Dangers of Overpopulation

[Geronimo]

Some players that are experiencing low populations are asking devs to add more animals extending the max cap. They don't realize they can just restart their game, or that their own interaction with animals and need zones can solve their problem. Adding more animals will really just place more animals in the same areas in the herds already there now, and more animals that the careless hunter is also not going to find. The danger of over populating is the stressing of game engine, and those areas and maps that already show GPS drops when there are too many rabbits, and deer herds, ruining the game for those who don't have population issues because they learned how to resolve them. More animals for you to lose on your map isn't going to help your hunting, it's just going to strain your system further for no reason.

[TamponTimmy]

Strain my system? Its a computer, not an old donkey. Its not going to break because I have a few extra deer on my map. My GPU runs at 100% whatever the game is doing.


Overpopulation is a problem I can solve very very easily. Having entire areas of my map with no tracks, need zones or animals isn't.

[Funky Stunt]

Firstly, no-one should need to restart to fix their game. That's just nonsense.

As for your other comments, animals are on rails and if you're not near the rail line, you come up blank. It's an issue and always has been an issue. It's easy for experienced players to overlook this glaring fact only because of perks and experience. Try watching a region at render range and watch animals literally script themselves in and out of the zone. Did it yesterday. SMH.

As for strain, my i7-8700 is literally fast asleep in this. What the do you think people are using? Extra animals won't "strain the system" unless it's a poor one to begin with. GFX might tax the GPU, a few extra animals certainly won't tax the CPU.

Making them *actually* wander might though. But that's not going to happen.

[Geronimo]

Disagree with both of you, if u have high end systems maybe u don't experience the stress but if you aren't aware how graphics and AI can cause game engine stress than u need to do some reading, not argue with my logic. Lol many other people have slow motion issues in certain reserve areas, and when getting close to large animsl groups will also slow down. So I have no idea why you are rebuking.

[TamponTimmy]

???

Ok, So I have a ryzen 1400 and an RX580. Its a mid-range system. I also have a 4k monitor.

But I realise my RX580 isn't going to push pixels around this game at 4k with any great haste. So I play this game on 1080p. I also turn off a few particle effects like fog and this gets me up to a nice smooth 60fps. My monitor is only 60hz so winner winner, chicken dinner.

Now if you are having slow motion issues, you need to turn down your settings to those at which your system can run. I used a program called MSI afterburner to tune the settings when I first got the game.

There is no straining. Sure, on the Africa map when I look at a building I can see drops of FPS to the mid 40's because the devs are not the most talented on earth, but by and large, the game runs fine. My computer is not going to catch fire any time soon because the devs added more deer.

[Geronimo]

Oh sry guy, I didn't know this was all about you. Real happy your system isn't strained and everyone else is now relieved. LOL. KIDDING. So you think that adding more animals to run away with the ones already there is a good idea whether it strains other people's systems or not. Okay then great to know!

[TamponTimmy]

No one's system is strained by adding more animals. They render away when farther than 400m.

Your entire argument is predicated on this notion that your computer is going to have an asthma attack if there are more deer on the map. And you are arguing against a fix that some players need for better game enjoyment, based on your own misconceptions of how a computer works.

If you don't want more animals because it'll make the game easier ... that's a valid argument, but 'strained system' is ridiculous.

[Funky Stunt]

Originally posted by Geronimo:

Disagree with both of you, if u have high end systems maybe u don't experience the stress but if you aren't aware how graphics and AI can cause game engine stress than u need to do some reading, not argue with my logic. Lol many other people have slow motion issues in certain reserve areas, and when getting close to large animsl groups will also slow down. So I have no idea why you are rebuking.

It's pretty simple. Any system slowing down to population now is a poor system anyway and having more is unlikely to make any difference anyway.

It definitely won't have any affect on any half decent system. You can literally run tens of thousands of agents when they are on rails.

And you really need to stop treating people like they're stupid, particularly new guys - who may not be new. Yes, agents are CPU intensive. There are not enough agents in CoTW for any serious CPU load to occur.

As I said, My CPU is fast asleep. Population is not going to kill even a nominal system.

[Graubart]

Folks, learn hunting, simple!

There are more than enough animals on any map in this game. If you don't find them, it's you who fails, not the engine and not your computer.And did it even ever come to your mind that it might be a feature that animals do not line up in queus, right in front of your cabin door?

[BUCKSHOT]

@OP - Time of day matters. Make sure that you're attending the need zones either just before the need zone period starts, or right towards the end of it so you can pick animals off as they travel away from it.

Originally posted by Graubart:

Folks, learn hunting, simple!

There are more than enough animals on any map in this game. If you don't find them, it's you who fails, not the engine and not your computer.And did it even ever come to your mind that it might be a feature that animals do not line up in queus, right in front of your cabin door?

You say that, but I thought I'd just chill out in a random hunting stand yesterday and within 15 minutes I'd harvested 5 Elk, including a diamond (my first), a moose (female) and coyote. I guess I got real lucky!

[Alter_Schwede_62]

As I read, f.e. there is an issue at Callburn, which is for many people empty since the last update.
As I found out is, that many animals are running around the two little lakes of "The Mines of Norden", left of the word NORDEN on the Layton map.

I saw around 100 animals at these lakes, Elk, Black/Whitetails and rabbits.

These 100 animals broke my XBOX One X down to Freeze Frame Mode.
This was absolut awful to watch and play!

I never saw that many animals at one location, 30 to 40 yes, but not about 100.
Even with 30 to 40 animals the XBOX One X starts to go in slow motion mode, but 100 animals...
I like the new kind of path finding of the animals, but EW should implement, too, that not too many animal can be at one location.
So first the animal spread would be much more balanced (no complete empty large aeras any more), and second it wouldn't be possible any more, that about 100 animals would be at the same location.
That surely should be prevented!
So please EW!

[Funky Stunt]

Originally posted by Alter_Schwede_62:

These 100 animals broke my XBOX One X down to Freeze Frame Mode.
......
That surely should be prevented!
So please EW!

I've never seen close to that on the PC so I'm guessing if you had a 100 on a console and it killed your frames, devs need to fix that.

Is it worth telling them of this on their official site? Be awesome if you could show them 100 animals too. That would come as somewhat of a surprise I think.

[Alter_Schwede_62]

Yes until last sunday in 6 months playing CotW each day 30 - 60 minutes I saw up to 30 or 40 animals at one surrounding, and even that much animals force XBOXes to much lower framerates than 60fps. I would say that around 30 to 40 animals let an XBOX One X run on about 10 to 15fps. Even that is really not good to have fun.

The 100 animals let my XBOX One X run on 1 frame all 1 to 2 seconds. It was absolutely awful and had nothing anymore to do with playing a game.

This behaviour starts even when you walk into the range, where the "computer" starts to render all those animals, even if you at the moment are not able to see even one of them, because you start to walk over a hill and you are still behind that hill.
But if you come over the hill and start to see the lake, and of course the animals, everything is clear, why you had to walk since about 1 minute in one frame per one or two second mode.

No, i cannot show them pictures, because I had to fight very much emotional to find out, what the hell is braking down my XBOX One X that much. BTW Still I am completely disappointed about, what happened last sunday. Really! I do not wanna do this any more.

But feel free to take a look at these two lakes. First (at 6am) I walked up to the lake to the left of the word NORDEN. There I shot some animals, and after the rest was gone, I went over to the left to the two smaller lakes. There the desaster started...

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Alter_Schwede_62:

Yes until last sunday in 6 months playing CotW each day 30 - 60 minutes I saw up to 30 or 40 animals at one surrounding, and even that much animals force XBOXes to much lower framerates than 60fps. I would say that around 30 to 40 animals let an XBOX One X run on about 10 to 15fps. Even that is really not good to have fun.

The 100 animals let my XBOX One X run on 1 frame all 1 to 2 seconds. It was absolutely awful and had nothing anymore to do with playing a game.

This behaviour starts even when you walk into the range, where the "computer" starts to render all those animals, even if you at the moment are not able to see even one of them, because you start to walk over a hill and you are still behind that hill.
But if you come over the hill and start to see the lake, and of course the animals, everything is clear, why you had to walk since about 1 minute in one frame per one or two second mode.

No, i cannot show them pictures, because I had to fight very much emotional to find out, what the hell is braking down my XBOX One X that much. BTW Still I am completely disappointed about, what happened last sunday. Really! I do not wanna do this any more.

But feel free to take a look at these two lakes. First (at 6am) I walked up to the lake to the left of the word NORDEN. There I shot some animals, and after the rest was gone, I went over to the left to the two smaller lakes. There the desaster started...

and that is exactly what i mean by strained systems...i use xbox too atlar.

but according to some posters here, the number of animals and AI does not affect the game engine, so we must be imagining our issues.

anyway in spite of the arguers, OP is not meant to insult new players, I was one too, its meant to offer advice that might help them. something that many in this forum offer regularly.

[Funky Stunt]

Originally posted by Geronimo:

and that is exactly what i mean by strained systems...i use xbox too atlar.

but according to some posters here, the number of animals and AI does not affect the game engine, so we must be imagining our issues.

anyway in spite of the arguers, OP is not meant to insult new players, I was one too, its meant to offer advice that might help them. something that many in this forum offer regularly.

You're being rather abrasive and obfuscating what was said. The answers we gave pertain to PC, not consoles.

You can't take a lazy swing at PC players answering your countless console related threads - which should be in the console section if you want console related answers.

PC do not suffer the same fate you claim unless they are poor systems. If you have an issue with it, take it up with devs in the proper place.

[Silky Rough]

Sure looks funny all these console peasants in the computer section talking of crap performance.