I my previous post I talked about food and cooking, but that was one of many in-depth concepts I’d like to talk about. Now let’s get to a serious concern of the community.
Currently in 3.x I don’t see that much players looking for animals to hunt, or looking for rivers and lakes to fish their food, but that might be ‘cuz these survival methods aren’t THAT essential. So in this post I’ll be leaving a good amount of suggestions that will make HUNTERS and FISHERMEN having a lil’ bit more advantages.
Let’s first settle my ideas for a better HUNTING:
Making animals a better challenge
This has already ben talked about a lot from the very moment Nelson said we sould be capable of playing “as an animal”. Since then, many of us have asked to make hunting more challenging, and that deals about making animals more active, smart, stealthy and dangerous. Making agressive animals harder to kill and neutral ones harder to reach will increase the importance of this role.
Make animals a needed source of goods
In some time, Nelson talked about domesticating and raising animals for resources, wich is a good idea, but that concerns more to farming than to hunting. So there’s the question: how to make wild animals a needed source of stuff? First of all, if animal AI gets overhauled, it will be a need to defend from them as good as from zombies. And for the second, if a player is alone in the wilderness and isn’t prepared enough to go loot in-town, he/she might rely on nature to stay alive.
Hunters should be able to carve dead hunted big animals to obtain their pelts, and not just their meat, in order to make a makeshift pelt or leather coat to survive on extremely cold maps, at nights on templated maps and/or just for having a fancy fur coat, plus making other makeshift outfit. Also, I’ve been wishing for a long time to make myself a wolf-head-hat or a bear-head-hat in Unturned, it would look cool and protect from cold and rain. This very last feature would work to make hunting trophies for our bases with deer horns in plaques or similar stuff.
In the other hand, I’d like to suggest the addition of new animals, like boars, and other smaller animals, like rabbits and ducks, for examples. Players could only obtain resources from small animals if these are killed with the proper hunting gun and ammo, or instead, are caught in a small animal trap (more about traps in next point), because you can’t expect having some meat from a rabbit if you shot it with a Grizzly, LOL.
Be better at building proper traps
Hunters are bound to know a lot about makeshift or elaborate traps for animals. This is on purpose for catching small animals to feed from them, or trapping large animals so they are an easier prey or not a bigger threat. Also, this would make PvP more interesting, since a bear trap can also damage a player and limitate its movement for tactic purposes. Crafting a good variety of hunting or defensive traps for both animal and players should be one of the hunter’s specialty.
Tracking capability
In some post I’ve read that someone suggested that zombies could smell your blood if you’re injuried. Why wouldn’t hunters use similar mechanics for their purposes?
IMO, hunters should also be specialized on tracking traces from both animals and players, being these foorprints, marks on trees or on the floor, dung and bleeding. This of course sound like brought from a dedicated hunting game, but it’s a really good feature to have in mind.
Also, it should be possible for very experienced hunters to track other kind of traces from players, like the amount of time a dead body has, shell casings left on the floor, and stuff like that. This would make a great use for PvP. It is worth saying that this principle would apply backwards, allowing hunters to hide their own traces as well.
Now my suggestions for the FISHING:
Fish to be moving entities
Minecraft just made the fish visible as mobile entities, why can’t Unturned have the same? In terms of realism, it will fit much better to be able to see the fish underwater, then watching them approach to your fishing bait.
The bigger the fish, the harder to catch
Anyone who has caught a fish or played fishing games would agree to this. The strength and ability you need to catch a goldfish isn’t the same you need for a bass, wich is much higher. Of course, skilling your fishing ability will make it easier to catch bigger fish, so there’s actually a purpose for that skill.
Bait types
I’m not that much into the fishing world, but I do know that people always use their own bait, wether this is a differente fishing feather or bobble, or simply a worm, or an insect attached to the fish hook. In this point is where hunting and fishing hold hands, since with the very basic hunting skill players should be allowed to catch small insects and bugs for used as bait for fishing.
More fishing methods
What about using cages for catching crabs or fishing nets for in-sea fishing? Maybe It would add some good variety to the fishermen experience. Also players with this skill could dive in to get some oysters or similar stuff.
If you have made it until here, I really thank you for taking your time to read the whole post
Any feedback is welcome, I’d like to discuss my ideas with other people and know what they think.
