More mammals swimming in the game

[ancient mulch]

Ever since Retrievers became the first land mammals in the game with the ability to swim, they opened a big door of opportunity. A lot of land mammals are great swimmers in real life and some really enjoy doing that. A good example of that are Water Buffalos, they swim a lot in real life and they even do in theHunter: Classic, so why not add that ability to them in COTW?! And not only them, again many animals that we have in the game are great swimmers in real life. I could absolutely see a Moose trying to go for a swim in an attempt to run from the player after being shot. This would be a great addition towards the realism and the immersion of the game.
Thank you Expansive Worlds!

I understand the player not being able to go for the swim in the game, because of all the gear that he's carrying. It makes sense 👍

P.S. this addition would be useful in the future too in the game, especially the day we get new animals such as Hippos

[stiff flume]

It would be very cool to see a moose or water buffalo swimming in the game. Many other species in the game are good swimmers irl as well, like bears, raccoons and whitetail deer. Obviously those species don't spend as much time in and around water as the Water Buffalo or Moose, but it would make sense for them to be able to swim in the game.

[ancient mulch]

Yeap and with retrievers being the first to be able to do that, I believe they can make this happen

[dim nymph]

Unless our player can swim or we get boats this wouldn't be a good idea. Some of the lakes are massive and if you take a bad shot and it runs into water and swims to the other side then dies its going to take forever to pickup your harvest on some areas in the game. You have to pick it up also because the game penalizes you if you don't. If we get boats or can swim is the only way i see this as a good thing.

[ancient mulch]

Well they would obviously not swim outside of map's boarder or unreachable areas like they do right now on foot, and if they die in water they just float back to you

[dim nymph]

I'm talking about the huge lakes that are in the boarders and reachable. I've ran around these lakes and some take forever

[ancient mulch]

The point is they would not always go for a swim to run, they would go for it if it is like a river or a small lake, and isn't that the whole point for them doing that irl so whatever is hunting doesn't reach them? I wouldn't mind going around a lake as long as I get that realistic experience of how my hunt went

And some can go for a quick swim because they like doing it once in a while, like Water Buffalo

[dim nymph]

Maybe they could make it where they only would swim so far and come back closer to the bank maybe a little further up or something. It they crossed some of the Yukon lakes OMG lol.

[ancient mulch]

Well no, they would not have stamina for that irl too, so obviously when they add this, they're not gonna make a Moose be able to swim the Yukon river 😂😂

[dim nymph]

Hopefully we get boats anyway and it won't matter.

[ancient mulch]

Yea, or they can add those boat transport points like on Revontuli to older maps (I've seen few boats scattered on Yukon 👀)

[distant ivy]

It's a good idea that would add a lot of immersion and realism to the game..
BUT would require a complete rework to the animal AI that is now designed to avoid entering water, a complete change to each map to remove the barriers that prevent animals from entering the water and respawning within it, and adding movement animations swim to each animal :/.
Unfortunately it's too much work for the current advanced state of the game

[ancient mulch]

Yes, but they can start slowly, an animal by animal, they can start with let's say Water Buffalos, reworking only their Ai with new swimming animation, and slowly, update after update, add the swimming ai and animations to other animals

[hoary island]

I would like to see animals besides ducks swim

[acoustic current]

I imagine a lot of that work may have already been done to allow the retriever to swim.

I'd like to see the animals swim but there needs to be some weighting done on the AI to make it prefer moving by land. The animals can swim in RDR2 which is nice but when they flee it seems like they treat escape by water as an equal option which leads to them swimming more often than seems realistic.

Seeing things like moose and buffalo wading during their drink zones would also be nice, but I suspect the shorelines weren't really modelled with that in mind.

[tender bough]

swimming would be great, running full speed underwater is fairly immersion breaking

[tall notch]

The crocodiles already know how swim in COTW, why don't the moose and water buffalo as well? I often see the issue when an animal tries to cross the river; the animal freezes or behaves repeatedly in a strange manner.

[ancient mulch]

100!! 🎉

[ancient mulch]

Beavers are swimming!!!