Waking up the Camera

Last Friday was the first time since February that I have been out and about with a camera.  It was a bit surreal at first but hopefully, with slightly eased exercise rules now applying I can start to get a bit further afield.  However, the first foray was just a wander round the local area.

The Mamas and Papas would have had a problem stopping by the church……Church services may not be currently happening, but bus services continue at a reduced level……and with revised boarding arrangements……through the centre doors only.

While human activity is reduced – nature is fully up to speed with spring and early summer plants in bloom. Oxeye Daisy……beside the North Circular Road along with Ragwort……while on Long Lane Pasture, the Irises are flowering……and the Damselflies are hunting and mating.

Birdshot

This is the first post since the changes to the scoring system went live in The Hunter – Call of the Wild. I have had the chance to really get to understand the impact of those changes and to see the effect on the weapons in game, especially since we’re mainly stuck indoors at the moment. Some of the weapons got minor improvements too – the Docent .223 being an example that the developers talked about, so lets start with that rifle.

The .223 rifle has been made lighter and slightly more powerful. How realistic that is in terms of the real world equivalent, I don’t know, but the reasoning behind the changes was to make the gun more useful to balance out a hunter’s weapon’s loadout where there was a need for a light small bore gun to keep within weight limits. The .223 is now classed as 2 to 4 ammunition which means it can be used up to deer such as Fallow. Prior to this change, the main reason to carry the .223 was to hunt Fox in Hirschfelden or Siberian Musk Deer in Medved. On most other reserves it was not a weapon you’d carry – and judging by the completion rate of the Steam achievement for bringing down 50 Foxes – not many hunters were choosing to carry it in Hirschfelden either. These changes could have made it a much more popular rifle – But…

One of the key changes within the new animal classification system was the move of Foxes up to level 2 alongside Coyotes and Jackals. What that means is that the gun you get as a starting weapon, the Ranger .243, can now be used to shoot Fox. Additionally, although they never said as much, it has been noted by some in the community that the .243 seems to have had a bit of a buff too! I’ve noticed that it seems more effective than before and I’m tending to carry it as part of my regular loadout. What this means is that the .223 actually becomes superfluous and I can’t think of a reason to carry one. Let’s take a break at this point and bring the Outdoors, Indoors, with a screenshot of some Hirschfelden scenery…

Another gun that is impacted by the changes is the 7.62mm Solokhin – once the darling of just about everyone. Its ammo class was moved from 2 to 6, where it sat alongside and outclassed the .243, to 3 to 7. With the .243 now being more effective and other very potent rifles such as the Eckers .30-06 now usable for animals of level 4 and above, there really is no reason to carry it. So Fox, Coyote, Roe, Springbok are all covered by the .243 and I can start shooting reltively small deer like Fallow, Blacktail and Kudu with the very powerful Regent Magnum 7mm or the Eckers or one of the newer guns in the game, which I’ll talk about in some detail in another post. The only reason to carry the Solokhin now is because you love it! Lets have another scenery break – this time in Layton Lakes, Oregon. If you look closely you can see a Black Bear wandering through the reserve…

Let’s talk about the way that the scoring system changes have impacted the game. No one likes taking a bad shot – lets get that stated at the start. The old system penalised bad shots by downgrading your trophy if the animal took more than 8 seconds to die. Unfortunately, it was quite possible to do a good shot on an animal with a legitimate lower powered weapon which ultimately killed it, and still fall foul of that arbitrary mechanism. The new scoring system has removed the Quick Kill element from the Trophy rating of an animal that you kill. Instead, there are 4 checks that you must comply with to get the full trophy for the animal. Use of correct ammo class – using a level 4 gun like the Eckers on a Roe deer which is Level 3 will cause this to fail. Shooting the animal more than twice – there’s no machine guns in game but this is to deter the wild and reckless type of shooting. No damage to the parts that constitute the ‘Trophy’ element of the animal – usually the head. And, most importantly, the animal must have been hit in vital organs which are Heart, Lungs and Liver. Stomach, intestines and spine do not count but a shot that breaks the animal’s neck does. Effectively, this is the check that replaces the old Integrity and forces the player to put every effort into making a good shot. Let’s look at that in practice. Here’s a volunteer Fallow Deer……and this is one of the latest addition to the rifle armoury – the M1 – which is a valid weapon for this animal……We line up the sights, and squeeze the trigger……Bang – and it’s time to go and collect our animal……You can see from the blood that this animal went down instantly, which is what we want to see. Here’s the screen that tells the story of the kill……Right Lung and Liver count for the vital check.

So, what happens if an animal that I shoot in vital organs doesn’t go down instantly? There is still a penalty. The experience points score is reduced and so is the amount of credits earned. So it’s desirable to shoot the animal with the most powerful weapon and ammo that you can use so that it is stopped in its tracks. The ammo class for each weapon gives a range of animal classes – 2 to 6 for example. It’s good practice to view this as meaning that the weapon is good for 2 to 4 class animals and switch to a more powerful weapon for 4 to 6 Class animals. The beloved Regent Magnum with it’s 7mm shell is 4 to 9 but above class 6 it will become less effective and the quick kills may not happen. I did take down a Lion with it in Vurhonga Savannah from just over 100 metres but it was a perfect side-on shot that got both lungs. Even so, the animal made around 30 meters before going down, impacting the earnings and points slightly……And it’s worth remembering that those perfect side on shots are a rare luxury!

Overall, I think the changes are good. I think the issue of ensuring that our hunting is carried out with integrity has been well addressed whilst the true flexibility of the individual weapons is probably more accurately represented in the range of animal classifications that each can shoot. It is now possible to carry a single loadout of 3 rifles and be able to take down any animal in every reserve in the game – a sort of universal loadout. I think that a lot of players will still change their loadout’s for each reserve because they value specific weapon characteristics in different circumstances or because variety is the spice of life! I will certainly be swapping my weapons around.

It’s a lovely morning outside in London but – as we can’t go out there – so let’s bring that glorious weather indoors……Have a great time wherever you are and stay safe!

Outside My Office

My life, like many other people’s, is currently very much ‘indoors’. And a lot of that life is spent in a virtual ‘outdoors’ via Truck and Hunting simulations. However, there is always the window on the world outside and nature is gearing up for the birth of new life. Birds and animals are pairing up and some already have young. There’s a lot of activity to watch and sometimes photograph. Let me share a few photos from last week.

The Tits have been very active with Blue’s and Great’s coming to my window sill. Here is one of the Blue Tit’s that happily flitted back and forth despite me sitting right next to the window…

The Robin is a little more circumspect, watching with care before making a lightning fast smash & grab…

The Squirrels come every day at various times and, if the food has been hoovered up by the Feral and Wood Pigeons, sometimes tap on the window and look through the glass at me. I’m not sure how much they can actually see – they certainly see nowhere near as well as the Pigeons who observe my every move no matter how far back from the window I am! Here’s one of my regular Squirrel visitors approaching to get some nuts I’ve just put out…