Animal spawn at higher levels

[KaiEr]

Other than the other night’s chance meeting of a herd of 30+ elk, resting with about 8 moose, (still a bit miffed about the game crashing before I got the rewards) I’ve seen a major drop in the number of animals for over a week now. A truly significant drop.

Not only are my favorite hunting spots offering up nothing (and I’m aware of hunting pressure), but I’ve seriously RUN through the woods for in-game MILES, spooking nothing.

Because of this, the past 3 days I’ve “played” at other things: climbing mountains, visiting the few points I’ve not been to, and messing around with freezing up animals at the outpost (there are always a few animals that call when you drop into an outpost). The vast majority of my kills have been those few deer/foxes.

I can remember going out to the big RR bridge and seeing what looked like Noah’s Ark had burst open onto the land, but whenever I go back now (even when I crawl for 30 minutes on my belly to make sure I don’t spook anything), it’s 100% empty (any time of day).

My Calburn spot is dry – And I once had to close the game and walk away because one night I was non-stop killing there. And NONE of the stands have been offering up anything. Even the lowlands below Kraken are barren. It’s supposed to be the “home of the bear population”, but I’m not seeing anything but a few solitary whitetail does.

All I can think of is that I’ve reached a higher level than before (32). I do know that I noticed significant changes set off by things in the past (i.e. the number of elk/moose rose exponentially once I purchased the 7mm and left the 243 behind (I skipped the 270).

What gives? Anyone else have major in-game dry spells like this? Scents are doing nothing - calls are doing nothing - I'm waiting for the guy to pop up and say, "There SHOULDN'T be tracks around here anywhere."

[Megawolf]

That thing with the animal_population file is interesting. I've been making regular backups of my save directory since hearing that saves can corrupt, and I can confirm that mine appears to be shrinking. It isn't shrinking fast, but it is definitely getting smaller.

My earliest backup is from 03092017. I have a total of 14 backups. I usually make one a day, but some days I make two and some days I forget and make none at all. The animal_population file in my earliest backup is 249KB. In each of the backups after that, it gets a little bit smaller. My most recent backup has the file at 245KB.

I assume the slow rate of decrease is because I'm not killing much. I spend most of my time tracking the elusive, high-trophy fallow for that one photo mission. Still, I usually make at least one or two kills per session.

[Galliard2]

Just switched back to Europe map and animals everywhere so don't think it is a case of limited animals. Completed 2 missions in 30 minutes thanks to this. Hunting pressure seems to be a factor for sure. That and hunting new areas. If all you are doing is walking up and down the trails then good chance you will find few animals.

[KaiEr]

Originally posted by Shooter:

Originally posted by KaiEr:

That's not it at all, and nobody's crying. It was a discussion on what/why, and if anyone else saw a major decrease in the past week, based on level. And no, they are not trying to make it a real hunting experiance - they are making a game. One in which mass kills is required for moving forward with equipment. It's a game, not a hunting simulator. Half the things in it wouldn't be there if it were made to be like real hunting.

WOW thanks for the info. I was unaware it was a game you are right shoot an animal every minute or so. Thats fun, How about work for your kill.

You really are missing the point.

Look - one more time. The topic wasn't a whine about the number of animals; it was a question as to whether or not other people were seeing the same thing at higher levels. That's it. Then you came in here saying people were crying, and you were acting high and mighty about it being a hunting program. Everyone plays this GAME differently. I'm not running around shooting anything that moves, but some people do... and I'm 100% fine with that.

However, if I wanted a true hunting experience, I'd just don my cammo and grab my gun as I always do. 90% of hunting is pre-season scouting and waiting, without seeing the animal. I'm not going to sit in front of the computer like that.

I'm not going to harvest a limit and walk away from the game for a year.

So just ease up and have fun with it - as it was intended.

[Machete]

so im at level 60 and there are a lot of animals!!

[KaiEr]

Originally posted by Machete:

so im at level 60 and there are a lot of animals!!

That's promising. Let me ask you - have you had long stretches in game where there were no animals (or extremely few)? It's so bad that I can't find tracks walking through the woods for long distances, and can't even spook anything. Last night was better, but it seems to be back again today, and been that way going on a week now.

And I've gone to several old and new places, all without much luck. Today, going on 4 hours and I've racked up a single bull elk and a single whitetail buck. Other than that I've only heard one coyote.

And no tracks. Right now I'm sitting in a stand, instead of stalking, hoping to see if anything happens to spawn. Only that one whitetail came out here (large open stand near water).

[KaiEr]

Originally posted by Oluparum:

Originally posted by KaiEr:

Not only are my favorite hunting spots offering up nothing (and I’m aware of hunting pressure), but I’ve seriously RUN through the woods for in-game MILES, spooking nothing.

have you tried to delete the animal_population file? when you restart the game it will create a new one and it has solved some troubles in other topics. try it.

I don't know if it was you or someone else that wrote up a step-by-step for fixing this issue, but I just got to the very end of my last nerve today and bit the bullet. MY GOD WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!

Turned off Steam Cloud updates, saved a copy of the "Saves" directory, deleted the animal population file and restarted. I can finally enjoy the game now.

Sure the numbers might be a tad bit too high, but at least it's better than spending an entire afternoon on the game and literally seeing 3 whitetails.

[cocoayoc]

i've just started playing yesterday but when/if it ever comes to low population, i'd just walk around and enjoy te scenery. eventually an animal will return. from what you all are saying- in my mind, they are just migrating away for a while.they do that IRL, surely. right?

[KaiEr]

Originally posted by cocoayoc:

i've just started playing yesterday but when/if it ever comes to low population, i'd just walk around and enjoy te scenery. eventually an animal will return. from what you all are saying- in my mind, they are just migrating away for a while.they do that IRL, surely. right?

That's not it. It's a bug that others are having as well. For some, the population drops rapidly to the point where you can literally walk across the whole reserve and not see a track or hear a call from anything but a random whitetail doe. And this goes on for days at a time.

I've got a LOT of free time with my job and often play this a good bit of the day when I'm not working or out, and to walk through the game for hours (real time), and not see anything... that's not a migration issue.

It's like going from a hunting game to a hiking game within a short time, and it remains that way for days at a time. Eventually there will be a short "burst" of a single species of animals, but then those too are gone, leaving you walking around, as you said, enjoying the scenerey.

I have some fun with the game when it does that, but eventually you start to wonder why you are playing it if you are not actually doing any hunting.

[Lightshifty]

Originally posted by KaiEr:

Originally posted by cocoayoc:

i've just started playing yesterday but when/if it ever comes to low population, i'd just walk around and enjoy te scenery. eventually an animal will return. from what you all are saying- in my mind, they are just migrating away for a while.they do that IRL, surely. right?

That's not it. It's a bug that others are having as well. For some, the population drops rapidly to the point where you can literally walk across the whole reserve and not see a track or hear a call from anything but a random whitetail doe. And this goes on for days at a time.

I've got a LOT of free time with my job and often play this a good bit of the day when I'm not working or out, and to walk through the game for hours (real time), and not see anything... that's not a migration issue.

It's like going from a hunting game to a hiking game within a short time, and it remains that way for days at a time. Eventually there will be a short "burst" of a single species of animals, but then those too are gone, leaving you walking around, as you said, enjoying the scenerey.

I have some fun with the game when it does that, but eventually you start to wonder why you are playing it if you are not actually doing any hunting.

I've looked at your achievements, you've played 500 hours and yet you haven't really played on Hirschfelden! You don't even have the achievement for harvesting an animal in each subregion or even identified a call from each species in Hirschfelden. It really is sounding like you have overhunted on 1 reserve. Switch to Hirschfelden for 100 hours before going back to Layton Lake district and I'm sure the population will recover.

[EnFo]

If this is a result of only playing on 1 map then it needs fixing.
You should not be forced to play on a map you don't like playing on.

[KaiEr]

Originally posted by Lightshifty:

Originally posted by KaiEr:

That's not it. It's a bug that others are having as well. For some, the population drops rapidly to the point where you can literally walk across the whole reserve and not see a track or hear a call from anything but a random whitetail doe. And this goes on for days at a time.

I've got a LOT of free time with my job and often play this a good bit of the day when I'm not working or out, and to walk through the game for hours (real time), and not see anything... that's not a migration issue.

It's like going from a hunting game to a hiking game within a short time, and it remains that way for days at a time. Eventually there will be a short "burst" of a single species of animals, but then those too are gone, leaving you walking around, as you said, enjoying the scenerey.

I have some fun with the game when it does that, but eventually you start to wonder why you are playing it if you are not actually doing any hunting.

I've looked at your achievements, you've played 500 hours and yet you haven't really played on Hirschfelden! You don't even have the achievement for harvesting an animal in each subregion or even identified a call from each species in Hirschfelden. It really is sounding like you have overhunted on 1 reserve. Switch to Hirschfelden for 100 hours before going back to Layton Lake district and I'm sure the population will recover.

I use the European side solely for multi-player with my friend back home. My friend back home is having the same issue, and he's only level 20. And there are others who are having the same problem while hunting both sides. It's not "overhunting", it's simply a bug that is random. Some people have it, others do not. Just like several other bugs that have come out of the game (people being fine using the 7mm, while others couldn't hit a bull moose at 10 yars with it).

And believe me, that 500+ hours isn't a constant stream of killing, or even playing. For the most part (like now), I've got the game open but I'm watching a tv show. Sometimes I just don't want to walk out to where I was, and leaving it there allows things to settle as well. Heck, I've spent days just climing mountains in game.

[mmanser2]

Animals were getting pretty sparse for me as well, for the past 15-20 hunts. Boring as heck. I turned off Steam Cloud updates a couple days ago. They're back! Huge improvement. I haven't had to mess with the saves directory yet, just turning off the cloud update worked for me.