So you say you want pack mechanics...[Story]


Caffeinequeen

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I say they're already here! This was a particularly fun, and challenging moment for me in the game.

I had a total of 5 wolves track me through Desolation Point, staring at the road near the entrance from Crumbing Highway. First, it was just the one near the light house, but then a second tailed me from near the road. They followed me all the way to Hibernia. I thought after two days inside, not giving them a glimpse they'd go away, but lo' when I slipped out I was instantly confronted not by two, but four now! I hid in a near by car for awhile, waiting for them to lose interest... 

[This was on Stalker, for the curious. I didn't think to start getting screen shots until I was truly mobbed, so the visual story on that part is missing.]

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They would become disinterested for a short time, but any movement out of the car and they were running right back up.

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[Not pictured - a fair amount of  "Go away. Pleaaaase go away. No, don't start growing. Shooo... Bad dog..]

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4 hours later, I was able to slip out of the car but saw them still trailing behind me.

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I was able to make it to the cave to the far East of the zone. When I left, I was greeted by 5 wolves and a somewhat disinterested bear.  

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They were relentless.

[Also Lookit the cheeky wolf in the back howling for more. There was always one wolf just out of view from my camera. But oh could I hear them..]

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This continued for 4 days total, between resting at Hibernia, in the cave, and in the car, before finally giving them the slip through the old Mine shaft.  I survived, though. At that point there's no chance of winning a fight, no matter how many bullets you have.

Cheers,

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@BIGwooly When I first entered the zone, and when I came out of Hibernia I only had dried goods on me (mostly energy bars since those are amazing for short travel expeditions). Though when I came out of the cave I did have some fresh guts on me which undoubtedly made me pretty smelly to the wolves. If they see you, they'll track and stick around for awhile, which is undoubtedly what happened in the beginning. The smell mechanic draws them to you even if they don't see you. I've found a good way to use that mechanic as an advantage to keep them away from my hot spots / long stay spots though. 

For instance, It was getting really rough around the gas station on the coastal highway, like 3-4 wolves chilling, waiting for me to come out at all times, but i found that putting a ton of stinky meat and fish out on the ice keeps them away from my camping spots for a little while. It's a good way to deal with excess predator meat that you can't eat too much of without risk of intestinal parasites becoming too great, too. Even after it being cooked, it helps draw them away. So i'll place the excess cooked meat, and the meat scraps that aren't worth cooking into draw points, and it affords a little bit of sanity, and time to go harvest wood. Before I discovered it, I once had to kill 6 damn wolves around the area just to get some damn wood.

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7 hours ago, BIGwooly said:

Sounds like maybe you had cooked meat on you? They will track you from all over with the new scent mechanic.

Cooked meat doesn't give off a smell. I can attest to that after having killed a wolf, harvested it, and then later cooking it. The only thing giving off smell then were the guts and maybe the uncured hide(might have to test that further to see if fresh hides give off a smell.)

It's a good reason when you want to harvest something, to go ahead and get a fire going.  I built one because it was going to take an hour to get it all harvested and I would have been an ice cube by then. I opted to go ahead and cook the meat there and I did stop being super smelly.  Just a fair bit of smelly because of the guts and maybe the hide.

If you are looking to save the guts for a bow or making clothes with, you will have to deal with it making you stand out more to wolves and bears, but you can always use it for a decoy.

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10 hours ago, Samsonguy920 said:

Cooked meat doesn't give off a smell.

Cooked meat ABSOLUTELY gives off smell.  Last night I was fishing and cooked up all of my fish and had a full bar on the scent-o-meter.  I saw another player with a bunch of cooked fish on him and all 3 bars were full ... no raw meat or fish or guts or hide in either case.  I've also stood on top of Jackrabbit Island and watched a wolf down on the ice turn and start stalking towards me when I picked up cooked rabbit.  I dropped the cooked meat and he went back to the ice.  Picked it back up and back he came.  Trust me, cooked meat smells too, just not as much.

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18 hours ago, Caffeinequeen said:

The smell mechanic draws them to you even if they don't see you. I've found a good way to use that mechanic as an advantage to keep them away from my hot spots / long stay spots though. 

For instance, It was getting really rough around the gas station on the coastal highway, like 3-4 wolves chilling, waiting for me to come out at all times, but i found that putting a ton of stinky meat and fish out on the ice keeps them away from my camping spots for a little while. It's a good way to deal with excess predator meat that you can't eat too much of without risk of intestinal parasites becoming too great, too. Even after it being cooked, it helps draw them away. So i'll place the excess cooked meat, and the meat scraps that aren't worth cooking into draw points, and it affords a little bit of sanity, and time to go harvest wood. Before I discovered it, I once had to kill 6 damn wolves around the area just to get some damn wood.

When it comes to getting rid of the wolves hanging around the gas station, you might want to investigate the use of stones. See this thread for details.

 

5 hours ago, BIGwooly said:

Cooked meat ABSOLUTELY gives off smell.
...
Trust me, cooked meat smells too, just not as much.

Absolutely.. Even if no scent bars are lit up, you can still be giving off a scent that wolves will notice. Just not as strongly.

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I ran into a pack of four recently while crossing the ice on Coastal Highway. They seemed to be tracking me for a fair away, so I put a deer in between myself and them...

 

I kind of feel sorry for what happened next to that poor deer, but I was alive, and it was not. So yeah...I think I passed that part of 'survival of the fittest'.

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1 hour ago, Barretts Privateer said:

I ran into a pack of four recently while crossing the ice on Coastal Highway. They seemed to be tracking me for a fair away, so I put a deer in between myself and them...

 

I kind of feel sorry for what happened next to that poor deer, but I was alive, and it was not. So yeah...I think I passed that part of 'survival of the fittest'.

So the tactic successfully distracted all four of them?

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On 6/23/2017 at 8:55 PM, JAFO said:

So the tactic successfully distracted all four of them?

It pulled in the first two, and as the deer started to run, it got the other two involved, but was taken down before the last two got too far away...it ended up changing their patrol pattern enough to let me slip by them and get to the coastal townsite.

Of course, despite that all, I ended up getting into a brief scuffle with the wolf that patrols that area...wounded him, but didn't take the time to find him.

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2 hours ago, Barretts Privateer said:

It pulled in the first two, and as the deer started to run, it got the other two involved, but was taken down before the last two got too far away...it ended up changing their patrol pattern enough to let me slip by them and get to the coastal townsite.

Thanks.. that's good to know. I've never had the privilege of seeing more than one wolf engage a deer simultaneously, so I wasn't sure if/how it might work.

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