Slough Creek Territory Troubles

[Ominous Odyssey]

I spent about 3 and a half hours after making it to slough creek trying to establish a territory, am fairly certain its near impossible. The only thing I can think of that would really help in the game's current state is having a wolf with +2 speed and at least average stamina. Finding dens is relatively easy, although the vast majority of the dens are holes in the ground, which are harder to spot at first glance. The problem is that 15 hexes is far, far too many to even attempt to maintain in single player. Why? Firstly, territories deteriorate quickly, spend about 2 minutes hunting and once your finished one or more hexes are below 50% when they had been around 70%. Secondly, your wolf needs sleep fairly often when your running around maintaining hexes constantly. You will quickly find your sleep meter empty after claiming 7-10 hexes. If you don't sleep, you won't have the stamina to hunt, fight, or move quickly between hexes. If you do sleep, at least half of your entire territory will be gone when you wake up, which is just stressful. You can't just keep all of your hexes around 100% either, due to the deterioration rate of your territory, as you will often go and mark a few hexes and the next time you look at the map, the hexes you had marked first already need to be re-marked.

This has frustrated me a little too much for one day, so, i'll just be waiting until an update fixes this. I'm interested to hear if anyone else is having this problem, to what extent, and if anyone has actually been able to have pups without as much trouble.

EDIT: Seems Patches have already been rolled out to fix these problems, will begin testing this now to see how much they've helped.

[lunarwolf4]

All I can say is that plenty of players have already posted pics of their puppies, so it is indeed possible. You just have to strategize how to efficiently maintain your terf.

[kasneed0506]

I spent about two to three hours trying to complete the territory troubles. The best tip I can give you is to not sleep or go on big hunts. Survive off of rabbits, carcasses, or the occasional baby deer, and only sleep when your sleep meter is at about 30%. I promise though, once you get past this quest, it's going to be worth it. I had six puppies with my mate and I was so glad that I pushed through that quest and didn't quit; those pups are the cutest things.

[lunarwolf4]

Originally posted by kasneed0506:

I spent about two to three hours trying to complete the territory troubles. The best tip I can give you is to not sleep or go on big hunts. Survive off of rabbits, carcasses, or the occasional baby deer, and only sleep when your sleep meter is at about 30%. I promise though, once you get past this quest, it's going to be worth it. I had six puppies with my mate and I was so glad that I pushed through that quest and didn't quit; those pups are the cutest things.

Do you need to have maintain all 15 hexes after you get your pups? Or is that number only required for the first quest?

[Mystical]

Originally posted by lunarwolf4:

All I can say is that plenty of players have already posted pics of their puppies, so it is indeed possible. You just have to strategize how to efficiently maintain your terf.

Possible yes, but enjoyable? Ehh not so much. It's too grindy right now, a few tweaks and it'll be just fine. It took me quite awhile to get the 15 hexes, and now that I've got pups, I'm just kinda letting some of them go. I keep the hex with my den in the middle, then 4 surrounding it. As far as hunting.. I just wander into stranger territory. Haven't had an issue so far, but that's not how it was designed to be played. Hexes either need to deteriorate at a muuuch slower rate, or we need to only have 5-7 hexes to worry about. The rival packs also take up a ridiculous amount of the map. I slept one time shortly after loading into Slough Creek, and all of the empty hexes had been claimed. I feel like some unclaimed hexes should serve as a "No Mans Land" where you can freely go hunting, or claim them if you want. Also, what's up with the amount of stranger wolves entering into hexes that are over 70% marked?

[Dinocanid]

It's definitely possible, but it's not fun. I spent 2 hours running back and forth, back and forth, constantly across the same tracks of land because hexes kept disappearing once I claimed another. Sure you can not sleep, but after constant running your energy is completely depleted, leaving you with little to no stamina to spend, forcing you to slowly walk everywhere (and hope stranger wolves don't find and attack you). I spent time making sure I marked scent posts, and it still took that long. My genuine feedback for this new version of the mission is that it's tedious at best, boring and frustrating at worst.

I propose this:

1. Let tiles be at 100% when you first claim them. Having them go to 60% and you have to wait until it drops below 50% to come back and boost it to 100 (or run around peeing and howling like a mad dog) makes no sense. Let it be at 100 first and then drop from there.

2. Make the territory deterioration rate scale with the difficulty. It shouldn't fade as quickly on easy as it does on harder modes like realistic

[Jerboa_Queen]

Originally posted by lunarwolf4:

Originally posted by kasneed0506:

I spent about two to three hours trying to complete the territory troubles. The best tip I can give you is to not sleep or go on big hunts. Survive off of rabbits, carcasses, or the occasional baby deer, and only sleep when your sleep meter is at about 30%. I promise though, once you get past this quest, it's going to be worth it. I had six puppies with my mate and I was so glad that I pushed through that quest and didn't quit; those pups are the cutest things.

Do you need to have maintain all 15 hexes after you get your pups? Or is that number only required for the first quest?

I have a strong 7 right now raising my pups, which is enough room for me to hunt and it isn't too hard to maintain.
So no, you do not need to keep all 15 of those hexes

[wrecknrule]

Originally posted by Jerboa_Queen:

Originally posted by lunarwolf4:

Do you need to have maintain all 15 hexes after you get your pups? Or is that number only required for the first quest?

I have a strong 7 right now raising my pups, which is enough room for me to hunt and it isn't too hard to maintain.
So no, you do not need to keep all 15 of those hexes

I think the only real downside to this is an increase in stranger wolves possibly showing up at your den. The only time I've had stranger wolves show up was when my hex count dipped below 15.

Usually they're easily run off, but I had a pair show up and almost get one of my pups. It was a nasty fight because they refused to leave. Just keep a close eye on your pups and don't let them wander. Do that and the risk is minimum I think.

[Jerboa_Queen]

Originally posted by wrecknrule:

Originally posted by Jerboa_Queen:

I have a strong 7 right now raising my pups, which is enough room for me to hunt and it isn't too hard to maintain.
So no, you do not need to keep all 15 of those hexes

I think the only real downside to this is an increase in stranger wolves possibly showing up at your den. The only time I've had stranger wolves show up was when my hex count dipped below 15.

Usually they're easily run off, but I had a pair show up and almost get one of my pups. It was a nasty fight because they refused to leave. Just keep a close eye on your pups and don't let them wander. Do that and the risk is minimum I think.

I've only had 1 stranger wolf den encounter, and I have my pups at like 8 pounds, so halfway done, and it went away in a matter of seconds, it's fine

[CogWorkOwl]

I managed to get the 15 hexes by not sleeping and just straight running around and maintaining them. It took about two passes through all of them but establishing scent posts helped me the most. After my pups were born, I moved down to about 7 hexes directly around my den site (and I'd re-claim 7 hexes around any new dens) and that seemed to work great. I could remark the scent posts in those once every 24hrs while I went out hunting. The strategy seems to be push through the first 15, then let that number decline. Strange wolf attacks aren't bad to manage. This was on challenging difficulty.

[Noreaster Forecast]

It is quite possible to maintain a big, strong territory. I have 19 hexes all above 45% strength with my four pups on Challenging. I think the trick is not to rush your territory mission (although I was also excited to see those cute pups). I spent 3 - 5 in game days claiming territory, and often had to reclaim hexes lost to other packs. By taking my time I was able to plan it so my den is centrally located and all my territory hexes were above 60% when I had my pups. These two factors have helped tremendously.