India Map

[BananaKaboom]

I picked up Vurhonga a little while ago and I've really been enjoying it, which got me thinking about that other well-known historical hunting destination and why it hasn't been represented yet. I was completely ignorant about hunting in India, and was surprised to find that since the Wildlife Act of 1972 there really hasn't been any (at least legitimately), mostly because people in the past pretty much loved it too much. Despite this I thought I'd post to see if a particular angle hadn't been considered yet.

India has a lot of bovids and deer to choose from, but more importantly you open up leopards and tigers, which could draw from the work that's been done on pumas and lions. You also create the possibility of elephants and rhinos without having to just tack them on to Vurhonga in the hopes that they would increase sales.

COTW is still promoted on the basis of being the most "ethical" option available, and there really wouldn't be a way to maintain this while also depicting sustainable hunting of these animals in India. To get around this, why not set the reserve in a time period prior to the 1972, when it was still "acceptable"?

According to National Geographic, this could be some time shortly after WWII when apparently anyone who had a gun could join in, or some time between 1875 and 1925, when most of the real damage was done to the tiger population. Really though, you could go with the Jim Corbett period of somewhere between 1909 - 1933, since the story of an army official called upon to hunt dangerous game (and probably other things in the meantime) sounds like it'd be interesting to play. Apparently he also became a conservationist later in life, so much so that the oldest national park in India is named after him, so that at least makes him a more tolerable example to follow and something to build the missions on.

I didn't look into period weapons, so I don't know how much work would be involved in limiting or replacing equipment in the name of period accuracy, of even if that would be a good idea from a gameplay perspective. I can say that I'd be willing to pay extra for a more authentic experience early 20th century experience though, so there's that.

Finally, if the controversy from the hunting of these animals still presents a big problem from a marketing standpoint, why not just donate a percentage of the expansion's sales to an organisation that has demonstrated an impact on tiger conservation? Something like Project Tiger or the Jim Corbett National Park itself. All of this comes from just a glance at the history of hunting in India, so it could be that I'm missing some huge point here. However, the fact is that at one point in time this was a very popular hunting experience, and using those impulses to alleviate the very problem that they created seems like a pretty ethical way to make money.

[Vampire]

I wonder if it is coincidence the DLC Hunting Lodge is based in India....

[BananaKaboom]

Is it? FAQ says Central Europe, unless I'm missing something. I don't have it.

[Snail Rancher]

On the other hand, you have 3 Indian animals on the Parque Fernando map.

Leaving out tigers (they’re more rare than lions), India would be cool as a map. Water buffalo, black bucks, axis deer, leopards, musk deer, jackals or dholes: 6 animals ready to go already, with some minor reskinning on a couple. May be throw in Asiatic lions if appropriate. Honestly though, if they were to do this, I really would want (at most) blackbucks and axis deer (poss. leopards as reskinned pumas), with everything else being new and unique.

[Vampire]

Originally posted by BananaKaboom:

Is it? FAQ says Central Europe, unless I'm missing something. I don't have it.

Just go to the Lodge, then open the Map...indicator says India :)

[El Turista]

Hunting is forbidden in India.

Edit: sorry, I haven't read the "t i m e travel" paragraph.

[BananaKaboom]

Originally posted by Snail Rancher:

On the other hand, you have 3 Indian animals on the Parque Fernando map.

Leaving out tigers (they’re more rare than lions), India would be cool as a map. Water buffalo, black bucks, axis deer, leopards, musk deer, jackals or dholes: 6 animals ready to go already, with some minor reskinning on a couple. May be throw in Asiatic lions if appropriate. Honestly though, if they were to do this, I really would want (at most) blackbucks and axis deer (poss. leopards as reskinned pumas), with everything else being new and unique.

The rarity of the tiger is the main selling point; if they went to all the trouble involved in creating an India DLC and didn't include tigers, it'd pretty much be Vurhonga all over again. They'd release the map with a bunch of the same old herbivores and a re-skinned puma, and we all know the question everyone would be asking.

If we're talking about something really unique, then elephants would be amazing. I think they're beautiful, intelligent animals in real life, but I have no problems whatsoever shooting a virtual one in the face, especially if some money were to go towards a real cause to help them. That could be a terrible idea for reasons I'm not considering, but people talk all the time about conservation hunting, so why not conservation gaming? Pretty unique selling point for the game, if they did it right.

Don't get me wrong, I'm having a lot of fun hunting gemsbok, but last night I was following one through the brush and I heard a low growl and "Warning Call - Lion" popped up. I hadn't even seen a lion yet, and I still haven't, but that one experience and the idea that they're out there along with dangerous buffalo gives me something really unique to look forward to. I wouldn't have purchased Vurhonga if they hadn't been added, and now that I have I'm not even thinking about purchasing PF.

Originally posted by Vampire:

Originally posted by BananaKaboom:

Is it? FAQ says Central Europe, unless I'm missing something. I don't have it.

Just go to the Lodge, then open the Map...indicator says India :)

Really? That is pretty interesting. It is kind of strange that they'd put it in a country with a universal hunting ban.

[Starlack]

India has a Ban on Hunting, so I think it would be very silly. Not to mention most of the native animals to native are endangered in India. While we have endangered animals in game most of them are invasive in the areas you can hunt them, such as Banteng, Hog Deer, Rusa, etc. With the acception of the Lion. Along with this the Elephant is also illegal to hunt and it would be very odd due to the correlations of hunting and ivory poaching