Changes for Black bears on SRP

[proper cape]

Ever since the redistribution and drink zone time change for black bears on SRP they’ve become extraordinarily hard to hunt and especially to grind for.
While it is not a bad thing to have a great one species that is harder to chase after, I believe the bears right now take this way too far to the point basically nobody is hunting for them, which in my opinion is a huge shame as the black bears are themselves a cool species, and and even cooler great one.
I think it would be a great idea to revisit some aspects of the black bear population, especially on SRP. There seems to be a huge lack of bears, especially male bears in general. This may be due to the fact they come into their zones extremely late and some it seems may never actually get there, so perhaps a fix for that may help, but also perhaps a small population increase of maybe say 15% or so, or just a rebalance to the male/female ratio as it feels there’s way more female bears than males most of the time.
Personally I do not mind having to hunt the black bears at night if that has to be that way, but I think a huge portion of people hunting them would also love a redo of their need zone times, making them drink say in the early morning (maybe 3am - 6am for example).
Regardless, I believe something needs changing with the black bears to make them an enjoyable species to hunt again. The great one grind for them was already pretty tough before the changes, and now it feels darn near impossible with the lack of males to be found, which as said is a shame because they’re an awesome great one species and deserve more appreciation!
Would love to see everyone’s input on this, again I’m not asking for the bears to be made extremely easy, but more in line with what they were before the changes that made most stop hunting them in the first place.
Thank you 🖤

[dire galleon]

Great Ones should always be the pinnacle of rarity in cotw, but the grind should also be fun. Right now it’s not. Would be nice to see as many bears posted as other great one finds.

[wispy heron]

There is a suggestion that is going around about making the feed zones closer to water. I mean they do eat fish in real life. That could help.

[safe hawk]

This would actually be really cool!

[icy forge]

I do wish that some changes would be made to the great one black bear hunting. Atm it is nearly impossible to hunt them unless you get really lucky with your zones and luck. There should definitely be more males on the map too, and maybe condense where they can be.

[wispy heron]

The link to it is in my map suggestion on BC right below this.

[winged whale]

If we had running rivers and small waterfalls in SRP that would make sense, because bears usually don't fish in the lakes, but do it on top of those small waterfalls, catching fish while they jump out

Having Grizzlies do that on Yukon would be a little more realistic because of the shallow areas of the Yukon River in the Southeast

[wispy heron]

Bears will occasionally feed in lakes it's just more rare than the salmon runs. Edit- I should say less often not rare!

[winged whale]

Yea, that's why it's unlikely they add that for black beats until we get rivers and waterfalls in the game, or at least added to SRP (I saw them moving trees around, bet they can change more things with the terrain if possible)

[wispy heron]

It does happen though. It wouldn't be that out there.

I have personally seen them eating catfish at a lake.

[brittle elm]

3-6 am sounds incredible for Black bears.

[midnight rampart]

only grizzly bears eat fish

[wispy heron]

@midnight rampart

[brittle elm]

I too distinctly remember visiting out west seeing a black bear looking for fish I’d assume.

[wispy heron]

@brittle elm I've seen it down south as well.

[dusty furnace]

Yea I've definitely seen black bears eating fish in person especially by the river

[tawdry wharf]

Don’t they also dig through trash?

Maybe a feed zone next to outpost too

[dusty furnace]

Once they start they don't stop, it becomes one of their main stops, in some places they move the bear to somewhere not near people to stop em

[brittle elm]

Indeed they do I’d love to see one or two there

[mortal blaze]

Honestly I just want old srp back just with longer mule deer and rocky mountain elk drink times. I miss old mountain goat, mountain lion and pronghorn hunting

[proper cape]

Agreed, SRP was massively better before all the changes in general

[brittle elm]

I they really did nerf srp into oblivion.I could play srp for hours before mountain goat lost their drink time…,Now I can’t play 15/20 minutes without getting bored.

[wispy heron]

@dusty furnace My buddy in Montana said he has seen black bear eating trout several times in the mountain lakes. It not something you see all the time but it definitely happens.

[dusty furnace]

Yea that's what they usually get here, I've also seen em snatch big suckers

[chilly scroll]

Plus Black Bears in British Columbia & Alaska eat just as much salmon as Grizzly Bear

[chilly scroll]

A bears diet varies by population though

[pastel raven]

SRP is in CO black bear dont swim in lakes hunting trout they wont catch but maybe 1 a day that way and their are no catfish in high mountain lakes of CO that i know of

thats from CO fish wildlife and parks not some other place

[wispy heron]

There is trout. It's not an all the time thing but its reality they eat fish at times.

[pastel raven]

yeah dead ones and lamed ones not healthy trout in a lake its not like a salmon run

[wispy heron]

It's enough of a reality to be in a video game. In my opinion

[pastel raven]

Black bears of CO should not act like the bears of the south or of further north

[wispy heron]

The suggestion was for some feed zones on the water not all.

[dusty furnace]

It's true that they'd much rather be in the trash or a berry patch but they eat pretty much everything

[pastel raven]

yeah they omnis

[chilly scroll]

The point of the original post is that the Black Bears on SRP should be enjoyable to grind for

[wispy heron]

Adding more males , feed zones on the water or changing drink times is the only option I can think of for making them more enjoyable. They could give us more full zones like we used to have. Not just singles.

If they keep it singles maybe condense the home range a little.

[split kernel]

I think a large problem might be the mountain lions feeding close to the water and scaring bears away. That could be why we never see any. I’d much rather they just make it so mountain lions don’t spook bears

[wispy heron]

That is definitely an issue. That's why I didn't include them in my map suggestion. I can't stand hunting bears with them around. It gets old trying to shoot them and leave them dead until you decide to hunt something else.

I wish they had two drink times like they used to. I thought that was fun. You got to experience both aspects of day and night hunting

[split kernel]

I’ve noticed that crocs and gators can’t scare foxes, so it’s not like they can’t alter what predators can and can’t spook

[wispy heron]

I would like to mention if they make changes to make them more fun to also implement those changes on all black bear maps because I hunt more than just SRP. Right now the black bear hunting is not great across the board in my opinion.

[split kernel]

Alternatively, cut down the black bear home range on NEM to 1/3 or even 1/2 the map and it could potentially be a really good map for grinding them

[dusty furnace]

Making it so I have more then one zone I can find with more then 1 bear in it would be real nice

[ionic timber]

Yeah I think that maybe limiting Black Bears to the western side of the map would be the best way to make them more enjoyable to hunt on NEM.

Also, I'd like to see Black Bears backfilled to Yukon Valley as well (maybe only in the areas that don't have Grizzlies) so that we can hunt both bear species on one map.

[tawdry wharf]

Imagine seeing your GO digging through the trash

[dire galleon]

It’s funny you say this, there’s concept art for great one black beard who have trash stuck on their heads

[tawdry wharf]

Fr?

[dire galleon]

I believe there was a toilet seat one and a Christmas one

[tawdry wharf]

Ok is there anyway I can see them

[dire galleon]

https://callofthewild.thehunter.com/developer-diary-black-bear-great-one/

[tawdry wharf]

How would that bear survive with that covering his whole head he would suffocate to death

[brittle elm]

And that is why they decided against it.

[brittle elm]

Bump because hunting bears is sucky

[mortal blaze]

Bump

[proper cape]

Coming back to this because I literally don’t know where my bears are anymore- feels like all save for a few tiny males have disappeared. It’s awful!

[wispy heron]

I played SRP last night and it was like 95 percent of my zones was females.

[cold galleon]

Bump it up bae, Black Bears need some love.

[proper cape]

Definitely feeling the same on my map

[wispy heron]

I used to love the Bear hunting on this game. They were one of my favorites, but with all the changes they have destroyed it in my opinion.

[proper cape]

It’s definitely not enjoyable atm, there’s some big issues with it which is a shame! Hopefully there will be some changes in future! 🤞

[cold galleon]

Black Bear populations need an increase, respond if ya agree.

[wispy heron]

💯👆

[brittle elm]

☝️☝️☝️

[proper cape]

1000000% yes

[undone shoal]

Yeah that’s a really good point cuz black bears drink literally in all the lakes of SRP, NEM and Latyon. This makes the grind for them impossible

[proper cape]

Addition to this: PLEASE make it so mountain lion don’t spook black bears anymore! It doesn’t really make any sense and would help with some issues.

[mortal blaze]

Same for brown bears too. A tiny lynx vs a bear = a death slap to the lynx not the other way around.

[undone shoal]

Also moose: how can they flee from a tiny cat?

[mortal blaze]

Bump

[icy forge]

Give black bear albino!!! Please! It would add a whole new amazing thing to go for for the bears!!! PLEASEEEE. Also make mountain lion not spook them

[proper cape]

This^ I also saw a trail cam vid of a real piebald black bear the other day. It was stunning. Giv in game plz lol

[undone shoal]

@proper cape this one?

[proper cape]

Yes!

Something that just happened while attempting to hunt bears:
I just watched a bear come in to its drink zone at 23:59, it didn’t even get the “drinking” state to come up, it hit 00:00, and that bear turned around and left. It got there, with under 60 seconds of drink time left, and then immediately turned around to leave again. It never got to use its drink zone. If this is happening to other bears too, this could be part of the issues with black bears. I have to set the time to 23:50 onwards to get most bears to show up as it is.

[dire galleon]

On my knees begging and pleading for bears to drink during the daylight

[brittle elm]

Early morning would make more sense,especially for black bear,or just remove the universal drink zone time,as it doesn’t work on every map.

[dire galleon]

I agree too many species to keep track of drink times with how much overlap there is

[wispy heron]

Bump

[lyric maple]

bump

[wispy heron]

Bump

[undone shoal]

Bump

[haughty oasis]

bump

[proper cape]

My recent black bear grinding experience has only reinforced that these are one of the worst species to hunt right now 🙏

[acoustic quest]

i tried for a while (aka 30mins) and stopped, they suck

[pliant nimbus]

Yet Another Reason For Me To Avoid The Suckers 😂

[cold galleon]

I already got one via multiplayer so im all good

[dire peak]

Agree. BB's were so fun to hunt before they switched drink time to night time. The night vision for one is not good in the game. So wish they would switch the times back to daylight hours. Could have 1 drink time in the day like they used to and add a drink time in the middle of the night. Appeals to both preferences.

[ionic timber]

I mentioned a change to Black Bear drink time in my post #1207823398487461920
Please go check it out and give it an upvote if you're interested in seeing EW make SRP great again!

[neon vigil]

New drink times for black bear! Thank you, team!!! 🥰 🥳
Now 4-8am
🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

[winged whale]

Out of all suggestions here in the official Discord, I really wasn't expecting them to do this one first lol, but hey, we got it let's gooo xD

[neon vigil]

Neither did I. But I aint complaining. Haha

[mortal blaze]

Now we just gotta kill bears after the update to get them to the new time xD

[proper cape]

Our prayers have been answered 🙏

[mortal blaze]

I just hope they don't hire elk body guards

[dire galleon]

Is it true that we have to clear out the old populations manually?

[mortal blaze]

yes

i'm just gonna shoot the males and leave the females to stay at night

[proper cape]

Yes

[dire galleon]

I’m only going to do it on srp, it’s not worth it on New England or layton…

[wispy heron]

Thank you for changing the drink times EW!
It's Very much appreciated!