New problem with hunting

[SpaceDrunk]

So now hunters will close in to point blank range after downing an animal in order to finish it off easily. It's a good idea in theory, but unfortunately there are a couple of weapons, specifically the sniper rifle and survival rifle, which perform poorly at that range, meaning that it's actually counterproductive for the hunter to move in to point blank.

Compounding the issue further is that it might take several shots to actually kill the beast. As an example, I had a guy slowly plinking away with his sniper rifle at a deer he had downed with a 17% hit chance at point blank, hitting about 3 out of 12 shots before finally killing it. And before anybody says it, yes yes I know you can manually control pawns and move them into a better shooting position or have them kick the poor brute to death or whatever. But that's not the point when discussing what hunters should be expected to do automatically.

I think an obvious solution to this problem would be for the point blank shot to be a coup de grace that always hits and just instantly kills the animal.

[wolfman1911]

When I saw that hunters will close in to finish off prey, I thought it meant that they would close in and melee.

[SpaceDrunk]

I actually thought the same thing when I saw it mentioned in the changelog, like the game would simulate them pulling out a knife and slitting the animal's throat or something. So it was quite a shock to see poor old Grim march up to a fallen deer and plink away for a couple of hours, hitting almost everything at his feet except for the deer.

[Renham]

bwahahahahahahaha thats so true, I think there should be something called execution range in which you cannot miss... I mean seriously... I've seen colonist like 3 feet away from the prey been like 2 minutes to excecute the animal... it almost bleed to death before he would put it down.

[wakko151]

I don't actually mind it at all. the more they fire, the more they gain skill, and the more likely it is that they can hit it on the first try.

[Boboid]

It's a good idea in theory, but unfortunately there are a couple of weapons, specifically the sniper rifle and survival rifle, which perform poorly at that range

The Survival Rifle uses the standard accuracy trend and loses accuracy as distance increases.

The Sniper Rifle is the *only* weapon where the weapon itself ( Not the overall accuracy keeping in mind that weapon accuracy and pawn accuracy are separate) becomes more accurate as distance increases.

The only scenario where overall accuracy decreases as distance between the target and the shooter decreases is one where the colonist has INCREDIBLY high shooting skill and bionics, and the result is that melee accuracy will still be extremely high.
It's really not a problem compared to the old system.

[johntiger]

The Survival Rifle uses the standard accuracy trend and loses accuracy as distance increases.

The Sniper Rifle is the *only* weapon where the weapon itself ( Not the overall accuracy keeping in mind that weapon accuracy and pawn accuracy are separate) becomes more accurate as distance increases.

The only scenario where overall accuracy decreases as distance between the target and the shooter decreases is one where the colonist has INCREDIBLY high shooting skill and bionics, and the result is that melee accuracy will still be extremely high.
It's really not a problem compared to the old system.

But, dude, the kill is stationary. How can you even miss stationary right at your feet? How about implementing an event that if a target is stationary or not taking actions for certain time, then, in close range regardless of weapons, the hit is 100 percent.

[Boboid]

I'm not suggesting a new system to fix something I don't see as broken.
I'm just pointing out the facts and saying that the current system is better than the old one.

As for "How can you miss a stationary target right at your feet?" maybe they've had a sudden attack of nerves.
Or their blood sugar is low after spending 8 hours sitting in a field trying to kill a squirrel with a plasma rifle and their hands are shaking.
Maybe they're a Stormtrooper.
Maybe they're a bad guy in Indiana Jones.
Or anyone in the A-Team.
Or from a James Bond movie.

[skullywag]

I do class the current system as an oversight that wasnt the intended solution, as per the OP it literally does nothing to alleviate the original issue, it just flips it and suffers from the same thing.
It needs a surgery job of euthanize to be set on the downed animal and the current hunting pawn to perform it whether they have doctor skill or not, or something to that effect.

[Boboid]

as per the OP it literally does nothing to alleviate the original issue, it just flips it and suffers from the same thing.

That's just.. false. Really no other way to put it.
Colonists are exponentially more accurate at melee range than they are at max (hunting) range.

It's not a flawless " Colonist walks up to and instantly kills target " solution, but it does significantly reduce the amount of time spent per kill.

[skullywag]

Im not seeing it Boboid, all im seeing is my hunter stood next to the animal shooting the floor.

Original issue was pawn with short range weapon at max range of weapon not able to finish a downed animal.

Issue is now pawn with long range weapon at close range unable to finish a downed animal.

Problem is not alleviated.

[PotatoeTater]

I have my hunters uses the shotgun. It has decent midrange for when they are first starting and it kills usually in one hit when they close in.

[Boboid]

Fine - Here are the numbers for you.

All tests performed with healthy colonists and Normal 100% durability Sniper Rifles against Muffalo.
No cover between shooters and targets.
3 Skill:
Melee Accuracy: 94%
Max Range Accuracy: 12%

11 skill:
Melee Accuracy: 96%
Max Range Accuracy: 30%

20 skill:
Melee Accuracy: 98%
Max Range Accuracy: 69%

Need anything else?

[skullywag]

Boboid no need to get so defensive, we're all adults here. Youre coming off a little.....short.

Im just telling it as i sees it. Ive watched my hunter enough to see that when i equip them with certain weapons they can take an age to kill a downed animal....thats it. It was an issue for me before and its an issue for me now...and others it seems.

[Boboid]

I'm trying brevity for a change.

I'm not opposed to a better system nor am I discounting the notion that some combination of weapon/environment/colonist/target ends with a melee accuracy that's considered too low.

I'm just not a big fan of spreading misinformation, especially when it takes all of 2 minutes -whilst laying down in bed- to test it.