Waterfowl Rework

[true quartz]

With the introduction of the retriever (which looks amazing) I would love to see a large rework of the waterfowl (all ducks and geese) mechanics.

Here are a few of the biggest changes I would love to see:

1. Nowhere in the world (to my knowledge) do people hunt waterfowl with .22 rifles. In most places it is illegal. I would love to see all waterfowl (and birds in general even) become shotgun only for integrity. Similar to the old lodge glitch, it is a pretty big eye sore for the game to see people shooting straight into the air at birds hundreds of meters away.
2. To accomodate this change, and keep game balance, waterfowl should decoy more realistically. They should actually come and land much closer into the decoys within shotgun range, and flare slower so that it's possible to actually shoot more than 1. Currently, they land anywhere around except almost never right in front of you in the decoys. As a result, you often shoot them off the ground/water at a distance. In real life, when decoys are in the water, birds always land in the water. In the game they often land on land or out of sight.
3. Birds should also fly lower as they come into range, so that they don't just drop straight out of the sky on top of you. This would also help compensate for removing the .22 from integrity.
4. Add banded birds as a rare fur type.
5. Let birds respawn one by one like every other animal, instead of once the whole flock has been killed.
6. Backfill all reserves that have waterfowl with more species (keep the same total number of birds if needed). It is a little disappointing that places like Layton only have mallards, for instance.
7. Clean up some of the glitches that currently happen, like killed birds randomly disappearing before they can be harvested.
8. GO idea- any duck has a tiny chance to respawn as a mandarin duck. Those things are incredible and super rare irl.

[lucid flower]

What species were you thinking???? There’s quite a few obvious ones,if you aren’t sure I could help.

[vital sapphire]

Need wood ducks for sure. They definitely upgraded the waterfowl with green winged teal atleast.

Also the banded duck as a rare is an amazing idea

[lucid flower]

Layton could definitely use two or three more species of duck and maybe a species of goose
For Layton I was thinking Woodduck,Green-Winged Teal and Either Pintail or Northern Shoveler and for geese I’d have to go with the obvious pick,Greater White-fronted Goose.

[vital sapphire]

I feel like if they did an Appalachian mountains map they would add the woodie and then backfill everything

[lucid flower]

NEM

[vital sapphire]

Facts I only waterfowl hunt in the game. My area is straight woodies and some teal so it’s fun

[forest lodge]

We already had a waterfowl rework with the launch of Revontuli, it took a year to complete and required a lot of changes and brought many errors that remain...

Almost half of class 1 animals are aquatic birds, removing the integrity of the .22 rifle would bring endless complaints..

As for where the birds land it depends on what they have been attracted to, if they were attracted by the Decoys they will land near them but if they were attracted by the caller or the electronic caller they will land near the player, it is a mechanic as old as the DLC of the ducks, can hardly be changed without invalidating the attraction of the caller...
Added to that, after Mississippi the mechanics of the bodies of water changed a little, the deepest area or its center is a "dead zone" so birds can no longer land there, they do so rarely but only when they are inside of their resting schedule, if they are on their feeding schedule they do so in the shallow area or on the coast.
In the past, many users used to complain that birds only landed in the middle of the water, that was the reason for one of those changes...

[supple ocean]

I personally would hate the integrity for the .22 being removed.

I could get on board with some of the other suggestions made though.

[hidden ibex]

I do recall some places allowing for low-calibre rifles and airguns to be used, though from the videos I have seen the bird is never flying and are either resting on the water or moving around on land when shot at and the context of the situation was always pest control like Florida for invasive Egyptian Goose and Muscovy Ducks, South Africa (pest control) and I hear even New Zealand allows people to hunt Canada Geese with 22 LR & 22 Hornet (due to them being classified as Small Game instead of birds https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/things-to-do/hunting/permits-and-licences/small-game-hunting-permit/). Now saying all that I wouldn't be against making it so you can't shoot airborne waterfowl with rifles (waterfowl walking around on the ground is another story)

[jade cape]

I’ve been wanting a rework for a while now

[true quartz]

There are so many I would love to see added. For dabbling ducks- pintails, wood ducks, and wigeon would be my choices. For divers we absolutely need canvasbacks. But also redheads and buffleheads should be added.

For the time being, backfilling all maps that can conceivably have a species of waterfowl should be done. (ie canadian geese and even cinnamon teal on layton).

[lucid flower]

Although SRP is definitely not built for waterfowl I’d prefer to see Cinnamon Teal on Srp or stay Parque exclusive.

[true quartz]

I definitely agree that removing the .22 integrity would bring a lot of complaints. But so did removing the lodge glitch. Like I said, it is an ugly and unrealistic way to waterfowl hunt, that is made necessary in the game by how difficult it is to kill birds with the shotgun. It’s still worth doing though to create a more “ethical” and realistic game.

As for the changes that have already happened, they are a very good start. But that doesn’t mean that more aren’t needed.

[true quartz]

It doesn’t have to any one specific bird on any reserve. In real life duck hunting, one of my absolute favorite things is you never know what exactly is going to fly into your spread. It adds some excitement. Having only mallards on a map for instance makes it a bit tedious for me.

[balmy bobcat]

I’d love for the waterfowl to actually land properly. That’s my biggest complaint with them currently.

[dusk rain]

Don't agree with the removing integrity for the 22 or any other class 1 rifle ammo or handgun or bow

Do agree with respawns being when one duck is shot another respawns

[cyan yoke]

I don´t understand why they dot just copy the flight mechanics from classic. Bird hunting is soo great there it would make the game so much better.

[olive pewter]

Classic also has long and short ranger callers, flag decoys, spinning decoys, etc. that make it so much more challenging (and fun). I did think it was a pity those weren’t added when COTW had the bird rework.

[dusk rain]

Those would be cool to have flag and spinning decoys

[olive pewter]

I'd like banded birds to be Great Ones rather than just a rare fur type on non-GOs. (Although the GOs could also have a new, interesting model.)

[dusk rain]

What are banded birds

[olive pewter]

Bird that have leg bands. They are kind of an achievement IRL to get one.

[dusk rain]

Do you really want to shoot them though

Don't they band birds for conservation and studying reasons

[olive pewter]

Of course, but hunters shooting at ducks or geese can't see the band until they shoot the birds. Depending on where it happens, there is, however, a requirement to report the band number, date, location, etc. to the authorities so the researchers can be informed.

[dusk rain]

Ok

[olive pewter]

interesting article about it here: https://freerangeamerican.us/banded-birds/

[dusk rain]

That's interesting

[winged lava]

Hello JusticeBeavr,

Thank you for sharing your thoughtful ideas for a waterfowl rework! The suggestions about making waterfowl shotgun-only for integrity, improving decoy behavior, adjusting flight height, adding banded birds, individual bird respawns, diversifying species across reserves, and addressing glitches are all well-considered improvements.

Your input is valuable, and I appreciate the effort you've put into providing detailed and constructive feedback. I'll make sure to pass these suggestions along to the rest of the team for their consideration. If you have any more ideas or thoughts, feel free to share.

Happy hunting!

[true quartz]

I feel like just a band wouldn't be a big enough incentive to really grind for a GO though. Also, banded birds are far, far more common IRL than the other great ones we have in game.

[true quartz]

Yeah kind of like @olive pewter said, shooting the banded bird and reporting it is a huge part of gathering the research data. For instance, the first banded bird I ever shot was a 14 year old mallard (which is crazy old) that was killed hundreds of miles from where it was banded. So when I report that information they can compile that data.

[woeful frost]

make it so we can put decoys in preset patterns instead of placing individual ones. also add more waterfowl species to maps such as mississippi, layton, new england etc

[true quartz]

Bump

[sinful fossil]

I Don’t Think That Having Mandarin Ducks As A Great One Is A Particularly Good Idea. There’s Plenty Of Places Where They’re Super Abundant, Specifically Belgium, The Netherlands, The UK, Far Eastern Russia, And Japan.

[true quartz]

I live in the Netherlands and have been all over Europe hunting and otherwise. They are very rare here.

But point taken that in East Asia, they are more prevalent. In MOST places, they are incredibly rare. Would still be a great in game trophy IMO.

[sinful fossil]

I Wouldn’t Be Opposed To Having Them Be An Uncommon Or Even Rare Species On Certain Maps, But They Shouldn’t Be A Great One.

[true quartz]

So what I hear all the time for a GO waterfowl idea is “a super size duck that dive bombs you from the air”. I find that to be a bit silly. What would be your idea for a good GO duck?