Spearing wolves...does it eventually work?

[Zero Grim]

I did the tutorial and it made it seem like spearing wolves was a one hit kill but now I'm playing the game and I'm spearing a wolf over and over and it just keeps getting up.

really feels like something going wrong when a wolf runs at you, gets speared, bleeds everywhere and decides "you know what I'll keep on attacking" and just seems to want you dead more than it wants to live.

[Roumyan]

Originally posted by Zero Grim:

I did the tutorial and it made it seem like spearing wolves was a one hit kill but now I'm playing the game and I'm spearing a wolf over and over and it just keeps getting up.

really feels like something going wrong when a wolf runs at you, gets speared, bleeds everywhere and decides "you know what I'll keep on attacking" and just seems to want you dead more than it wants to live.

It does work! Generally speaking the amount of damage you do with your impale depends on the type of spear you're using. As you progress in the game you'll be able to craft more powerful spears.

On the explorer mode (easier one) with the basic wooden spear you have to impale a wolf two times to kill him. Keep in mind that he'll not die instantly after that - he'll bleed out in 2-3 seconds after the second impale.

[Zero Grim]

well I speared a wolf three times in the medium difficulty and he still kept coming.

nice to see a response but so far the wolf combat feels really bad, the stamina drain on lowering a stick a foot seems excessive, it should really be more about timing the jab than just praying your stamina lasts before the wolf advances on you, also the wolves can sometimes have their pathing get broken so they end up doing false lunges that have them turning 180 degrees before just lunging again a few seconds later making it really hard to figure out when to attack.

I also got hit by a wolf, no quick time event and before i finished standing up the wolf had attacked me again, also with no quick time event.

I'd probably be enjoying the game a lot more if there weren't wolves everywhere or if there was a tactic to killing/scaring them that was more about strategy than just "press button when game says so"

[Roumyan]

Originally posted by Zero Grim:

well I speared a wolf three times in the medium difficulty and he still kept coming.

nice to see a response but so far the wolf combat feels really bad, the stamina drain on lowering a stick a foot seems excessive, it should really be more about timing the jab than just praying your stamina lasts before the wolf advances on you, also the wolves can sometimes have their pathing get broken so they end up doing false lunges that have them turning 180 degrees before just lunging again a few seconds later making it really hard to figure out when to attack.

I also got hit by a wolf, no quick time event and before i finished standing up the wolf had attacked me again, also with no quick time event.

I'd probably be enjoying the game a lot more if there weren't wolves everywhere or if there was a tactic to killing/scaring them that was more about strategy than just "press button when game says so"

The Survivalist mode is not a medium difficulty setting! :D In fact, we'll have 3 difficulty settings in the EA version:

- Survivalist - which is your default difficulty setting. In comparison to other games it's rather a hard mode as we intended Winter Survival to be a skill-based game.
- Explorer - normal/easy
- Adaptive - this setting can be either easier or more difficult than the survivalist one. You can adjust stats to craft your own gameplay.

As for the second part of your message - feedback taken! We already made wolves a bit easier to fight with, but an additional protip from me would be to use fire. Wolves in WS are generally afraid of fire, so you can use torches (easy to craft) to scare the predators away. The wolves will not approach if you're near the campfire as well.
Other than that - fighting in WS is defensive. Your character has no previous experience in fighting, so he has to wait for the wolves to attack first. The system used to work just as you're saying - there was a small time window for you to impale the wolf when he jumps at you, but most people wanted us to make it less time-sensitive.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts - primary reason why we've released the demo first is to gather your feedback and improve the gameplay before we launch our EA version.

P.S. Keep in mind that the gameplay should feel much easier once you get the access to our story mode (coming in EA) as the plot will allow you to gradually learn the basics. DEMO is based off of our endless mode which is generally targeted towards more experienced players

[Zero Grim]

My experience using torches was that you could scare a wolf which would cause it to back away slightly and momentarily get it to hold still and then you run away which in a general survival game would be fine, but this game has static point focused objectives so I can run away from the wolf....if I abandon the area entirely and don't follow the objective.

my thought process was this:
"scaring is only for escaping"
"I can't just wait for it to leave I'm literally coughing to death, time counts"
"I don't have enough spears to throw to kill it"
So I was left with the only option I was aware of, approach and fight.

If the demo is more combat and face issues than the base game you should have the higher grade weapons to compensate for that.
If the demo is about stealth and avoiding problems there needs to better feedback on how to make predators leave besides waiting them out.

[SteinDrSolido]

im frustrated with this wolves , even in easy they allway kill you , not good , no fun

[Lanthrudar]

The wolf doing "false lunges" and then turning, taking a step back, or simply turning away then immediately spin back and lunge, sounds like GOOD AI and not a broken path finding.

[Roumyan]

Originally posted by Zero Grim:

My experience using torches was that you could scare a wolf which would cause it to back away slightly and momentarily get it to hold still and then you run away which in a general survival game would be fine, but this game has static point focused objectives so I can run away from the wolf....if I abandon the area entirely and don't follow the objective.

my thought process was this:
"scaring is only for escaping"
"I can't just wait for it to leave I'm literally coughing to death, time counts"
"I don't have enough spears to throw to kill it"
So I was left with the only option I was aware of, approach and fight.

If the demo is more combat and face issues than the base game you should have the higher grade weapons to compensate for that.
If the demo is about stealth and avoiding problems there needs to better feedback on how to make predators leave besides waiting them out.

Originally posted by SteinDrSolido:

im frustrated with this wolves , even in easy they allway kill you , not good , no fun

Originally posted by Lanthrudar:

The wolf doing "false lunges" and then turning, taking a step back, or simply turning away then immediately spin back and lunge, sounds like GOOD AI and not a broken path finding.

I notified the designers about your feedback folks!

[Old Gray Dude]

I am sorry, but the Wolves were way too hard for a Demo and may be scaring people away from buying the game. I was playing on easy and there was nothing but Wolves no matter where I went. Many times, there were 2, or sometimes 3 Wolves at a time. The only way I was able to beat 2 Wolves was to get up on top of the cage and throw spears at them. I killed one, then waited for the other to move away, then jumped down to grab the used spears, then climbed back up on top of the cage before the 2nd Wolf returned... which was fast. The only problem was I ended up freezing to death because the event took too long. So not only is one Wolf an issue, but having too many Wolves at once was an issue. I never got to find out much about the game because all I was doing was fighting Wolves... not good advertising.

[Sewek]

Originally posted by Old Gray Dog:

I am sorry, but the Wolves were way too hard for a Demo and may be scaring people away from buying the game. I was playing on easy and there was nothing but Wolves no matter where I went. Many times, there were 2, or sometimes 3 Wolves at a time. The only way I was able to beat 2 Wolves was to get up on top of the cage and throw spears at them. I killed one, then waited for the other to move away, then jumped down to grab the used spears, then climbed back up on top of the cage before the 2nd Wolf returned... which was fast. The only problem was I ended up freezing to death because the event took too long. So not only is one Wolf an issue, but having too many Wolves at once was an issue. I never got to find out much about the game because all I was doing was fighting Wolves... not good advertising.

Hey! That's some valuable feedback. We're constantly gathering it to balance the amount of wolves and their overall difficulty further, so thank you so much for that. I'll let the design team know about it.

[Old Gray Dude]

Glad to be of help. I play Demos to see what a game is like and how it is different than other games. All I got from your Demo was that it was a Wolf killing game. After playing for 5.5 hours, that was about everything I got to do. I really did not get to do much else. This could be a really good game, but I did not get to see that. I got hit with cold weather, disease, and Wolves all at once. Never got past that. Is that is all there is to this game? I understand you want to have a challenging game, but this hard on the easiest level? You are reducing your potential buyers down to the most extreme gamers.

[Fibulator]

Wow, is the "combat" impressively bad and "unfun".

The *tutorial* "autoimpale" took 20+ hits. Was I doing it wrong? probably? But WTF is that a bad system if "L-click and hold" takes 20 hits to kill the weakest enemy.

[TeGeek]

You 1 tap the wolf in the tutorial if you do it correct.

[njdevi66]

The Demo really shouldn't be so restrictive like it is. Allow it to be more open but only to a point and we cant succeed to far in the game. Giving you a dying disease and a bunch of wolves already hunting you... really will put off potential buyers. I hope it gets corrected and we see better in a update for the demo.

[Sewek]

Originally posted by Fibulator:

Wow, is the "combat" impressively bad and "unfun".

The *tutorial* "autoimpale" took 20+ hits. Was I doing it wrong? probably? But WTF is that a bad system if "L-click and hold" takes 20 hits to kill the weakest enemy.

Hey! Are you sure you're impaling the wolf and not stabbing it? In general you should just stand in the pointed place and hold LMB. In the tutorial one impale is enough to kill a wolf.

[Sewek]

Originally posted by Old Gray Dog:

Glad to be of help. I play Demos to see what a game is like and how it is different than other games. All I got from your Demo was that it was a Wolf killing game. After playing for 5.5 hours, that was about everything I got to do. I really did not get to do much else. This could be a really good game, but I did not get to see that. I got hit with cold weather, disease, and Wolves all at once. Never got past that. Is that is all there is to this game? I understand you want to have a challenging game, but this hard on the easiest level? You are reducing your potential buyers down to the most extreme gamers.

Hey! The difficulty is still something that we're working on and balancing further, so any feedback from you is valuable for us, so thank you for sharing that. We're thinking about adding the Addaptive level of difficulty, so you will be able to tweak it on your own.