Bears.

[marmarmar34]

2 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

I think in this specific game unlike many other games in this genre, the distances required to find materials for 'gated' features (like iron, lime etc). is just simply too far to be adding yet another impediment to travel. I think folks here grossly under estimated how much time we all actually spend traveling in this specific game.

I really think the solution is rather simple. 1. fewer spawns. 2. lower chase radius 3. slower than characters.

done

Seems like a bandaid solution that a couple of sliders already change. Expanding on animal behaviors and interactions as a whole would be a far better solution.

[CastIronFabric]

56 minutes ago, marmarmar34 said:

Seems like a bandaid solution that a couple of sliders already change. Expanding on animal behaviors and interactions as a whole would be a far better solution.

could not disagree more. 

I do not suggest this as a patchwork to a problem, I suggest that it should have always been that way in the first place.

[marmarmar34]

39 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said:

could not disagree more. 

I do not suggest this as a patchwork to a problem, I suggest that it should have always been that way in the first place.

So adjusting some values is a better solution than a more immersive system regarding wildlife interactions? Genuinely confused how you could believe that.

[CastIronFabric]

11 minutes ago, marmarmar34 said:

So adjusting some values is a better solution than a more immersive system regarding wildlife interactions? Genuinely confused how you could believe that.

the values I suggested should have been there as I suggested in the first place because it actually makes sense as a reasonable analog to reality without over complicating it.

To repeat myself a second time but different please read the following:

Would stamina work as well? YES!

However, for this specific game given the fact that the travel distances to get gated materials (like Iron) is farther than most games of this type. It seems like that specific solution for this specific game would cause the travel distances to basically be even more of a challenge than they already are. For a point of reference, running about 5000 blocks is the same as running from about Montana to the south border of Oklahoma so I think we can give 'realism' a bit of a break here. Also as a side note, in real life I have seen a black bear run away from a domestic dog up a tree. So if we are going to play the realism card I think we might want to ...maybe not so much

Edited August 6 by CastIronFabric

[Blaiyze]

9 hours ago, Stralgaez said:

It would be interesting, though how would tie it in with the satiation meter?  Currently we got the thing of being able to keep running while constantly eating pies in from hands, which is ... odd, to say at least.

Would it be somewhat similar of 'fatigue', where your character actually needs to rest (or sleep) once in a while order to recover from it, while the level of satiation offers a 'cap' to your stamina you can use for combat and traveling.

Be full but too tired would risk you maybe falling over due to fatigue while suffering from running/combat speed debuffs..

Be well-rested but hungry would have you be barely able to run or fight due to the low stamina.

But if you got both covered, AND a good night's rest on top of it would give you small additional bonuses (slower satiation drain and a small stamina cost reduction) that will last perhaps half a day, rewarding you for preparing ahead.

There's several mods that have already balanced it really well IMO. I personally use Sleep Need. 

To put it into the vanilla game, there would obviously be some balancing and fine tuning done, but it makes sense - especially for animals.

Silent and aggressively angry aggro missles aka Bears, can run endlessly without growing tired. Eventually they'll just de-aggro, or if you're lucky and run past a rabbit or fox or something else, the bear may aggro onto them, giving you the time to skedaddle. Refining the hunting system I think would resolve the issue with bears. 

I play a heavily modded game that addresses a lot of these frustrations, so I don't notice them as much unless someone posts about it.

[SnapJelly]

While I personally have more trouble with wolves than bears I would like to say that I wouldn't mind something simple like an audible roar when you're getting too close to a bear so you have some time to react, It is a bit of an annoyance to just be walking along only to get nailed out of nowhere with no warning

[Xanadu2003]

You lament and for what, you're not even employing the premium technology the boys in r&d have developed.

I give you, the bear hole.

You simply dig a 3x3x4 Hole and get them to chase you. jump over it and then the little buggers will be trapped!
they wont ever leave and thus never respawn. The seraphs don't want you to know this but the bears are free. I have 4 of them in one hole

[CastIronFabric]

13 hours ago, SnapJelly said:

While I personally have more trouble with wolves than bears I would like to say that I wouldn't mind something simple like an audible roar when you're getting too close to a bear so you have some time to react, It is a bit of an annoyance to just be walking along only to get nailed out of nowhere with no warning

Just make them not able to run 10 miles after you nor run as fast as you.

I think that is really the easiest most logical solution. I do not know why so many people find such a suggestion so off the mark and try to overcomplicate it. 

Edited August 10 by CastIronFabric

[CastIronFabric]

7 hours ago, Xanadu2003 said:

You lament and for what, you're not even employing the premium technology the boys in r&d have developed.

I give you, the bear hole.

You simply dig a 3x3x4 Hole and get them to chase you. jump over it and then the little buggers will be trapped!
they wont ever leave and thus never respawn. The seraphs don't want you to know this but the bears are free. I have 4 of them in one hole

I have hostiles off but I am also building a road 20,000 blocks to the south. So far I am about 1/2 way there. How many of these holes would I have to build?

[marmarmar34]

4 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

Just make them not able to run 10 miles after you nor run as fast as you.

I think that is really the easiest most logical solution. I do not know why so many people find such a suggestion so off the mark and try to overcomplicate it. 

It's because that's a solution anyone can do by just adjusting a couple values, Modded or otherwise. A systemic overhaul of animal behavior as a whole would be a far more effective. Just making bears slower and lose agro quicker doesn't fix the problem of inconsistent and boring interactions. It's a band-aid solution that still leaves systems such as hunting and exploration borked and janky.

[CastIronFabric]

1 hour ago, marmarmar34 said:

It's because that's a solution anyone can do by just adjusting a couple values, Modded or otherwise. A systemic overhaul of animal behavior as a whole would be a far more effective. Just making bears slower and lose agro quicker doesn't fix the problem of inconsistent and boring interactions. It's a band-aid solution that still leaves systems such as hunting and exploration borked and janky.

my argument is that its a solution that makes sense and is an analog to the real world without over complicating things or making it too realistic. Also, the number of wolves and bears is insane. For 4 years I spent all spring and summer in the mountains (in real life) where bears are common. In those 4 years the total number of bears I saw was 3, wolves: 1

So to recap the obvious

1. There is just simply too many wolf and bear spawns. This needs to be fixed because that is from a design perspective basically broken.

2. Make bears and wolves not chase you for miles on end and make the person run slightly faster. (this is actually a very common implementation in video games for hostiles, not uncommon or novel in the least)

3. Although stamina is a good choice and does work in many games, in this specific game given the travel distances required to unlock progress (aka Iron). Adding Stamina would only make the already existing long travel times even more of a challenge than they already are. So although its a good idea in prinicple, for this specific game I think it would cause more problems than solve. People would very quickly complain about not even being able to go hunting in their 2000 block radius

EDIT: Interestingly I just now learned that there is even a phrase for chase distance adjustments its called 'leash range' and its fairly common for developer to adjust this distance until the balance is right. So its not exactly a obscure suggestion 

Edited August 10 by CastIronFabric

[River Oak]

Going outside of leash range is really annoying when you're actually trying to fight a mob and accidentally go to far from the encounter location while dodging and kiting.

[MKMoose]

18 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

Make bears and wolves not chase you for miles on end and make the person run slightly faster. (this is actually a very common implementation in video games for hostiles, not uncommon or novel in the least)

[...]

Interestingly I just now learned that there is even a phrase for chase distance adjustments its called 'leash range' and its fairly common for developer to adjust this distance until the balance is right. So its not exactly a obscure suggestion 

The problem you seem to be running into is that you're talking about multiple mechanics as if they were one:

• Entity speed is an almost entirely separate concern. Tweaking this has multiple other issues that I'll touch on below.
• Seeking distance as it is currently implemented is the distance relative to the entity's current position within which it notices the player. Tweaking this wouldn't change all that much.
• Leash range in a strict sense is the range relative to a fixed point beyond which entities do not notice the player. This applies primarily to MMOs, RPGs and similar games where mobs have fixed spawn points that they return to when not engaged, so it's not exactly a fitting concept for VS. A more relaxed implementation of leash range or some alternative mechanics like stamina that don't require a fixed spawn point could work and in fact have been suggested a number of times, also under this topic by multiple people including myself, but they're clearly not in the game currently so they would more likely fall under a larger revision to animal behavior and not a couple simple number tweaks.

 

On 8/6/2026 at 1:23 PM, CastIronFabric said:

[...] slower than characters.

An animal which is slower than the player is essentially a free kill in any half-decent terrain. Black bears are largely a triviality once you notice that you can just outrun them. On flat terrain, I can even kill polar bears with no armor and weak weapons, because while they are faster than the player, they are incapable of properly attacking a player running backwards.

Animals which are faster than the player can feel frustrating to fight if the player isn't given sufficient means to retreat or scare off the animal, but simply making them slower is no solution - it would just make them even easier to exploit than they already are.

Edited August 11 by MKMoose

[Mint Comet]

i just loop em and kill them

[CastIronFabric]

2 hours ago, MKMoose said:

The problem you seem to be running into is that you're talking about multiple mechanics as if they were one:

• Entity speed is an almost entirely separate concern. Tweaking this has multiple other issues that I'll touch on below.
• Seeking distance as it is currently implemented is the distance relative to the entity's current position within which it notices the player. Tweaking this wouldn't change all that much.
• Leash range in a strict sense is the range relative to a fixed point beyond which entities do not notice the player. This applies primarily to MMOs, RPGs and similar games where mobs have fixed spawn points that they return to when not engaged, so it's not exactly a fitting concept for VS. A more relaxed implementation of leash range or some alternative mechanics like stamina that don't require a fixed spawn point could work and in fact have been suggested a number of times, also under this topic by multiple people including myself, but they're clearly not in the game currently so they would more likely fall under a larger revision to animal behavior and not a couple simple number tweaks.

 

An animal which is slower than the player is essentially a free kill in any half-decent terrain. Black bears are largely a triviality once you notice that you can just outrun them. On flat terrain, I can even kill polar bears with no armor and weak weapons, because while they are faster than the player, they are incapable of properly attacking a player running backwards.

Animals which are faster than the player can feel frustrating to fight if the player isn't given sufficient means to retreat or scare off the animal, but simply making them slower is no solution - it would just make them even easier to exploit than they already are.

I reject the notion that this is a radical suggestions, novel or patch work. All three of those suggestions are extremely common practice in video games pretty much everywhere, including all three in combination. This game in fact has even done two of those in the past from my understanding, both spawn rate and leash limit adjustments. 

I feel very comfortable asserting that those things would work, are not novel, not a patchwork, completely reasonable and done all the time and is common practice

EDIT: and by the way, every single game (including this one) where the enemy does not chase you literally forever has a leash limit. 

Edited August 11 by CastIronFabric

[Xanadu2003]

On 8/10/2026 at 6:47 AM, CastIronFabric said:

I have hostiles off but I am also building a road 20,000 blocks to the south. So far I am about 1/2 way there. How many of these holes would I have to build?

Well. just one near your base works for general purposes. I generally just make one whenever i see one early game. Once you get a set of bronze armor and tools though you can kite them pretty effortlessly