Wildlife, Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging [Long Post]

(DISCLAIMER: I accidently posted part of this topic prematurely, here is the full topic)

Agriculture is underrated in Unturned. It provides a sustainable, easy source of sustenance. However, foraging, hunting, and fishing yield so little rewards in 3.0 that personally I find it better of to just farm. Time to brew up a post that’ll remedy that. Enjoy!

Hunting Mechanics
Any game must be built on mechanics. Here are a few that I feel Unturned II should have.

Large-caliber weapons cause a large loss of edible meat
If you shoot a rabbit with a .50-cal, there’s not going to be much of it left. Therefore, hunting weapons should be mostly around 7.62mm; anything larger and it would start to destroy the animal you are shooting.

Animals will have to be tracked
When an animal is shot, unless it is a headshot, it will begin to run. The player must follow the blood trail in order to locate the carcass of the fallen animal. Also allows nearby opportunists to home in and steal the kill before the hunter can get to it.

The carcass will have to be gutted and looted
This won’t take too long of an animation, requires a knife, hatchet, or other bladed implement. After gutting the animal, the player can then loot the carcass much in the same way one removes items from a storage.

Animals will flee a given area after a gunshot
Much in the same way zombies are attracted to a gunshot, nearby animals, upon hearing a shot, will instantly flee. This will make hunting significantly more difficult, and force the hunter to use “alternative” methods.

Hunting Methods

Bow Hunting
Hunting with a bow provides several advantages over a firearm. The shot is quiet and does not scare off game, and also does not announce to any nearby undead that “Dinner is served!” Nor does it alert any opportunistic survivors nearby that you have just downed an animal and that they have a chance to steal your kill. In addition, you can get your arrow(s) back.

Hunting with Firearms
Hunting with a rifle, is, of course, almost always easier than bow hunting, due to the vastly increased effective range. However, the shot will almost definitely scare off any other nearby animals, and also attract zombies and other survivors looking for a meal towards your location. In addition, small game such as squirrels, mice, and rabbits would be better off being hunted with very small rounds such as .22 Long Rifle and .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire.

Snares
Snaring, compared to hunting, is much, much easier. All that is needed to be done is to fashion a trap out of wire and wood, and the trap will kill any small game, such as squirrels and rabbits. (Note: the snare mentionen is a twitch-up snare)

Other Traps
Larger traps, such as pitfalls and even traps utilitizing firearms, can also be reconfigured to kill any animal unfortunate enough to cross its path. Examples of prey to this would be deer, caribou, etc.

Animals

Rabbit
We really should farm rabbits. They’re healthier than chicken, and produce 6 pounds of meat to a cow’s 1 on the same amount of feed and water. Anyways, these little things will be predominately found in grasslands.

Squirrels
Fried squirrel brains are delicious. Like scrambled eggs, but much richer…and fattier…(okay I’ll stop). Found in wooded areas everywhere.

Deer
Nothing much to say here. Same as in 3.0.

Bears
If you manage to kill one, bears will have a metric TON of meat. However, the meat has to be cooked longer than other types of wild game, to account for its toughness.

Foraging
(Note: same as in 3.0, press F to interact with the plant in question to harvest it)

Cattails
Oh, the famous staple in The Long Dark. Cattails are some of the best edible wild plants, with some 75% of the entire plant being edible, namely the roots, the leaves, the stem, and the female flower spike. Like the aforementioned games, the stems should be edible, with the seed head being left as a source of tinder.

Seaweed
One of the hardiest plants, found in oceans al over the world. Must be washed in clean water before boiling and consuming.

Kelp
Another form of underwater plant, this one is found instead in freshwater areas such as lakes and ponds.

Prickly Pear
A desert-thriving plant found mostly in the Sonoran desert of North America, with a reddish-purplish fruit that must have the spines burned off first before consuming.

Taro
A tropical root vegetable, can be found growing in the wild, but can also be cultivated. Requires damp, muddy soil in order to grow well.

Blueberries
Sigh, no, not those blueberries, but actual blueberries. Edible anywhere, found in Europe and North America.

Raspberries
Basically blueberries, but Red (Communist).

Puffball Mushroom
A large, white, edible mushroom lacking a stalk. Has a strong, earthy, mushroom flavor.

Spotted Cap Mushroom
Common name Fly Agaric, Latin name Amanita muscaria. Now, anyone who’s read anything about mushrooms should instantly recognize the name “Amanita.” For the rest of you normies, the Amanita subclass of mushrooms ranks among the deadliest in the world, with member such as Amanita virosa, common name Destroying Angel. So, why does this need to be in the game? Because the mushroom rarely kills, instead, it causes hallucainations. I think you know where this is going :smiley:. However, if boiled long enough it is safe to consume.

Coconut
Suitable in a number of crafting recipes, such as coconut oil, coconut water, uhhh…there’s a lot more uses like rope and silverware. Grows on palm trees.

Wild-Growing Cultivated Plants
In addition to the aforementioned wild plants, there would also be plants that have escaped cultivation, leading to wild populations of potatoes, tomatoes, wheat, etc.

Fishing Methods

Tickling
An incredibly skill-demanding task that essentially involves the person sneaking their hands under a resting fish, grabbing its underside, and throwing it onto dry land.

Spear Fishing
Stabbing a fish or amphibian with a spear or a gig (something akin to a trident).

Rod Fishing
Requires bait and skill. Not reccomended in the apocalypse.

Net Fishing
Throwing a net into the water and bringing it back in, hoping that fish are trapped inside somehow.

Traps
You heard me right. There are traps for fishing. Among these are the bottle trap or basket trap, as well as crab traps, etc. Allows for the player to do something else while also getting fish.

Buildables
This doesn’t really relate to fishing directly, but I think I’ll just throw it out here. Using buildables, a player could trap fish inside an enclosed area to either increase the chances of a catch or preserving them for potential future consumption.

Dynamite Fishing
I don’t really know if this is really suitable for Unturned II, but I’ll throw this one in as well. Basically you throw explosives in the water, it explodes, and dead fish flow up in the water.

Types of Aquatic Life
(Note that I said “Aquatic Life” and not “Fish.”)

Trout
A common freshwater fish found in lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams.

Salmon
A fish that hatches in freshwater, swims into the ocean, and then swims back upriver to reproduce. Therefore, they can be found in both inland and coastal bodies of water, but not in open ocean.

Carp
A common, oily freshwater fish known for being able to survive under ice during the winter (ice fishing).

Crayfish
Small, freshwater crustaceans. Can easily be caught by hand.

Minnow
Tiny freshwater fish who swim in large groups.

Catfish
A large freshwater fish, can grow upwards to fourty pounds in weight (largest freshwater catch)

Frog
A small, hopping amphibian. Frog’s legs are a French delicacy. Can only be caught with a spear or gig.

Crab
A saltwater crustacean. Can only be caught using crab traps.

Mackerel
Oily, saltwater fish.

Oyster
A saltwater bivalve mollusk. Easy meat.

Tuna
Large saltwater fish.

Eel
A…slimy…saltwater…fish (apologies on some of the late descriptions, there’s really not much to write about)


Well, I think that’s all I have to say for today. As you can probably tell, this was a rush job because I’d originally planned to take a bit more time writing this, but I accidently posted a large portion of it prematurely. Please leave any thoughts and suggestions below!

12 Likes

Yes. This is a great idea no one has actually suggested before…wow. This mechanic would make blunt tip arrows good for hunting small game (rabbits, squirrels, voles, birds etc). But I think all bullets should “degrade the meat” making it restore less hunger. Of course different calibers would degrade different amounts, but arrows should degrade a little, and blunt tipped arrows degrade none.

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More like getting less meat?

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…uhhhhh…

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AHH crap time to get out of this post -hops away-

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image

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I’m glad you listed more ways to fish than just a fishing rod. I hate it when thats the only way to fish.

Interesting idea. Definitely would need to be fairly ineffective or hard to unlock though.

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These are all great ideas. I really like the idea about large caliber bullets destroying small animals because it is realistic but it would fit in with Unturned’s theme nicely. Overall, a great post.

Great idea, I can’t wait to eat Spotted Cap Mushrooms!

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Puffball fungi are still not mushrooms.

monkaS

Agreed with everything
Very nice ideas (:

Does that make blue raspberries basically blueberries, but red, but not red?

What about white, black, and purple raspberries?

Any edible fungi to me is a goddamn mushroom.

I can definitely relate to some of these from The Forest. Nevertheless, I really liked the idea and almost everything about it. I would suggest that the bigger the caliber, the less meat you’ll get. Even with a 9mm, you’re bound to get at most 90% of the total meat. Which gives Crossbows/Bows a good use and advantage in the game instead of running an assault rifle that is the key to all survival

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I’m not a big game hunter but it seems like a large arrow would ruin more of the meat than a 9mm on a deer. I get using .50 caliber obviously should but this seems like a really small thing that could come a lot later in development.

Also just a random thought if Nelson wants to make hunting harder he should totally up the health of deer and such; you need more than a rake to take them down.

How large would that arrow be?
Most arrows are less than a quarter inch thick. The extreme velocity on the bullet causes the flesh to splash out due to the higher surface area on the bullet than the arrow. Of course with a 9mm, there wont be a splash/mini explosion, but it certainly would cause more damage to the meat than an arrow

I hope there are some outright lethal shrooms though.

Proceeds to fill up a crates near spawn for everyone to enjoy :smiling_imp:
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It’s also possible to get a humane kill from a heart shot, or by using an explosive projectile.

I like this idea, but would like to point out that the destruction should not be based solely on the caliber, but should largely be decided by the projectile and its velocity. .22 LR and .223 Remington are both approximately of .223 inch caliber, but are quite different cartridges. An explosive, fragmenting, hollow point, flat nosed, and spitzer bullet would each be expected to cause less destruction than the preceding bullet. Not all arrows or spears have the same tip. Any argument on what would cause the most damage is completely arbitrary, unless the actual projectile is specified. I would also like this mechanic be used for the clothing and loot that zombies and player bodies have when killed.

No moose or reindeer in Canada?
Also coyotes, wolves, lynxes, wolverines, groundhogs, or something should fill the gap between rabbits and deer.

All these random plants, some of which only grow in specific non-Canadian places, but no mention of maple syrup?

Kelp may grow in fresh water, but I’m only aware of it growing in salty or briney water.

For forage, why not pull what NEO Scavenger does:

In NEO Scavenger, you can forage for stuff like berries and mushrooms, but you are unable to identify what they actually are aside from appearance. The only way you can is with a Botany skill that allows you to identify the species and potential effects of eating forage.

This could allow for people to take a caluclated risk eating that unidentified red mushroom that resembles two similar looking kinds of fungi, one being lethal and the other being edible. It could allow for greater variety of forage. This also helps the survival aspect too, since now you can’t just go around picking everything in sight for easy food.

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