How NOT to be surprised by hunters.

[Zuleica]

A lot of posts claiming hunters are overpowered, have too much of advantage, perfect aim, etc..

First of all the hunters are not managed by any kind of artificial intelligence or machine learning. If they were they would adapt to the players tactics and strategies...they don't.

So you, as a human with an actual intelligence have such an extreme advantage over the poor little algorithm-run hunters that after a while you should not be suffering from them. They will die FAR more often by you than you by them. And if you play on hardcore mode you'll quickly learn how never to die at their hands.

First the five basic skills, learn them, practicd them diligently, never let your attention falter;

1. Situational Awareness (if you watch TV or listen to music while playing you have already failed at this one).

2. Time Management - learn how best to partition your time each ingame day. Fail at this and you suddenly find you have no firewood, or no water, or no food.

3. Risk Management - know what the payoffs for the risks are before you jump in. Evaluate risk and reevaluate constantly with every step you take, make it second nature.

4. Tactical and Strategic Planning - Build your base up high and central to the map. Build a three story watch tower as soon as possible. Plan each day before sunrise then execute your plan. (An old SCUBA proverb; Plan your dive, dive your plan.

5. Operational Security - OPSEC, one of the most important skills in this game, other games, and in RL. Tactically reload, don't skyline yourself. crouch whenever you stop moving. Periodically scan 360 degrees from high ground. Stop to listen often. And when you HAD to pick up logs, reequip your weapon before picking them up. Etc, etc.

Now the hunters specifically. I have never seen more than two groups of rogues spawn and three base builder camps...even on hardcore. On easy I understand there are fewer. On hardcore rogues spawn in up to groups of four.

If you've picked a strategic base location...which means you have a superb view of as much of the map as possible...then at around midnight each ingame day climb your watch tower and spend all of the time to sun up scanning around you with your rifle's zoom. You are looking for new fires, no fires where there use to be fires, the blue glow lights from the hunters (then turn these on and off so you have to watch for a while), and listen for gunshots from the hunters fighting predators.

When dawn hits you should know; a) where all the hunter bases are from having observed them building, b) how many new fires were spotted, and c) how many old fires are no longer. You should also know the general direction these fires are in, how obsured they were as you moved back and forth to give you an idea of about how far away they are.

As you venture forth from your camp maintain high ground as much as possible. If you have to top a ridge then sneak up the ridge stopping and listening for any hunters chopping. Stop and scan everything often with your rifle's zoom.

You should be wary when you're traveling in the direction of fires you spotted and, unless you are going to raid the base building hunters, give them a wide berth.

If you are attacking them make sure you know where the predators are. Unless absolutely necessary it is far less risky NOT to try and utilize the predators to your advantage as that can easily turn bad.

I routinely travel across the map and never engage a hunter. It is because I take the time to figure out where they are and when I don't know where they are I practice the five skills above.

I am rarely surprised by running into hunters. If I am I usually can quickly dispatch them with the judicial use of no more than two medkits and two bandages. I carry a full 10 of each on my hot bar along with 3 or 4 splints.

If you're attacking a group of hunters there is a tactic that works often. If you can find a large mostly flat rock that is fairly tall get up on top of it and crouch. Sneak to the edge and attack. Even if the hunters surround the rock they have a tendency of moving up close which means they can't hit you unless you are near the edge. I just move back and forth and pick them off from there.

Try also to engage the hunters in an open area where they have no bushes or trees. Bushes and trees are not a help to you and if they don't have any they will make themselves pretty easy targets.

Really though, the player has the intelligence. There is no true AI controlling the hunters. The day there IS a real AI controlling video game adversaries then you'll need to level the playing field in all the ways people are complaining about.

[00 Critical]

All GREAT info ;-) +1000

[Zuleica]

And...how to minimize hunter attack damage on your base:

1. Use terrain to your advantage. I find the best location is on the top of the bluffs at the SE side of the map. If you build overhanging the bluffs they hunters cannot throw grenades straight up. This area has the advantage of having the fence to the East preventing attack from that direction. (Eventually the map will expand out in that direction so for new starts after that point other means will be necessary to protect that side.)

2. Judicial use of walls; the right kind of walls and the right distance from your base. Hunters will head to your base in pretty much a straight line from their base. When they reach a structure of yours that prevents them from getting close enough to your BCU to attack they will pace back and forth looking for a way around. However they are limited in how far the will try in each direction before turning back and trying the other way around. I call this 'attack phase frustration' because you are preventing them from transitioning from their pathing phase to their attack phase. The attack phase is that which prompts the warning about hunters attacking your base. Walls should be built far enough away that hunters cannot make the transition to attack phase. A

3. I put doors in my walls centered about where the hunters pace back and forth. Often they will march back and forth in front of the open door letting you shoot at them but giving them a bad angle from which to attack.

4. Build walls high enough that if a hunter attempts to lob a grenade over the trajectory will force it to fall short of your actual base.

5. Build fragile items far from any attack vectors. In the location described above I place my solar panels at the west edge of the second story overhanging the cliff. From the bottom of the cliff it is impossible to lob a grenade up to the roof, hence the panels are safe.

6. Grenades can make it through windows and open doors. I place a wall with offset windows outside of my main wall. There is no clear path through both windows in the inner and outer walls. It also gives me a run from which to shoot but still retreat behind the inner wall when necessary.

All in all good strategic planning in site selection, use of terrain, and good use of walls will drastically reduce or completey nullify hunter attack damage.

[MyProfile]

Do they swim?
How far can they throw?

I'm dead center of what I think to be the SW lake. I've made many assumptions and probably wrongly so.

[Zuleica]

Originally posted by MyProfile:

Do they swim?
How far can they throw?

I'm dead center of what I think to be the SW lake. I've made many assumptions and probably wrongly so.

They cannot swim. I think you are at the SE lake if it is the one near the arch rock in front of the cave.

The lakes are nice and all but make a really poor first base. They offer you no good situational awareness, you just can't see much of anything from them. You're better off on high ground with a good view of much of the map over the convenience of the water at your doorstep.

At one time I tested how far walls should be from your base and how high they should be so that grenades can't be lobbed over. You'll just have to experiment with it as terrain makes a huge difference.

[Trooper Bri]

Very good advice from Z.
My favorite base is on top of the twin rocks on the eastern side of the map. I spend time as well looking for rogue spawns at night, and the hunters have zero chance of hitting anything but the entrance. That can be repaired easily since it's clad in alloy sheets.

[Zuleica]

Originally posted by Trooper Bri:

Very good advice from Z.
My favorite base is on top of the twin rocks on the eastern side of the map. I spend time as well looking for rogue spawns at night, and the hunters have zero chance of hitting anything but the entrance. That can be repaired easily since it's clad in alloy sheets.

Nice :) That's what strategic thinking and planning gets for you, I doubt you have many problems with hunters raiding your base either.

[Casper]

yes the hunters can swim as i have seen them swim across the pond /lake where my base is,the green low lands center lake/pond

[Zuleica]

Originally posted by CASPER:

yes the hunters can swim as i have seen them swim across the pond /lake where my base is,the green low lands center lake/pond

Ahh well. Still low lands not the best strategic location...

[Casper]

how so i can see most of the area as i can see all three hunter bases from where i am ,i can go from my base top floor to either side of the big rocks in the middle .

[Chef]

There is a hunter base on the East side of the pond I built above and within sniping distance of my base tower. I start the battle by snipining one, the others rush my base and often swim accross the pond where they are sitting ducks for my sniping. Shoot swimmers, loot their base.

[TOMMY GUNNER 01]

can the hunters have sound added to them, when they walk snapping twig branches, that would HELP find them quicker, before they take aim on a Human.

[Subarc]

Originally posted by Zuleica:

Originally posted by CASPER:

yes the hunters can swim as i have seen them swim across the pond /lake where my base is,the green low lands center lake/pond

Ahh well. Still low lands not the best strategic location...

Yes hunters can swim, but they fail at it miserably sometimes. Its actually pretty comical to watch them flail around while you take shots at them. Its almost like they forget how to swim sometimes after swimming half way across the pond and then they start thrashing around like they are drowning.

[keyvin]

The fun part is watching them drown.

[00 Critical]

Now that is something I have not seen unless you count when I fill them with holes ;-)

[MyProfile]

10 4 thanks for the great info.