Wolf Struggle Help

[elandry13]

So I've been in about 4 or 5 wolf fights, and I've found that no matter how rapidly I click the mouse button, the bar at the bottom of the screen never increases. And I mean the bar doesn't fill even a little bit. It's as if I wasn't even clicking the mouse.

I can't tell if there's something wrong with the mouse I'm using, my clicking technique, or the actual game. So is anyone else have this thing happen? I would appreciate any insight.

[Brockololly]

I feel like the Wolf struggles after this latest update are harder and even if you survive, they tend to really knock down your condition. I've clicked a bunch and had the bar increase but it definitely felt like I had to click even more frantically now then I ever had to before this update to get out of it.

[[DOLT]Braidedheadman]

If you're fighting the wolf barehanded then, yes, the wolf struggle event is going to be more difficult. Having an axe, knife, or other tool makes the struggle easier and does more damage to the wolf. If you have more than one of these, you are given a brief window where time appears to slow down and you can choose your preferred weapon.

Apparently, or so I've read elsewhere, some weapons have key benefits over the others, like doing more damage or minimizing the damage the wolf does to you and so on. I've tried using different weapons, although I can't say for certain whether or not any of that's true to any extent.

Anecdotally, the axe does seem to charge up faster than the knife, which would seem to minimize any damage received to my survivor; however, I was pretty fresh when the wolf attacked (I had just sat down to play) and mashing the mouse button felt pretty effortless at the time. Additionally, both the knife and the axe will kill the wolf by bleeding it out. I haven't notice much difference in the time it took for the wolf to die one way or the other (ie: as an indicator of the base amount of damage done to the wolf), which leaves me somewhat skeptical at the moment.

I've not subjected myself to further "testing", as it were, in order to find out more, so take the above with a grain of salt.

[elandry13]

Originally posted by DOLTBraidedheadman:

If you're fighting the wolf barehanded then, yes, the wolf struggle event is going to be more difficult. Having an axe, knife, or other tool makes the struggle easier and does more damage to the wolf. If you have more than one of these, you are given a brief window where time appears to slow down and you can choose your preferred weapon.

Apparently, or so I've read elsewhere, some weapons have key benefits over the others, like doing more damage or minimizing the damage the wolf does to you and so on. I've tried using different weapons, although I can't say for certain whether or not any of that's true to any extent.

Anecdotally, the axe does seem to charge up faster than the knife, which would seem to minimize any damage received to my survivor; however, I was pretty fresh when the wolf attacked (I had just sat down to play) and mashing the mouse button felt pretty effortless at the time. Additionally, both the knife and the axe will kill the wolf by bleeding it out. I haven't notice much difference in the time it took for the wolf to die one way or the other (ie: as an indicator of the base amount of damage done to the wolf), which leaves me somewhat skeptical at the moment.

I've not subjected myself to further "testing", as it were, in order to find out more, so take the above with a grain of salt.

I am using the knife. It's more that I click away like mad, but it doesn't seem to do any good. My character appears to blackout as though I were fighting a bear. It's really got me puzzled and even more freaked out by wolf encounters than usual.

[[DOLT]Braidedheadman]

Your condition before entering into the struggle event plays into how effectively you can fight off the wolf.

That is, if you're already weakened by hunger and thirst or, especially, if you're exhausted or over encumbered by weight (and any combination of these things added together), the struggle will be much more difficult. Try to keep your health and energy up while exploring and avoid wolves like the plague if you plan on carrying a lot of stuff in your pack. Other than that, the only thing I could recommend is trying to click faster. That doesn't sound very helpful, I realize, but that's the game we're given to play at the moment.

[binakalgo]

So far, my "fastest" fights are done with a >90% hatchet. Knife longer but it seems that kills the wolf.

I'm still having bad experiences with the prybar to recomend it.

If you are playing on interloper I've heard that it is almost impossible to win even with a knife.

[placidus33]

(joking) Are you sure you click the left mouse button and not the RMB? (end of joke)

Try this to be sure: start a new sandbox in Pilgrim, take the rifle, go out, find a wolf, shoot not to kill but just to aggro. Let him come and engage. Choose the knife (but even the hatchet is ok), and don't press quickly, but just 2 or 3 times very slowly, then you can die happily... it's only a test run.

If you don't see the bar going up each time you press and then going down between clicks, it's a bug or your mouse has something weird happening. If you have a spare one, give it a try. Maybe did you customize your mouse behaviour in some way? Did you invert the behaviour of buttons?
Did you macroed it to do some particular function? It shouldn't be an issue, but who knows?

I see almost 50 hours of gameplay, did you play only this version of the game (v. 426) or not? If not, as much as you can remember, it has always happened or maybe earlier versions did work?

If not resolved = file a bug report

[Andi]

I usually lay the index and middle finger of my left hand onto the index finger of my right hand which is on the mouse button and tap them alternately. This results in a pretty fast click speed for me.

[elandry13]

Originally posted by placidus33:

(joking) Are you sure you click the left mouse button and not the RMB? (end of joke)

Try this to be sure: start a new sandbox in Pilgrim, take the rifle, go out, find a wolf, shoot not to kill but just to aggro. Let him come and engage. Choose the knife (but even the hatchet is ok), and don't press quickly, but just 2 or 3 times very slowly, then you can die happily... it's only a test run.

If you don't see the bar going up each time you press and then going down between clicks, it's a bug or your mouse has something weird happening. If you have a spare one, give it a try. Maybe did you customize your mouse behaviour in some way? Did you invert the behaviour of buttons?
Did you macroed it to do some particular function? It shouldn't be an issue, but who knows?

I see almost 50 hours of gameplay, did you play only this version of the game (v. 426) or not? If not, as much as you can remember, it has always happened or maybe earlier versions did work?

If not resolved = file a bug report

No, I played earlier versions, mainly from the Resolute Outfitter update. It was better then, and sometimes I even got away with only some torn clothing and bruising.

I am using a gaming mouse which has custom button mapping, but I didn't change anything about the LMB or RMB. Only the extra buttons that come with a fancy mouse. I can use my regular mouse, but kind of reluctant because I like having the shortcuts to quickly equip a light or weapon without moving off the WASD controls.

I'll give your suggestion a try. But how will firing the rifle aggro a wolf in Pilgrim? Doesn't the rifle sound make them run away?

[placidus33]

I don't recall, honestly... I played Pilgrim only the first time. Shoot them in the legs, or start in Voyager to avoid this issue.
I suggested Pilgrim cause it should be the exp mode with the most gain per single click.

Also look at the discussion "Fists doing no damage to wolves in stalker" in which I posted a serie of screenshots of different struggles. You can use the pictures for comparison.

If you feel in the mood to give it a try, look at the discussion "!!! How to bind the autowalk toggle to a key !!!". In the last replies it is written even how to dual bind the LMB with the Spacebar and use the keyboard for the struggle, and every action commanded by LMB. It is useful to prolong the life of your mouse.

[Cyndi62]

Originally posted by elandry13:

Originally posted by placidus33:

(joking) Are you sure you click the left mouse button and not the RMB? (end of joke)

Try this to be sure: start a new sandbox in Pilgrim, take the rifle, go out, find a wolf, shoot not to kill but just to aggro. Let him come and engage. Choose the knife (but even the hatchet is ok), and don't press quickly, but just 2 or 3 times very slowly, then you can die happily... it's only a test run.

If you don't see the bar going up each time you press and then going down between clicks, it's a bug or your mouse has something weird happening. If you have a spare one, give it a try. Maybe did you customize your mouse behaviour in some way? Did you invert the behaviour of buttons?
Did you macroed it to do some particular function? It shouldn't be an issue, but who knows?

I see almost 50 hours of gameplay, did you play only this version of the game (v. 426) or not? If not, as much as you can remember, it has always happened or maybe earlier versions did work?

If not resolved = file a bug report

No, I played earlier versions, mainly from the Resolute Outfitter update. It was better then, and sometimes I even got away with only some torn clothing and bruising.

I am using a gaming mouse which has custom button mapping, but I didn't change anything about the LMB or RMB. Only the extra buttons that come with a fancy mouse. I can use my regular mouse, but kind of reluctant because I like having the shortcuts to quickly equip a light or weapon without moving off the WASD controls.

I'll give your suggestion a try. But how will firing the rifle aggro a wolf in Pilgrim? Doesn't the rifle sound make them run away?

I;ve never seen a wolf attack in pilgrim mode..they always run away whimpering...you cannot engage a fight in pilgrim

[placidus33]

Originally posted by Cyndi62:

I;ve never seen a wolf attack in pilgrim mode..they always run away whimpering...you cannot engage a fight in pilgrim

My bad... I did write wrong... I thought I had a memory of a struggle in my first sandox after shooting a wolf and not killing him... but it was 2 months ago...

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by Cyndi62:

I;ve never seen a wolf attack in pilgrim mode..they always run away whimpering...you cannot engage a fight in pilgrim

I have, been in a few myself. But, it was on a much, much eralier version of the game, and it took some real work from me to get it to happen. I basically had to antagonize the heck of the wolves involved, by shooting either with an arrow, or a rifle. but not killing them. run up on them before they could get away, or track them and find them before they bled out, and run up on them. Literally get in their face as they are dying. I think I had to throw decoys at them as well.

Don't know if it still works or not, and it was a ton of work just to test it, and again, it was many, many updates ago when I played with this, so my memory of how I did it is not very fresh.

[Insomniac1977]

I have the same issue. In all my time of playing TLD I've only won maybe 3-5 wolf battles in the past, but the bar would also register some movement. Now no matter how much health, which weapon I use or how fast I click the mouse the bar doesn't budge. I avoid wolves as much as possible, but when an attack does happens it would be nice to feel like I had some chance to win.

[EN16M471C]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Originally posted by Cyndi62:

I;ve never seen a wolf attack in pilgrim mode..they always run away whimpering...you cannot engage a fight in pilgrim

I have, been in a few myself. But, it was on a much, much eralier version of the game, and it took some real work from me to get it to happen. I basically had to antagonize the heck of the wolves involved, by shooting either with an arrow, or a rifle. but not killing them. run up on them before they could get away, or track them and find them before they bled out, and run up on them. Literally get in their face as they are dying. I think I had to throw decoys at them as well.

Don't know if it still works or not, and it was a ton of work just to test it, and again, it was many, many updates ago when I played with this, so my memory of how I did it is not very fresh.

Same here but with a bear. I shot him, he started to ran away. I started to track him. Then he changed his path all of a sudden, ran straight at me and mauled me. I was stupid enough to not have any bandages on me since I was thinking "pfff it's Pilgrim" xD

[xOEDragonx]

I overlooked this thread when I posted one of the exact same issue a few hours ago. I am having the same issue, but it doesn't happen in every single encounter. It's not about the wolf fights being more difficult than before, it's that on some encounters, the bar literally doesn't fill at all. I fought the same wolf two times in one stalker mode game with mixed results (fresh spawn, bare minimum clothing, max stats at spawn, ran straight to the closest wolf). The first time, the bar was NOT filling at all, but I still managed to knock the wolf off in about two seconds. Condition was down to 80% or so. Ran back at the exact same wolf when it calmed down. Second encounter, the bar WAS filling, and it took about five seconds to fend it off. I survived both encounters. But this experiment was triggered when I was casually player stalker and wanted to try to hit a wolf with a rock to test the new mechanic. I was full condition, near full stats and had some extra clothes on-- that's why I was confident enough to walk up to a wolf and pelt rocks at it. I missed, it jumped me. The fight was a solid 10 seconds long as the wolf took me from 100% to 0% condition. Despite my normal button mashing routine, the "FIGHT BACK" bar didn't move even a hair. It was as though I wasn't clicking at all and just letting it kill me. Either there is a bug that only a handful of players must be experiencing during fights, or there are some truly invincible wolves now, at least in stalker.

Also worth noting, I was playing with an Xbox controller and OP with a mouse, so I'm not sure it has to do with the input device itself.