Almost Never

[eagle74]

There are at least 2 hare groups on the TV map where all the NZ are "almost never." Does this mean that there are zero animals in the group?

I have also seen it with a red deer group & figured it was a loner that died & the respawn had not happened yet.

[Bjørn]

I'm not sure about the answer, but I'm curious about need zones: Are they static, meaning if they show 'Almost never' for example, will they always show that, or do they change from year to year? 3 game days is one year, right?

[6Taylor4]

I think the need zones are permanent. I do not think zones and herd numbers are related in any way.
I do not understand the original question. Groups/herds are not ever labeled "almost never", need zones are labeled "rare" and other terms, but I think what it means is that animal group uses those zones over and over and over, cycling through them. Rare means they don't go there too often, I assume.
I tracked one herd of Red Deer for three game days; they had a long, wide, triangular shaped movement trail, and it took two days for them to return to the spot I started following them.
They NEVER stopped or spent time inside of any zone. They went through them, next to them, and would , say, eat near the food zone, but not in it!
They never "sleep" they form a tight circle near a sleep zone, and 1 or 2 lay down for a while, still alert, while the others circled. There was no change in the star ratings and the herd was 8 at the start and 9 at the end, they picked up an adult female. They never ran, they always, no matter what time it was, grazed and walked slowly along. On the day they would have cycled, I was charged immediately upon entering the game, and lost the herd; by the time I found them, (I think) they were in a larger herd of 14. At that time I selected another mission,
Yes, I think 3 days in game is a year.

[VictoriaHuntress]

When WOTH was first released, Brown Bears in Transylvania were on the list to be introduced in a future update. There were need zones for them, but the frequency was 'Never' (as there were no bears yet). I do recall seeing 'Almost Never' for Red Deer zones.
Once bears were introduced, I never saw never again LOL.

[6Taylor4]

It occurred to me that maybe different languages use different terms, so I'm probably wrong about the titles.

[eagle74]

Here is the shot for one of the NZ:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3166073152

And here are the locations, one at the red marker & one at my character. I am fairly sure that there is another one east (Edit: It is west, not east) of these close to Crooked Hollow, but I did not check it out today.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3166072598

Apparently they are broken bc I discovered them a few weeks ago & their status has not changed.

[eagle74]

I discovered these NZ when doing the mission to harvest a 3* hare to unlock the private area in the GL. I checked every group to be found & there was no 3* out there. It took several years b4 one showed up. Anyway, b4 completing the mission I did not shoot a single hare on the map. So, these zones were like that from the start.

In my experience if one zone says "almost never" for a group then all of the zones for that group are like that. They are all "almost never." I have not run across one that was not.

[eagle74]

Originally posted by Bjørn:

I'm not sure about the answer, but I'm curious about need zones: Are they static, meaning if they show 'Almost never' for example, will they always show that, or do they change from year to year? 3 game days is one year, right?

There is a video on NZ by Bumblewoot on YT that covers what you need to know.

Say a Red Deer has two feeding zones. One will be "often" & the group will use that zone ~85% of the time. The other one will be "rarely" & the group will use it the other ~15% of the time. The zones will stay like that forever unless you flip them. Killing 2 animals in a NZ will flip it. Firing 4 shots in a NZ will flip it even if you don't shoot anything. Once a zone flips, you can flip it back by going to the other zone & killing 2 animals. After doing so, I think there is a cooldown period b4 the zones can be flipped again.

As I recall, the hunting pressure created by killing an animal or firing shots in a NZ is cleared after 4 hr (RT in game on that map, I think). So, you can kill one animal in the zone & kill a 2nd one 4 hr later & it will not flip.

Also, some animals like birds don't follow these rules. But I don't recall the details. Anyway, I don't pay any attention to NZ flipping with birds. It it flies, it dies.

[DC2Dixon]

I have come across those "almost never" zones myself when picking them up. I am sure I have even had some say "never" which seemed a bit strange (I could be wrong on that one) I believe all those were on the base maps and haven't noticed them on the DLC maps. I have spent most of my time on base maps though so could explain that? Haven't come across many but I have seen them.

What are the zones saying on NZ for people? Some animals/herds have 3 zones of the same type, maybe some of those say "almost never"? Haven't spend all that much time on the map to know.

I would assume (if its not a bug, glitch, or wrong wording) that maybe they have a less chance of being used compared to even a rarely zone? Maybe if a rarely has a 20% chance, the almost never has a 10% chance? Honestly don't know, just guessing.

As far as I know, it has nothing to do with animals in a herd. I believe its simply the chance of how often a herd/animal might actually go to that zone themselves without player interaction (us flipping zones) All just guessing on my end really.

[6Taylor4]

The Red Deer herd I followed went in a large triangle of movement which took two days to complete; they returned to the area I started watching them. They never were in the zones doing the zone activity, they were always adjacent; they walked through them, but never in the precise zone. Then they repeated the same pattern, as far as I could tell, as when I looked for them I would find them along the same route. I don't know if that makes any sense in explaining zones, I didn't record their 'rating' but this herd traveled past the same zones in their circuit. NZ map.

[VictoriaHuntress]

Actually, finding both 'Rarely' and 'Often' frequented need zones in close proximity is not all that unusual. Most of the time they represent different groups of animals, even of the same species. I'm exploring a high alpine lake in Transylvania, in the far north of the Dor Apex region. It's in a valley that I hadn't explored before - 3 different Chamois groups using the lake as a drink zone, one Often, the other two Rarely.

[Bjørn]

Originally posted by eagle74:

Originally posted by Bjørn:

I'm not sure about the answer, but I'm curious about need zones: Are they static, meaning if they show 'Almost never' for example, will they always show that, or do they change from year to year? 3 game days is one year, right?

There is a video on NZ by Bumblewoot on YT that covers what you need to know.

Say a Red Deer has two feeding zones. One will be "often" & the group will use that zone ~85% of the time. The other one will be "rarely" & the group will use it the other ~15% of the time. The zones will stay like that forever unless you flip them. Killing 2 animals in a NZ will flip it. Firing 4 shots in a NZ will flip it even if you don't shoot anything. Once a zone flips, you can flip it back by going to the other zone & killing 2 animals. After doing so, I think there is a cooldown period b4 the zones can be flipped again.

As I recall, the hunting pressure created by killing an animal or firing shots in a NZ is cleared after 4 hr (RT in game on that map, I think). So, you can kill one animal in the zone & kill a 2nd one 4 hr later & it will not flip.

Also, some animals like birds don't follow these rules. But I don't recall the details. Anyway, I don't pay any attention to NZ flipping with birds. It it flies, it dies.

That sounds interesting, but flipping complicated!

But by 'flipping', you mean that by killing some animals close to one zone that is often used, the hunting pressure will cause the animals to use that zone less, and the other one more, and they will both change 'status' when you inspect them (from 'often' to 'rarely', and vice versa for the other zone, for example)? If so, that is pretty cool.

[eagle74]

Yes, flipping a zone means that the "often" one becomes the "rarely" one & vice versa.

[6Taylor4]

I was confused by "NZ" New Zealand/Need Zone!

[eagle74]

Bumblewoot made several YT videos where he tests & talks about need zones. Here is one of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSaXPp4RW24

It is clear to me that this is evolving knowledge. We don't know everything about them. I never heard him mention the "almost never" NZ state. I'm going to pay closer attention to NZ states while hunting & collect a bit of data.

[eagle74]

Here is some data on flipping zones. I shot fallow, red deer, boar, elk, mt goat (maybe 25 total) in their "often" NZ & most of them dropped in the zone. Shooting only 1 animal with 1 shot in a zone did not flip it.

Conversely, 2 "often" NZ for elk did in fact flip to "rarely" & the circumstances were similar. Both were frontal shots from an elevated position where the shot landed too high up their neck. I immediately knew they were bad shots. So, when they turned to run, I DBL lung shot them with a 2nd round. Both dropped in the zone.

And on my original question of the "almost never" NZ state, only the Devs know the meaning of this?