Tips for hunting

[cererin]

The hunting I can do is stone a squirrel until he falls off and I can kill him. I can't even kill grouses. If I try to sneak up on an animal it will detect me or I won't be able to take a good shot, and trying to chase an animal down is impossible. Do I need to buy a bow for hunting or am I doing something wrong?

[A Nickel]

Hunting small game is usually done like you've been trying. For larger game, you'll do well to learn how to endurance hunt. Basically, chasing the animal until it runs out of energy to fight back.

[madvillain]

Your best bet is persistance. Only one time out of five or so hunts are successful for me, and that's even with good equipment. But it only takes one elk to feed you for months so just keep trying.

Yes, a bow is pretty much required for taking down large game IMO. Tracking for me rarely results in anything other than walking in circles and eventually losing the trail. I suppose I need more practice with it but my method of hunting is this:

walk from mountain top to mountain top on zoomed out map until you spot large prey. Zoom in and this part is really tricky and varies every time -- you gotta get within 4-5 squares of the animal without it fleeing. Use patience and stealth if required. Make sure you have both your bow and your arrow equipped so you don't lose a turn. When the animal is in clear range 4-5 tiles away take your best shot. I usually try to put a broadhead arrow right into its gut or legs. A well placed arrow will literally rip a leg apart and from that point on the beast is yours.

If you miss it will flee and you can try and track. usually I just start again from the zoomed out map.

I'm hardly an expert but this works well enough for me to stock up food rather easily. rarely have to fish anymore.

[volcanopossum]

I've never gotten the trick for endurance hunting, I always seem to lose the animals for good at some point, so I tend to stick to trapping until my bow skill is high enough. But endurance hunting is definitely the way to go. Note that you can use the scroll wheel to zoom out a bit, which helps when spotting where the animal went.

[Othobrithol]

Here's what I can recall off the top of my head about playing the endurance game.

• Try for the inital skill shot like madvillain details, If that fails follow the tracks.
  
• Tracking skill is actually important despite what people think. It seems to change the range and detail of tracks and affect how badly time and weather erode them.
  
• Don't waste time to eat, drink, pick herbs or take detours to collect arrows off screen.
  
• Watch how the animal's tracks are moving and try to cut corners. Animals often zig zag wasting moves.
  
• Minimize the frequency you actually examine the tracks (Alt-T) since it requires some movement and/or time. Only do so when you must. Track graphics include direction.
  
• Once the animal thinks it has gotten away it slows down and might circle around a bit. Darker tracks are fresher as well. So...if you come across a suddenly darker cluster that does a quick circle, the animal is likely near.
  
• Either start sneaking and go for another shot, or run a bit toward the animal so it hears you and starts running again.
  
• When it runs it is going to run pretty much straight away from you, so you have a little control over it's direction of travel and can herd it a little into a fence or a river/lake if you stay on the oppositr side of its tracks from where you want it to go.

As to grouses etc... I generally think hunting birds to be a waste of time. They give so little meat and you lose so many arrows it isn't worth it. Chucking a rock might get a kill but it eats time better spent on a more reliable method. The only bird kills I get are from the cluster of loop snares around my fields (for hares, but they catch mostly grouse and ravens).

[madvillain]

Good points from Othobrithol wrt to hunting birds. Grouse only give you .2lbs of skin and 2 cuts of meat, hardly worth wasting arrows and time on. Only time I will fire at a bird is if it's sleeping and I get right next to it so I can't miss. Otherwise it's just not worth it. Same with squirrels although if you're desperate you can just run them up a tree and fire rocks at them until they fall unconcious then grab the meat.

The Caparcaiile (sp?!) is sorta worth going after as you can get 8 cuts of meat from it.

Badgers are good to hunt as they move fairly slow and you can get 12 cuts from them and 2lbs of skin. Rarely see them on the zoomed out map though.

Wild boar is great if you can find them.

Hunting elk and stags is the most difficult but potentially the most rewarding as they give well over 100 cuts of meat and usually over 20lbs of skin. Can make a full set of fur gear with one elk skin or if you're rich like my current guy you just use them as blankets :D.

Forest Raindeer are fairly easy to hunt once you get a feel for their behavior. They move in packs and usually if you come at them from the tile next to them (on the big map) you can stealithly position yourself so they will walk right by your hideout and once they get within 3-4 tiles you let'er rip with the bow and usually can maim them enough to easily track and kill.

My current character had a helluva starting roll and has 90% bow, 65% spear and is 73" 141 lbs (he's a big ass Owl Tribe member!) I usually walk around with a 5-7% weight penalty at any given time and I am still using my "rough northern bow" that I started with. I've had a lot of success with this guy. I've literally got around 500lbs of unused clothes (never will run out of cord) that I've ganked off warriors and other guys.

High bow skill + northern bow = winning.

[cererin]

Originally posted by madvillain:

Good points from Othobrithol wrt to hunting birds. Grouse only give you .2lbs of skin and 2 cuts of meat, hardly worth wasting arrows and time on. Only time I will fire at a bird is if it's sleeping and I get right next to it so I can't miss. Otherwise it's just not worth it. Same with squirrels although if you're desperate you can just run them up a tree and fire rocks at them until they fall unconcious then grab the meat.

The Caparcaiile (sp?!) is sorta worth going after as you can get 8 cuts of meat from it.

Badgers are good to hunt as they move fairly slow and you can get 12 cuts from them and 2lbs of skin. Rarely see them on the zoomed out map though.

Wild boar is great if you can find them.

Hunting elk and stags is the most difficult but potentially the most rewarding as they give well over 100 cuts of meat and usually over 20lbs of skin. Can make a full set of fur gear with one elk skin or if you're rich like my current guy you just use them as blankets :D.

Forest Raindeer are fairly easy to hunt once you get a feel for their behavior. They move in packs and usually if you come at them from the tile next to them (on the big map) you can stealithly position yourself so they will walk right by your hideout and once they get within 3-4 tiles you let'er rip with the bow and usually can maim them enough to easily track and kill.

My current character had a helluva starting roll and has 90% bow, 65% spear and is 73" 141 lbs (he's a big ass Owl Tribe member!) I usually walk around with a 5-7% weight penalty at any given time and I am still using my "rough northern bow" that I started with. I've had a lot of success with this guy. I've literally got around 500lbs of unused clothes (never will run out of cord) that I've ganked off warriors and other guys.

High bow skill + northern bow = winning.

I don't feel like making another topic, so do you know how long a bastard sword lasts if you use it as an axe? I accidentally started off as a driik nobleman.

[madvillain]

As far as I can tell there is little if any durability in the game other than on clothes. I haven't had a single tool ever break on me.

I think the slowdown penalty from using a ill-suited tool is all the pain you'll suffer, which can be plenty. I've only had the game a couple of weeks got a lot of hours but I could be wrong here.

That said, I haven't seen any dura on tools or weapons.

[Jimboblordofeskimos]

Originally posted by mercennariorum:

The hunting I can do is stone a squirrel until he falls off and I can kill him. I can't even kill grouses. If I try to sneak up on an animal it will detect me or I won't be able to take a good shot, and trying to chase an animal down is impossible. Do I need to buy a bow for hunting or am I doing something wrong?

Javelins are good for a starting character, get within 4 squares or so if you can then take your shot, if you hit, try and chase it down, if not, you might as well give up and go look for something else.

And yeah, ignore the birds, ive shot them when they are a tile or 2 away with a bow, but its really not worth it.