Traps

[twakda]

How do you place traps, the game gives an icon on the map that only lets you place it there.I read in a forum that if the game tells you "traps cannot be placed here" it is not referring to the entire area, just the spot you're standing on. And says to step away from that spot and try again.Is there a button I need to push and can I set them anywher I want ?

[MentalRaptors]

Traps are limited to the spots with an icon bearing a spiked circle AFAIK.

What you read in the forum means that you're standing in the spot that the trap would occupy if it would be built, just try approaching the spot from another angle if you can't place a trap right away. The required button will pop up as normal.

[Alucard †]

To clarify you mean great hunt traps?

Cause regular traps act like "mines" have even similar aoe radius to FC3 mines (logic lol)

And they can be placed with throwable key anywhere on terrain as long as its not obstructed by a tree, rock or too close to a wall.

[Akunamatata]

OK, to clarify the issue I'll explain it from the start since you apparently confused two different things together, as two previous commenters noted.

1. You have traps as a weapon, exactly as any other weapon you select from your weapon wheel. Traps become available after you bring Woga the Crafter to your village and build him a hut; you must use 12 hardwood, 8 animal hides and 6 bones to craft your 1st trap, after that it's only 2 hardwood for a trap (or for 2 traps after you learn "Double traps" skill).

By default you can carry only 2 traps, to carry more you need to craft and upgrade hunter belt, up to 8 traps (6 in survival mode).

Once you have traps in your inventory, you can plant them with your middle mouse button (scroll wheel). Traps share the same slot with baits on your weapon wheel. To select traps instead of baits press and hold Q to open weapon wheel, hover over the bait and scroll (BTW, the same goes for choosing any weapon from any slot that has more than 1 weapons in it (clubs; different types of bows, bombs and throwing shards; bait/trap)). To cycle between shards/bombs/bait of trap you just scroll (to see your current middle mouse button weapon click "R" and look at lower right corner of your screen just above the main weapon icon).
To plant a trap press&hold your scroll wheel to hold the trap in front of you, release to plant ("R" to cancel). You can plant a trap wherever you want unless the game says otherwise (rare spots with too rocky/uneven/wet surface, moving just a bit from that exact spot usually helps).

After you planted your trap, red spiky icon will appear above it, so you'll be able to pull it back from the ground if it wasn't triggered and you no longer need it there. Note that you or friendlies can't trigger your traps, but you or they will take damage if you/they are too close to the trap when it's triggered by an animal or enemy (traps have the same exact mechanics as mines in modern setting games, but with smaller kill radius).
Your traps will deliver more damage after you learn "Vicious traps" skill.

2. There are also STATIONARY “pre-prepared” traps in areas where you hunt Great beasts (Bloodfang Sabretooth/ Great Scar Bear/ Snowblood Wolfs/ Bloodtusk Mammoth).
They’re marked with white spiky icons and can be activated only at their exact spots (and you can’t pull them out). You don’t have to have traps in your inventory to use those pre-prepared traps. They cover longer strips of ground than your regular traps and seem to deliver more damage. They are not reusable, once they’ve been triggered, they’re gone.