Is this a good place for my cougar stand and new obsidian mining mini-base?

[hyperion]

For real, this is the best game ever, the things that happen that you have the stories to tell about, it never ends. There is a new adventure every day.

This evening, I finally got my cougar stand and new mini-base for obsidian mining started.

Did I pick the right location?

Well, I located my first obsidian ore and started looking around... hmmm, maybe I should put it there?

So I place down my cougar kill stand (I already know they are up here, I saw several the last couple times I was up here), and started building my first try at a mining base. I know this will change. But I just placed a platform I could jump onto from my cougar stand, put up a wall, a ceiling, and placed my new BCU for my 3rd base. I swear you cannot even make this stuff up. As soon as that BCU completed and the power kicked on, the next thing I heard was a growl, a very distinctive low growl, so I crouched down and started looking around.

I know this screenshot is dark, because it was pitch black dark out and it was starting to get cold up there.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420700909

So, yeah, cougar, right there. I'm crouched down. He is looking around for me. Then I realized, you can see in the screenshot, it's cold up there and I realized I don't have anything with me to start a fire and I am going to freeze to death whether I kill the cat or not.

So, I'm thinking, I have to run back to my other mini base 300 yards away. I'm not sure how far the cat chased me, but I made it.

The craziest stuff happens in this game, that is why I love it so much.

[cougar206]

Obviously I can't tell where that is, but if a cougar is around it probably is a good spot. But really the idea of a cougar stand is outdated. It used to be that if you got on your stand the cougar would come and try to bash the stand while you shot him. But now he will run off giving you little chance to shoot him.

My way of killing cougars is simple and safe, no stand needed. Find a cougar, get close enough to see his HP. Then take the rifle and retreat to LONG range. Shoot him from LONG range and run a bit, he will never catch up to you, quitting the chase before he gets close. Then whatever is needed based on HP and let him charge to the shotgun to finish him. So 180 hp cougar with stock weapons is LONG range rifle, then bow and shotgun when he charges (rifle -49 leaves 131, bow -35 leaves 96, shotgun kills). 205 hp is LONG range rifle, the rifle and shotgun on the charge( rifle - 49 leaves 156, rifle -49 leaves 107 for the shotgun). 230 hp is LONG range rifle, LONG range rifle, then bow and shotgun (rifle -49 leaves 181, rifle -49 leaves 132, bow -35 leaves 95 for the shotgun). Keep in mind that between shots the cougar will regen a few hp. So just like a level 3 wolf at 105 hp could die to three 35 point bow shots, don't count on it, he only need to regen 1 hp to make it take 4 shots.

This is quicker and safer than using a stand the way the game now plays.

I could make a video of how I do this if you would like.

[UnderJolt]

My obsidian base/ cougar blind is also my lithium base.

[hyperion]

Originally posted by cougar206:

Obviously I can't tell where that is, but if a cougar is around it probably is a good spot. But really the idea of a cougar stand is outdated. It used to be that if you got on your stand the cougar would come and try to bash the stand while you shot him. But now he will run off giving you little chance to shoot him.

My way of killing cougars is simple and safe, no stand needed. Find a cougar, get close enough to see his HP. Then take the rifle and retreat to LONG range. Shoot him from LONG range and run a bit, he will never catch up to you, quitting the chase before he gets close. Then whatever is needed based on HP and let him charge to the shotgun to finish him. So 180 hp cougar with stock weapons is LONG range rifle, then bow and shotgun when he charges (rifle -49 leaves 131, bow -35 leaves 96, shotgun kills). 205 hp is LONG range rifle, the rifle and shotgun on the charge( rifle - 49 leaves 156, rifle -49 leaves 107 for the shotgun). 230 hp is LONG range rifle, LONG range rifle, then bow and shotgun (rifle -49 leaves 181, rifle -49 leaves 132, bow -35 leaves 95 for the shotgun). Keep in mind that between shots the cougar will regen a few hp. So just like a level 3 wolf at 105 hp could die to three 35 point bow shots, don't count on it, he only need to regen 1 hp to make it take 4 shots.

This is quicker and safer than using a stand the way the game now plays.

I could make a video of how I do this if you would like.

It's west of the tall waterfall on Birchwood Lake on the east side of those big mountains. If you look at the Subsistence rough map, it says cougar country all across that area. I've roamed all over it and that is the only place so far I have found obsidian.

Thanks for the tips. I didn't realize their behavior changed that much, it was back in 2017 when I made my cougar stand before. It's hard to believe how long it has been.

I used to shoot wolves from my front deck at my main base (I'm built on the lake), but it's no longer necessary, now I can kill them with one shot of my shotgun. Cougars I am still really scared of, the only time I got close to one, I shot him almost point blank in the face with my shotgun and he just pounced on me. I managed to run away, but he almost killed me with just that one attack. If I could not have gotten away, I would have been dead.

So, that stand I have, if he gets near me, will he jump on the stand or just run away if I shoot at him? I think that is what you are saying.

[hyperion]

Originally posted by UnderJolt:

My obsidian base/ cougar blind is also my lithium base.

I've found lithium in a lot of places, but never obsidian anywhere except the rocks right around that area.

[cougar206]

Most likely the cougar will pound your stand once and then run away.

The area you are talking about is not what I would consider a good obsidian spot.

[cougar206]

These are what I would call Obsidian hot spots. The key thing is when you go there you don't want to look just once around these areas. The respawns will happen pretty quickly. So search the area, come back in a minute or two and search again. Keep doing it. in either of those areas I can easily get 30+ obsidian a day most of the time. I believe it is best (but can't prove it) to clear any ores off of the primary rocks in these areas to encourage respawns.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QlHMDExiJgadCh06E4yRBv-22_4foUgG/view?usp=drive_link

The area that you are talking about has 3 cougars in it as you go west from the waterfall. They are 3 distinct spawns. The cougars spawn twice a day if you kill them. So you can conceivably get 6 kills a day, 5 is more realistic due to time factors. So a blind doesn't work very well for this reason also. You would need several and would need to find the cougars within their spawn area.

[Aaron-L (Raw's Nephew)]

This may help some players with the Cougar locations and their approximate roaming areas. Cougars 1 and 2 overlap and 2 and 3 overlap slightly. They are in a SW direction from the Birchwood Lake. The two best spots for Obsidian spawning on several rocks the the area, are in Cougar No 4 location and No 7 location, above the Waterfall. There is Obsidian right along the Snow line on the Map but just limited spawn numbers.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420875281
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420876775
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420877304
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420877701
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420878099

Cougar206 has given you some good information, but that is based on his style of play and there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. However, if you are hungry for more Cougars as I was, I watched and timed their re-spawn rate. It was 100% 10 minutes. Therefore, if you start at dawn or late evening, and stay in the area you can kill them 3 times.

The video I did, I’ve done dozens and dozens of times when I was harvesting for the Sinew. I actually preferred to start in the evening, that way I could get 9 Cougars easily because sometimes it may take you a few minutes to locate them, as they can spawn anywhere in their designated zone and you can lose too much daylight. Of course you could always do the whole Cougar run and get all 7 of them.

However, with limited weapon power as you have, it may take a bit longer but softening the Cougar from distance and finishing with the shotgun is easy. Just drop a couple of sets of stairs in the 3 areas and carry 3 with you in case, and I think you can still get the 9 with practice.

(Unedited Version) 39 minutes
https://youtu.be/ISJb7zfm7U8

(Edited Version) 18 minutes
https://youtu.be/LPz8XBgNoCc

[cougar206]

Nice post Raw. If you say you are sure cougars respawn every 10 minutes I believe it.

In your video you were saying the cougar may not respawn normally if you were in his area if I understood correctly. I have long felt that they couldn't spawn close to you.

[hyperion]

Thanks for the great maps!

Here is where my 2nd and 3rd bases are. The one farthest east if right at the top of the tall waterfall near the Birchwoods and Lake. The one to the west is the place where there is a lot of obsidian on the rocks all around there. And a LOT of cougars.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421781794

Crestlyn Outlook is the area.

I am not sure where Hudson Mountain is. Is that in the far west new part of the map?

[cougar206]

Yes, the far west.

[Aaron-L (Raw's Nephew)]

Originally posted by cougar206:

Nice post Raw. If you say you are sure cougars respawn every 10 minutes I believe it.

In your video you were saying the cougar may not respawn normally if you were in his area if I understood correctly. I have long felt that they couldn't spawn close to you.

Thanks and yes, 10 minutes from the time you kill them. You were not wrong when thinking they don't spawn near you. I deducted that there are two possibilities for not finding them after the 10 minutes.
(1) Rouges may have spawned in the area, which will cause the Cougars to spawn or move some distance away from that designated spot. (2) I was in the spawn spot at the time and disrupted it.
The one thing I haven’t figured out, was when disrupting their spawn spot, does it just try the next location on its list or does it pause for a short time before trying again. Which could explain for not seeing them straight away. As in the video, I skipped and went to the 3rd Cougar and it was there so the other two should have spawned back. Returning to the locations and sure enough you see it in an area I had already checked.

[cougar206]

So do you imagine that all animals respawn in 10 minutes? Bears, wolves etc.

[Aaron-L (Raw's Nephew)]

Originally posted by cougar206:

So do you imagine that all animals respawn in 10 minutes? Bears, wolves etc.

Sorry, I have no idea about other Animals, maybe others, could answer that.

If you didn't already know, when you build in a spawn zone, they will spawn in an open area of your Base and they can be either docile or aggressive. Bears (as in my Avatar) and Moose are more docile and you can stand beside them. However, Wolves on the other hand are more like my friend's ex-wife, always nasty.

If you check your Game Launch Log, (Subsistence/UDKGame/Logs/Launch.log file) You may see things like the following. (Just my assumption)

([2569.02] DevSpawn: SpawnActor failed because of collision at the spawn location)

I have seen dozens of spawn fails in my log over the months, so that kind of speaks for itself, either you were at the spawn point at the time or you've placed an object or structure there..

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Craft a wood stove at your mainbase carry over to hide.
Wolves just stay away mainly.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3014659455
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719655521
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719668831
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719676653

[hyperion]

Originally posted by Jaunitta 🌸:

Craft a wood stove at your mainbase carry over to hide.
Wolves just stay away mainly.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3014659455
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719655521
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719668831
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719676653

Thanks! That is a great tip to make a stove at my main base and take it up there. I need to do that for both my 2nd bases.

I was just up there and was able to mine some more obsidian and lithium.

I'm not sure exactly what you are doing with your 'hide'. Is the cougar actually trying to jump up on that?