear to scare it off (smaller bears perhaps?), but maybe that could work in some cases? This seems like an all or nothing strategy, as if it isn't scared off by your shout, it will definitely take it as a threat and want to attack you...At least it seems more likely to have some affect than just aiming a rifle at it. Maybe a shout would have a 20% chance of success at scaring it off, 20% chance that it will only stop moving for a moment from being startled, a 40% chance that it will stand up and roar before attacking, and 20% chance of charging right at you...just an idea of how it could look. Then again, how would they add shouting? And what other uses could it have? If this is the only use, then I don't know if it would be a good enough reason to add it. Good brainstorming regardless!

As Rusty said, black bears are mostly bluffers. In a lot of cases, shouting can easily scare them off. If they are charging, shouting won't immediately make them turn and run, but if you catch a black bear "off guard" and frighten it, they run away practically faster than the speed of light. As for the pointing the rifle deal, that seems a little stretched. Bears aren't quite intelligent enough to say "Hey, he's got a gun. I'mma just back up now..."

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47 minutes ago, CalNieDaGtarGuy said:

As Rusty said, black bears are mostly bluffers. In a lot of cases, shouting can easily scare them off. If they are charging, shouting won't immediately make them turn and run, but if you catch a black bear "off guard" and frighten it, they run away practically faster than the speed of light. As for the pointing the rifle deal, that seems a little stretched. Bears aren't quite intelligent enough to say "Hey, he's got a gun. I'mma just back up now..."

If they add black bears as a separate species then the rules could vary a bit.

With aiming the rifle at a bear, the posture of the person might appear more threatening than merely standing there, which I think would increase the chance of a bear attack. It would be horrendous if simply aiming a rifle made a bear stop moving, lol! They would become easy targets and far less scary.

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