Combat is absolutely awful

[Asatar]

On 5/28/2025 at 10:42 AM, Thorfinn said:

The easiest answer to wolves and bears are your world settings. Turn creature strength down to 25%, seraph health up to 35 (or whatever max is), give yourself faster walk speed. Eventually you will improve enough you start bringing them back to defaults.

The damage isn't the issue nor does modifying the damage satisfyingly resolve the issue of ninja-bears

 

On 5/28/2025 at 10:42 AM, Thorfinn said:

There are mods that add footfall sounds to nearby critters, but most of it can be handled with situational awareness. A couple dozen ladder sections makes you king of all you survey, as you see behind the bushes, plus it makes finding resources simple.

This shouldn't be the case. I can hear and track drifters and wolves before I can see them. Why are bears the only exception? Additionally, fighting bears and wolves isn't a problem. If you can spot them you can set up a fence around yourself and cheese them. The problem is SPOTTING bears in heavily wooded areas

On 5/28/2025 at 3:07 PM, Maelstrom said:

There is ingame lore that explicitly states that the fauna is more aggressive now than it was in the past.  The reason why is not stated and left to speculation.  This game is advertised as an uncompromising survival game.  It ain't gonna pull punches and most of us like it that way.  If you can't handle the difficulty grow up and do something about it like change the difficulty in the game settings or rise to the challenge by altering your tactics and strategies.

The issue is consistency with hostile creatures. Every single hostile creature can be heard before they are seen, with the exception of the bear.

[Maelstrom]

3 hours ago, Asatar said:

The issue is consistency with hostile creatures. Every single hostile creature can be heard before they are seen, with the exception of the bear.

I agree with this part.  Back in 1.16 (or was it 1.17) when bears were introduced would growl/howl when they attacked.  I don't know what happened since then.

[Cetasaya]

wolf bait indeed...

in every sense of the phrase.

Yo, can it be my turn to post about the combat next week?

Also OP's first ever post mentioned that wolves easily outrun us???  So that was good chuckle.  A wolf could chase me up a steep mountain and it still can't catch me, we're ALWAYS faster than wolves, quadrupuly so in the water.  Only time a wolf cathes me is when i run into it while it's sleeping or I bonk my face on a tree in a dense forest.  Op's cooking, but I dunno what he's smoking for some of these points.  Is homeboi literally just standing around and letting bowtorn swiss cheese him?  Why does he get so many bowtron?  I don't. 

Combat isnt the best in VS but its FAR better than vanilla MC's

[Thorfinn]

46 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

I agree with this part.  Back in 1.16 (or was it 1.17) when bears were introduced would growl/howl when they attacked.  I don't know what happened since then.

Don't they still? I could have sworn I hear that, at least from time to time. Not often, as they rarely if ever ninja-stealth me. I instead take them out at range.

But their idle sound chance is only 0.1, and some of their idle behaviors take a long time. Plus the range of the sound is quite low. IIRC, it's 14 or so, while shivers are 30-some. That is, their aggro range is greater than their idle sound range, so you will only hear the idle sound in creative. Why? Don't know. But that's what it says. Don't make me tap the sign.

You can probably change it easily enough. Just port over the sound range line from the shiver, and change the chance to whatever you think is reasonable.

4 hours ago, Asatar said:

The problem is SPOTTING bears in heavily wooded areas

That is a gameplay decision. In the first few minutes of a new game, sure, no choice. Every other time you enter a forest, you chose to be there.

[Asatar]

4 hours ago, Cetasaya said:

 Is homeboi literally just standing around and letting bowtorn swiss cheese him?  Why does he get so many bowtron?

I am not the OP nor do I have issues with bowtorn, nor am I crazy enough to go out and fight during a temporal storm without extreme preparation. However while exploring in game I came across a highly unusual sight that might lend some credence to OP's claim about bowtorn spawn numbers. Keep in mind that this is a 1.20.9 world on a 1.20.11 client. To provide some backstory, I was exploring south in my hardcore world and was being bothered by a couple of bowtorn. Angry, I decided to charge at them and kill them... until I entered the cave. Once I saw all the bowtorn, I ran before they can pin-cushion me. Keep in mind, the numbers counted is +2 since I was originally chasing 2 other bowtorn, they just went into a separate cave

[Thorfinn]

10 hours ago, Asatar said:

Keep in mind that this is a 1.20.9 world on a 1.20.11 client.

Yeah, 1.20.11 has some spawn glitch where the number of entities skyrockets. I've taken the liberty of starting another 1.20.9 world for the nonce. Once that problem is smashed, I'll go to 1.20.12 or whatever and might even play that world again. Or not.

Holy cow! I just realized I probably don't want to move my dinosaur and stone age world to .11!  That's butch enough as is. I've had to build bunkers all over the place so I'm never more than a short sprint away from safety. Sort of. Some of the cats can follow me into the house if I'm a little slow shutting the door. Fortunately, they don't hit very hard. Not like some of the dinos, which do like 30 damage.

[EDIT]

In case anyone official is reading this, you might want to consider adding a note to the download area explaining what you lose and gain by using 1.20.9 and 1.20.11.

Edited May 31, 2025 by Thorfinn

[cjc813]

On 5/30/2025 at 2:03 PM, Asatar said:

This shouldn't be the case. I can hear and track drifters and wolves before I can see them. Why are bears the only exception? Additionally, fighting bears and wolves isn't a problem. If you can spot them you can set up a fence around yourself and cheese them. The problem is SPOTTING bears in heavily wooded areas

On 5/28/2025 at 3:07 PM, Maelstrom said:

Read: "I don't want to have to change settings or learn skills. I just want the devs to change the whole game for me."

Bruh, bottom line is that bears being a threat in the woods is kind of the whole point. When you enter the woods, you know you're taking a risk. You're supposed to armor up and stay alert. You don't get to just run thru woods willy nilly. This is by design.

FURTHERMORE, even as a commoner, I rarely get ambushed by bears unless I stop moving. Sprinting thru the woods and darting between trees *usually* slows them down enough so they don't get me, as long as I don't stop in the middle of the forest and dawdle.

If that's still not good enough, yeah... up your speed and lower their damage. That will make them trivial, since apparently they're too much for you as is. We don't like that tho, do we?

You'd rather they just change the whole game to suit your tastes, apparently.

Howbout no?

EDIT: you can hear bears sometimes even now. I guess they could be more noisy? But still, as long as you're actually paying attention and being smart about looking *around* things... they're not exactly *small.* I have literally never been surprised by a bear unless I wasn't paying enough attention.

Edited June 1, 2025 by cjc813

[Zane Mordien]

People are allowed to give feedback even if you don't agree. You don't need to throw snark at everyone who posts.

[Asatar]

11 hours ago, cjc813 said:

Read: "I don't want to have to change settings or learn skills. I just want the devs to change the whole game for me."

This will be my last post on the topic because the "bear" question in this thread. And, since you are being rude in the response, you are most likely acting retarded. I made the cardinal sin of "suggesting" something that deviates from the current the dogma of the game. Bears and their damage are not an issue, sperg, Once a bear is spotted, 5-6 stone spears and >16 rough-hewn fences and I've negated the most dangerous surface creature. And yeah, forests are supposed to be "dangerous", no shit, because bear and wolf spawns are higher in forests. But that isn't the point so let me spare your brain from overthinking and make my point obvious (pay attention here) "I can hear and track drifters and wolves before I can see them. Why are bears the only exception?" (I made it bold so it stands out more). This is NOT a complaint and this is NOT a call to action. All I've done was make an observation about an inconsistency of hostile creatures in the game.

God forbid anyone suggest anything that differs from the current patch, you autist

Edited June 2, 2025 by Asatar

[Thorfinn]

2 hours ago, Asatar said:

"I can hear and track drifters and wolves before I can see them. Why are bears the only exception?" (I made it bold so it stands out more). This is NOT a complaint and this is NOT a call to action. All I've done was make an observation about an inconsistency of hostile creatures in the game.

Fair enough. It sure looks to me as if it was a deliberate choice, though. Maybe to prevent the use of exploits like fences? Shorten the range of the rare idle noise to less than the aggro distance so that you can't use the same tactics for all foes? Dunno. It has that effect, even if it were not the intent.

[MagpieOAO]

What is the pit trap people are reccomending? Do they fall into 4x4 pits and can't get out? 
I'm surprised we have a snare, but no spikes or punji pits we could make for agressive wildlife. Might be a mod for it, but I'm loath to start heading down the same path I have in the past of trying to install numerous mods, ensure compatibility and spend more time tweaking the experience than just enjoying what's in the game.

[Mantisek]

This game needs footstep sounds. For all animals and enemies.

Why they're not in the game is ludicrous.

[cjc813]

10 hours ago, Mantisek said:

This game needs footstep sounds. For all animals and enemies.

Why they're not in the game is ludicrous.

People can't hear Bowtorn scream before they shot. I don't think they're going to hear footsteps.

[Bumber]

20 hours ago, cjc813 said:

People can't hear Bowtorn scream before they shot. I don't think they're going to hear footsteps.

There's a greater chance for something that has to get into melee range, especially with trees in the way. Depends on the sound volume.

Dull thuds on dirt are hard to notice, but crunching leaves would be obvious. Areas with heavy foliage are where it's most needed.

Edited September 28, 2025 by Bumber

[DUCATISLO]

+1

this is why we need combat overhaul mod as vanilla

[Michaloid]

Hopefully the adventure mode brings many combat boons to this game. That's my hope.