Animals all clump together far away from base....

[Project Danny]

one thing i have noticed is the longer i play the less and less animals there are and the harder the game gets...

now the animals are not being killed off by my hunters... no... instead they are all clumped in huge groups around a lake in the corner of the map far from my base...

at the start of the game there is tons of animals everythings fine but after an hour or so in the animals become less and less and all start clumping nexto the first lake they see....

Im seeing groups of lions and wolfs nexto deer and bears all in one big cluster around a lake this is not very realistic??

Could you maybe look into this or something and maybe make animals not clump together? its really making me lose my motivation to play when i know there is a time limit i have to fight against or i starve.... either i just rush to get tech to make bread or i starve and lose all my progress because theres no animals anymore...

Anyone else had this problem? got any fix? thanks

[Agent Orange]

The animals are scared of humans and will avoid them (maybe because humans tend to be hostile towards animals and often even skin them). If you have large groups of humans roaming around, gathering resources and cutting down the trees that animals need for living space, the animals will seek other regions of the map with less human activity.

While you occupy more and more land with your humans, the animals are forced into free corners of the map where they can roam around. In wildlife, predators only hunt when they are hungry, so it is common to have predators and their prey around the same water source.

In short, the area where you hunt, cut trees, fish, gather stones, fruit and cut grass widens over time because you have more mouths to feed. Animals will avoid this area and are forced into further away regions. When there are only few water sources for them, they might cluster at that water source, e.g. a lake or large streams.

[Project Danny]

Originally posted by Agent Orange:

The animals are scared of humans and will avoid them (maybe because humans tend to be hostile towards animals and often even skin them). If you have large groups of humans roaming around, gathering resources and cutting down the trees that animals need for living space, the animals will seek other regions of the map with less human activity.

While you occupy more and more land with your humans, the animals are forced into free corners of the map where they can roam around. In wildlife, predators only hunt when they are hungry, so it is common to have predators and their prey around the same water source.

In short, the area where you hunt, cut trees, fish, gather stones, fruit and cut grass widens over time because you have more mouths to feed. Animals will avoid this area and are forced into further away regions. When there are only few water sources for them, they might cluster at that water source, e.g. a lake or large streams.

Ok thanks.

So would making an outpost far from my main base work for animal hunting?

Maybe place 1 tent (for sleeping) a well for drinking a storage hut and a food and skin dryer far away from my main base but near the huge clump of animals and set a job for hunting will this work?

[Agent Orange]

It sounds like a good idea, yes. Unfortunately, the game will cause problems with this. You will have people going back and forth that long way to the dryer and storage and lose valuable work force, because it will be impossible to micro manage your people.

Having a well on their way might be the best solution for now. Disable the "gather water" from that well, so only hunters nearby will drink from it.

I am afraid you will have to sent your hunters far away manually. Try to time it after a raider attack, because it will cost you your settlement when raiders attack and half your men are out on a hunt.

Or you wait until a group of animals gets close to your settlement.

Edit: Sometimes it also helps to give animals one side of the river and not gather resources there, kind of like a natural reserve park.

[dakinidream]

Outposts don't work, people will spend lot time to walk from one place to the orther, or worse, transport items for nothing, don't !

But yes, the game is done in a way you have to rush for techs to avoid starvation. Unfortunately you can let you all the time you want in early eras. AI is what it is, so gameplay is kinda limited.

[Project Danny]

Yeah this is freaking stupid.... I cant even get the tech to unlock bread making because by the time I unlock it all my people are dead because of starvation or being cold because theres no animals to kill because they are all clumped up on the other side of the map.

This is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ joke. The A.I in this game is broken as ♥♥♥♥. I'm starting to think I should just get a refund.

I love animal hunting and yes I do want to unlock farms eventually but I hate that I'm forced to rush things because of broken game mechanics!

Why oh why must the damn animals be so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ far away.

They should make a building called a hunters hut. You place it and set how many hunters you want in it. Then the hut gets filled with enough rations and water for long hunts. Then the hunters go out on their own and bring back large hauls of meat and goods. Without starving or being killed of thirst.

This whole *Put a circle here to assign jobs* mechanic is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ass.

[Operation40]

Originally posted by Castania:

Yeah this is freaking stupid.... I cant even get the tech to unlock bread making because by the time I unlock it all my people are dead because of starvation or being cold because theres no animals to kill because they are all clumped up on the other side of the map.

you have to keep your population very limited until farming is unlocked (<20 imo). I suppose this is realistic. But it slows the game down.. a lot. I basically go straight for it after getting the dryer racks and composite tools (gotta cut down trees to farm)

I've been using my earned tech points to unlock new eras instead of filling out every tech in the current one, because the trader will bring those other techs to me. That speeds things up greatly.

the 2nd era needs a new food source - small game traps.. imo.

[Agent Orange]

It is possible to get 100 and more population in the earliest age, there is even an achievement for it. You should hunt manually and not with the hunting circle. When you get a bigger population, lets say more than 40, you will have to hunt often and additionally fish and gather food. Around 80 population in the earlierst age, your yearly cycle will look like this:

spring: fish and hunt
summer: gather fruits
autumn: hunt whatever is left on the hunting grounds
winter: just survive and hope you have enough food to make it, maybe hunt single animals at the end of winter

[iDieAlot]

One other tip - kill ALL of the 'herd' that spawned. A new group will not spawn the following season until you do and they tend to randomly return closer as well. At least that has been my experience - 300+ population with >600 meat. Back at the earlier stages, I was able to manage 180-250 meat for 60 pop. Seasonal manual hunts are the best method to stockpile with hunting areas grabbing the smaller game the rest of the season on auto-pilot.

[Project Danny]

I've solved my problem of all animals clumping up together.

What I did was place loads of hunting circles all over the map I think I had around 30+ hunting circles all with +5 manpower on them.

This way when my hunters hunt they chase them so they are no longer clumped up in one spot and usually they run into the path of my other hunters and also the circles tag them too so they are always gona be hunted...

Best thing is that it dont even put hardly anywork load on. With over 20+ hunting circles I'm still under 100%