99% Death Rate to Wolves on Interloper 4 me

[KD7BCH]

I hate to complain but can we tweak wolves some again or are there plans to do modification to their behaviors? 

[selfless]

Unlikely.  You are supposed to feel vulnerable.  That's interloper's shtik.

[Dug]

I'm relatively new to TLD but I name all of my sandbox games after my learnings and experiences from the previous game (except the first one, of course).

My first was called "Don't hurt me". Then came "Not in the face" after my first wolf encounter and resulting demise. Then "Feed me" after I starved to death in the Trapper's Cabin. Next up were the short-lived, "Wolf dodging" and "No, not more wolves". I'm currently on "B*stard wolves" and I seem to have mostly mastered the art of avoiding them in areas I know well. Still, I have too many run-ins (i.e., more than none) when exploring but, as long as I keep myself in good condition and don't exhaust myself in danger-zones, I seem to be surviving the encounters better. I know I'm not ready for interloper (or stalker, for that matter) yet, but I'm getting there.

For me, they are the main contributor to the pensive atmosphere of the game. They are the one thing (well, apart from the odd bear) that stands between me and survival. Weather, food and water are relatively easy to manage if I plan ahead; the wolves are the spanners in the workings of my plans. They're the uncertainty. The thrill.

I curse them almost daily, but they are what keeps the game interesting (for me). Even my forum avi pays tribute to their tenacity.

[KD7BCH]

7 hours ago, selfless said:

Unlikely.  You are supposed to feel vulnerable.  That's interloper's shtik.

I've reached the point where the lack of resources, the climate, and the inability to out wit my status isn't what gets me anymore. It is almost always the wolves now. 

[selfless]

18 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

I've reached the point where the lack of resources, the climate, and the inability to out wit my status isn't what gets me anymore. It is almost always the wolves now. 

Congrats!  At least its challenging you.  "Dying of old age" is not compelling game play, IMO. 

[KD7BCH]

Yeah this week I'm 4/4 to Wolves, Last week I was 3/4, week prior was 5/5 to wolves. Feeling like old age too. I am really hoping with the next update there will be bow drill fire making because I'd like to stop playing so conservative with the matches and having to transit through wolf areas at all. It seems until you have the knife the only way to "beat" wolves is to completely avoid them. 

[selfless]

Have you tried bait?   Bait is the new flare...  (well, at least torch ((like they used to be (((you know ((((you know?)))) ))) )) )

 

also sprinting to break contact...  

 

and dropping over ledges.  wolves cant jump. . . . . and ducking under things.  wolves cant crouch.

 

lots of options really....

[KD7BCH]

Woo Hoo I died today in a crevasse on PV coming down from the signal tower instead of a meaningless wolf death lol. 

I have tried bait before and sometimes it works, don't know the % in this build that it does, but the wolf issue is really early on, when you have no weapons, no food, and are constantly below 50% stamina because you have to keep moving to gather resources in Interloper. A wolf encounter that leads to the "wolf attack" is almost always lethal most encounters when you have no resources early on lead to the attack, unless you can outwit the wolf and evade it's presence, going inside, or finding a spot where it cant get or find you at. If you get the "wolf attack" in Interloper even at 100% and an hour after waking up fresh, I think your odds are almost nothing against them because this is how I die almost always now. 

 

 

[KD7BCH]

On 4/6/2017 at 10:38 AM, Dug said:

For me, they are the main contributor to the pensive atmosphere of the game. They are the one thing (well, apart from the odd bear) that stands between me and survival. Weather, food and water are relatively easy to manage if I plan ahead; the wolves are the spanners in the workings of my plans. They're the uncertainty. The thrill.

I curse them almost daily, but they are what keeps the game interesting (for me). Even my forum avi pays tribute to their tenacity.

It gets old. If you look at the Steam negative reviews, the overwhelming hit to the game by long term player is the way wolves are so cheap. I don't want to quit the game, I don't want to not play, but I also don't want to put 25 hours into the game well on my way to surviving 100 or 200 days, and have it all over because of a chance happening by a super wolf, or a wolf I'm 2% under prepared for. 

Players have been asking for a day 1 hour 1 ability to defend themselves against these attacks being that the encounters are so prevalent yet little has changed in terms of the lethality of the wolf attack since early on. The game needs to "evolve" to provide the player with some defense early on. Taking nothing away from the "thinking man" aspect of the game sufficient defense to give you a chance against wolves early on would improve enjoyment of the game for me.

Spears have been suggested/requested since at least 2013 and here we are 4 years later having our meticulously built sandbox sandcastles wrecked by the cyber wolf who's attacks can't be defeated until you have the knife. At which point then the whole other issue is that they are under powered villains. 

I have encouraged people to continue to be patient with the developers but man, this game has been in development so long they were talking about trying to continue to support players running windows XP like it was a legitimate option to run the game on. At this rate I'm not even sure the game will see the story mode released in 2017 and from where I am as a purchased supporter of the game that is unacceptable. I'm also losing patience with the game killing me on the super cheap via the wolves. 

[KD7BCH]

Tonight Day 7 Wolf Death

[Captain Obvious]

I don't understand why everyone has such trouble with wolves. If visibility is poor and you can't see wolves in your path from a long way away then do something else (cook/repair/harvest) in the meantime. Then when it clears up a bit and you can now make sure there are no wolves around you can proceed. If that's not possible then stay within sprinting distance of shelters, or those things that help break wolf pursuits (e.g. ledges), and make sure you have enough stamina to get there. I tend to just assume that if a wolf sees me it'll probably catch me, and if it catches me it'll probably kill me, and act accordingly.

Perhaps the reason people say "weather/food etc. is fine, I just die to wolves" is because they aren't trying hard enough to avoid wolves. Having to carefully avoid wolves makes the other elements of survival more difficult, and perhaps the game more fun.

Btw, I'm playing on interloper, only died to a wolf once so far (on any of my sandboxes).

[Shane Retter]

3 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Perhaps the reason people say "weather/food etc. is fine, I just die to wolves" is because they aren't trying hard enough to avoid wolves. Having to carefully avoid wolves makes the other elements of survival more difficult, and perhaps the game more fun.

I second this ... any time I start getting chewed on, I'm solely to blame because I've been careless somehow. When I'm really thinking about avoiding the toothy wildlife .... food / cold becomes more of an issue .... and that drives me to take greater risks, which makes a fun natural dynamic in the game. Avoid wolves .... get hungry and cold .... get desperate .... take a big risk with wolves ... get food .... avoid wolves for a while again .... and so it go's on.

I will say though, I do wish they were a little harder to find sometimes, as they can become more of a nuisance than a thing to be feared after a while. I'd like wolf encounters to be less regular, but harder to escape when you do get yourself into a bad situation .... oh please devs ... give the wolves some strategic pack behavior!! If I die to intelligent wolf pack behavior .. like being actually hunted, then flanked and surrounded by 5 or 6 of them ... death would be accompanied more by the feeling of  "well played brother wolf... well played".

[Ruruwawa]

8 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Perhaps the reason people say "weather/food etc. is fine, I just die to wolves" is because they aren't trying hard enough to avoid wolves. Having to carefully avoid wolves makes the other elements of survival more difficult, and perhaps the game more fun.

 

4 hours ago, Shane Retter said:

I second this ... any time I start getting chewed on, I'm solely to blame because I've been careless somehow. When I'm really thinking about avoiding the toothy wildlife .... food / cold becomes more of an issue .... and that drives me to take greater risks, which makes a fun natural dynamic in the game. Avoid wolves .... get hungry and cold .... get desperate .... take a big risk with wolves ... get food .... avoid wolves for a while again .... an

I third this.  Another thing I do if I think a wolf might be near is crouch and LISTEN for the footfalls.  But as Shane points out there's a cost in time and condition lost to the cold in trying to avoid wolves.   Personally I think it's a great tradeoff.

[Tenasi Vol]

The cold and managing calories is a bigger problem for me.  

Thankfully you can see the wolves off in the distance and the ones that get close and catch you off guard seem to give up chase rather quickly when you hightail it out of there.  Even if the worse happens and you get into a fight, I have beaten many of them as long as I am decently healthy.

If I am 75%+ condition I will stalk wolves, let them kill a deer or rabbit, and then fight them off for the meat.

But, I like to live dangerously.  Its my middle name.

...Danger is my middle name, not "I like to live dangerously".  That would just be silly.

 

[michael_martin]

I tend to agree with the OP... I can appreciate the thought put into Interloper, and I really like the tension of trying to avoid wolves. However, I do think that they can be a bit too aggressive in the game. There have been at least 3 Interloper games I've played where the wolves literally came over a hill in seconds and surprise killed me, or climbed up the side of a big a** rock to kill me.

 

I can live with it and appreciate the challenge, but I think that when the disclaimer says "we know wolves do not typically attack people" before you play the game, it makes you wonder why they are making the wolves in Interloper so particularly difficult to deal with. I understand the "geomagnetic storm" may have something to do with their behavior, but I generally feel it is a bit to demanding of your gameplay.

 

Personally, I think it would be great if the player could tune their own experience. For example, what if you want the resources and weather of Interloper but the wildlife experience of stalker or even pilgrim...In other words, it would be nice if you could kind of "customize" your own experience through tuning different aspects of the gameplay

[happybjorn]

On 4/19/2017 at 8:37 AM, michael_martin said:

I tend to agree with the OP... I can appreciate the thought put into Interloper, and I really like the tension of trying to avoid wolves. However, I do think that they can be a bit too aggressive in the game. There have been at least 3 Interloper games I've played where the wolves literally came over a hill in seconds and surprise killed me, or climbed up the side of a big a** rock to kill me.

How much thought do you think was put into it?  For the most part it's a 25% harder version of Stalker with adjusted loot and fewer wolves.

Wolves don't just see you.  Being on the other side of a building or hill, or just being close to them while stalking is dangerous.  Also, the range where they are guaranteed to sense you and charge is just barely far enough that you can draw a bow before they pounce.

On 4/19/2017 at 8:37 AM, michael_martin said:

I can live with it and appreciate the challenge, but I think that when the disclaimer says "we know wolves do not typically attack people" before you play the game, it makes you wonder why they are making the wolves in Interloper so particularly difficult to deal with. I understand the "geomagnetic storm" may have something to do with their behavior, but I generally feel it is a bit to demanding of your gameplay.

Cold and trying to maximize calorie effectiveness are part of it.  I have a hard time imagining most people are running into wolves while at full condition and not starving (at least during the first couple of weeks).

The big killers all seem to be RNG.  Got caught out in a blizzard while skinning a rabbit (even though it was sunny when you started), bad luck mate.  Freezing to death because even though you've explored 3 regions you still only have half a set of clothing, bad luck mate.  Got Blood loss 3 times during a wolf struggle (or torn clothing at all), bad luck mate.

On 4/19/2017 at 8:37 AM, michael_martin said:

Personally, I think it would be great if the player could tune their own experience. For example, what if you want the resources and weather of Interloper but the wildlife experience of stalker or even pilgrim...In other words, it would be nice if you could kind of "customize" your own experience through tuning different aspects of the gameplay

That would be awesome.