Archery lvl3 is useless, still cannot hunt rabbits...

[Never Go Full Derpy]

... even at archery lvl3, everyone of my arrows goes flying in random direction. What's the trick here? How does one hunt a rabbit with bow and arrow?

Here is what I do...

1. Sneak up on a rabbit, being mindful of a wind direction
   
2. Aim (with right mouse button), and lock on a rabbit
   
3. Shoot??

..yet the arrow misses everytime. I have reloaded and reloaded so many times with no luck. The only time I was successful at this is if I am 1 meter/yard away from a rabbit. However, at this distance, I might as well swing at it with a golf club.

In fact, I had more luck hunting rabbits with melee weapon, before I found the bow, then I have right now with bow and arrow.

[Never Go Full Derpy]

:facepalm: Why is it that one always figures out the answer, 15 minutes after making an angry post on the forums...

So figured out how the whole hunting works...

When aiming with the bow+arrow, you get a reticle... and it is color coded.

• If it's grey, you are out of range and will never make a shot.
  
• If it's white, you are in range, but from my experience the chance of hitting something is 0%
  
• If it's red, it is a guaranteed kill.

The way to get red reticle is to sneak on the target close enough, and target them. Hold right-mouse button, and don't let go. The reticle will begin to shrink over time (as you are taking aim.) Once it is at the smallest... keep targeting (do not let go of that mouse button) for up to 2 more seconds and it may turn red, then you can shoot and score that delicious rabbit. If it's never turns red, you are not close enough.

[sf]

One thing that is not obvious though. Rabbits have a facing, which is not always clear. If the facing is in the wind direction, it will be super hard to approach it: if you approach from back, it smells you, if you approach from front, it sees you. your best bet is to approach at 90 degrees to the wind direction, but though it IS possible, my success rate is not that high. (yeah I had hunted rabbits with archery 2-3... a lot).

The most successes I have is terrain related: bushes seems to hide you much better, and the best is some uneven terrain blocking direct line of sight (grey reticule) while you can sneak closer, then quickly aim over the "local horizon".

Usually, you will want to only shoot when the reticule is red, but my experiences is if it is too risky to get that close, it is better to take a chance while it is still white, but small enough.

Another more direct way is to just chase the rabbit into some human community or even infected. The rabbits will get "stuck" trying to escape when surrounded, so you have a chance of taking aim and shooting at smaller range, though if archery is too low, it may not aim fast enough.

Now I'm exploring a hunting rabbit trap (not the passive one in-game). a fenced area with the gate built at a L-shaped corner (i.e. the gate has one side with an outward fence. Simply keep the gate open and actively drive rabbits into the area, and lock it up. then you can "hunt" with the target having no escape. Yeah, it is probably less efficient than the passive rabbit-traps, but I think it is more fun this way ;)

|
|
+= =+----+
|        |
|        |
|        |         
+--------+


= = gate

If I keep rabbits "locked up" will they despawn if I go away? Or will it be possible for me to emulate keeping "livestock"?

[Candarian]

rabbits can see and smell very far
if u make the rabbit hunting quest(the one to hunt 2 rabbits) they explain it to u if u ask them how to hunt

watch the map
make sure the arrow point at u(or at least be in a 90 degree angle)
stay behind bushes or bigger rocks as much as possible(ok behind rocks u cant aim)
and wait if u are not close enough(ofthen the rabbit will come to u very close)

and if u need to go over open fields make sure they look away from u(because they allways see u otherwise)

i could at day 1 with 3 stars in melee skill and naked hunt 2 rabbits a day(well 7+ run away but thats to expected without stealth skill)


and

i dont need it so i never tried it but i think u can lure them if u throw a carrot

[sf]

Is it possible to use your own crew to create a barrier so that they cannot escape? since they run away. Only problem is how to tell the crew you are not controlling to stay put.

[Candarian]

i dont think so
they run away from zombies like they do from npcs
and that all the time

while u can create a human fence
they would run left and right so aiming at them would probably be a pain in the ass

[bulbatrs]

I did lots of hunting even with 1 star archery, it's quite easy. best place to hunt is in the woods or just outside as it lets you get very close to the rabbit, the closer you are the less chance to miss. In the plains it's best to get to the rabbit from behind and against the wind. that way you can get very close and kill even with very low archery skill. also there are bushes in the plains, so you can use them to hide as well.

[arcana75]

AI doesn't seem to have trouble aiming and shooting bows tho... they are very accurate and can fire very fast.

[Candarian]

but they dont hunt

[Valcus]

Originally posted by sf:

Is it possible to use your own crew to create a barrier so that they cannot escape? since they run away. Only problem is how to tell the crew you are not controlling to stay put.

Oh this would be interesting. Get close to a rabbit and then use command mode to order the attack and see how well AI does it. I’ve never tried it.

In fact, surround a rabbit area with your people. Feed and water them before hand so they don’t wander off. Then pause and order all of them to attack at the same time from command mode.

This could be fun, assuming you can target rabbits in command mode. Wish I wasn’t otw to work...

[Jersmall]

1. get a rabbit trap it works wonders, one guy "resets traps" (pitfalls and rabbit traps) then you get a second person to do continuous rabbit skinning. 6+ traps gets you lots of constant meat plus during winter too.

2. the best way to hunt a rabbit is with a motltov haha... drop it right on his head from long range.

[Valcus]

I got all set up with people surrounding a group of rabbits and ..... you can’t target rabbits from command mode :( I’m so disappointed. It would have been so fun to watch everyone running around trying to shoot them.

However, it wasn’t completely ineffective using the people to corral the rabbits. I only used 4 people. It’s not practical at all but it was an interesting experiment.