The Hunter: Catch All

I totally agree with you Lobster. I love the game to death but even with my 2000 dpi mouse the look speed is frustratingly slow. It really is one of the few complaints I have about the game.

If someone has some solution let me know!

Druidpeak wrote:

Warden gives you 2 free guns(.357 mag revolver, and the 12 gauge shotgun), and allows you to use the 30-06 for a month. As long as you are still a warden you will be able to try out hunting any new animals they introduce free for one month, and also allow you to try out any new guns free for a month. They also mention that the ammo for your guns is free while trying them out(I'm a bit vague on this right now, does this include the .243, .357, and 12 gauge as well?).

Warden account also gives you Whitetail, Turkey and Elk licenses. In perpetuity, I believe (for as long as you're Warden). You also get 1 trial month for all new content that is released. Not just game licenses and guns. That probably includes all additional items, clothing, huntermate games, scopes, ammo types, etc.

Warden account is just a 'thank you' account for early adopters. At the end of the month it will no longer be available for purchase. It will be replaced by different package deals (e.g. 30-06 + Elk license = Elk hunter package) or single micro-transactions.

rabbit wrote:

Hey Squirrel, thanks for joining us over here. And yeah, the insta-patch of new content is awesome and appreciated.

Yes, the patch is sweet.

A couple things I've noticed in the update:

Ambient noise has picked up a bit. Instead of the 95%-of-the-time-single audio bar, I'm getting a regular two bars and a bit higher when the winds blowing
The winds blowing. Instead of big gusts every 5 minutes I'm getting steady breezes and some low calms. It's also nice to see some leaves blow in the direction of the wind. It definitely helps to have a quick visual reference for wind direction.
The rain, obviously. It pretty much maxes out the ambient sound. I haven't been tracking a deer when it's raining (though I have seen one out in the rain and the deer actually shake the water off of themselves), but it'll be interesting to see if I can catch up to one without being noticed from the noise I make.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Anyone know if the game actually tracks more deer than the one you're hunting? Is it possible to just stumble upon one? I've never heard a call from a deer I wasn't tracking, so it makes me wonder if it doesn't just randomly generate tracks till you select one to follow.

I think the deer are populated as soon as you start the game. I've spotted several deer before I started tracking any.

Did you try the registry editing technique for the mouse speed that I mentioned? Any luck?

Awesome story.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Walking toward the heart of the island, I managed to "detect" a deer. How, I don't know. My PDA just kind of blipped and as much as I looked around I couldn't find any actual tracks.

The HunterMate can detect deer calls (you can hear it yourself once you know what to listen for) and when it does you can left click to "ID" the sound just like you do hoof prints and poo. When you ID a sound you get a sonar like blip on your map for a few seconds. If the call comes from an animal you're already tracking, the blip will appear on the map without you having to ID it. So you can tell if it's detecting a new call or the one for the animal your tracking by whether you get the instant blip or if there nothing on the screen and it's waiting for you to left click to ID it.

It's actually kinda interesting listening for the calls yourself. I can already tell the difference between the mule, whitetail, and elk calls. Still working on telling the difference between bucks and does. I figured the bucks would have a deeper, more gutteral sound, but when following those I generally find does so I'm not sure if you can even tell them apart from the calls.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Anyone know if the game actually tracks more deer than the one you're hunting? Is it possible to just stumble upon one? I've never heard a call from a deer I wasn't tracking, so it makes me wonder if it doesn't just randomly generate tracks till you select one to follow.

Ya, they're all over the place and you can come across multiple tracks. Even with the free version you can come across multiple deer. But especially with the Warden's license, I come across mule, whitetail, and elk tracks all criss-crossing each other. Sometimes I'll even get a whitetail and a mule answering my calls at the same time from different directions.

camnipotent wrote:

Did you try the registry editing technique for the mouse speed that I mentioned? Any luck?

I must have missed that. I'll give it a shot.

Please add "Montalban" to that list.

Add "Grubber" please?

Latest kill, a worthy opponent:

Mule Deer 136 2/8

Weight: 89.2 kgs (196.6 lbs)
Tracked: 50 Minutes 3 Seconds, 1.14 km (3730.3 ft)
Spotted: --
Kill Distance: 102.7 m (337.1 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-16-2009 12:33

Add me to that list

Friend me up too, please. "Awkward". aka Burt Covington.

So how do I get new weapons and items? Do I need to subscribe?

LobsterMobster wrote:

So how do I get new weapons and items? Do I need to subscribe?

Yep. Free version is only mule deer, .243 rifle, deer caller, and binocs (maybe the camera too, not sure).

So, either you pony up for the Warden's license before the 30th or become a regular member after that date and purchase the items individually. They've been pretty mum on exactly how the micro-transactions will work. Not sure if there will be packages or if everything is separate or even what the pricing will be like.

3 month Warden (+1 extra month) is only $13.00 so if you think you'll be playing beyond the end of April it's probably worth it.

Oh ya, Lobster, I sent you (and several others who recently signed up) a Friend request. When you login and get to your "Hunter" screen, there should be a "Messages Unread" link in the top left corner. You can accept friend requests and also accept missions from the in-game characters. To friend someone else up, go under My Page -> Friends and then type their name in the Search field.

Here's the latest list of players I have. Camni, maybe you can edit the OP and keep a running list as others sign up so it's easy for everyone to find each other since there doesn't appear support for "groups" yet.

Anodyne
AriesGWJ
Awkward
bennard
Certis
Druidpeak
Farscry
Gaald
GlennHull
Grubber
GWJRabbit
Hemidal
LobsterMobster
Montalban
MoonDragon
Mysteri0
Podunk
Redhwk
rickyyo
RobAnybody
Roozey
Stengar
TempestBlayze
VegaGWJ

If you're not on there then post your name if you want to get friended up.

Meh. I have a gut aversion to time-limited microtransactions (including MMO subscriptions).

Same feeling, which is why I went with the Warden's license. When that expires, well, I'll see how I feel about it then depending on how they set it up.

I think at Halloween they should go all Blair Witch on the forest and include some creepy dolls hanging from trees. I can totally see tracking some deer and ended up in a thunderstorm surrounded by creepy imagery and spotting a witch tramping through the woods and killing animals with a withering stare. If you put her in your crosshairs, she looks up, points and the screen suddenly goes black and kicks your ass out of the game.

Cam, I looked closer at your registry editing advice and I'm not really interested in changing a global setting to super crazy ridiculo-fast just for the sake of one game that SHOULD have a sensitivity slider built in. Thanks anyway though.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Cam, I looked closer at your registry editing advice and I'm not really interested in changing a global setting to super crazy ridiculo-fast just for the sake of one game that SHOULD have a sensitivity slider built in. Thanks anyway though.

I understand. Editing those things can always be nerve racking. If you ever try it, you could always use your nearly-maxed-out slider to tweak it once the speed is doubled. They really need to get some control settings in-game.

I've done registry edits before. I just tend not to use my registry as an "options" screen.

So has anyone zoomed all the way out on the island map yet? This place is going to be huge if they put all that in.

LobsterMobster wrote:

:P I've done registry edits before. I just tend not to use my registry as an "options" screen.

Yes, it should never have to come to that!

Rob_Anybody wrote:

So has anyone zoomed all the way out on the island map yet? This place is going to be huge if they put all that in.

It could be huge. They'll have to add some sort of transportation mechanic if they open that up. There used to be a 'Transport' tab in the inventory screen, but it's gone now. I'm sure it's in the works or on some game notes somewhere.

The tournament starts in like 1 minute. Just post kills to enter.

I just killed a dinosaur at 1500 ft with a slingshot. This means I win, right?

I'm just kidding.

I haven't done any of those things, yet.

You can add me to the list of hunters as well as "Strapps" (Tach was taken, the bastardos!)

I'm listed as Yonder, looks like I may have the first kill of the tournament:

Mule Deer (M) 170 4/8
Weight: 129.7 kgs (285.9 lbs)
Tracked: 3 Minutes 19 Seconds, 0.17 km (554.5 ft)
Spotted: 21.8 m (71.5 ft)
Kill Distance: 21.5 m (70.6 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-16-2009 20:25
(Central time, so 25 minutes into the tournament)

This hunt was a little frustrating in a couple ways. I tracked this other male mule deer for 2 full kilometers, spotting him 3-4 times, but spooking him each time. Then I see this deer, think it's him, and take the shot from 462 feet away. When I start tracking it tells me its a new deer. I follow the blood trail until I catch up to him again and he's still alive. At this point I have to choose between waiting for him to die (he's lost a lot of blood) or making it a cleaner kill. I take the ethical route as you can see, a 70.6 foot shot. I hope the winning tournament shot is further than 462 (the good news is that I'm sure it will be), because if it isn't I'll be sad.

How do you see the size of the rack from this information, I don't see it anywhere. I know it's at least 6 points, because it validated my "Kill a 6 point mule deer" mission. Also, what does the 170 4/8 mean?

Yonder wrote:

Also, what does the 170 4/8 mean?

That's an oooold deer.

Yonder wrote:

How do you see the size of the rack from this information, I don't see it anywhere. I know it's at least 6 points, because it validated my "Kill a 6 point mule deer" mission. Also, what does the 170 4/8 mean?

The 170 4/8 means the rack measurements added up to 170 and 4/8ths inches. They measure in 1/8th inches and don't convert, hence the 4/8 fraction. It's a bit complicated, but MoonDragon found a score chart located here, second post from the bottom. Anyways, 170 4/8 is a pretty good size. The all-time highest on the boards is 203, and the GWJ Hunting Club's highest is 184 4/8.

Nice, that was the nice thing about switching deer, I don't get the cool feeling from seeing "Tracked (2.1 km)" But the first guy had a smaller rack.

Count me out guys.... This game doesn't work after the first time.... I can't torrent on campus and the emote launcher crashes.... a lot..... So yeah I won't be playing this anytime in the near future. Have fun.

Edit: I know there is an FTP service but the emote launcher crashes when I pick it.... In other words this must be beta software and will continue to be beta software for me.

Okay, I have 2 entries, one for rack score and one for distance.

Mule Deer (M)179
Weight: 120.9 kgs (266.5 lbs)
Tracked: 53 Minutes 3 Seconds, 1.42 km (4668.6 ft)
Spotted: 23.3 m (76.4 ft)
Kill Distance: 39.4 m (129.2 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-16-2009 22:44

Mule Deer (M)167 4/8
Weight: 118.1 kgs (260.5 lbs)
Tracked: 1 Hour 8 Minutes 24 Seconds, 2.11 km (6929.0 ft)
Spotted: 70.1 m (230.0 ft)
Kill Distance: 125.8 m (412.9 ft)
Time of Harvest: 04-16-2009 23:09

Time is EST.

Now the story!
I run out from the cabin to where the road starts and immediately I hear a call due west. I investigate. I come to find 2 sets of tracks keeping in the same direction. these meet up with another a bit further west. I think, "Jackpot!" I can follow the group and take my pick. So I keep following for about half an hour, they go north and back east they're hanging around that little lake/inlet almost dead center in the northmost part of the map. They keep going east and eventually I catch up to them in this nice little valley and I get my first good look at the pack.
Hells yeah, two large bucks, and one younger buck. But what's this? one of the larger is glitched into a tree. Well, thats not very sportsmanlike, and the other one really is a big guy (about 125 kg, if I remember right, somewhere around there.) So I decide to go for the more honorable kill, and the better score. What was that about one in the hand? Well, I screw around trying to get into position without spooking them when in from the other direction walks a 130 kg+ monster. I start to salivate. He's walking right towards me, I just have to keep my field clear.
Bushes! Damn these concealing well rendered and accurate bushes. No clear shot and he eventually gets behind a hill. He bolts as I try to wiggle my way around to a clear shot. And the other guys have walked off, even the one glitched into a tree. Oddly though, they are heading directly toward the cabin. I guess they want some of my tea and biscuit, I don't know. I surprise the hell out of one of them (and vice versa) when I come up over the hill and hes standing not 10 feet away from me earspricked up high and staring right at me, then he's off (he was a small guy, so I don't feel too bad).
So I stalk the last one around the cabin and back to the same spot where I started. He eventually crossed track with another group of 2, and I was able to bag one of them for my rack score. A little down from there I got my distance kill across the same pond/inlet from the beginning, though I didn't get to claim that one until a good bit later, as I thought I had missed completely as there were no blood trails at all, and stumbled across the poor guy in the middle of the road a good ways west after I had bagged a doe that was just standing in the middle of a field.
Later I managed to shoot the spine of a decent sized buck for my first instant kill. I had tracked him and his buddy down the beach a decent distance, nothing special about that one though.

I think I should get some award for tracking the most deer closest to the cabin or something.

A so-so night of hunting here. Nothing worth posting for the contest but I did clear a few missions. I had what could have been a long long long range shot on a turkey. It was long enough that I could see him in my binocs, but when I went to scope on the pistol he wasn't there. So I just aimed at the area I knew he was based on the binoc view and the surrounding foliage.. and big surprise, came up with a miss. Figured it was worth a shot.

Something I'm a bit curious about. Is it me, or do all the bucks generally look the same (besides the obvious young (with the stubs) versus old (with the antlers). Meaning, I'm wondeirng if there is just one model of the older bucks so their antlers all look the same? I'm seen some, what I thought looked huge, bucks come out with big antlers and it says they're 150lbs and then there's a young buck, stubby antlers, much smaller in size, but he's 250lbs. Hmm. And even with the older bucks their antlers all look the same to me. It doesn't seem there's any visual way to tell if a buck is going to be a big score or not. Do I just need to look a bit closer and try to count the points?

Lets just say this post might have been sketchy.... Not sure if its ok to talk about downloading the software through a torrent offloaded to get the stupid emote launcher to work.