The Hunter: Catch All

Still working on my rig. I am starting to think a format is in order.

I have never done multi so it will be fun. Watched a ton of Flinter, JaxxyBeard and ZaggiDk videos. Learned a lot there.

Water cooling is a gift for hot systems. These days, I just buy big cases that have enough fans to hover an inch above the floor if needed. That and a cpu water cooler and temp-related failures and crashes are non-existent.

Just switched to water cooling as part of this refurb. Ram seems ok now that I cooled everything off. Added a SSD and all seems good at this point. Fingers crossed.

I will never have another rig that is not water cooled. It is freaking amazeballs. Ran water many moons ago when all was custom. Gave up stopping leaks and was reluctant to try it again. My high school intern at work convinced me this time.

Yeah, my sealed loop system has been running for years now with no issues. Love it.

Speaking of water... My last few hunts have led me to drinking zones and invariably a herd of prize bucks will be on the other side of the lake with roaming does running security in between.
Oh, that and black bears. Never sure if I should hoof it when one of those barks at me. Purchased myself a pistol for quick *oh sh*t oh sh*t oh sh*t* backpedalling maneuvers.

Took some troubleshooting to get the game to stop flickering. After a bunch of testing and research that mentioned none of my fixes, and nearly requesting a refund in frustration I created a custom profile in my AMD console and overrode the AA settings and disabled Crossfire entirely. Running fine now. 2018, folks.

Edit: oh. Did I forget to mention this was in Call of the Wild? My available playtimes are super random and sporadic so organizing a multiplayer thing probably won't work very well for me at all. Like... Right now I have one daughter being a terror, fighting her nap, and the other fell asleep on my lap. Otherwise I could be hunting for an hour or two. Parenting.

Rezzy wrote:

Speaking of water... My last few hunts have led me to drinking zones and invariably a herd of prize bucks will be on the other side of the lake with roaming does running security in between.
Oh, that and black bears. Never sure if I should hoof it when one of those barks at me. Purchased myself a pistol for quick *oh sh*t oh sh*t oh sh*t* backpedalling maneuvers.

A handgun to stop a bear? Uhh...

(This was a topic de jour of Canadian commentariat after a terrible take from a Toronto-based columnist).

I have been running a series of 3 lakes in Hirschfelden that have what you describe. Shoot 1, maybe 2 and then move to next lake. Shoot some geese to drop hunting pressure. Repeat. I cull out the ones that are near being gold and up hoping they respawn higher level.

Roke wrote:

A handgun to stop a bear? Uhh...

The handgun isn't for 'stopping' the bear. It's to mark the bear so that when I do my corpse-run I just look for the one with a limp.

Rezzy wrote:
Roke wrote:

A handgun to stop a bear? Uhh...

The handgun isn't for 'stopping' the bear. It's to mark the bear so that when I do my corpse-run I just look for the one with a limp. :D

snickers........

Have had a few frustrating night hunts with deer that seemingly bleed once or twice and then ascend to the heavens with no further tracks for me to locate after spending hours circling and recircling the same half mile again and again in ever-widening arcs. So I shot a coyote. In the spine. The long-way. Bullet entered from the front and just traveled all the way down the spine. I feel a little bad, but also a little better.
I don't know how the economy in this game works, but it feels weird to get $500 from a rabbit. Then again, they're charging me something like $25 a shot, so maybe hyper inflation is in effect?

... posting cuz I wish I had more time to play. It feels good getting back into this and I'm slowly getting back into hunter mode.

Lol the coyote. I was trying to get my consecutive numbers back to 100% and was shooting Roe deer and coyotes with the 7mm. By the look of the blood splatter I turned a coyote inside out. Oops. Didn't have to trac him though.

There are a couple of tracking sills that will help you find lost animals. Had the same problem early on as well.

Big patch (and new DLC released).
From the Patch notes:

Improvements (Free update)

Gameplay Fixes

Fixed an issue that causes animals to vanish after being shot

Sooo... either I'm a terribly immoral hunter, or I've been the victim of a bug all this time? Sold to the bug-gremlins! Now to never hunt again so I won't be exposed as the non-lethal head-shot king of the reserve.

I have seen that bug many times. Between that bug and random crashes I have lost some nice animals.

I just found the button that lets me switch maps. No wonder I couldn't find the shooting range!

A helpful tip I found: If you wound a critter don't chase it right away. Hang back and watch the Huntermate for a minute. If a pressure-zone pops in then the critter died. If it doesn't then the critter may have calmed down enough for you to actually sneak up on it again.

I have tried multiple methods on wounded game. Have not been happy enough with any of them to use only one. I tend to shoot and watch through binoculars to see if animal is quickly losing health.

fishdude wrote:

I have tried multiple methods on wounded game. Have not been happy enough with any of them to use only one. I tend to shoot and watch through binoculars to see if animal is quickly losing health.

Unless it was a really great looking animal, I've quit tracking down wounded animals for more than a few minutes. I've also tried to limit my shots to ones that will 1 shot kill from the range and caliber I'm using. I've also given up on Integrity bonus in favor of Quick Kill bonus. Those few changes have made the game more enjoyable for me lately.
As usual, I'm always down for some multiplayer hunting on PC if anyone is interested!

I will also do the same with tracking wounded animals. I go for integrity and quick kill. I vary what I carry by which preserve I am hunting. I carry the .223, 7mm, 44m and compound bow on Hirschfelden. I swap the .223 for the .243 for Layton. I try to stalk within 100 yards, 50 if I can, before I shoot. Lots of stuff with bow in the 25 yard range.

Never done multi but I am game. I need to get some type of voice chat set up before we do.

Sounds good. I typically use Discord.

I will look into it. I currently have nothing, including no headphones. Had others as if I chat in Diablo 3 as well. Guess it is time to do something. To the Amazons!

I've finally unlocked the 7mm rifle. Now to amass enough funds to buy it and a scope to do the longer range capability justice.
I'm a little flustered by some of the integrity nuances. I bought the 270 and despite it showing the same deer logo as my other weapons I lose out on integrity with Blacktail and Roe deer. Kinda wish that was called out somewhere in game (unless I just missed it).

Look at the animals in your codex. It will show a level there and then compare that to the level of the bullets in the gun. It is a bit convoluted.

Dear RNG.
I am hunting for coyotes. Coyotes. Why do you keep sending Blacktail Bucks wandering within petting distance whenever I spot a coyote trail?

Two hunting sessions. Five silver trophy rewards and counting. One coyote spotted well out of range of my pistol, with a backwind.

On the one hand, Thanks RNG. On the other hand, Coyotes!

I have not seen a coyote in a while. Been hunting black/white tail, moose and bear. Trying to shoot all the high gold animals to get them to respawn to diamond. Been on staycation since Friday and have probably shot 20+ 900 point animals. I think there was one diamond ion the group.

Bagged a few Bison with the .270. So what I mean is that I unloaded a couple of magazines into the things trying to ram me to death. First one dropped after two shots, that gave me false confidence. Six shots for the next one while a herd of the darn things kept thundering past. Then I tried aiming for the skull. The bison turned and charged. Another direct hit, but she kept on coming, hit me, then collapsed. The after report told me that the first hit did next to nothing and the second shot tickled the brain. Tenacious monsters, bisons. Though I did get an integrity bonus on that last one, which I thought was only possible with one-shot kills. So yeah... Making progress!
The Hirsch map is insanely dense. In a kilometer and a half I had six kills. Some of them as I was still approaching the place where the previous one dropped. Great for building up funds for upgrades!

I use the 7mm on the buffs for that reason and still have one turn on me occasionally. I try my best to shoot them in the 150 yard range as it seems to confuse them and they don't charge. The compound bow will kill the crap out of them at short range with a good shot.

Have you tried spine shots? I tried to play this lie I hunt in real life. Heart/lung shots in game are very good at wounding animals. I also see a bunch of shots that would be fatal IRL that the game calls a "flesh" hit.

Head/neck shots with polymer tipped ammo has been the most successful for me. Only one animal in the last dozen that I had to abandon the trail after wounding. Still expecting to be yelled at for that... Pretty sure Classic chastised you for leaving wounded animals to roam.

That said... I've tried using the shotgun a few times when a doe is within petting distance and not once scored a vital hit. The point gain is glacially slow compared to the rifle as well. My first kill showed 6 or more individual impacts from one shot and I gained 2 weapon points.

Hunting stands in the Lake Territory seem awful. It's like they were designed before the player model was finalized. Unless there's a button I'm missing that let's me use the steadying ledge that prevents me from leaning out to take a shot.

I feel the same about wounded. This game penalizes you with the consecutive harvest bonus. I played Classic back in '08 or so, but not since.

What shot for the shotgun? I have not bought one yet but want it for rabbits and geese. I have seen videos of people using buckshot and slugs to take down elk and moose.

Last I saw stands are broken. Animals can see you even when crouched. Get the improvised blind skill as soon as you can. You will become the legendary bullet/arrow spitting bush at that point. I just creep bush to tree to bush once I spot animals. Never see it coming even when they get to 15 feet.

Starting this game again (Call of the Wild)! Looks as good as ever. I never got through the story stuff, so I'm going back to that. Bought a few of the DLC packs that had neat environments since there was a sale on.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Starting this game again (Call of the Wild)! Looks as good as ever. I never got through the story stuff, so I'm going back to that. Bought a few of the DLC packs that had neat environments since there was a sale on.

How are you liking it, Tuffalo? I miss the old GWJ hunting competitions but I just don't have the game time slots in my schedule like I used to.

Ooh. I was playing a while back and it sticks in my head that I hit a wall with one of the missions. It was take down a moose or something from a specific stand and after several days of camping in that thing and baiting and luring not a single moose came within range.

Edit: Scrolls up and notices he last posted here in 2018. "a while back" being just after his second kid was born.