The Hunter: Catch All

Got another

Weight: 60.7 kgs (133.7 lbs)
Tracked: 2 Minutes 40 Seconds, 0.14 km (449.5 ft)
Spotted: 92.3 m (302.8 ft)
Kill Distance: 72.7 m (238.5 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 03:39

Played for about 45 minutes and spotted several Deer. I had like 3 deer in my sights during the time I played and I swear the dam things had a sixth sense. Every time I brought the scope up for the shot, the deer would lift it's head look at me and run. Finally I managed to put myself in a position where I wouldn't spook one that I heard close by. The thing walked right by me. It was pretty cool hearing it walk past me as I set up my shot. I only ever took the one shot and that was enough.

I don't think I could ever hunt in real life. At least not with a gun, it just doesn't seem fair. This game was pretty cool though, and it felt good when I finally made my shot.

Nickname is Gaald, character name Otis Kane (awesome name generator).

Weight: 68.1 kgs (150.1 lbs)
Tracked: --
Spotted: 7.7 m (25.3 ft)
Kill Distance: 7.7 m (25.2 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 00:29

I'm currently downloading and look forward to a least a nice nature hike.
My nickname is Stengar (I was shocked to find that someone's already got Stengah, so I choose the Barbarian variant of my name), and the name generator decided I should be Jesus Rivers.

garion333 wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:
Certis wrote:
The downloader seems to be some kind of P2P thing. It seems to go a little faster if you cap the upload rate to something reasonable. It keeps it from typing up your connection as much as well.

Winner. Go to the settings and throttle the upload, makes a big difference.

Alternatively, 'Toggle Direct Download' from the File menu and receive 800-900 KiB/s (currently getting it at 970KiB/s).

Is this because without the change to direct download that it's using bitorrent?

I'm pretty sure it's actually the opposite. The direct download is swamped so when you click the toggle button once, you switch to the torrent so you are downloading from peers. The more people downloading a torrent the faster speeds you will get, especially if there are a few "seeds" (people who have finished the download but haven't closed the downloader).

I played for about 45 minutes last night and was a little lost. I feel like I'm missing something, but I couldn't find any tracks or droppings or anything to follow. Any tips? The game is absolutely gorgeous, but I'm not sure I have the patience for it. That's not a slight against it at all, but I'm not sure it'll be the game for me unless I can feel like I'm progressing a bit more than I did last night.

doogiemac wrote:

I played for about 45 minutes last night and was a little lost. I feel like I'm missing something, but I couldn't find any tracks or droppings or anything to follow. Any tips?

In case you figured out the run toggle key, smack yourself on the head so hard that you forget you ever found that information. Then, start the game at 6AM in the norther camp. Start walking down the southern path and follow it up the hill when the road splits. Do all your walking with the HunterMate, or whatever its called (GPS from now on), pulled out. On the GPS the top bar shows ambient noise, but it also detects deer calls. When a deer in vicinity calls out, there will be a little red light on top of your GPS that lights up. If you press LMB at that time, it will be your first clue. Quickly press RMB to go back into map mode and you should see a 'ping' on your map where the call came from. At that moment, go into crouch mode and start making your way towards the 'ping' area. Once you get there you should be able to find some more clues about the animal. Remember, if you're actively following an animal, its trail hints have red glow around them. If you find another animal's trail, its hints will have a red halo only. You can only track one animal at the time. The more clues you collect, the more accurate information on your GPS will be about the animal's whereabouts and distance.

I bagged my first deer last night on my second hunt. The first one was spent following trails for about an hour, and only catching a glimpse of one deer. On the second one, I walked up to a stand and used the call intermittently for a few minutes, and one came right up to the stand. I look forward to giving it another try tonight.

Can you stealth pet the deer?

Nickname, RichardPound
Game Name, Rusty Dukes

PandaEskimo wrote:

Can you stealth pet the deer?

I doubt it but if you want to get your petz on it looks like there are plenty of options for you.

Heh, I forgot to mention, my guy's name was: Foster Triplett.

Yeah, I agree, the name generator is kickass.

Finally took one down!

Weight: 123.0 kgs (271.3 lbs)
Tracked: --
Spotted: 63.3 m (207.7 ft)
Kill Distance: 10.6 m (34.6 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 11:20

I winged another but I ran out of time to track him down to confirm/finish the kill. I feel bad now, because Doc sent me a message to yell at me about it.

Certis wrote:

Finally took one down!

Weight: 123.0 kgs (271.3 lbs)
Tracked: --
Spotted: 63.3 m (207.7 ft)
Kill Distance: 10.6 m (34.6 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 11:20

I winged another but I ran out of time to track him down to confirm/finish the kill. I feel bad now, because Doc sent me a message to yell at me about it.

That's a HUGE deer. Double the size of any other poster. Also, at that range they should let you use a Rambo knife.

MoonDragon wrote:
Certis wrote:

Hunting tips welcome!

1. Whatever you do, do not run!

2. Do not run.

3. Listen for either deer calls, or your little GPS thinggie beeping. That'll give you the start of the trail. When tracking, always listen for sound. It's the most accurate way to track.

4. Do not run. Seriously. The moment you get a call, go into crouch or prone. I find prone annoying, so crouch generally does the job.

5. When you get close to where you heard the call, you'll most likely pick up the trail. In combination with the call, it'll give you a general idea of where the deer is going to. They travel pretty logically. So you shouldn't have too much trouble finding the next clue on the trail.

6. If you know you're close, try to go around where you think the deer is. Find a spot with better visibility. Preferably something higher up.

7. Using the bleet calls is effective, but takes a while. Even if the deer is just through those bushes when you called, it may take 2-3 minutes for it to actually get through the bushes to check you out. Patience is the key.

8. Stances modify accuracy as you'd expect them to.

9. If you wounded the animal, try to follow it as best as you can. In addition to normal tracks, there will also be blood tracks. Depending on how wounded it is, the animal will eventually die and you'll find it curled up behind some bush.

10. Did I mention not to run yet? I don't think I can stress that enough. When I discovered that there is a 'toggle run' key, I ran across the island for 2.5 hours, waiting to hear the call. Nothing! Not a single hint that there is a single deer on the whole island. The trick is that running is so noisy that you scare the deer that are like miles away from you.

I’ve added a few more tips to this guide that I think will help if you’re getting frustrated.

Preface: Your first kill will take a while since you have to learn to track. It took me about 1.5 hours before I saw my first deer, but every hunt after that ends in a kill within 15-25 minutes on average. There are actually times that I’ve come across 3 deer at once all within 30 feet of each other. I’m just going to type out exactly what I do when I start my game, so that might help some of you.

I always begin the hunt at 5:00 AM. I think the engine shines at this time and I think I might be less visible, but then again, so are the deer. Still, it gives you time to track. I usually start off at the lodge and I run into the woods. Yes, run, but only in the beginning! I haven’t ever seen a deer or ANY tracks/clues near the lodge, so I’m not worried about scaring any away just yet. I usually run toward the center of the island, all the while looking left and right for clues, until I find a visual trail (droppings, tracks). From then on I walk 90% of the time (other 10% described below).

As the guide above affirms, I’ve also had the best luck finding deer using the sound location on the nearly-omniscient GPS device. (For some reason, the sound method often directs me toward a road, so if you just can’t find any visual clues you could walk the roads. Keep in mind, you’re highly visible, so you should move off the road as soon as you seen clues or a deer). The sound location will show up on your GPS with a little blip that grows and then fades. If I feel that my trail is hot, I won’t leave it, but if I’m uncertain and a sound blip shows up, I almost always abandon my trail and start towards the blip (if your trail and the blip are part of the same track, it won’t ask you to abandon your visual trail, so just go to the sound).

Once you get to the location of the blip, the deer is almost always gone, but there will almost always be a clue that it left behind. These clues are usually fresh and/or directional, so follow them exactly until you find another clue (you should always follow clues as perfectly as you can, but when you find clues near an emitted sound, they are always very good and accurate.)

There are several clues the show different data.
• The first is droppings (i.e. deer sh!t). This clue will give you a circle that slowly grows larger until the clue becomes obsolete. The circle represents the distance (radius) that the deer could have traveled based on normal roaming speed and the freshness of the clue. The smaller the circle the better, as this indicates the droppings are fresh and the deer isn’t too far away.
• The second are tracks/blood trails. These give you a direction. This is represented by a two sided triangle (they call it a cone) that gives you a general direction to follow. If you’re lucky, there will be tracks and droppings in the same location. If this happens, both the cone and the circle are shown on the GPS, and the little ‘pie slice’ of the circle is highly accurate to the deer’s location.
• Finally, there’s the sound clue. This will show up for about 5-10 seconds and then it disappears. As soon as you see it, remember the location and start walking.

Now I’ll describe the final 10% of my travels. Nine percent of that is crouching. I don’t crouch unless I have several clues near one another that are fresh. This usually means there is a lot of activity in the area and it’s time to slow down. If you feel you’re close to a deer, crouch and move slowly, looking for new clues. Also, pull out your binoculars and look around for any signs of life. I usually find that during this time, when I’m certain a deer is close, a sound blip will show up that is very close to my current position. When that happens, pull out your binoculars or rifle and look toward the sound. I wouldn’t move until I have surveyed that entire area near the sound, or else you might clue the deer into your location and that’s never good. If you can’t see any deer, move forward toward the sound and look for new clues.

Now, when you spot the deer, make sure to look at the deer’s movement and attention. If you move a bit too much, the deer will look in your direction with its ears perked. Since you’re wearing camouflage, don’t worry, but also don’t move. Let the deer go back to what it was doing and then slowly move into a good location with a clear line of sight. Ideally, you will get just above it (on a mound or uphill) to get a good shot. This elevation advantage will also allow a good shot from a prone position since it’s difficult to get a prone shot when you’re in thick forest.

Unlike the guide above me, I never use the mating call box until I’m in this position and it’s only used if the deer is moving around a lot. When you use the call, the deer will usually stop and look toward you. This is a perfect time to pull out your rifle and make the kill. When you go for the shot, go for the center of the chest right where you think the heart would be. I’m sure you could go for the head, but it’s such a small target that it might not be worth the risk. Every shot I’ve taken, save one, has hit in the torso area, but it’s not an instant kill. The one time it was instant was when I accidentally hit the deer in the spine. When it’s not an instant kill, the deer will jump around a bit and run off. If it’s a good shot, it won’t get far, but I once hit a deer just under its back, and it ran a good 300 meters before I found it, dead. This is the only time that you’ll see the blood trail clues and it’s best to follow them quickly. This is that final 1% of my travel. When I hit a deer, I immediately sprint toward it. I don’t want it to get away because once it’s out of your sight, it’s not easy to find and the blood trails are pretty sporadic, considering the deer is jumping around like a lunatic in every direction. When you find the deer, make sure it’s dead and then use the GPS device to call it in. This is where you’ll get all of your stats from.

As you can see from previous posts, your tracking time can be below 3 minutes, which is awesome. Once you get your first kill, it becomes pretty easy and you’ll cut your time into a third of what it was.

A couple of things that might help:

1. Pull out your rifle as soon as the game starts so your character can load the first round. It sucks when you get close to a target and have to wait for your dude/chick to load the weapon for the first time. I don’t think it makes any sound, but it’s not something you want to happen if the shot window is closing rapidly.
2. WALK when you’re on the trail of something. They can hear you from hundreds of meters away.
3. If you happen to come across several deer, try to position yourself so the deer are between you and some obstacle, like a beach or cliff. I’ve actually shot two deer within 2 minutes since the others that sprinted from my first shot didn’t have many places to go.
4. The deer stands are located near open fields that give a clear shot, but I think you'll have better luck tracking the deer, rather than waiting for one to come into view. As the first guide mentioned, the deer call seems to work, but I guess I don't have the patience.

I typed way too much, but hopefully it helps. Again, my guys name is Roozey and he looks like a mix between Andre the Giant and Derek Zoolander.

Cam

Played for 1.5 hours and traveled a little over 3 miles. Got 3 kills with 4 hits and 6 shots fired. First half of the game was spent walking around not seeing anything. Then got a hang of it and got the 3 in a row. I had two occasions of the deer being within 10 ft of me. The one time I pulled out my gun when it almost walked on me, but it ran. I found all of my deer along the beach on the west side of the island below the rocks that look like Stonehenge. The icon for the rocks looks like a castle. I'm also playing with the settings turned all the way down (except resolution) which probably makes it easier. The beach was a good spot because there are very clear shots and I went prone for each shot.

147.4 pound female shot in the neck at 226.1 ft
127.4 pound female shot in the chest at 441.6 ft
154.2 pound female shot in the neck (how did this not kill her?) at 319.9 ft and then in the head at 192.7 ft

Each time there were a few deer around so I could pick the best target.

Game is kind of interesting, but makes me feel a bit dirty.

What are the system requirements for this? Not that I should have any issues, but by the looks of it this has the chance of being a huge hit with the Wal-Mart crowd if marketed right. And I don't mean that in any derogatory way, as this could be a huge boon for Avalanche Studios.

nukacola23 wrote:

What are the system requirements for this? Not that I should have any issues, but by the looks of it this has the chance of being a huge hit with the Wal-Mart crowd if marketed right. And I don't mean that in any derogatory way, as this could be a huge boon for Avalanche Studios.

Their requirements looked pretty steep, but on a 2 year old computer and Radeon 3870, I'm running at 1900x1200 with everything maxed out, except shadows, which are on medium. It runs smooth as butter.

As much as you'd think this is a 'redneck' type of a game, I actually don't think a lot of gung-ho people would enjoy it. It truly requires patience. Walmart crowd strikes me to be more sugar addicted ADD types. They are also a cheap crowd. The problem is that cheap for this game means free, which translates into no money for the devs. The other alternative, as is right now, I find pretty pricey (in my own value judgment).

PandaEskimo wrote:

Lots of good shots...

Something to note: doe kills don't count towards leaderboard. Which kind of sucks, as my 509 ft shot counts for naught.

Rallick wrote:

OK, so I registered and downloaded the game (nickname Rallick, in game I'm Jamestone Silver!) but for me all it did was bring up the main loading screen and then it went straight to desktop. I couldn't even find a hint that it had been installed I will be trying again this afternoon, though. The more I hear, the more it sounds like I would enjoy it.

I got the same thing, but then I switched the shadows to medium and it loaded fine.

Hooboy, hunting is fun until you shoot something, then the work starts. This should remove the work element.

Just generated an account and currently downloading.

Druidpeak

Bernie Bray

OK, so I registered and downloaded the game (nickname Rallick, in game I'm Jamison Silver!) but for me all it did was bring up the main loading screen and then it went straight to desktop. I couldn't even find a hint that it had been installed I will be trying again this afternoon, though. The more I hear, the more it sounds like I would enjoy it.

Edit: corrected character name...

MoonDragon wrote:

Something to note: doe kills don't count towards leaderboard. Which kind of sucks, as my 509 ft shot counts for naught.

I think you mean for AWESOME. I don't really care about these 'whip it out and slap it on the table' boards. We all know Certis is the winner there. 271.3 pounds is twice anything I've gotten.

Seriously though. She got shot in the neck and ran away to drink from the OCEAN. If that deer isn't the winner, I don't know who is. If this was real life, I would have been dead. That deer would have rolled up and stomped me to death, drowning me in neck blood.

nukacola23 wrote:

What are the system requirements for this?

I'm below the min specs with an ATI Radeon X1650, but I can play fine with the specs low. Haven't tried them higher. It's definitely way demanding for the Wal-Mart crowd. Also, the game didn't even tell me how to play at all, I had to find all the buttons myself and learn how all the tools worked. I'll admit, I didn't search the site much for help first.

After spooking several deer, and missing two (hint: holding the space bar holds your breath for steadier aim), I had a nice run. However, now the quests are trying to trick me into buying a permit so I can hunt the other animals.

Mule Deer (F)N/A
Weight: 45.4 kgs (100.1 lbs)
Tracked: 17 Minutes 2 Seconds, 0.50 km (1627.3 ft)
Spotted: 55.9 m (183.4 ft)
Kill Distance: 56.0 m (183.9 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 16:16

Mule Deer (M)75 4/8
Weight: 102.8 kgs (226.7 lbs)
Tracked: 12 Minutes 21 Seconds, 0.40 km (1305.8 ft)
Spotted: --
Kill Distance: 24.5 m (80.3 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 16:40

Mule Deer (F)N/A
Weight: 67.8 kgs (149.5 lbs)
Tracked: 17 Minutes 44 Seconds, 0.62 km (2037.4 ft)
Spotted: 75.5 m (247.7 ft)
Kill Distance: 68.7 m (225.4 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 18:32

Mule Deer (M)181 3/8
Weight: 61.3 kgs (135.2 lbs)
Tracked: 12 Minutes 42 Seconds, 0.44 km (1446.8 ft)
Spotted: 41.8 m (137.1 ft)
Kill Distance: 32.2 m (105.5 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 18:45

I've nabbed 3 deer now and this game is surprisingly addicting. I'm honestly a little shocked that a game of this quality is free, tbh. I'd easily pay 10 bucks for this. If I get as much playtime as I think I might out of it I'll buy some crap for my hunter as a thank you to the devs.

The game is a nice, relaxing, leisurely stroll through beautifully rendered woods punctuated by the rush of adrenaline when you finally spot a target. The scarcity of game makes each shot very exciting.

Just got my first deer!

Weight: 78.9 kgs (174.0 lbs)
Tracked: 11 Minutes 20 Seconds, 0.61 km (2004.6 ft)
Spotted: 126.8 m (416.0 ft)
Kill Distance: 117.2 m (384.7 ft)

I was tracking this one all over the place and got side tracked by 2 other trails. I think I need to be closer in to take the shot because I wanged her in the leg and had to track her down for a while. I kind of felt bad that it wasn't a clean kill. How weird is that?

Certis wrote:

Finally took one down!

Weight: 123.0 kgs (271.3 lbs)
Tracked: --
Spotted: 63.3 m (207.7 ft)
Kill Distance: 10.6 m (34.6 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 11:20

I winged another but I ran out of time to track him down to confirm/finish the kill. I feel bad now, because Doc sent me a message to yell at me about it.

VICTORY (by 1.1 lbs)

Weight: 123.5 kgs (272.4 lbs)
Tracked: --
Spotted: 101.9 m (334.3 ft)
Kill Distance: 50.7 m (166.5 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 18:32

Son of a Female Doggo! This will not stand!

This game is way to friggin addicting.

Read'em and weep boys:

Weight: 131.4 kgs (289.8 lbs)
Tracked: --
Spotted: 33.0 m (108.3 ft)
Kill Distance: 31.3 m (102.8 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 20:16

My hunter goes by the wonderful nickname of "Bubbs" by the way.

Thin_J wrote:

Read'em and weep boys...

Alright, Joshua Gorman.

Stengah wrote:

Mule Deer (M)181 3/8

Now that is a monster trophy! I can't break 140 myself.

BTW Rob, that's an awesome distance, especially for your first kill.

First kill.

Weight: 74.7 kgs (164.6 lbs)
Tracked: 12 Minutes 1 Second, 0.45 km (1469.8 ft)
Spotted: 40.3 m (132.2 ft)
Kill Distance: 5.8 m (18.9 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 18:30

I took off from the lodge at 0500 and almost immediately heard a doe mewing at me from the hillside. Poked my way up there, and found some tracks. I then went into crouch mode and started traversing the hillside slowly due to the brush reducing my visual range to nearly nil. Not more than 30 feet after I was working my way across the hillside I almost stepped on a doe, I gave a call, but she was too spooked and didn't pause as she ran away. There was a lot more sign in the areas and I distinguished which was the spooked deers and continued after the other sign. Eventually picked up a sound clue from the same deer that I was tracking, which brought me to the edge of a clearing. She was standing in the middle next to a small stand of trees. I put my crosshairs right on the vitals and squeezed, and she took off running......gut shot. I jacked another shell in and fired a follow-up, missing. It was off to the races, I followed the blood trail over the next ridge and was able to put her down.

Great stuff.

camnipotent wrote:

Hi Bubbs!

Weight: 135.1 kgs (297.8 lbs)
Tracked: --
Spotted: 59.3 m (194.6 ft)
Kill Distance: 21.5 m (70.5 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-09-2009 19:51

Your move!

Well played sir.... well played indeed.