Bearskin Bedroll, wolf magnet?

[killfixx]

tl;dr Bearksin bedroll seems to be destroyed first during every wolf attack, and the *bleeping* wolves attack from further away.

So, started playing recently <200 hrs. I'm up to day 50ish in Stalker and having a merry romp.

Found the magic trick for hunting bears (not cheating, just placement) and decided to make my first Stalker mode bearskin bedroll.

Went to Forlorn Muskeg to start crafting my arrowheads and first backup knife and hatchet. Killed the bear out by the Poacher's Camp with the bow. Harvested him and had a nice lunch of Cooking Level 3 bear (yeah, but the parasite chance drops after a couple days). 

Too much fog to take the marsh path to the forge, so I stick to the rails. Get to the end and have to navigate up and around the edge to avoid going for a swim. Get attacked three times on the way. Every time, the bedroll pops saying ruined after the attack.

No, I didn't have any meat or guts on me.

I really love FM, but c'mon...three attacks and all three "damage" my bedroll? It was ruined after the first attack. That's either spectacularly bad RNG rolls, or that's the other negative of the bearskin bedroll. The first being weight, of course.

Quick question, why does the bedroll weigh significantly less than the coat?

[Jolan]

Because the coat is cooler?  Wait...wolf attacks damage bedrolls?

 

[Nattravnen]

I can confirm this. We want an answer Hinterland. I was already having this issue about half a year ago

[Dug]

I'm not Hinterland, and I have no actual answers, but I do have a few words on numbers, probabilities and likelihoods.

Random number generators are, well, random. Sometimes they churn out the same number multiple times. It seems that, even with a 70% chance of success, on average I still fail to repair a clothing item 66% of the time, but that's randomness for you - sometimes your dice keep rolling low. Apple made its iPlayer random number generator *less* random, specifically to make it *seem* more random, because random play just wasn't "random enough" for their customers.

As for bedrolls attracting more damage than anything else, they are often (not always) strapped to the outside of a pack, and in this case are less protected than items inside. If externally-mounted, they are most often strapped to the top or bottom of the pack; both positions are going to be bad if you fall on your backside and wrestle with a wolf - either you're sat on it, grinding it into the terrain, or it's behind your head as you are dodging/deflecting lunges to your throat.

Personally, if there's room in the pack, my sleeping bag always goes on the inside, in some kind of waterproof compression sack. But that's a nice compressible down or synthetic sleeping bag - a bear skin (as the weight suggests) isn't going to be as compact. There may be no other option than to mount it externally.

I'm not saying you don't have a valid grievance. Just offering some suggestions as to why the game might work the way it does. I can't construct a good argument for attracting wolves from farther away without there being equally valid counter-arguments.

 

[Ruruwawa]

From a gameplay perspective, I don't think it's fun to have the bedroll destroyed so easily.  The bear bedroll decays so fast there's already a huge investment for upkeep.  Having animal attacks ignore your investment in protective clothes to one-shot the bedroll first just feels cheap.

Clothes should go first, and the bedroll take damage only if the player is naked, or has clothing with no protection.  IMO.

[Dug]

One-shotting it seems incredibly harsh. I've never seen a bearskin bedroll, but they don't strike me as being particularly fragile. They should certainly be a lot more robust than a down bag.

[norup]

In my limited experience, both types of bedrolls are vulnerable to being immediately destroyed by a wolf attack. It seems a bit unbalanced - I would prefer if they were typically just partially damaged just like clothes items.

[Jolan]

wait... I've gone and provoked a number of attacks and none of them seemed to damage the bedroll.  Long underwear for some reason, and evidently we kick at wolves with our boots, and the wolves seem to have a beef with hats, but no real damage to my bedroll.  I'm not complaining, but it seems odd that other people's bedrolls are being destroyed.  

Is it tied to specific difficulty level?

[Carbon]

 My experience with attacks always seems to punish the most likely candidates: mittens, outer coats, outer pants, occasionally boots. Does it matter from where one is attacked? If from behind, then the items in the backpack might be more vulnerable?