Hunters Not Hunting

[Princess0450]

I saw this was an issue a few months ago and so I did many if not all of the possible fixes I could find. For both my rich and regular hunting grounds, my hunters just won't hunt at all. I deleted and created new camps, made sure the advanced setting circle was wide enough to encompass the entire hunting ground, changed families who were hunting, lowered the number to 3 for hunting limit (even made it 0 at this point), deleted and created roads to and from the camps, restarted the game after changes made, stopped and restarted hunting after a year, and still no results. Am I missing something or is this an early bug to be fixed?

[Bergwood]

Having the same issue atm, which lead to starvation..
Haven't tried the rebuild yet, mainly because I shouldn't have to, since they've been hunting fine up until now.

[Humble Monolith]

I noticed my hunters in my neighbors land hauling deer. Idk if they hunted there or pathing had them drag carcasses that way but sidelined my income since fur was taking forever to appear. The deer were pretty much right next to my start but I did not build into their radial marker or cut trees there.

[Unbearable Bearer of Bad News]

So far it seems that the area where the deer are suppose to be sometimes is wrongly tagged. I found my deer in another patch, put my hunter there and, what do you know, they hunted the deers there instead of the designated area. Very bizarre.

[Meowish]

I have this same issue and also tried every given "solution" without success. I also notice that my hunters go into the neighbours land on the right side of my land to hunt and bring the carcasses back on the left side of my land.... Even though I can see deer walking in the area like 100m from their hunters hut (I built the hut just outside of the area of the herd, hoping it would fix what killed my first game), so the deer are definitely there, and plentiful as well as it says 40/40, but alas, my hunters either don't hunt for months on end or go to the neighbours land and bring back like 4 meat a year.... I was told not to get goats for hides, but at this point I don't have much of a choice.

[Zoid]

I only had problems with hunting in a single game where I tried to manipulate the resource location by deliberately encroaching on the default hunting area. Then, everything got screwy, but I figured it out. The problem was that while the hunting resource marker moved, the actual deer did not follow it. I noticed that no matter where I placed my hunting shacks, the hunters kept running off to BF Egypt (no where close to the marker, but on the opposite side of the map!) when "hunting". Some hunting was occurring, but production of meat and hides was VERY slow.

So I followed my hunters. Turns out they knew where the deer were -- they kept going to an unmarked spot on the map far, far away, but that's where the deer were -- NOT at the resource marker which moved. I moved my shacks away from the resource marker (which had no deer anywhere around it) to a place near the actual herd of deer sighted, and bingo! My hunters were producing meat and hides like crazy once again. Unfortunately, the original problem remained -- the resource was far away from the town center and the long transportation was a pain. To summarize, the game's response to my encroachment on the hunting area was to migrate the marker, but the deer did not attend the marker.

You specified using the advanced range feature, and I feel certain that's wherein your problem lies; there are no deer herds within the specified area, and I'd guess it's because you tried to manipulate the resource closer to you and instead you experienced the same phenomenon that I did. Turn your advance tab back to unlimited work area, and when you see one of your workers "hunting" zoom in and follow him on the map -- you'll find those deer.

[Zoid]

I could be wrong, but because of my own experience I think there is only a problem with hunting when players encroach on the hunting resource area, and many do it deliberately trying to manipulate it when the game warns that placing their building there will cause herd migration. Do it enough, and it's not surprising to me if the game migrates them right out of your region altogether. I just don't do that any more; I respect the boundaries required by wildlife and I have had no further problems, PERSONALLY.

By the way -- so many seem to make hunting far too important in this game. Let's not forget that hunting isn't supposed to be all that great for meeting the needs of a civilization in the first place -- it was the most primitive human solution to the problem of hunger, and the solution was severely limiting to the cultures that depended on it. Hunting cannot provide adequately for very many people. Herds are transient, and hunting cultures must be also willing to pick up and move to follow the herds -- which doesn't work well in a civilization which has progressed beyond the stone age. Medieval civilizations are too large to depend on hunting. Consider hunting a supplement -- like honey production in the apiaries.

[Earth Spirit]

You can decrease the value of "limit hunting" or something but it will lead to hunting depot completely destroyed

[eechelberger]

Watch the deer on speed 12 for a few seconds. They should move back to the hunting node.

[Meowish]

Originally posted by Zoid:

You specified using the advanced range feature, and I feel certain that's wherein your problem lies; there are no deer herds within the specified area, and I'd guess it's because you tried to manipulate the resource closer to you and instead you experienced the same phenomenon that I did. Turn your advance tab back to unlimited work area, and when you see one of your workers "hunting" zoom in and follow him on the map -- you'll find those deer.

While I'm not the OP, I do have the same problems and I have to say that sadly, for me, this isn't the case. My hunters have free range to hunt and as I watch them hunt they walk off the map on the far right side, when I watch them transport a carcass they enter the map on the far left side. When I posted my previous comment I could see the deer walking right next to my hunting lodge, but now there don't appear to be any deer anywhere on my map anymore, while the marker still tells me 40/40.. I never placed anything within the area of the herd either, I left a good chunk of my map free just for these animals, with the exception of my hunting lodge, which was place just outside of the ring, far enough away to not trigger the migration warning. So I am convinced there is definitely some weird bug going on and am keeping my fingers crossed this will get fixed soon.
I agree that I shouldn't be relying on hunting as much though, but I just can't seem to figure out how to get enough (variety) of food for my first 30 families... And I play A LOT of these games lol

[Meowish]

Originally posted by Earth Spirit:

You can decrease the value of "limit hunting" or something but it will lead to hunting depot completely destroyed

Is that the issue? I will test this tomorrow, I kinda hope you're right cause that would solve my problem (by restarting my game lol), I set mine to 15 and that seems to be when the problems started in both my games...

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Meowish:

My hunters have free range to hunt and as I watch them hunt they walk off the map on the far right side, when I watch them transport a carcass they enter the map on the far left side.

That IS weird, and as just another player like you I can't explain, only speculate that perhaps the deer have been migrated completely outside your region. As for the cause of this migration, since you did not encroach on the resource area with buildings, I can again only guess -- perhaps they migrated due to excessive deforestation? Is excessive deforestation around the hunting area a possible factor? I've had that happen to me once, but in a game where I was unconcerned because I wasn't hunting at all (I was playing for a specific achievement that disallows hunting and gathering) so I did not explore the repercussions.

Originally posted by Meowish:

. . . .while the marker still tells me 40/40

I experienced that too. My hunters were hunting the deer and killing quite a lot but again, it seemed disassociated from the resource marker located elsewhere on the map, reflecting no diminishment of the resource. IIRC however, once I placed my hunting lodges close to the actual deer herds and began killing them rapidly it did begin to affect the resource counter. I'm just not entirely sure I remember that accurately.

By the way, thank you for your patient responses to what I wrote, as I suggest that what is being named a bug may have other cause. I could be wrong and it may indeed be a bug, but in my experience I often think I have a bug and then find out there is a valid cause/effect relationship, not a bug. I'm not actually sure anything I've encountered so far is a bug.

[Meowish]

Originally posted by Zoid:

Originally posted by Meowish:

My hunters have free range to hunt and as I watch them hunt they walk off the map on the far right side, when I watch them transport a carcass they enter the map on the far left side.

That IS weird, and as just another player like you I can't explain, only speculate that perhaps the deer have been migrated completely outside your region. As for the cause of this migration, since you did not encroach on the resource area with buildings, I can again only guess -- perhaps they migrated due to excessive deforestation? Is excessive deforestation around the hunting area a possible factor? I've had that happen to me once, but in a game where I was unconcerned because I wasn't hunting at all (I was playing for a specific achievement that disallows hunting and gathering) so I did not explore the repercussions.

Sadly that also wasn't the case, I made sure to put the working areas for any of my wood choppers far away from the animal marker, as I was worried about this exact thing happening.

Originally posted by Zoid:

By the way, thank you for your patient responses to what I wrote, as I suggest that what is being named a bug may have other cause. I could be wrong and it may indeed be a bug, but in my experience I often think I have a bug and then find out there is a valid cause/effect relationship, not a bug. I'm not actually sure anything I've encountered so far is a bug.

I agree that what sometimes seems like a bug is not always a bug, which is why I'm more than happy to spend time here speculating options and ideas with other players to try and figure out whether it's intended behaviour for reasons we just haven't figured out (yet) or if it's displaying unintended behaviour in which case we could call it a bug. I'm actually hoping it's not a bug and I can just figure out what is causing the odd behaviour of my hunters.

[Jabberwocky]

I have tested this in my most recent playthrough. I forced the animal deposit to move directly to my berry deposit. Then I framed them both in a large sheep pasture, which got rid of all the trees, so I could easily see whether the deer would really migrate there. I set my game speed to maximum after that, and a few moments later the herd of deer appeared inside the pasture.

I then built my early game food production there and kept an eye on it... The deer only ever migrated once again, after being hunted too harshly, I think... but the deposit icon and also the animals still stayed inside the large pasture where I could see them. And further hunting by the same hunting camps did not seem to force them to migrate again. They never moved away after this. Did the same in every other region I conquered. Consistent results.

That's far from being empirical data, of course... but I at least suggest you try it out yourself. When placing a pasture over an animal deposit, make sure it is large enough to fit the whole red circle around the animal icon inside it, and that the borders of the pasture do not clip the edges of that circle. Otherwise the game will force a migration of the deposit. If it fits inside the pasture, though, and the red circle does not touch the pastures boundaries, the deposit will stay inside the pasture's area, and deer will be easily visible. And also, coincidentally, protected from being forced to migrate by overzealous lumberjacks.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Jabberwocky:

I have tested this in my most recent playthrough. I forced the animal deposit to move directly to my berry deposit. Then I framed them both in a large sheep pasture, which got rid of all the trees, so I could easily see whether the deer would really migrate there. I set my game speed to maximum after that, and a few moments later the herd of deer appeared inside the pasture.

I then built my early game food production there and kept an eye on it... The deer only ever migrated once again, after being hunted too harshly, I think... but the deposit icon and also the animals still stayed inside the large pasture where I could see them. And further hunting by the same hunting camps did not seem to force them to migrate again. They never moved away after this. Did the same in every other region I conquered. Consistent results.

That's far from being empirical data, of course... but I at least suggest you try it out yourself. When placing a pasture over an animal deposit, make sure it is large enough to fit the whole red circle around the animal icon inside it, and that the borders of the pasture do not clip the edges of that circle. Otherwise the game will force a migration of the deposit. If it fits inside the pasture, though, and the red circle does not touch the pastures boundaries, the deposit will stay inside the pasture's area, and deer will be easily visible. And also, coincidentally, protected from being forced to migrate by overzealous lumberjacks.

Oh wow! That's interesting! Thank you.

[Meowish]

Originally posted by Jabberwocky:

I have tested this in my most recent playthrough. I forced the animal deposit to move directly to my berry deposit. Then I framed them both in a large sheep pasture, which got rid of all the trees, so I could easily see whether the deer would really migrate there. I set my game speed to maximum after that, and a few moments later the herd of deer appeared inside the pasture.

I then built my early game food production there and kept an eye on it... The deer only ever migrated once again, after being hunted too harshly, I think... but the deposit icon and also the animals still stayed inside the large pasture where I could see them. And further hunting by the same hunting camps did not seem to force them to migrate again. They never moved away after this. Did the same in every other region I conquered. Consistent results.

That's far from being empirical data, of course... but I at least suggest you try it out yourself. When placing a pasture over an animal deposit, make sure it is large enough to fit the whole red circle around the animal icon inside it, and that the borders of the pasture do not clip the edges of that circle. Otherwise the game will force a migration of the deposit. If it fits inside the pasture, though, and the red circle does not touch the pastures boundaries, the deposit will stay inside the pasture's area, and deer will be easily visible. And also, coincidentally, protected from being forced to migrate by overzealous lumberjacks.

I have to admit, so far this works perfectly! I am now at the end of winter year 3 and my deer are still there! HUZZAH! Thank you for this amazing tip