Many Ways to get GO's without Grinding/HM (Not Easy Mode )

[wary bluff]

This would be a way for casual's or semi casuals to get at least one GO of each type. EW has placed so much time and effort in developing these G1 models and I just want them available to all players and not just those who choose to play by a single play style (namely grinding )

So I propose they implement GO missions or a series of mission that would be difficult but not impossible to complete …. This would give those who don't want to do grinding/HM an opportunity to find a GO.

Of course the GO missions would need to be challenging and not easy to accomplish... But something that Casuals can work toward while hunting and complete within a reasonable amount of time … Roughly the same amount of time that it would take to spawn a g1 by grinding (avg ~ 2000 Hrs )

They could even tie the GO missions to player progression so that you must reach a certain level before getting the missions … This will ensure that players put the appropriate amount of time into the game …

**Update …. **

Another optional mentioned here for those who don't like missions would be to give a free pop reset every 1 to 3 months or with player progression.... so the bottom line is G1's will be available to every play style without devaluing the trophy.

So grinders can still grind/HM (the best way to maximize # of G1's )
Casuals can do missions to get G1's based on player progression
Or you can do a pop rest based on player progression or at regular intervals …

Post here if you have an ideas on how this can be implemented to be worthy of GO status..

Update ... July 2024
Here are the prevailing ideas on alternate G1 methods

Mission/Progression #1242416386031091753 message

Due to character count limitation please click the link below to view other Alternate G1 methods
#1242416386031091753 message
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[native pilot]

Yes! Love this idea. 🏆
Thinking, thinking...

[warped stream]

I had previously proposed a "season" system through the Hunt Club but it was not a very popular idea.
https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1124385608522006579

[native pilot]

Just gave it a thumbs up. As a casual player, I would love to see HC expanded. Yes, there are bug issues on Xbox but there are workarounds. Perhaps people are not seeing the broader potential of your idea. Shame.

[wary bluff]

I like your ideas and commented but its not as causal friendly as I would like. Maybe I'm too casual but as a casual player I don't like to feel like I have to play or accomplish something within a certain period of time .... that is the very definition of a grind to me ....

[warped stream]

I understand, it would be great to find a way that satisfies everyone, I still believe that a new system is needed to obtain GOs and make it fun and challenging at the same time 👍

[wary bluff]

I suspect they are doing some work ATM on the hunt club ... there have been no mission in the last couple of weeks .... If they could implement some system like this into Hunt Club that would be great

[native pilot]

I could be wrong, but I've noticed that this is typical just after a HC season or just before a new release/update. 🤞 👀

[wary bluff]

One thought I had was tying the GO missions to player progression. So that after you get to level 60 you can now start progressing toward getting a GO mission. Once you reach the next level of progression (whatever that is ) then you can unlock a random GO mission on a certain map that must be completed to spawn and find the GO ….

Also tying the GO mission to a certain map will give EW the opportunity to sell more map DLC's. So if you have progressed to the point where you have unlocked a GO Moose mission on Revontuli then you will need to buy that map first ….

[hard anvil]

Chaining GO missions to paid maps probably won't happen since they won't even give a GO to a DLC animal yet

[wary bluff]

Well you are not forced to get GO this way... You can still choose to do Herd management on a base game map ... or get one through random chance in the base game ... The Idea is to add another option not to replace or do away with the current way to get GO's ...

And in order to appease the HM players ... I propose that that going the mission route will still not produce the current numbers of GO's that can be spawned using HM ... So HM will still be the most efficient way to spawn large numbers of GO's ...

[native pilot]

Yeah, this is really outdated and limiting in terms of expanding the game and maintaining interest and keeping it fun. They need to scrap this policy. Plenty of content is only available via the DLCs.

[hard anvil]

I see the appeal and I like that it would be tied to hitting max level. Considering GOs were supposed to feel like a one in a lifetime experience I would hope it would require quite a bit of work to get one even through missions. Unfortunately HM has made GOs so efficient you can bang out a GO in a couple of days on limited playtime. I miss when max weight diamonds were special lol

[wary bluff]

@hard anvil Unfortunately HM has made GOs so efficient you can bang out a GO in a couple of days on limited playtime. I miss when max weight diamonds were special

Yes and still some people dont want to do HM ... even if it is the most efficient ... some people just don't like it for whatever reason

[hard anvil]

Totally understandable and there should be a way, likely mission based being the best way, for those people to obtain them. I'm not against it I just wish they actually felt like an accomplishment in game again.

[wary bluff]

I also don't like that Dimes have been devalued so possibly tie the GO mission to getting a certain number of dimes .... but only after progression

[native pilot]

I did it once with reindeer. I enjoyed it but it was repetitive. Had to take a two month's break after.

[hard anvil]

The nature of HM, grinding in general, makes it tedious and boring. To me it took away from what I was earning. When I got my GO it didn't feel like I had done anything important game wise except slaughtered a bunch of WT. Not worth repeating

[wary bluff]

One reason why I don't like HM grinding is you just never see any meaningful progression. You could do it very quickly or it can be a slog (grind ) ... There is no visible progression .... With he mission approach it may take you a while to get there but you can see you are progressing toward it ....

[tulip fiber]

I’ve been doing herd management for whitetail for like 2months and it is so tedious

[wary bluff]

There needs to be a way to get GO's without random chance .... something challenging and fun but also not easy mode ..... there needs to be visible progression .... I think Missions are the best way to accomplish this ....

Just getting a mission that says a GO has been spotted on a certain map... now you have to hunt it down .... this would be amazing IMO .... Now the specifics of how your earn that mission can be debated

[tulip fiber]

Idk I think if we get missions I think there should be more red deer GO variants I think it is kinda the most weak GO in my opinion

[inland sentinel]

10 Challenges to Spawn a Great One:
(1) Get a vital shot from 400+m at night from a Lookout Tower.
(2) Run the Wolf Gauntlet: Run the river on Medved with no weapons during wolf drink time - and survive.
(3) Spot the same animal in its Drink, Rest, and Feed zones, then harvest it with a bow.

-Add Your Challenges Here-

[wary bluff]

The following contains theoretical numbers/metrics . How long does it take the average player to progress from lvl 1 to 60?

So maybe they make the first GO mission unlock at level 90. or 120.. By that time you could have also completed some additional missions that are also required to unlock the GO mission. ..... After completing that first GO mission you can start progressing to the next Go mission at level 120 or 180 .... Each Go mission level gives you another GO mission .... On and On from there ...

[quasi osprey]

just my 2 cents, but I'd prefer it if it would be just reasonably possible to find/spawn GO's without going on a grind. But, how low is the chance right now? Why not increase it if the common understanding is you can not get a GO if you don't specifically grind for one?

[wary bluff]

After level 60 progression could be based on missions completed and average player metrics and not necessarily how many animals you kill. This will prevent players from cheesing the system using mods and wiping out herds... They will only progress as fast as the average player progresses ....

[inland sentinel]

Ever heard of ANYONE getting a great one without grinding? I haven't.

[wary bluff]

Yeah Jaxy got one on stream once ... I think it was on NEM

[wary bluff]

Reasonably possible is the key phrase there ... what is considered to be reasonably possible ... Not everyone will agree on that .... But at least if you can actually see that you are progressing toward a Goal and not totally random then it wont be such a grind ....

[rotund sleet]

I got one in 60 kills one time and my buddy got one in 30 kills one time. You don't have to grind. It is possible without it.

[wary bluff]

As was mentioned earlier .... this is not meant to replace HM or random chance this is just looking at additional ways of getting a GO through progression or some other way if possible

[hard anvil]

First non base game GO confirmed

[native pilot]

Ha! So funny I was talking about that earlier. Brilliant news. I'm guessing its a predator. Wolf?

[hard anvil]

He claims it isn't an expected one...so I'm not sure.

[native pilot]

I'm thinking it still has to appear on at least two maps but would love it it to be a lion

[hard anvil]

I was hoping for mule deer. Now I'm thinking maybe axis deer. No matter what means my argument on the missions not being on paid maps is out so good news for this post lol

[ruby niche]

U understand its random? U can have a GO spawn any time on your map. All grinding does besides driving I crazy and hating the game is make them spawn at your hand instead of ai.

[wary bluff]

Yes that's the point currently it's totally random HM (herd management ) gives you a better chance that GO will spawn.... However as has been stated in this thread HM /random should not be the only way to spawn a GO. Also there is no feeling of progression with HM/random spawn ..... The basis of this suggestion is to provide another way to spawn a GO that does not circumvent or replace the HM/random spawn but gives more casual players the option of spawn one through progression and doing missions ....

Also we are open to other suggestions on how this might be implemented as well such as this suggestion here https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1124385608522006579

[inland sentinel]

Shoot 2000 animals, spawn a Great One - grind or stalk, it doesn't matter

Grinding just sets you up to take 100 per hour, instead of 10

[wary bluff]

That of course is an option if there could be some counter in game that you could use to monitor your progression .... Im not sure where the number 2000 came from and I'm also concerned that a grinder doing 100 per hour might replace HM as the most efficient way to get a GO..... The object here is not to replace HM as a viable play style or to come up with something that makes HM obsolete ... The goal is to have 2 equally viable play styles

[ruby niche]

They had it like that by accident when they added black bears. The last main mission Mr black would spawn a go but the community gave ew a hard time and it was change quickly. So I don't know if the community will get behind your ideas because they will complain about it being to easy for the biggest trophy. Imo I could care less. Do both ways but have something like now were it's a diamond mission showing the difference between the two.

I'm sorry mate if this has been already talked about. I'm busy at the moment and don't have time to read everyone comments. I'm just replying to your original.

[wary bluff]

Yes I remember the Mr. black issue which some players exploited by resetting their game and re-running the mission until it spawned a GO. That was a bugged mission which was never meant to spawn a GO .... It was supposed to spaw a dime bear I believe... Also Mr black always spawned in the same location which made it easier to exploit... The suggestion here is that the GO mission be tied to Level progression to prevent those shenanigan's and also have the GO spawn anywhere on the map and once it spawns it will not spawn again . This will mean that the player has to actually hunto for the GO on the map . They know it's there somewhere but still has to find it ....

[inland sentinel]

Lady Legend has said many times that based on her and other creators, 2000 seems to be the average.

[wary bluff]

If EW can verify that average player kills 10 per hour and average number of kills for HM to spawn a GO is 2000 then that might be a place to start .... If they decide to go in this direction I would like for them to implement some kind of progression counter to keep track of kills .... And even still some players may see this as another form of grinding ....

[wary bluff]

Go's without grinding ... but still not easy mode .....

[warped stream]

This is also a way in which you could accumulate points to spawn a GO by playing casually, as long as it does not disappear or the counter is reset, you would eventually get one.
#1096112572517851307 message

[vale belfry]

Part of me wishes they'd move it a little closer to how The Angler handles its legendary fish. That's probably a really hot take that many will find controversial, but there it is. Landing a legendary fish in angler feels fun to me. Maybe have great ones rotate on certain maps or we get a notification from a warden about an unusual sighting. Make diamonds great again, and great ones maintain that semblance of unique identity. Just being told one is in the map but no indication of where might get some players fired up to explore and play in a more "organic" fashion. It could ease that feeling of hopelessness, and it would give people motivation knowing "one is definitely out there somewhere", instead of "one is very maybe possibly out there but almost certainly not." I really feel like I'm going to be burned at the stake for this thought but I do believe that offers a compromise for both sides. You can HM style and pound out great one after great one at a rate where they essentially lose their mythical status. HM style can still chase uber rare coat great ones or specific trophy part/fur combos, and the more organic play style and casual leaning crowd can get their one shot per week. This rewards the HM camp in sheer volume and variety for their efforts, and also rewards non grinders for their exploration efforts.

[civic fern]

I'm more or less of the same mind. Personally, I would have every map with any species of GO have 1 GO of those species. Once shot, it would respawn but only after say 100-200 hours of game play (random number). If you wanted one before that, you could grind as per the way it is now.

This would hopefully alleviate some of the temptation to use mods/cheat as well. All of that sort of thing is really just symptomatic of people wanting a GO but not having time for 5000 kills and the time that requires. (Similar to how music piracy was about people not wanting to pay for a full album for a single, favorite track; online stores like iTunes, etc., helped slow that considerably by addressing the underlying problem rather than just trying to fight piracy exclusively.)

[wary bluff]

Some great ideas being put forth ...
My biggest desires are for it to be meaningful yet attainable and that it be progression based.

Casuals need to be able to see very plainly where we are and where we have to go to get there. Not random as it is now ... randomly killing 1000's without knowing when it might happen is a life draining and boring grind ...

[pulsar ether]

Yeah maybe with this suggestion we can get more QOL features for the spot and stalk playstyle. I love the way the new map looks. Maybe this is a step on another direction besides flat wide open maps and almost every new weapon being an AR or repeater. I for one have a life that takes most of my time away and I don't have weeks on end to grind out a great one.

[pulsar ether]

Even if it's not a G1 I think every single campaign should have the animals at the forefront and award completion with at least something incredible. A SR or a G1 or something. It'll basically defeat the choice of Grind or never get one

[wary bluff]

Looking for alternatives for G1's without grinding ... needs to be challenging and measurable progression ... 42

[ruby niche]

There's an easy fix... just have a fresh population each session (like Classic). That way everyone has a chance of finding a GO, or any trophy, without grinding/farming animals.

[wary bluff]

You may want to elaborate more because there are a lot of COTW players that dont know about classic

[cinder sinew]

I have 4 GO species. 2 were done through HM, 2 were not. My 2 fastest GO’s were the ones that weren’t HM. I would say HM devalues diamonds to a certain extent but even on my GO grinds without HM I found lots of diamonds. It’s bound to happen from killing so many animals and naturally killing the biggest ones out of a herd (doesn’t make sense to shoot a lvl 2 when there’s a lvl 3 and 2 lvl 4’s in front of you)..

With that being said I do not agree that there should be guaranteed GO’s through missions. That takes the whole point of finding that elusive trophy out of the game and removes incentive to those who play the game a lot. The random chance is the whole point of the thrill that comes with finding a GO, and the fact there’s no guarantee you’ll find one.

This game is significantly different than classic and classic has measures to ensure the fresh population mechanism isn’t abused. CoTW has already had significant issues with pop resets being abused and it will not be put into the game because you can just fast travel around at will and rinse and repeat to find a GO without ever shooting anything. That’s not what anyone wants the game to become. GO’s are basically CoTW’s end game and that’s the way they should stay. After all, casuals still have every chance to get a GO and it’s been done many times in not that many kills

[ancient pawn]

So you are saying that the game gives you some missions and, after completing them, the game will spawn a GO?

[wary bluff]

That' an oversimplification but it would be mission related ...

[wary bluff]

Now that we have seen the G1 Tahr ... there seriously needs to be another wat to get a G1 without grinding. we are not asking for an easy way. It needs to be a challenge but something other than just mindless grinding and random chance .... Please see the OP and full threads for many good suggestions .....

[cinder sinew]

There is. Go and hunt. As soon as they start giving away guaranteed great ones the whole thing is devalued and it’s not gonna happen

[wary bluff]

They will not be giving anything away .... The G1 will still need to be earned .... and even after fulfilling the requirements to spawn a G1 you will still need to find it on your map . There are ways to make it challenging and difficult but not be a boring random grind .... In addition this will not replace the random grind .... those that still want to grind will be able to ....

[cinder sinew]

You don’t have to grind to get a great one. If trying to get one via hunting or grinding or whatever way you do it is boring then that’s subjective. It’s your feelings on it. If it’s guaranteed it’s devalued and it will never be done

[wary bluff]

Your definition of guarantee is also subjective because if you grind long enough you are also guaranteed to spawn a G1 ... I'm just proposing a way to do it that takes the same amount of time and effort but without grinding ....

[cinder sinew]

You’re not guaranteed at all. There’s no limit that gives you one after you hit x amount of animals harvested/killed

[wary bluff]

at some point if you kill enough of a certain type of animal then you will spawn a G1

there is an average amount of 2000 kills ... sometimes it less sometimes it's more but the average is about 2000 kills

[inland sentinel]

I have grinds set up on 4 maps, and I walk n' stalk the other 10. I've spent about equal time grinding and stalking over the past 2 years. Great Ones Grinding = 2, Stalking = 0

[cinder sinew]

How many kills from grinding? How many kills from stalking? Let me guess, the math makes sense because you have way more kills of the GO species from grinding?

[inland sentinel]

GO Fallow took 391 kills, GO Moose took 1081. You're right, I have more kills from grinding than stalking, but the amount of time in-game is about the same. I've made this point before, but I think grinding really just makes your rate of kills more efficient.

[wary bluff]

exactly the proposal is to find an alternate way of earning G1 with the same amount of time in game... There have been several good proposals in this thread on how that can be accomplished

[cinder sinew]

Grind, herd manage, hunt casually and hope one shows up. There are your options. If you want a guarantee you have Mr. Black and a mocha moose. You may get others in the future but you aren’t getting a guarantee a GO will spawn. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there’s a 0% chance they will do that. I know getting a GO is hard and you want an easy way to get one but it’s supposed to be elusive and it’ll stay that way

[wary bluff]

Okay so you think grinding is the perfect game mechanic and there is no other solutions that can possibly work .... your opinion is duly noted .... Thank you for your input ....

[inland sentinel]

I understand what you're saying. You're right, of it's guaranteed, who cares? I think JJ and others were throwing this out there as brainstorming session to help the casual player have some hope. Because right now, they have none.

[cinder sinew]

Not true. Casual players have GO. Less commonly yes but it’s possible. I understand it’s brainstorming but all ideas have started and ended with a guaranteed GO spawn. I’m just saying that won’t happen, takes ALL the shock and awe out of it and that’s truly the whole point of it.

[inland sentinel]

I've asked discord before "have you ever got a GO without grinding?" and 2 guys said they heard of someone. It's like unicorn hunting. When I grew up hunting WT in PA, there were old guys that had been going to the same mountain for 30 years and had never got a buck. Casual players are like them - maybe they'll get one in 30 years.

[cinder sinew]

I’m happy you said that. On the EW stream this morning Jaxy said the GO is supposed to be the ‘unicorn’. So yes, working as intended

[inland sentinel]

bourbon9, you have all the same arguments I had when they made us shoot bears over to day drink time. I argued that people would tailor their day population to make them easier to grind, and easy would make them have little or no value. They were ruining the game with a bad move. So I get your point.

[hazy idol]

Just because I haven't seen anyone say this in this thread: I'm a player who will never grind and I'm okay with the fact that it means I'll probably never get a Great One. I think they're designed to be encountered by very slim random chance and I like that. To me grinding cheapens the whole thing and so far all the suggestions in here have sounded just as cheap so I wouldn't do those either if they were an option. I know that's not helpful to anyone here but I think it's worth mentioning that not every non-grinder is clamoring for a Great One.

[wary bluff]

@hazy idol I respect your opinion about being resigned to not ever having a great one trophy but honestly when we see the amount of work that EW has put into the creation of these G1 models....

Why put so much work into the G1 animals only to be enjoyed by those who chose to play a hunting game in an unrealistic and single minded way?

I presume they have created this content to be enjoyed by*** all players*** not just those who choose to grind. It just makes sense to me that there should be some alternate methods for harvesting these animals for the more casual players.

And for me personally the term casual doesn't mean being unwilling to put in the time to earn these rewards it just means we choose to play in a different way.

When I do get time to play I want to be able to play in the way that is enjoyable to me which is stalking and exploring not by killing as many animals as I can in a certain amount of time.   

So I have not yet lost hope.  I still believe there is a way and I hope you will join with us to show EW that they are squandering their development resources catering only to ½ their player base ...

[cinder sinew]

You can play the game however you want. You still have the same percent chance of spawning a GO as everyone else.

What are you even proposing they do? I’d like to hear a suggestion that actually makes sense for EW and the whole community that’s not going to ruin the prestige of the great ones. So please, enlighten me

[wary bluff]

This thread is full of good suggestions .... just because you dont wont there to be an alternate method doesn't mean it's not possible

[cinder sinew]

This thread is full of unreasonable suggestions that all result in guaranteed spawns of a great one, boosting the rates (which will devalue GO’s), or giving fresh populations each time you start/restart the game which has been abused and that’s why they eliminated initial spawn GO’s. That’s why I’m asking you to give a suggestion that actually makes sense that would actually be considered as reasonable by the EW team and the community as a whole.

[wary bluff]

Its interesting that you pointed out the ones that I don't agree with either and you didn't mention some other suggestions that could be part of a better solution....

Tying the G1 missions to player progression so that you must reach a certain level before you can even get a G1 mission and even then you would only spawn a single G1.

So at level 90 or level 120 you get a great G1 mission and every 30 or 60 levels after that you can get another mission …. The level numbers I use are not set in stone but insure that the player puts the appropriate time into the game

 And yes it would be a guarantee but only a guarantee that the G1 is on the map somewhere.  You would still need to hunt to locate it …..  

And even with a similar system in place the most efficient way to spawn G1's would still be grinding/HM …. So it doesn't replace that method of game play ... It just gives options to others ...

[solemn marlin]

No, you don't have the same percent chance, or herd management wouldn't increase the chance.

[cinder sinew]

There is no proof that herd management increases the percent chance to get a great one. Out of my 6 great ones I’ve done 3 HM grinds and 3 non HM grinds and my 3 quickest great ones all came from non HM grinds.

[wary bluff]

Don't believe @cinder sinew anecdotal evidence. All he is saying is that he may not know how to properly setup an HM grind. There are many players that use HM exclusively and very effectively to generate many many G1''s .... Just as grinding increases your chance of getting G1's , A properly setup and executed HM grind will increase your chances even more ....

[cinder sinew]

Killing more animals increases your chance of getting GO’s. Grinding involves killing more animals. Most people that do HM kill the most animals of any people that grind. Therefore, do the math. There is no proof or even strong evidence that HM gets initial GO’s of a species to spawn faster. There is decently strong evidence that getting a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. happens faster with HM. But you’re not concerned about that. As you’ve said, you’re concerned about an easier way to get a guaranteed GO. Do your research.

[wary bluff]

You just repeated what I said so thanks for verifying what we all know to be true ....

[cinder sinew]

I said there is decently strong evidence for consecutive spawns but that isn’t proof. Could very well be coincidence, nobody but the devs know. But hey, keep up your dream for the easy mode you so desperately want but will never get

[wary bluff]

Several times throughout this thread and even in the OP I have stated we are not looking for an easier way to get G1's ... They need to be earned by putting time and effort into the game but doing it in a way other than grinding ... If that is my dream then it must be your nightmare for whatever reason .... And you are not a dev nor do you work for EW so you have no Idea what they will or will not do ....

[cinder sinew]

All you’ve said is something that results in guaranteed spawns. I’m not a dev and I don’t work for EW but I know they aren’t ever giving away GO’s for free no matter how many times you ask

[pulsar ether]

HM Guaruntees diamond spawns. Aren't those trophies "devalued" over a random spawn? It's all subjective.

Me personally I think any sort of "grinding" makes trophies no more than trinkets after you have so many. It would be nice for people who have actual working lives, children, who don't have hours on hours for this stupid grinding stuff to actually realistically be able to achieve part of the game that we pay for that takes all that development time. No one wants a free G1, it's just that the majority of people don't want to grind thousands of animals for one. In a HUNTING game, the pinnacle trophy shouldn't be restricted to your best chances being a method that has nothing to do with hunting. Its fast traveling between target ranges. It's not hunting. Some of us want to HUNT and still have that G1 chance instead of spending hours doing some tedious, boring, monotonous grind.

[civic fern]

Yes, indeed. It used to be a huge deal to get a Diamond. Now most players don't care, in particular those that grind G1s (or at least not very much). I've seen some CCs who just collect them and move on to the next one because their "Red Deer Lodge" (or whatever) is full of Diamonds already.

[ruby niche]

How about achieve these challenges: raise lvl cap to 200 and reach 200 as one prerequisite, another is complete some difficult challenge missions, another is get a diamond of specific GO species

[spring karma]

Or like 5 bronze to unlock 5 silver to unlock 5 gold to unlock 1 diamond to get a chance for after time on the map a G1 can spawn

[ruby niche]

Then a GO spawns somewhere on the map

Bring it back to hunting and hunting challenges, not boring repetitive grinding

[forest sable]

I'm a grinder- I love how hard GOs are to get currently, and the way it works now works for me. That said, i know most people struggle with the grind, and I agree that people should have one (1) alternative available to them if they really, really want a GO. They'd still have to put in the work- i'm not sure how special it would be to find one at the end of a mission arc. I mean, does anyone think the mocha moose is special? Or the albino diamond mission bear in MedVed? But having to achieve a high level or a series of incredibly challenging tasks could still make it feel rewarding without devaluing GOs overall.

[ruby niche]

Yes. I think make it very hard but not with just repetition. 1. Achieve a high lvl with raised lvl cap. 2. Complete a difficult series of challenges/mission line (something like Don Miguels mission line or Connis side missions) 3. Get a diamond (or say 3) of a GO enabled species. Then a GO spawns

[wary bluff]

agreed that's why I suggest it be tied to player progression in some way ...

[wary bluff]

sure the G1 spawns on the map somewhere but you still have to hunt to find it ...

[wary bluff]

This could work as a mission requirement .... thanks for your input ...

[spring karma]

Yeah, you have to get those and get at least 1 rare and very rare and kill one from each zone

[native pilot]

I feel this could be a seasonal special for Hunt Club, i.e. a Christmas gift if you will. Which would mean once a year casuals would have that one chance to own a GO. It would require an update before and after to remove the GO map if it is not taken down. Which they will not be keen on. One can dream though.

[ruby niche]

Needs to be a lot harder than that

[native pilot]

I'm not convinced it has to be any 'level' of hardness. This could just be a special tied into a Hunt Club mission. But because of the mechanics its not likely to happen anyway.

[cinder sinew]

Make them their own mission animal. If they are gonna do a GO make a specific fur for the mission or event or whatever it is so it’s not mistaken for a real GO.

[native pilot]

It would be a real GO. That's the point. Just like the albino bear on Medved is real rare. In this scenario, casuals would likely only ever own that one GO from that season compared to grinders who have dozens including these and the other fur varieties. Everybody's egos will remain intact, I promise. LOL.
I think a lot of really wonderful creativity is going into these GOs now and it's a shame that a very tiny part of the community will ever see them and appreciate them.

[cinder sinew]

Gotta be an exclusive fur variation

[native pilot]

Not really but that could be pretty cool too.

[civic fern]

There's been a lot of talk of GOs being "devalued" if the mechanics are changed to make them "easier". The thing is, grinding and modding have already done that; that horse is well and truly out of the barn. And those are the options if you want one (unless pure RNG, not game skill, smiles on you). Anyone who does not wanting to grind for whatever reason (time, not wanting to do the same thing over and over again for weeks, preferring to hunt not just shoot, etc.) or mod (which I am not advocating for) is just locked out by the game design from what should be the endgame bosses.

The result is that Diamonds are truly devalued now (honestly, other than new players, who care about them for more than a minute?), and players are leaving the game (often permanently) because they either give up realizing they will never get a GO or burn out after grinding. None of that is good for the game. Modding is now rampant to the point of almost destroying Multiplayer because of this as well.

Getting a GO needs to be more about hunting, skill, and time played (i.e., endgame bosses not Pokémon) than the ability to find the time to shoot 2000-8000 of the exact same thing at the same handful of lakes that you fast travel to over and over again for weeks. I appreciate that there are some players who enjoy that, and because of that, I don't have a problem with the current method being left in for them, and as a way to get a GO faster, but there needs to be something else.

My own thought (beyond the current method) is that every time the player reaches Level 60 and restarts the game, the RNG increases, perhaps by 33% or so; after 3 restarts there should be almost a certain chance. Yes, you can mod your way to Level 60, and restart, but you can just mod a GO on to a map too, so this is actually not an issue. Grinders can still grind and get one quicker, but everyone has a chance then.

And of course, you still have to find the GO, so it is not easy.

[indigo wigeon]

What about something like searching first for small clues that spawn randomly at the map (could be a drop of blood, some strange disturbed vegetation...) that later on, if you keep finding them, tells more and more about the animal you are investigating? At some point you start hearing calls and a GO will spawn. This way we can turn back to looking for footprints and roaming around the map

[civic fern]

great idea!

[ruby niche]

Needs more challenge imo. That could be easier than a diamond

[native pilot]

Exactly this, @civic fern . People forget that grinding is not a normal gameplay method and was originally frowned upon by the game developers. Although I have nothing against it, it is essentially a manipulation of the game's mechanics. GOs should be a difficult but not impossible challenge to access during normal gameplay. With the immense amount of design work they put into them now, surely the creatives would like their work to be more accessible and appreciated. I don't believe that the only way to get them is via what is, technically, mechanical manipulation of an arcade system.

The Angler has a fantastic mechanism for their legendary fish, which spawns one of them once a week and the community has to get together to find it. Obviously that is not possible with the COTW mechanics but I'm thinking that once a year, perhaps around Christmas time, that this would be possible. A GO would spawn on ONE map for a limited period and the community would have to discover it. Then just like the Angler everybody would have to locate their own GO and hunt it in that time frame. This would still make it more difficult than a diamond, of which you can pop out up to three a week just by casual hunting.

[ruby niche]

It'll still need to to be say 3 times more difficult than diamond

[civic fern]

What do you mean by "more difficult than a Diamond"? To spawn? That just leads to grinding and what we have now.

[native pilot]

I don't think 'difficulty' is the issue. I actually find that higher level animals are much easier to kill. What they need to be is more rare. And a GO spawning once a year on an unknown map is a hundred times more rare than a diamond that you can churn out weekly just with normal casual gameplay. Mechanical manipulated grinding (mechanical grinding) should not be the only way to spawn them.

EW should consider doing one of two things:
a. increase the spawn rates of GOs. (not in favour, personally)
b. create events/mechanisms/something that would make GOs more accessible without relying on mechanical grinding to spawn them.
Personally, I'm in favour of option b.

[ruby niche]

The challenge should be more difficult than diamond or it defeats the purpose of having a GO. The problem with grinding is the boring repetition

[civic fern]

I think the bigger issues with GOs also need to be considered. Those are they encourage modding to the point where Multiplayer is all but worthless. (Obviously that is unlikely to change now), and more importantly the grind causes players to burn out and quit, or players realizing that the chances of getting a GO are so astronomical without playing that way are not going to get one deciding to just not bother and quit playing the game altogether. And that is without considering that all that development time and effort is essentially wasted on the majority of players. We want an endgame "boss" but not to the point where only CCs and those without major life commitments will see it.

[ruby niche]

If you want it easy like mission diamonds then it should have a unique fur so everyone knows. Otherwise extra challenge over getting diamonds otherwise defeats the purpose

[native pilot]

The problem with grinding is that it is mechanical manipulation and not the original intended method of gameplay and not everyone wants to play that way.

[cinder sinew]

After getting a GO moose tonight when hunting for brown bear, I now have 3 GO’s that I wasn’t grinding for and for a species I wasn’t targeting. It’s more than possible for casual players

[native pilot]

What's your kill total? I have 8000+ kills over 15 months. I've never seen one.

[cinder sinew]

Since the GO moose was released probably around 200 kills total on all the different maps that have moose

The 3 GO’s I was referring to aren’t all moose. Sorry if that was confusing. 1 was moose, 1 was black bear, 1 was red deer

[native pilot]

If you check your codex you can see your total. Just checked mine. 9165 harvests.
I understood you on the GOs 👍

[cinder sinew]

Oh my total harvests is around 48k. Been playing since early 2018

[native pilot]

Ah. Well, there you go. Sounds about right then. A lot of casual players will not achieve that.

[cinder sinew]

That has nothing to do with the fact I killed a GO moose in 200 kills, a GO black bear in 175 kills, and a red deer in under 300 kills. That’s more than possible for a casual player. 15 months since moose GO released that’s 13 kills a month

[native pilot]

Hmm. I don't think you can discount 48k kills.

[cinder sinew]

Now yes, I understand that rng is better than most but many have reported getting them in that period of time as well. So it’s not unheard of by any means. Also, GO’s aren’t meant to be found by the entire player base. Many people will never get a GO and that’s the way it’s supposed to be

[native pilot]

As it stands now but I think it is up to EW to decide that and that could very likely evolve over time. Like many other things in this game.

[cinder sinew]

That’s just what they said. They may change it over time but if they make it too easy, or even guaranteed, they will lose their prestige and mean about as much as the mocha moose. Not in their interest I wouldn’t think. Also, I don’t see how total harvests factors into how many kills it took to spawn a GO. If all but 200 of those harvests happened before the moose GO was released or were harvesting other species it doesn’t make sense that it would have any impact at all

[native pilot]

What about the other GOs?

I've said it above but I'll reiterate more concisely, hopefully. I believe that the GOs should be very rare but, as it stands currently, spawning them predominantly requires mechanical manipulation. It's too extreme, in my opinion. It needs to be rebalanced.

I have to be honest, I have some doubts about your claim of 3 GOs spawning in less than 300 kills each when you have a 48k kill count. I don't think you're lying but neither of us understand the exact mechanics of spawning and Jaxy is often reminding the community that he is seeing a lot of incorrect assumptions about it.

[cinder sinew]

I have 9 GO’s. 4 of them took over 4K kills. I was just bringing up the ones that were examples of it being possible for casual players to achieve. Showing it’s possible because of all the ppl in here claiming it’s impossible without heavy grinding or HM. It’s not impossible, it’s improbable, as an elusive trophy animal should be.

[native pilot]

Okay, I'm less convinced by your argument now. Anyway, I am out today, I need to get ready. It was an interesting debate. 👍

[deft spear]

Witnessed someone spawn a red deer great one with one diamond, where I killed over 8000 reds, over a thousand fallow and probably 6000-9000 WT since G1 release (casually) no great ones, not even a super rare either.

I don't want great ones easy to get I admit but being able to prestige level (we've wanted to go above level 60 for years) and eventually unlock a long mission chain that leads to an eventual GO would be cool

I didn't mind MR black being a fabled, however he was way too easy to get 👍

Connecting those prestige levels into an apex account could allow us to do some funky stuff and axe cheaters out the picture if those levels were apex based and not in-game based 👍

[native pilot]

These are good suggestions. Liking them a lot!

[deft spear]

I know fishing plant does prestige levels, there useless but show on your account as sort of a "flex" too others, if COTW were too do the same it could provide some unique (possible) benefits.

Plus! Moving accounts to apex storage based rather than steam would be excellent, moving computers would be easy and no more corrupted cloud saves etc.

More possibilities for rewards, less likely to be cheated and so forth!

[indigo wigeon]

This can be adjusted with some RNG. You would need to explore the entire map each time you find a clue to find the next, which could be hidden anywhere. After finding all clues a "window of opportunity" would open and spawn a GO, which it gives limited time to hunt it before it leaves the map. I dont think this way it could be easier than a diamond.

[wary bluff]

I applaud the fact that you have been able to get 3 G1 on such a low kill count ... I think you agree that is not the average or the norm for most players..... So no one is taking away RNG as a way to get G1's we are just saying there should be other ways ... and if RNG works in your favor then that's great too

[indigo wigeon]

Idk if its really related to this topic, but in a Spanish discord from a youtuber about this game, there is a person that has killed about 16K fallow deer and the G1 still has not spawn. This current system could have at least some "mercy" mechanic for the very unlucky : S

[wary bluff]

I applaud all the great suggestions so far 👏 .... hopefully EW will pay attention

16k and no spawn? .... that sounds so life draining to me ... I cant imagine the will to continue

[indigo wigeon]

Yeah and there is another user that says that they have killed 10K and nothing. I have currently killed 1190 fallows (its my first grind) and I worry about the amount I will need 😖

[cold vigil]

bump

[fossil girder]

The idea of a "roaming" Great One, contained on a map, but not utilizing any zones is an interesting idea as well. Ideally, they would be completely free range and not contained to a "mission-area" like Mission Diamonds are.

The animal could exist/spawn on the map as a result of completion of specific Map Missions, and a separate mission for the Great One could become available.

This could require the now spawned Great One to be found by the player through traditional hunting means and luck, rather than allowing for any exploitation of the guaranteed spawn through the current need zone structure.

Having a guaranteed chance to spawn a Great One could be balanced by taking away this almost guaranteed chance to "find" the animal at a drink or feed zone. Forcing a "non-grinding" hunter to explore the map and discover the tracks or sign of the Great One if they hope to harvest it. Exploring to find the animal or its sign would likely take significant time and could become a "grind" of its own, but may be an acceptable price to pay for the chance to harvest and still "earn" this guaranteed spawn.

[cinder sinew]

Nah too easy

[indigo wigeon]

Dismissing elaborated ideas with just saying its just too easy lmao does not contribute anything and is mean. I dont know if you want a thesis with all the math or what to be satisfied, the percentages and all that are things only EW should care.

[native pilot]

Bourbon9 did elaborate a little more yesterday but basically they're a hardcore grinder so that's the position they're defending. Not that any of these ideas should impact on grinders. Also, I don't believe that 1000s of previous kills of a species are discounted by the code when they introduce a GO for that species, which is what is being suggested I think. None of their 9 GOs were achieved in casual play.

[wary bluff]

He also seems to be the only grinder that has expressed opposition to this idea .... So that tells me most grinders are okay with it .... Dont really see why they wouldn't be .... Because it also gives them an opportunity to get a few more G1's in a challenging and different way while preserving their preferred playstyle ....

[indigo wigeon]

I understand

[native pilot]

What you wrote was kind of funny though. 😂

[lusty fractal]

sips Tim Horton's so we slamming grinders today? JK

[indigo wigeon]

I was kinda frustrated from other things at that moment, like that my Hard drive showed fatal errors while I was updating the game and had to reinstall windows and everything. In retrospective my message was... well, I cant go back in time. xd

[native pilot]

Love grinders. Who's slamming grinders? Pass me that Hortons.

[lusty fractal]

I'm not I just love poking the other side of the coin as a non grinder ya know

Also I have a Dark Roast DD so idk if you want that

[native pilot]

Damn! I hope it got sort soon.

Right Jaxy is on! Got to go!

[indigo wigeon]

Its solved, and the first thing I did was trying the new tent distance with bows haha

[native pilot]

Definitely giving that a go. 👍

[runic dagger]

So missions would it be random side quests that are dubbed for example: the search for the fabled one

That could randomly generate each week or month that are tied to a great one?? Maybe like you have to find tracks of it before you can hunt it kinda like the legendary animals in rdr2

Or maybe community challenges?

[cinder sinew]

200 kills in 15 months is hardcore grinding in this guys perspective. Not the smartest fellow out there.

[cinder sinew]

How many ‘hardcore grinders’ have expressed this is a great idea? Asking for a friend..

[native pilot]

I don't believe your previous kill count is discounted. You are being disingenuous. Call me what you like, mate.

[cinder sinew]

Oh right, sorry, you were watching me play this game I forgot. You can believe anything you want but assuming kill counts before GO’s release impact the chances of getting a great one is your opinion and I’ve never heard anyone else in the community suggest that. Also, disingenuous? Another baseless comment from you

[native pilot]

Yeah. Sure. LOL

[inland sentinel]

Not trying to bump you, bourbon9, but do you have a suggestion for any other way to get get GOs?

[wary bluff]

Keep in mind we wont this alternate great one method to be challenging and require a significant time commitment in game.... Not exclusively grinding as it is now but actually hunting and exploring.... So far the best way to accomplish this seems to be tying the missions to player progression .... Thanks for your input ....

[wary bluff]

The term " Hard Core" is somewhat subjective so I dont know how many of the players who have upvoted so far fall somewhere in the middle .... Those who like to grind sometime and those that like to hunt/explore in a casual way.... Anyone is invited to freely express their opinion as long as we can keep comments civil and non personal .... So far you are the only one that has expressed oposition to this idea ....

so I guess for the sake of discussion we can call "Hard Core" those who play one way exclusively .... And everyone else would fall in the middle on a scale somewhere ....

[native pilot]

This how I define it...
Hardcore grinding: Anything over 1000 kills on a grind. Likely using herd management. Good for GO grinding.
Casual grinding: WAY less than 1000 kills on a grind. May or may not herd manage. Good for diamonds.
Casual hunting: Anything, any weapon, random or focused hunt but a day's kills are in the low double digits.

[wary bluff]

I would most definately fall into your 3rd category

[runic dagger]

Imo grinding takes away from the hunting part of the game cus at that point it’s basically a shooter instead of a hunting sim

So I’m all for having a way to get them slightly easier and isn’t grinding which gets REALLY boring after a while

[native pilot]

I'm a casual hunter too. My kill rate is max 150 per week. 200 tops. I did a casual grind on reindeer. No more than 500 kills. One diamond. Well, two but I messed up one. LOL

[cinder sinew]

By your kill rate, if you played for as long as I have, you’d have 72,800 total harvests. A little more than me. So by your definition that also means you’re also a hardcore grinder? Or does that make me a casual player?

[native pilot]

🤦‍♂️

[cinder sinew]

LOL thought so

[native pilot]

Yeah. You really got me there, mate. Just stop. You're embarrassing yourself now. PMSL

[cinder sinew]

Your avoidance of anything that doesn’t suit your narrative is embarrassing. You turn to an attempt to bully when people make fair points or ask fair questions. You’re a keyboard warrior

[native pilot]

I caught you out. I don't talk to liars. Make your peace with it. My last words to you. Good luck.

[lusty fractal]

I agree it's called hunter cotw not drinkzone cotw

[native pilot]

Exactly. All this talk about ethical hunting but the only way to get the main prize is mass unethical slaughter. 🤣 😂 🤣

[lusty fractal]

@cinder sinew I present the grinder we slam on today's date 😂 I gotta get bourbon to deal with this guy

[indigo wigeon]

Seeing other threads, the probability of EW's giving incentives to the roaming playstyle looks pretty grim.
Grinders and cc's are very vocal and thus EW has to keep spending their limited dev time with changes that only favors their playstyle.

So far I dont have hopes for an actual improvement.

[lusty fractal]

Okay so let's DDoS all their accounts and delete them 😂 JK jk

[astral falcon]

Like the idea because I can't and don't really just wanna focus on on type of animals just to be able to get a great one or don't wanna have to kill thousands to get a great one

[latent flare]

Yes, my friend got a bear no hm not grinding casually hunting, you can also see in the discord countless people who talk about just casually hunting finding them

You can also get go’s w/o hm, my fallow is a non hm grind, my rd is also a non hm grind. I’ve gotten my moose with a partially hm map (entire river wasn’t hm)

Here is a photo of the stats of both of those grinds

[wary bluff]

non of the suggestions in this thread are asking for grinding or HM to be replaced ... those methods will always produce the highest probability of G1's being spawned.... We are just discussing alternate ways in which a G1 can be spawned for those that do not want to kill 1000's of animals ....

[latent flare]

But there’s always a chance you kill 1000’s of animals no matter which method you use. Acting as if hm guarantee’s or makes the chance of getting a go under 1000 kills is crazy

The way you phrased this post “another way to get GO’s without Herd Management” makes it seem like hm is the only way to get it, you can very well get a go without

[wary bluff]

Another way to get GO's without Grinding/HM

[wary bluff]

changed the op title so as not to misrepresent grinding/HM .... many people see the two as the same but we know there is a difference however because both involve grinding ...

[pulsar ether]

At this point to ignore that Jaxy have said "most players won't see a great one in their lifetime" because they know just like WE know that they made HM the premier way to get the mf. Disagree with that and show me your denial. I've been playing for 2 years without HM and I have 2 G1's meanwhile someone who does HM will have 50. The evidence is there. Then it creates a double edged sword because if they increase the spawm rate, the basically double the amount of G1 gotten by HM. It's gotta be done via a mission system somehow. Or meeting requirements like a bounty target only avaible to high level players that complete X task.

[latent flare]

They didn’t “make” hm. The concept of hm has been around on many games. It works, sure you can complain about that and some people do. Using the whole “I play x years have x great ones” end of the day it’s rng if hm was the sole reason players got G1’s then you wouldn’t see 3-5k+ grinds rng plays the biggest factor in grinding, that’s why you see low kill non hm grinds and you see low kill hm grinds vice versa.

This whole thing of a “you set up hm in 1 day and you get 2 kills then a go” gotta stop, hm isn’t a 5 kill then great one method.

This is a stupid argument imo, you want a go, you could setup and do hm or you could just not setup and casually hunt them, or you could setup but do no hm. It might take >1k kills but that goes with hm/no hm/casually grind.

[wary bluff]

That's the whole reason for this thread. To show the devs that we need another way for G1's to spawn. Not to totally re-code the game to remove RNG or HM or anything already in the game.

Let me say this again … this thread is not about removing grinding … But there are alternate ways that G1's can be spawned that will be just as meaningful and challenging as grinding/HM …

Will these alternate methods spawn the same numbers of G1's as grinding can?? NO … grinding will always produce more G1's just because that's the way this game is designed and it's too late at this point to gut the system and go in a different direction ….

They can however give non grinders a way to get G1's to a limited degree that is both challenging and not easy to do …. We have given some suggestions in this thread …. I'm not in favor of all the suggestions here but some can be used in conjunction with others to make a workable solution ...

[pulsar ether]

But HM DOES guarantee Hella diamond spawns so its not RNG. More kills per hour means more great ones. At that point you're strong arming RNG. You'll get way more of something if you do 100 in an hour vs my 100 in 3 days therefore the RNG aspect isn't as strong because the number of kills in difference is far too egregious. Everyone doesn't have the time to grind. I zee grinders talking about how many hours it's takes to set up and do this and that, how much work it takes. Good for you. Doesn't mean everyone else has hundreds if not thousands of hours to throw away for a virtual animal. Some of us wanna experience our game at the pinnacle level without making it a 9-5 of the same thing over and over. Therefore we want an alternative way to get them. It's a fair request.

[latent flare]

That was towards someone else

[wary bluff]

I made that post for clarity since so many are confused by this ....

[latent flare]

Oh so kills per hour, that’s not hm, I can very well not do hm and get more kills a hour then I do while doing hm, don’t confuse hm with grinding, hm is almost like a subcategory of grinding, it’s just a method. Your original post was about hm not grinding in general. You again don’t need HM to spawn a g1, sure hm increases diamond spawns but were talking about G1’s not diamonds. A g1 spawn IS rng

[latent flare]

Ik but the person I was replying to was complaining about hm not grinding.

[wary bluff]

With all do respect if you get more sucess with grinding than HM then you are not doing HM correctly ... Its sounds like you are just grinding .....

[pulsar ether]

Grinding, HM, they all give Hella kills when done correctly. Splitting hairs to get to the same root. Both are more effective for G1 spawns. Look at grinding style youtubers vs ones that don't grind. Big difference in the number of G1 because there's no other way to achieve that kill count. Certainly not just running around normally.

[latent flare]

In kills per hour wise you can definitely get more doing non hm, with hm you are shooting 2 males and the rest are dropped without hm they are all just big males I can easily get 100+ kills per hour doing non hm with fallow.

[wary bluff]

Not going to argue ... you do you ..... Casual/organic hunters just want a reasonable and challenging way to get G1's as well ...

[latent flare]

Well at the same time someone who is grinding is focusing on that animal, same way that if I focus on just diamond lynx compared to someone who is casually hunting I’m going to get more diamond Lynx than them. Because I’m only hunting them and a casual hunter is hunting everything

[latent flare]

That’s fair like I said, I was just going against the whole “hm is the only way to get a g1” thing. That’s why I’ve never said anything against it

[pulsar ether]

That's gonna translate to more G1 because focusing something with an actual method to it vs just walking around produces more animals. Takes the chance outta finding them, so you get more. More chances at kills, more G1. I never said it's the ONLY way to get a G1 I have 2 myself but leaving it to only that method is just a lot. Most people just don't have the time. I don't personally. I work 10-14 hours a day. I love an immersive hunting experience. This pretty much bottle necks my G1 opportunities. A lot of other players are like that too.

[latent flare]

Yea I understand, it was just a statement because it makes sense that someone who is only hunting that animal is going to get more trophies for it. Your original post made it seem as if hm guarantee’s more g1 (which it doesn’t). “I have 2 G1’s meanwhile someone who does hm will have 50” your fighting an invisible ghost called rng.

[pulsar ether]

Like I said though the more kills you get the less RNG matters. That's why I have 2 G1 in 2 years and most grinders would've achieved more. Absolutely more.

[latent flare]

I’m all for a story g1 (as long as it comes out without any glitches so we don’t have a Mr. Black 2.0)

[latent flare]

Again tho, hm is just a method of grinding, kills per hour aint just a hm thing, hm isn’t the only way to grind, rng is definitely still a big factor. You mean GRINDING not hm in particular

[pulsar ether]

I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying it definitely has a positive affect on it tho. More chances.

[latent flare]

It doesn’t give you more kills a hour…

[pulsar ether]

Depends on how it's done

[spice solstice]

A genuine question: Is COTW really a grinding game? I hope not because it makes me sick and feels miserable. Hey, I'm not criticizing the grinders here.

[latent flare]

It’s not you can achieve everything without grinding, I will say like any other game grinding definitely helps.

@pulsar ether I don’t think you understand hm.
With hm you are dropping everything to smalls and have 2 big males per 8 zones typically, non hm you don’t have that you only have the 8 zones. I can kill more than 2 males per zone without hm giving me more kills a hour. Not “depending on how it’s done” it more depends on the zones you’re hunting. If I hunt a zone with 5 males 6 females I could reasonably kill atleast 4 males. Or let’s say 4 males 3 females I can still kill more than 2 males

[spice solstice]

Understood

[wary bluff]

I wouldnt call COTW a "grinding game" it is certainly RNG based game .... And in order to achieve the highest trophies in the game then grinding/hm is pretty much the most efficient way to play...

[spice solstice]

Understood

Which of these hypotheses is closer to how The Hunter: Call of the Wild actually works?

Hypothesis 1: I guarantee getting the 'GO' every time I achieve a higher score than that of the same species I previously hunted. I suppose it's likely there's another animal somewhere with a higher score than the one I hunted, which leads me to the next hypothesis.

Hypothesis 2: I repeatedly hunt the animal of the species with the highest score on the map, based on observation and tracking of the animal leaderboard and their scores. I use a repetitive hunting style on the same species with the highest score existing on the map, which leads me to achieve the 'GO'.

[native pilot]

Not originally. COTW currently welcomes and openly encourages all forms of gameplay including grinding.

[spice solstice]

At first I thought this, but... It smells like random with weighted probability.

[native pilot]

Technically, COTW is a 'arcade hunting game'/ arcade hunter', Whereas WOTH is a 'hunting simulator' and not as much fun.

[spice solstice]

I'm a biologist, so you can imagine I lean more towards WOTH than COTW due to the genetics topic and other factors.

[native pilot]

That's their statement anyway. Sometimes their focus can be a bit off about how they deliver things but the labrador and e-caller are not grinding tools. Bears was definitely a grinder decision but they learnt from that. Tahrs are not built for grinders but tigers perhaps, unintentionally. But I love the Nepal map how it is and doing my first ever (mini) grind.

[native pilot]

Ah. Yes, it's very smooth with graphics, shooting mechanics and has fewer bugs. But I find it mostly boring so I play it when I just need to relax. It's great that the two games are very different, don't you think?

[spice solstice]

I like both: I enjoy tasting two different "flavors" to avoid monotony.

[native pilot]

Exactly. My brother plays more WOTH. I've been doing my damnedest to convince him to get the Nepal map and try the tigers. I'm almost there!

[spice solstice]

If I needed to kill at least 500 tigers or 10000 whitetails (for example) to achieve the 'GO' (if it exists), hypothetically speaking, this would make me hate the game traumatically.

[native pilot]

I like herd managing but I don't like grinding. You don't need to kill 500 tigers for a rare.

I have two at about 100. Once I get my first diamond, I'm done.

[spice solstice]

I spotted the second tiger in rest zones and it was legendary 9. I didn't hunt it; instead, I gathered information to track it. The score through the binocular is my trusted resource. 🤞🏻

[native pilot]

Cool. I did find and harvest a diamond yesterday. Then my game froze and nuked it. 😂 😭

It's not the first time and won't be the last...

[indigo wigeon]

I did the fallow GO grind in TA and now that map is the only one I find bland. Its really just a glorified golf course 😩

[spice solstice]

I do not live in NZ. For the first time, I saw the map of TA like you said: a glorified golf course, but I like the forested region where sika deer are found.

[wary bluff]

This is how I see G1 progression working .........
When you reach lvl 90 or 120 and have completed all G1 missions you receive a G1 tag in your inventory. You can then choose the map that you want the G1 to spawn on.

After using the tag it is removed from inventory. The G1 is spawned in a random location on your map and you must hunt to find it......

After that you must begin a new set of G1 Missions and every 30 to 60 levels afterwards you can receive another G1 tag

You can only have 1 tag in your inventory at a time and you can only expend one tag every 1 or 2 months. This can be tracked by EW by requiring you to be logged into Apex Account …..

[raven ruin]

I think the only way this would work would be to make an option where every time you start your map up the animal pop resets every time. You may have a great one randomly spawn on your map you may not. You’re gonna have to find it yourself…on top of that you may have new rares or other trophies too that you didn’t have the previous game play. Kinda like how the Hunter classic does it. And if grinders still want to grind they can choose to do that...maybe an option before the game starts it asks do you want your animal pop to reset or something like that so grinders can still grind if they choose to. In order for this to happen the game mechanics would need to change which EW may not want to do. This would also also solve the problem of certain mods not being able to be used as well but again it would be a challenge to implement.

[wary bluff]

This is why I'm in favor of using progression as it will be less trouble for them to implement. Pop resets also reset the zones and some very casual players have spent a lot of time finding their zones.

For those who would like to use pop resets they can allow you one free pop reset every 3 to 6 months and that can be tracked by having you log into the players apex account ....

The advantage of Pop resets over progression is that you might also spawn rares with a pop reset.... At the end of the day you can still grind, or you can use missions/progression or you can do pop resets ..... This will provide options for every play style ....

[lusty fractal]

Aye @cinder sinew I need more seasoning can I have some of your salt?

[cinder sinew]

Good one! Did you come up with that all by yourself?!

[lusty fractal]

Relax bud just poking don't actually mean it

And yes I did

Just found it funny you're reacting to multiple of his messages with multiple reactions like we get it bro you're opinion has been seen

[cinder sinew]

Just did it because he’s in every thread doing the same to others..

[lusty fractal]

Honestly didn't notice but I'll take a gander

[wary bluff]

He is just showing his dishonesty and hypocrisy yet once again ... Yes I have disagreed with other threads but I always try to do it in a respectful way. If you really do find my post in other threads you wont see me doing what he has done here ....... For whatever reason he has decided to troll this thread ...... And that's his prerogative but his dishonesty is clear for all to see ..... You spotted it yourself .... I think he is now angry that this thread is getting more upvotes ....

[wary bluff]

This thread explains how every playstyle can have a credible chance to get a G1 without devaluing them in any way ....... If you don't want to read through the whole thread that's understandable .... DM me and I'll explain how it works .....

[tribal river]

I am a biologist too, and as much as I love WOTH, COTW has a very special place in my heart. I try to play as close as I can to something more immersive. In 3 or 4 hours of gameplay, I rarely harvest more than 4 animals. I like to select an individual, watch it, follow it. The game is very beautiful visually and has an excellent soundtrack. Seeing that we finally got rare and elusive species in Sundarpatan makes me really happy. I just hope that we can see more of it later, specially on non-predators. I dream of stalking some ungulate in a dense jungle in-game.

But, as you guys said: both are good and it is very nice that we have different games.

[lusty wharf]

There is nothing like this in the game. There is a % chance for each animal to be a GO or a rare fur or a diamond etc. What grinding does is just allows you to kill as many animals as possible in the shortest time, re-rolling this % chance. There is no need to hit a certain number of kills. Some people get GO's as initial map spawns, others take 10k kills
If you add a counter in for GO's that imo would be awful and benefit the grinding aspect even more as that is the method of running through lots of kills fast. If you want to add a GO that isn't pure chance and luck, missions would be the only way imo

[spice solstice]

Candidate to be the Great One Tiger

Panthera tigris acutidens is an extinct subspecies of tiger know as the Wanhsien Tiger

Key Points about Panthera tigris acutidens

Period: Late Pleistocene of East Asia (0,8 – 0,2 million years ago)
Distribution: Fossils have been primarily found in China.
Size: 2.3 m in length, 100 -120 cm in height, 150 - 350 kg of weight.
Evolutionary Importance: Considered a direct ancestor of modern tigers, providing insight into the evolutionary lineage.
Habitat: Likely inhabited forests and open savannas, coexisting with large herbivores and other predators.

Connection to Nepal

While there is no direct fossil evidence of Panthera tigris acutidens in Nepal, the geographical proximity of fossil findings in China suggests that this subspecies could have inhabited areas close to the Indian subcontinent. Nepal's diverse ecosystems, ranging from lowland forests to mountainous regions, would have provided suitable habitats for these early tigers. Understanding Panthera tigris acutidens helps in tracing the historical presence and ecological adaptation of tigers in the broader Asian region, including Nepal.

[wary bluff]

This thread explains how every playstyle can have a credible chance to get a G1 without devaluing them in any way ....... If you don't want to read through the whole thread that's understandable .... DM me and I'll explain how it works .....

[lusty wharf]

I am not against a mission GO, I think it should be denoted in lodge/whatever as a misison GO though

[wary bluff]

I think if done correctly then every method will be a valid and challenging way to get a G1 .... It will not be necessary to denote which method was used to spawn it .... Why give people an excuse to look down on others for how they choose to play the game ???

[gloomy narwhal]

The only counterpoint to this idea I have is that it guarantees a G1. Yes the missions may be hard but there is a prize at the end. It may be perceived as invalidating the countless hours grinders put in for their trophy. That being said I would be against this solely because I think G1s should be so special that it’s expected that the chances of getting one are slim to none. Does that make sense?

That being said I read the initial post only so maybe the idea has nuanced since then.

[wary bluff]

First of all this whole idea of a guaranteed G1 is subjective. Let me illustrate with a question.... Why do people grind endlessly or go to the trouble of setting up HM grinds to begin with?

The reason why is because there is an expectation that if they grind long enough then eventually they will be guaranteed a G1. If they did not have that expectation then they would'nt spend their time doing it …

So my point is even grinders have a expectation of a guaranteed G1 …. And they use HM as a way of having that guarantee realized sooner rather than later ….

If you haven't read the OP recently is has been updated to add progression and not strictly mission based …. this means you will be limited based on progression (that is player levels achieved ) . So that you must do the missions but also reach a certain level before spawning a G1.

And then the spawn is random on the map so the player still has to hunt for the G1 ….

Thanks for allowing me to elaborate …

[gloomy narwhal]

I totally agree that grinders have an expectation of eventually getting a g1 but it could take a long long time. With missions even progression and missions there still is that guaranteed end. Just not sure that is the best thing for g1s but I totally get the frustration of being a casual player and feeling like there’s no way you can get a g1.

[latent flare]

Or people use hm to increase the chance of a sr. There is no evidence of hm increasing go chance, there is evidence of it increasing dime rate. The difference between grinding and a mission based g1 is the fact the g1 could take 5 kills or it could take over 15k kills. With a mission based you know when to expect it. I can hop on my te and grind 5 runs of fallow, I have 0 clue or certainty that there will be a great one, meanwhile I do the missions and I know for a 100% fact that the great one is on my map and all I need to do is find it.

[deft spear]

I wouldnt not mind this I dont mind the MR black great ones as long as there marked as so I think they are cant recall

[wary bluff]

Mr black was a bug and was never meant to be a G1 and we are not talking about a single mission G1... There will be multiple mission tied to player progression.
This is how I see G1 progression working .........
When you reach lvl 90 or 120 and have completed all G1 missions you receive a G1 tag in your inventory. You can then choose the map that you want the G1 to spawn on.

After using the tag it is removed from inventory. The G1 is spawned in a random location on your map and you must hunt to find it......

You can only have 1 tag in your inventory at a time and you can only expend one tag every 1 or 2 months. This can be tracked by EW by requiring you to be logged into Apex Account …..

After using your tag you can begin a new set of G1 Missions and every 30 to 60 levels afterwards you can receive another G1 tag

[lusty wharf]

The grinder expectation isnt a gurantee though, some people have posted over 25k kills looking for a G1. On top of that the rough average for grinders to get a G1 is about 2k kills according to some youtubers who do a lot of it. A guarantee mission, no matter how hard definitely invalidates this rarity at getting a G1 and absutely should be marked as a mission G1

[indigo wigeon]

Guaranteed GOs are not a good thing.

I've already said in this thread a nice alternate path to the endless tent hopping that makes use of RNG and makes the player do what a hunter does.

It was buried with all the comments tho xd

[lusty wharf]

If I remember right you spoke about random clues dropping to say you had a G1 on the map.
That is the same rng chance spawn as now favouring grinding (through sheer kill number). Just makes it easier to tell if you do indeed have a G1 on the map

[indigo wigeon]

Random small clues to spawn a G1 while you roam the map, not to tell if one spawned. After finding one (the maps are massive), the game spawns a new clue at a new random location. I leave the percentage chances of G1 spawn for each clue, but it could be cumulative, completely random or with a "pity 100%" for people that are particularly unlucky (like in some gacha games)

If the chances accumulate after each clue found, said clues could be more obvious thn the last

[lusty wharf]

random on what though? just location but otherwise always there?

[onyx gorge]

I agree. I work so much and don't have as much time as I'd like to invest into the game. So it's impossible to put up the numbers most need before a GO pops. Seems average is around 1500 kills. Takes me forever to kill 100! So I feel a GO could spawn in but highly unlikely. So kind of a buzz kill knowing I may never get 1 let alone several of just 1 species.

[wary bluff]

Yes … This is just an alternate method that does take time and should be challenging but it will never produce the numbers that you can get with grinding …. and thats OK …

It just allows you to hunt naturally and work toward a G1.... And this whole argument about a guaranteed G1 is ridiculous …

Even the hard core grinders are guaranteed a G1 if they grind hard enough. As you said the average kill count is somewhere around 1500-2000 animals. The difference is that's their play style and they enjoy doing it I suppose.

That's not what some other players enjoy doing and so they have no hope of getting a G1... It seems strange to me that there are some in the grinding community who will say play how you want to play but if you don't play like I do then you wont have a chance or a very very low probability of ever getting a G1 …...

[onyx gorge]

Agreed. I love to just take a stroll and have a relaxing hunt. They def should be challenging but also achievable with enough effort.
Yea grinding is an option but it gets too robotic for myself and I get burned out on the spots and animals. Some love to grind and I like to just hunt.

[indigo wigeon]

The first clue is always on the map. Or maybe after the completion of the story missions.

That method could very well take longer to spawn a GO than grinding due to map size, but at least the player would be playing with mechanics that are intended for a hunting game.

[cinder sinew]

I’m not convinced sprinting around the map clicking on clues until you find them would either take longer than an average grind OR that those are the hunting mechanics a game is ‘meant for’. If realism is what we’re going for I’ve never seen someone sprint through forests for several hours on a hunt

[indigo wigeon]

Take longer than grinding? thats the intention. If you want to get a GO asap go grind, but if you hate grinding and still want a GO, with this you have the chance to find in a run and gun, a roaming, etc session a clue. While the player is getting fun instead of grinding like if they were working at a bad job. While the player is using mechanics the game tells about since the start of teh save and what the devs intended for what does fit in a hunting game when they were developing this title. If the second method is as fast or equal as grinding, people could be idiotic enough to try to optimize it running for hours or using the ATV. (I would make the clues invisible while on the vehicle : ) )

[cinder sinew]

I personally think sprinting through forest clicking on clues is as arcady as shooting a bunch of animals on a grind. I also think this would be way faster than grinding for a GO and would be too easy. Not saying it’s a bad idea I just think it needs a lot more of something to make it viable and equal to the current method(s)

[indigo wigeon]

...What? I've already explained to what you are saying, I think you will never be satisfied from the start. Equal and viable? Read the comment above again. Anyways, any ideas?

[wary bluff]

So is that what you guys are looking for? An alternate methode that takes as long as grinding?

[indigo wigeon]

There will be outcries if an alt method is equal or easier

[wary bluff]

So on average how long do you think it takes a moderate to high level grinder to grind a G1?

In days, weeks or months .....

[indigo wigeon]

mmm one or two months I guess, so an alternate method could take double

Double the time but dont having to grind

[wary bluff]

Okay so what if we tie the alternate method to progression where you can only start the timer at level 60 and then you must get to level 120 as well as complete certain mission before you can spawn a G1?

How long do you think it takes a casual player to complete 60 levels .... I can say from my level of casual play its longer than 4 months

[indigo wigeon]

it would be up to EW to decide rates etc

[wary bluff]

agreed its up to them they have much better metrics than we do

[indigo wigeon]

You cant please any type of player, if you put the GO almost or 100% guaranteed via missions or something, people less casual will complain about the trophy devaluation

[wary bluff]

in addition I propose that once you get to level 120 then the timer stops and you must hunt and kill the current G1 before working toward spawning another which means another 60 levels plus more missions .....

Agreed no solution will please everyone ...

[indigo wigeon]

dammm 60 sec timer, ayways, Idk if putting GOs behind levels is a good idea. Because then there's people that will complaint about speedleveling and things

[wary bluff]

People complain about diamond devaluation now .... but at least with an alternate method more players can participate in the dev time taken in creating the G1's ....

[indigo wigeon]

Well, the complaining is inevitable. xdd

[ruby niche]

How long is a piece of string?

[indigo wigeon]

The best we can do is throw ideas and hopefully EW makes an alt method tan can work

[wary bluff]

I mean I look at the time and love that went into creating those tahr models and I'm amazed .... they are really amazing .... doesnt make sense that we cant come up with a way for more players to enjoy those ....

[indigo wigeon]

What do you mean?

[wary bluff]

I also propose to prevent speed leveling they restrict the spawning of G1's ( using the alternate method ) to 1 every 2 to 4 months .... or whatever seems fair .... This can be tracked or controlled by requiring the player to be logged into their Apex account .....

[ruby niche]

@indigo wigeon

[wary bluff]

This way grinders can participate in the alternate method as well

[wary bluff]

Thats my point time is a subjective thing ..... but we are basing the value of the trophy on a subjective thing .... something that is subjective to the player only ....

my piece of string is probably longer that your piece of string

[indigo wigeon]

the best we can do is measuring by averages

[wary bluff]

lets imagine for the moment a person that likes to grind but they get burnt out on grinding for a few months ... with an alternate method they can still work toward earning a G1 with the alternate method ....

[lusty wharf]

But if you are making an easier method for casual players it has to be denoted that it's easier
The reason we see so many G1's now is that people have gotten to the stage where they have put thousands of hours into this game with how long it has been out. G1's are meant to be a once in a game type of affair and for those that dont play thousands of hours they remain just that and you are lokking to change this. Dont want to grind but want a g1, grab a rifle and go hunt drink zone/feed zone times without all the hopping like the game intended. Not go on a wild goose chase across a map for "clues" or level yourself up massively shooting random animals that dont match the G1

[indigo wigeon]

I've already explained that with my method, running all over the map is discouraged because the maps are massive and if you want a GO just grind. This method just gives an extra small chance to find a GO to people who are very unlucky with a grind, or do not want to grind. Playing normally without a focus on certain species, the chances of finding a GO currently are very very small, normal players may play 2 or 3K hours and not find anything.

[wary bluff]

@Pilgrim please thoughtfully consider what we are talking about here .... We are not talking about an easier method .... We are talking about an alternate method that can be just as time consuming and challenging as grinding..... Everyone should be able to play in the way that they enjoy playing..... We are all playing for fun right? If not then whats the point ?? ..... But iIf grinding is not fun for some players then why should that be the only way?

[inland sentinel]

I have a Great One whitetail in real life. A big old 11-point, corn-fed 200+ lb. farm boy. For years I grinded whitetail at our little camp in the mountains, and never got more than spikes, 4-points or 6-points. Then I got invited to hunt on a family friend's farm, and at 8AM on opening day, this monster buck came trotting across the field I was watching. (His mount is in a well-known movie).

Before I knew about Grinding or Casual hunting in CotW, I had an expectation of what a Great One should be. A Roll-of-the-Dice, Once-in-a-Lifetime trophy.

[lusty wharf]

But is this not just playing it how the game was originally made for. Want a whitetail, check the time, go for a wander through their feed/drink areas and pick up what you can?
This sounds much more like people here want an alternative method not yet open that allows people to get G1's guaranteed without shooting a lot of the target animal

[lusty wharf]

This, and this is what it should be, and this is what is achieved right above^ by just walking through the zones enough times.

[ruby niche]

No, a different challenge that isn't mind numbingly boring and dry like grinding is

You don't get a "GO" in real life by grinding thousands of animals in an identical cycle hundreds or more times either

Funnily enough, you could get a "GO" red deer or a big diamond in rl by paying a sum of money to a farmer and you go shoot it on the farmer's land or estate. It was bred to be sold to a wealthy trophy hunter. Easy as that

[lusty wharf]

Then read the rest of my message about going to play the game the way it was originally built for. Pull out your hunter mate, check ingame time, and go for a wander in the animals hotspots for that time. Get shooting and you will eventually chance upon a G1, same was as irl

[lusty wharf]

Everyone is aware of these, but for the same reason people dont want Texas ranches with Zebra and Giraffes I think, it's being rightfully ignored as an aspect of irl hunting

[ruby niche]

You mean originally built for grinding? That was unintentional

[lusty wharf]

When did I say grind... I'm not sure if you are purposefully trying to miss my point or not

[indigo wigeon]

?? Guaranteed?

[ruby niche]

I was being smart. I'm well aware what you mean. It's turned into a grinding game instead for the most part. All we ask is an alternative difficult challenge that isn't horrific and dry

In fact I want it to be hard. Really hard. Just not so repetitive

[lusty wharf]

But how is that alternative that isnt horrific and dry not the base game in the way it was intended? How I described?
It is hard, and non repetitive

[ruby niche]

Ah yes, the chances would be incredibly remote then. Perfect

[lusty wharf]

They are incredibly remote anyway and that is how it is meant to be.... and you, or at least the people in this thread, are claiming they want the alternative to be no easier than this remote chance anyway...
Whcih is why I am saying, go on, add an alternative method. Just have it denoted on the harvest/lodge, that it was in fact the alternative method so as not to devalue other g1's

[ruby niche]

Devalue the grind...we can't have that can we

[lusty wharf]

No you shouldnt devalue the trophy value. Give a lot of people the option to put a beautiful trophy in their lodge sure though

[indigo wigeon]

If anything, grinding would be the method that devalues GOs

Just reading this is tiring. Regardless of explanation here is just repeat and repeat some arguments that at this point I believe are just to be contrarian.

We know it, you dont want any changes. Grinding is fun, grinding is great, oh is that an alternative? Shoot it down!

I have covid and I need to sleep, have a good day everyone

[wary bluff]

@talus ... Hope you get to feeling better

[uncut nacelle]

GO shouldn't have anything to do with respawns. It should be all about discovering the right location at the right time while being as stealthy as possible. In short, it should be about being an excellent hunter who is deeply familiar with every square centimeter of the reserve. A GO is an animal that has been around the block a few times. He is intelligent, elusive, strong, durable, but most of all, a survivor. He has eluded every previous hunter to come to the reserve for decades. Only the best hunter on the planet can claim this trophy to display, not a hunter who checks her or his zones after culling the previous generation of animals.

[inland sentinel]

Come on, guys, nobody wants to know what well-known movie my IRL Great One whitetail is in? Well, here he is in Super Troopers 2! I have it hanging at my rod & gun club, and the club house was used in the making of the movie. In the trailer, he's on the left in the light, right under the word "for" in this screenshot. He's in the actual movie quite a bit during this scene.

Now that's a Great One!

[ruby niche]

That's pretty cool

[onyx gorge]

I 100% love that and your presentation!!

I feel like GOs now are mainly about just fur variation. Way back TK had the idea of a GO bear being all scared up and bad ass looking. I loved that idea but seems we've went past that and all about fur variants. Which really falls into the super rare category of furs so to speak.

[ruby niche]

Skull GO tahr entered the chat

[onyx gorge]

I get it from a "workload " aspect. Designing new furs is easier then a total new model or totally new antlers or horns so to speak

All I'm saying is for a year of development the new map looks good but the new GO is well,lackluster. All the horns look the same and it's all about furs just like the Black bear GO. The WT GOs have way more variation and appeal. There's less fur variation but more intrigue to chase them for their antler variation,just like the Moose

[wary bluff]

Before G1's came along people were grinding for Dimes and so the devs knew what to expect when they created G1's. And and in order to keep some semblance of rarity, the current probability for a G1 to spawn is set based on those who grind...

The grinders themselves have artificially and indirectly set the current probability of a G1 spawn ... And its quiet likely that probability has been adjusted multiple times to get it where it is today

So now the organic or classic hunters must grind in order have any real chance to get a G1.... They must play in a way that they don't enjoy playing.

And EW has spent a lot of dev time creating G1's that only 50% of their players will every get to enjoy ....

I wonder how many players start off playing as conventional hunters only to get discouraged and quit because they don't want to grind or dont have the time to do it. And they know they will have very very little or no chance to get a G1 playing the way they enjoy playing.

And once again for those who don't want to read what has been said in this thread .... we are not talking about making an easy G1 spawn... in fact an alternate method is possible that takes just as much player investment as grinding does.

And It can be done IMO with minimum to moderate effort from the devs, while at the same time allows classic/organic hunters to have some hope .....

[raw ridge]

I started a G1 whitetail grind last June and got so burned out after 3 weeks I didn’t touch the game until sandar partan came out, i tried playing it during that time and it just wasn’t fun

[pulsar ether]

I feel you brother. I've always been on the immersion side and I just recently started giving HM and grinding a try. Sometimes I just have to go off the trail for a little after a long grind session and just hunt some other stuff. Maybe go play some elden ring or destiny and then come back to it. I know even grinders get burned out if they do it too much in a short period.

[raw ridge]

I normally go play Madden or something if I feel I’m getting burned out, and even WOTH

[wary bluff]

For those who get burned out on grinding ..... Imagine having a different way to hunt in COTW so you can still work toward getting a G1 ......

[keen solar]

This is DESPERATELY needed. Right now, GOs, outside of insane luck in spawning, take far too long for casuals to ever see, meaning for us, EW is throwing massive developmental resources into something we'll never encounter outside of Jaxy spawning them in during a reveal stream. Incremental missions that unlock the next and the next GO all the way to the rarest variation would make it where you could see how far away you were and decide whether to continue or not. Shooting hundreds, even thousands, and having no idea when your GO is going to spawn took me from enjoying the grind for a WT at the beginning to just being glad it was over, several months and hundreds or thousand of WT later. To do that again and again to get the various racks and furs? No thanks. Now, I don't even bother, especially after the debacle of black bear (daytime, nighttime, shoot em to new times, reset pop anyway).

[spring karma]

Honesty some mission system would be so much better, or add a GO at the end of the story missions of a map
If you complete the main story you get a GO to spawn on ur map
And for compelteing every side mission the same

[wary bluff]

I speak about missions with a word of caution because mission by themselves will probably not give us a complete solution.

Good missions are difficult to craft and to do good specific missions for each G1 species might be too difficult or time consuming from a dev standpoint.

So we may have to settle for some more general missions in conjunction with level progression to make this a workable solution that doesn't require as much developer bandwidth ….

I personally would love to have some well crafted and challenging missions but I also realize that may not be possible right away ....

I would much rather have them add some general missions that need to be completed every 30 to 60 levels of player progression.... EW should be able to implement this in a moderate amount of time ....

And then they can work toward some more G1 species specific missions … Maybe even including those G1 species specific missions in a dlc pack as they roll them out ....

[wary bluff]

I like the ideas of using the missions already available for each reserve.... Using those in conjunction with player progression could be good place to start ......

[raw ridge]

YES

[pallid dune]

Sadly I agree with most of this, the models and Mechanics are very interesting but if they are made common, they will just add something difficult down the line, most people don’t remember that diamonds where 1/10000 before, now G1s have taken that niche, the game is challenging for all, and the devs have said that getting a G1 is possible for casual players as well, its just about putting the time, however long it might take you

[pulsar ether]

The only thing is with a G1 spawn on AVERAGE from what I see being anywhere from 800-2,000 kills, I can tell you from a stalkers POV (stalker=I don't/seldom grind or HM) that even 800 kills would take way more time. An unreasonable amount of time for the average player. Especially for ONE species in a game with an ever growing list. There needs to be some sort of mission system for this. Event system. Something. How many and how it's gone about doing idk but I know people who've played for 3+ years with no G1. 900+ hours. No G1. That's insane.

[latent flare]

It all depends, obviously if you spend more time on a map with a g1 you have a higher chance of spotting one

[pulsar ether]

Yeah....... If you spend time on a map with NO G1 you have NO chance of spotting it. The point is, HM/Grinding is by far the most efficient and time saving way to achieve a G1. Not saying it increases rhe spawn rate. Its just the sheer number of animals per hour vs stalking. The average player doesn't have 80 hours to burn on one species because their game time is already limited. Which is what it can take when species are grinded in some cases. Let alone if theyre hunted normally. Especially if they want to experience the game as a whole without dedicating their whole COTW career in pursuit of ONE pinnacle trophy when others who choose not to play your way have dozens. Some could say not "fair". Some just don't enjoy grinding, not taking away from those who do. They should be looked after. Their time should be respected. Not saying they should just be handed G1s, but there could definelty be a mission system for this. Possible a timed event in the year when you get to pick a "tag" for one of the G1s. Do some objectives (make them challenging as to not give some the impression of "devaluing" the thing) and let the people who don't have one have ONE. That's my two cents on it.

[latent flare]

If it was a g1 that was made specifically for the story it’d be alright but having it where you can just pick will just take away the whole idea of a great one being a hard animal and that most people won’t get one

[pulsar ether]

If someone has a G1, does it matter if how they get it? It shouldn't, because we all play this game our own way. Being a "story" G1 fur is just an unnecessary differentiation to make. Doesn't affect you or the "prestige" of the animal itself. Some people legit have multiple G1 Tahr as we speak the DLC hasn't been out a month. If you want a G1 any kind of quickly, do HM. It'll take time and work to set up, lots of time to grind but consistently kinda garuntees the G1. The idea that most people won't get one is already kinda gone. There's videos on how to set up HM for G1s. If you think the method doesn't work, go tell Scarecrow and Lady that. Not me I didn't make them. At this point, the only people who can't play and realistically expect a G1 to just spawn in are regular stalking style players. One animal a year for them isn't gonna kill anyone. Especially this late in the games life cycle.

[latent flare]

Hm doesn’t make it easier, if you grind it’s obviously gonna give you more chances. But having it where it’s a story makes way more sense since you get it FROM A STORY😂

[pulsar ether]

I never said a story. I said "objectives". Like I said, i don't understand why that would be necessary. How does it affect you how people get their G1s? Someone has the same G1 as someone else. One got theirs from a mission, one was a random spawn. Tell me how it matters to anyone other than who is playing the game.

[native pilot]

No, it really shouldn't matter in the slightest. People need to stop worrying about other people's playstyles and achievements on this forum.

[civic fern]

Personally, I think the simplest way other than grinding, should just be a Prestige system where when the player reaches Level 60, they can choose to reset the game and in return get a ticket for 1 Great One spawn of their choice on a map of their choice. (However, I would also have this so ONLY the player's level is reset, not the mission system, unless the player wanted that as well.) When that ticket is "cashed," the GO is spawned on the player's selected map and it is up to the player to find it, but they will know it exists. They could do this as many times as they like, once per level reset.

This would not lessen those GOs obtained by grinding, and grinding is still a viable mechanic for those that want it. Grinding would, frankly, be faster anyhow, but this Prestige system would be far more fun for those that can't stand the idea mindless grinding over and over again, and also prevent players burning out and leaving the game entirely (which is an issue).

The benefit of a Prestige system vs. the special stories/objective approach is that it theoretically would take less development time/effort to implement and would have less opportunity for things to go completely wrong. (Missions can be finicky and are prone to mission locks where the player cannot progress.)

One possible argument against this is that (via mods) it is possible to level up instantly and thus "earn" the ticket without doing the work. That is likely true, but at this very moment, you can use mods to spawn GOs anyhow, so this is not actually a new issue.

[wary bluff]

To circumvent speed leveling they could restrict the G1 ticket to only one ticket every 1 or 2 months and this can be tracked by requiring the player to be logged into their Apex Account ..... Pretty straight forward actually ....

[civic fern]

I understand that, but it just adds another layer of complexity where it is not needed. Players that don't cheat, won't. Those that do will either just speed level or spawn in 500 Great Ones.

[wary bluff]

I agree but with the nature of grinding in this game a legitimate grinder can complete 60 levels in a pretty short amount of time .... this way prestige or player progression doesn't become a grind either ....

Agree about the missions being finicky and that's why am leaning more toward some generic missions .... the player reset mechanic concerns me as well because if that's not done correctly or glitches out that could be disastrous ....

[raven ruin]

I wish GO were initial spawns but have that be a low percentage chance kinda like how it was before when GO came out. But I agree i wish there was another way besides grinding bec not everyone likes to grind or wants to kill 2,000-5,000 of the same animal in hopes one will show up

[wary bluff]

Lots of info and great ideas presented in this thread ... DM me if you don't fee like reading all the back and forth ..... I will also update the OP to reflect the prevailing Ideas .....

[long crystal]

== MISSION IDEA ==

Opportunity nocks…

Report sighting of an unusually large animal from a life-long friend and reliable local source. (Jaxy)

Mission: Spot, call in, and bow hunt a Great specimen. Last track sighted at, (X,Y) vantage point.

Arrive at (X,Y) and sound call, only to receive answer from surprisingly closer than anticipated! You sight and spot it!!

A Great One!!!

Immediately switching to your bow, nocking, the ledge gives way landing you just a few feet down! Whew!

Suddenly realizing to your utmost disbelief and boiling horror, your arrow’s fletching is now protruding from your throat in front of your face! 🫨

Cellphone lost, the first aid kit helps with getting the broad-head unscrewed and the arrow-shaft out, but life is still ticking down/blood spurting away leaving a trail! Vision thumping/buzzing with each heartbeat, outpost OR observation tower, which is closest!?!

Closest POI is at elevation and the farthest isn’t!

Using your two mission markers, heading for the nearest, fast-travel or move to fast and you may preemptively bleed out..

Move to slow, and succumb to permanent slumber. Suddenly, as if things couldn’t get any worse, a murder-chicken call emanates sternward.

Vision tunneling, the surreal engulfing, the tide of adrenaline receding, and new colors from the rainbow of pain surge. Your loyal dog all the while continuously barks to keep you lucid..

What to do, will you survive?

( next mission title )

The One that got away.

[wary bluff]

Grinding for G1 + Hunting for a G1 is a win win for all players as well as EW ....

Lets take this over the 100 post hurdle

[rain nimbus]

As someone who primarily plays the story missions first and then hunts on the map, I think this is a great idea. I've seen the posts along the lines of "3000 kills into my GO grind." I think that speaks for itself. This system is NEEDED. Keep up the good work! i'll be keeping up with the posts

[rain nimbus]

This is also the first time I've really seen lore/missions being fleshed out. Love it!

MedVed hunting missions were only difficult because they were EXTREMELY buggy. Want to take a photo of a sick Eurasian Lynx? TOO BAD! THEY HAVE INCREDIBLE SENSES, YOU HAVE TO BE WITHIN 30 yds OF THEM TO GET A GOOD PHOTO, AND THE CAMERA IS BUGGY. want to shoot that sick lynx? (Part of the mission.) TOO BAD! THE LYNX IS PROBABLY 100 YARDS AWAY FROM YOU ALREADY AFTER IT BOLTED! GOOD LUCK TRACKING IT DOWN! The amount of bugs in this game is beyond me, so I think they need better playtesting and quality control if a GO mission were to work out, as the GO's have the best senses in the game. But that's on EW. This is the fanbase. So it's on EW to get better playtesting

This could be a lot like MedVed, but better. It could also be like Vurhonga, where the missions were INCREDIBLY interactive and fun to play, with rich lore as the icing on the cake.

[wary bluff]

Thank you for your support!!

[wary bluff]

Excelent we made it over the hump 🐪

🐪 🐫

Lets keep her going 🐫

[rain nimbus]

Would there be any way to guarantee a certain fur type on the GO’s from the mission system? I know certain species like moose are guaranteed to have a rare fur type if they’re a GO. But what about other species. I personally feel that this isn’t required to be included, but it’s just a thought

[rain nimbus]

And of course the whole point of this system is to make sure that people don’t miss out on GO’s just because they don’t have the time. It’s also going to make sure that they’re not easy to get, but not impossible, whereas regular grinding is almost impossible.

[limpid vessel]

Just out of curiousity. How would you measure the difficulty of a mission against let's say an 8k kill grind.

While I'm not totally opposed to this idea I'd hate for GOs to be turned in to a particapation trophy.

[cinder sinew]

I’m also not against other ways to get a GO I just don’t see any way a mission based GO or a level based GO wouldn’t be significantly easier to get than the current method. Their entire missions they create for a new map take a long time to make and only 3 hours to complete, without an ATV. It would take way too much dev time to create a mission system long enough and difficult enough to compete with the current methods. And with the level system, it would just turn out to be the same as it is now. There would be power levellers who would burn through levels quickly and they would need to increase the level requirements for a GO to spawn, then we would be back in the same place this thread is now. Once again, I’m not against alternate methods, I just don’t feel missions or level based are the best solution

[wary bluff]

@limpid vessel, @cinder sinew

MISSIONS/PLAYER PROGRESSION

Thanks for your questions and they are all good questions … First I feel like it's going to have to be a system that encompasses not just missions, but also level progression as well as actual real time.

You are correct to say that good missions are difficult and time consuming from a development standpoint and so I'm assuming that the missions at least to begin with will need to be fairly basic types of missions. They could even use the already existing in game daily and weekly challenges for that matter.

Possibly even some kind of leveling system attached to Hunt Club / challenges so that you must get to a certain level in challenges . But the missions aren't as important as the player progression. So don't focus too much on the mission as they are just an enjoyable means to an end.

This is why tying this new G1 system to level progression is important. So that you can only begin the G1 mission system until you reach the current player max lvl of 60. Then every 30 to 60 levels after (say lvl 90 or lvl 120 ) that you can complete a mission or a mission series that will reward the player with a single G1 token.

Again I would love to see some very involved and well written missions to claim the G1 token but there are pitfalls in writing and maintaining a good mission system and so we may not be able to have that right away ...

So once G1 token is claimed it can then be used to spawn a G1 on a map of the players choice. The G1 is spawned in a random location and the player must hunt for it to harvest the G1. The player would then need to complete another 30 to 60 levels of progression in order to get another G1 token.

Now in order to prevent or discourage power levelers. A player can only have 1 token in inventory at any given time and regardless of how quickly they can level they will only be able to redeem one G1 token every 1 or 2 real time months or whatever seems appropriate to EW.

The real time requirement can be tracked by requiring the player to be logged into their Apex account which will keep track of the date on EW servers to prevent players from manipulating the date on the client ….

The end result of this is that grinding or random chance will still be available and the preferred method for most players in getting a G1. However this will also give causal / organic hunters as well as grinders the ability to participate in an alternate method of getting a G1 ….

[wary bluff]

I think the consensus is that the average G1 grind is 2000 to 2500 animals so the real time requirement of 30 to 60 levels of progression as well as the real time limit of 1 to 2 months to redeem a token will deter those who try to exploit this system ...

Its not meant to replace or even be equivalent to grinding for G1's ... Just an alternate method ....

[turbid meteor]

My G1 fallow was over 3400 kills. Current red deer grind is over 3000 kills. In the last 9 days I have killed over 3000 red deer. That’s 333 red deer a day. With over 40 hours played in that time frame. If you played 2 hours a day every other day that would take you 160 days to complete the same amount of hours. 6 months vs 9 days. That would have to be some really hard missions to complete.

[wary bluff]

please read my post here #1242416386031091753 message where I explain the system as I see it ..... The missions are not the main focus .... they are just a means to an end ... or an enjoyable thing to do while you are leveling up .... In fact the whole system could be done without missions ....

[broken venture]

i think they should do it for like newer people who are trying to grind the should make them spawn a little easier because ive been doing a my GO wt grind for about a years and ive only spawned 3 dim and 3 rare no GO at all

[civic fern]

Ironically, GOs are now little more than participation trophies. The only "skill" needed is the ability (and time) to obsessively shoot a few thousand of the same animal, over and over again, day after day, rather than being an end-game "boss" for players who actually hunt in a hunting game. The current gameplay loop for getting a GO is about as exciting as playing Deer Hunter 2024 or similar on a phone and slaughtering hoards of animals running at you.

[pallid dune]

So you are saying the only thing needed is dedication to the game…

[lusty wharf]

3 dime in one year of grinding you either arent grinding or doing something seriously wrong

[nimble yew]

What if you could set your populations to random spawn the way it does on Classic…make it a small % chance to spawn a great one but finding a super rare or GO in a random spawn environment would be awesome. This could be a game play option so that those who want to HM can still play the way it is done today but also give those that like the hunting and not grinding another way to find trophies.

[cinder sinew]

This would be great, however, it would need to have additional settings to go along with that. Things like tents need to be removed every time you leave the map, fast travelling to outposts/placed tents would need a time restriction. Things like classic has to eliminate abusing this feature

[broken venture]

could you help me to see if im doing something wrong like saturday or now call me on dicord out sumthing

[lusty wharf]

I could probably later today, although I would think you won't have found all your zones would be the most likely in this case. So your high levels are stuck somewhere you don't know
Best bet is to count your zones, compare that to some youtubers to make sure you have a similar number, then go checking them all

[broken venture]

like what youtubers

[wary bluff]

The recent uproar in the community over rules that effect grinding make it even more necessary that we need an alternate way to get G1's without having to grind for them .... 110

[ruby niche]

Jaxy did talk about a potential alt way in the stream

[wary bluff]

I caught that as well 🤞

[summer jay]

I would love to see the missions you mentioned added , I think it's a very good way for casual gamers to get GOs and would also give people an alternative way not grinding and less chance of new player burn out or lack of achievement

[wary bluff]

Well to be clear ... if we want G1's to be special then a mission system by it's self will probably not achieve this .... This is why we acknowledge that it needs to be tied to player progression as well as real time in order to prevent them from becoming too easy ....

Please read this post here to get a better understanding of the proposal .... and thanks for your support
#1242416386031091753 message

[summer jay]

Completely agree the shouldn't be to easy@wary bluff

[spare pawn]

A pop reset every 3 months would definitely be a benefit, it would help keep single player interesting

After hunting a map for so much as a casual player, your last resort is either to grind or to go to multiplayer. It would also give grinders a chance to grind for whatever species they are grinding for

[wary bluff]

would this be an automatic reset for everyone every three months? @spare pawn

[feral stone]

Actually this is genuinely really smart

[spare pawn]

Well it would be nice if people had the choice but if ew were to put it into their game, it would probably be for everyone. Having the choice to reset your map would be nice and that would be the best option to both grinders and casuals of the community

[wary bluff]

POPULATION RESETS

Okay so I made a detailed post here on how G1's could be achieved through missions and player progression.
#1242416386031091753 message

However there are several who favor using population resets.

So here is a proposal for how population resets could be used as an alternate way of getting a G1 ,.....

1. You can purchase 1 reset token every 1-3 RT months per map. (** actual time based on game testing**)
   This RT limitation can be tracked by requiring players to be logged into Apex account at the time of purchase ...
2. You can only have one token in inventory at a time.
3. The reset token is species and map specific so it will only reset one species on one map.
4. This token will reset all zones for that species and ... can ... also randomly spawn a G1 in a random location on the map (No guarantee of a G1 spawn but see item 5 below)
5. Along with the RT purchase limitation with this method (see item 1) EW could implement a slightly higher G1 Spawn probability (optional based on game testing and Dev discretion )

I will update the main post to reflect these 2 specific alternate methods ....

[spare pawn]

When you say purchase do you mean actual money or in game currency

[wary bluff]

In game currency .. should be pretty pricey as well

[wary bluff]

@cunning forge | **The chance of having an initial spawn GO is so low. With 1 Pop reset every 3-6 months it would take years to get a great one, or even never get one. If all zones are found and no GO is there, which will happen 99% of the time, u have to wait 3-6 months again to have a minimal chance of getting a GO just by being super lucky and not even investing anything. Sounds like many players are just to lazy to grind and now hope to get a easy great one because of this terrible situation. ** |

The pop reset solution is not may favorite either but the devs can set the frequency of how often a token can be purchased ...... It could be every 1 or 2 months .... They can also play with the RNG chance of a G1 spawn when using this method ....

This one of the beneficial features of this method overall is that it would be pretty easy to implement and maintain ..... Thanks for your input !

[cunning forge]

But i dont understand why it should be made so complicated. For me these alternatives sound terrible because, its not anymore my own decision when i want to go try for a Great one and theres no joy in just reseting the map or doing missions to get a guaranted Great one by missions or one by initial spawn after resetting my map over and over again over years. That sounds even worse and idk wheres the problem just accepting us to want the possibility to grind the way we want for Great ones. Because in my opinion the Grind is part of Getting a GO and its a fun part.

For me its not the sense of the game its more gambling for Great ones by spending ingame currency to by pop resets. And making Great Ones mission animals would be the worst thing ew could ever do because then they r worth nothing anymore, even if these missions are extremly hard

[wary bluff]

for those who grind by the established rules I would think pop resets would be an attractive alternative .... For example when trying to get a white tail G1 you could reset one map while doing a traditional grind on another map

So keep in mind none of these methods mentioned here would replace grinding while using the established rules ....
Grinding is and always will be the most effective way of getting G1's and rares .... The alternate methods are not meant to replace grinding .....

[cunning forge]

I understand but grinding nowadays is just 💩 and tbh i dont want no other way because in my opinion if u want a Great One u have to sacrifie a lot because if just everybody could get them without even having to do something challenging, they wouldnt be interesting anymore

And to make it clear grinding is for me at the moment not possible anymore, so yes these alternatives would replace grinding at least for me, but the only thing i or we grinders in General want is, to have the 15-20 minutes which the animals need to respawn deleted. And if they cant delete it they should change the time down to a maximum of 1 minute or something exept of tigers.

[wary bluff]

fair enough ....

[wary bluff]

125 OP updated to reflect Hunt club seasons Idea https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1124385608522006579

[wary bluff]

On the population reset method I still think this would take a very long time to spawn a G1 if ever .. Unless EW were to change the RNG G1 spawn probability when using this method ....

[wary bluff]

The Pop reset method outlined here ... with a RT limitation on how often you can use this method on any one map with a slightly higher G1 spawn probability .... 131

[long cliff]

https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1265527548188557332

[fresh quartz]

This thread has 25+ messages every time I check it lol!

[wary bluff]

Jump to the Top (OP ) #1242416386031091753 message

[wary bluff]

...154

[opal sparrow]

I like it! I know there's a lot of energy around grinding for GOs, but some of us don't have the motivation to turn a game into a job (and quite frankly I wanna enjoy the immersive game instead of grinding for hours on end in hopes that one appears. I tried grinding and I burned out)

I might have missed it, but would the GO tokens spawn a random GO from the available species pool? Or would you be able to choose which species it affects?

[wary bluff]

Lots of energy for the players that grind but more important there is a lot of dev energy and resources involved in creating the G1 models and variations.... and just a shame that they can only be enjoyed by 50% of the player base ....

To answer your question using the mission/progression and token system I would say you can pick a token based on the maps you own and the a current list of available G1's ....

[opal sparrow]

I absolutely agree. The GO models, fur types, and antlers are so cool and I bet a ton and a half of work went into them, so it's a shame that their rarity means only some actually get to see one

[fathom meadow]

Even though you made this post awhile ago are you still open for peoples opinions

[wary bluff]

Of course you can look at the OP and I have posted various oppions there

[wary bluff]

.... 173

[spring karma]

Goated thread

[long cliff]

Great one changes are coming it seems. I doubt they are gonna keep the rarity as an option, but it would be nice. I'll just mention I think most would agree, either 2 Great Ones a year, or 2 reserves again would bring so much more life to the game.

[opal sparrow]

I can't remember if this specific idea was mentioned before, but I feel like it could be cool if there was an "initial spawn" (or a rare chance that one will randomly spawn) GO of each species that doesn't actually attach to any zones and just wanders around occasionally stopping in different locations

idk how well that would work given the mechanics around animal population movement, but I feel like having a "lone wolf" GO that encourages the player to explore around the reserve could be neat, especially for the really pretty maps like New England Mountains

It wouldn't necessarily make them "easier" as you'd have to actually go search for one rather than grinding, but it also means that you aren't locked specifically to grinding drink zones day in and day out

[wary bluff]

Please see the OP for those ideas that have been presented so far. The goal of course is to not replace grinding but present alternatives that keep G1's rare and unique.

This can be accomplished with the use of tokens awarded when players reach certain levels past 60. So for example at level 90 or 120 a G1 token can be awarded to the player.

In addition the G1 Token would be time sensitive so that regardless of how fast a player levels they can only earn one token every 2 or three months. And only 1 token can be in inventory at any time ...

This encourages the player just to play the game and gain levels through hunting and not necessarily grinding. Then when a token is awarded they can use the token to spawn a G1 on the map of their choosing …

**At this point your idea has merit so that the G1 spawned would not be attached to any particular zone(s) … If of course this is even possible given the difficulty of coding this behavior … **

But in any case once the G1 is spawned the hunter must still search the map in order to find the G1.

The end result of all of this is that grinding still remains the preferred and most efficient way of spawning a G1 but earning a G1 token by progression over time will also allow organic hunters the opportunity to spawn a G1 ….

[pulsar niche]

i think they should get rid of grinding and HM altogether

[crude topaz]

I think its possible introducing a new rarity would be far better in respect to everyones wishes. Something similar to a great one that you can only get on species that arent already g1 species that would have spawn conditions matching the availability of a casual gamer. I still think grinding for a great one id actually a lot of fun and hard work i also feel that a casual way of getting great ones would make the trophy i put a lot of time to get just, less valuable. The journey still means a lot but its the scarcity that adds that extra “wow i did that”. at the same time i want casual players to really have smth, an amazing thing they can achieve too. I want you guys to feel what i felt after i got my g1. So it would prolly be the best solution to add a new rarity like i mentioned, smth with a spawn criteria no tied to direct rng of respawns. Maybe having it be its own spawn outside the species spawns, one that has a constant rate of rng to spawn at a low chance. So no mater how fast u get kills the new rarity wouldnt spawn any differently. Might actually work better than g1’s do now.

[crude topaz]

To explain that better in hunter cotw theres a certain number of each species on the map at any given time, killing those animals will result in the map being under that total number, rng comes in and spawns an animal to replace the one you shot and therefore returning to the total number of a species on your map go normal. What im proposing is spawning this new rarity in outside of the total number of a species your map is supposed to have. So it spawning will have nothing to do w a respawn of an animal you hunted. It would just basically run a roll of the dice at an insanely low chance of winning forever regardless of what you do while your game is open and your character is moving(to prevent afk farming) this means grinding doesnt affect its spawn rate, hm doesnt change anything, knowing every single animal and zone on ur map wont help you. It would be complete chance, the only way to improve your chances of finding one is to keep playing.

[pallid dune]

Im going to add this here because I said it on another chat and I think it fits here as well. Diamonds are Record Breaking animals, at least in the original concept of diamonds, therefore GOs are crazy unrealistic, not only the GO bear is a glaciar bear, in the real world thounsand of those exist, but one that has a skull pattern, its supposed to be crazy and amazing. Another example is the GO whitetail, not only its a nontypical its as big as a farm deer in a wild situation again. There must be a million nontyps in the real world but not that size in a wild Enviroment.
So maybe a nice idea for this could be normal Nontypical Diamonds, or normal pattern Glaciar bears, so that we can get access to some of the coolest features while keeping the GOs a Cryptid rare level

[opal sparrow]

I think that'd be super neat honestly

[wary bluff]

G1's are not as you say a " Cryptid rare level" ... In fact they are quiet common for those that have the time to spend and enjoy the particular play style to have one .... Namely Grinding ...

All suggestions are welcome but I support those suggestions that don't change the current rarity of the G1 .... It should take just as long or even longer longer to get one than grinding but you should be able to get one by just playing the game and hunting in an organic fashion ....

Both play styles will benefit from this ... Grinders and organic hunters as well ....

[turbid shuttle]

Plz fix the respawns please

[pallid dune]

I don´t agree, grinding is the easy way to get one but it's not the only way to get one, for casual players are crypid level animals

[wary bluff]

This thread hopes to rectify that problem for casual / organic players .... Its also a problem for the devs in that they devote far to many resources into developing G1's that only 1/3 to 1/2 of the player base can enjoy .....

[pallid dune]

I do think that players who play more time deserve a reward, what reward could it be if not for GOs?

[wary bluff]

... 189

[glacial dove]

I'm playing COTW for years, but never seen an GO. What ist the normal way to see a GO ?

[wary bluff]

Explained thoroughly in this thread but the short answer is the most effective way is to grind ... This thread seeks to propose alternate solutions for organic or more casual hunters ....

But the most effective way will always be to grind ....

[glacial dove]

So shooting and shooting the best animals of an species and hoping a GO will apear ?

[wary bluff]

essentially yes ....

[turbid shuttle]

Anyone else on the G1 Red fox grind on emerald coast

[chrome willow]

make it so if u kill x ammount of animals of that type it will 100% spawn one
once u kill 1000 red deer, a great one red deer will spawn

[latent flare]

nah cause then it’s not random and grinders can get 1000 red deer kills pretty easily

[wary bluff]

The objective is to have another way to get G1 without grinding ... what you are describing is just another grind

There are some very good suggestions in this thread .... they have been summarized and linked at the top ....

[wary bluff]

... 194

[ruby niche]

197 pls add this

[wary bluff]

We just need one more to get over the 200 hump!!! At this point EW has spent so much dev time and resources to create these G1's ....

We need some alternate ways to get them other than grinding ... If you read the OP of this thread you see some very well throughout alternatives.

Non of these alternatives will replace grinding ... Grinding... for those who have time to do it will always be the quickest and most effective way of get a G1 .... These ideas give options to others as well ..... 199

[wary bluff]

2️⃣ 0️⃣ 0️⃣ ‼️ 🎇

EW you're #1 and we are pointing at you .... Only you can make this happen ...

[spice solstice]

I think this would solve the problem of instant teleportation, which is considered “cheating”. What should happen is that time is advanced when one teleports to a destination, based on the distance from the teleportation point to the destination (according to the time it would take to walk to the destination). The map shows how long it takes to walk to the destination (in the lower right corner).

[wary bluff]

Keep in mind the alternate methods proposed in this thread would be for every player. Not just for casuals or grinders but every player could use these methods to enhance their enjoyment of the game ...

Tired of grinding one particular species ??? Use an alternate method to get that G1 you've always wanted

[proven bobcat]

Atp I don't see how this would be negative, anyone with interest probably has several of the GOs in their lodges by this point so I see no reason not to give everyone else a chance at it I'd they care for it in the first place

[opal sparrow]

One thing I'm kinda tired of is the whole "hardcore vs casuals" talk that I see here a ton
Oftentimes they describe "hardcore players" as themselves, the ones who dedicate setups and grinds, while seemingly using the term "casuals" for everyone else
As someone with a lot of time spent in the game, I'm by no means a casual player. But by community defintion, I am, since I don't do GO grinds

It's not super related to this thread, but since "hardcore and casual" was mentioned I wanted to bring that up

[proven bobcat]

Yeah, I get it. That's also part of the reason why there's such a big division in the community between people who grind and people who like to just roam

[wary bluff]

Now that we have challenges that replace the hunt club maybe it can be used through player progression as an alternate way of earning a G1? ... 207

[proven bobcat]

Like 200 challenges and you get a random GO spawn or something?

[wary bluff]

I like it !!! 👍 👍

And you can't spawn another one until you find and kill the one that's already been spawned ... We'll call it the

**Where's Waldo G1 Challenge ! **

You don't know what G1 it is or where it's at .... All you know is he's out there in the world somewhere ....... 🌎 ❔ ...

He may not even be on a map that you currently own ... So if you don't own that map then you will need to buy it because he may be there ....

Once the Where's Waldo G1 is set to spawn he will Spawn the next time you enter that map (❔) . And he will not spawn on another players map in MP .....

The Waldo G1 doesn't affect any other method of spawning a G1 such as grinding / HM .... So you can still get a G1 through other means ......

Once you kill the Waldo G1 then you're challenges are reset and you can try for another ....

[wary bluff]

So what do you folks think? Is this 👆 a viable alternative ? Should I post this in the main OP of this thread as another way to get a G1? ?

[proven bobcat]

I'm up for it probably the only way I'd get a GO

[spare pawn]

Yea it would probably take longer than grinding so I would be up for it for the players that don’t want to grind

[scenic flax]

Supporting the idea of making g1s available for more people. I am a casual player (with more than 700 hours into this game) as well and do not like the idea of grinding and thus will never see a g1. Why? Because I already have a job and don't want anotherone. The grinders may do this to get all possible fur variations, but please find a way to offer also a way to g1s for players who simply don't enjoy grinding. Maybe give a g1 after every 100-200 hours of gameplay time count, so that we don't have to do the boring grinding gameplay loop over and over again.
I personally do only roaming hunts to see what I can find. I dislike the thought of grinding for a g1 instead of doing what this game is meant for... enjoying hunting

[wary bluff]

Consider how motivating it would be to hunt knowing that there is a G1 already on one of your maps somewhere .... You just have to find it .... Where's Waldo .....

[wary bluff]

Please take a look at the first post in this thread .... There are links there that explain the various different alternative ways proposed to get a G1 ..... #1242416386031091753 message

[scenic flax]

Just wanted to support.

Any way to get a g1 without turning the great game into an arcade shooting gallery by grinding is welcome.
I don't mind doing missions, challenges, or having a time count etc. guaranteeing a g1 to be present on some map.

Grinding is a boring style of bruteforcing a certain rng result. This is not what i could ever imagine to be fun for me. Going out there and see what I can find is the way to go for me. I want to play hunting, not manipulating a game engine to force certain results (e.g. there are ways to generate more diamonds and only having to check certain lakes anymore... "herd management" and stuff etc.)

Certainly I don't understand how to be proud of a bruteforced g1 in a lodge, that you didn't find in the wild but on a certain lake of your "grind setup".... eeehhh... it would feel empty and emotionless for me... yay, you forced it by thousands of shooting gallery kills.... wow !!!

The game emphasized ethical harvesting. Shooting e.g. fallow deer with the oversized arzyna and not even picking them up is more like poaching. Sorry to say so. If the grinders had a .50 BMG Gatling, they would certainly even use that, to brute force the g1 even faster.

[hardy bolt]

How I see the ideal option for getting G1:

1. Keep the current system of diamonds and G1 spawning

2. Introduce a reserve score system. It can be hidden or shown to the player. For a certain action, the score can increase, remain unchanged, or decrease slightly. It is logical to make the score common for all G1. For example: incorrect extraction of an animal + failure to select an animal will slightly decrease the score 1000->999. incorrect extraction, extraction of an animal with a rating of 0, or failure to select an animal will not change the rating, correct extraction of any animal will slightly increase the rating 1000->1001.

3. The score affects the chance of G1 appearing as the next revived animal. This way, the grind will look more correct, and other hunters will get additional chances for G1 while they are hunting normally.

[scenic flax]

That score would have to be reset to its initial value after spawning that g1, otherwise you would flood your map with g1s at a certain reached score level

[sick steeple]

The only part i dont like is it being forced onto maps you dont own that seems scammy since it can cause someone to have to spend a ton of money on getting maps they may never use. Since you dont know what map it will end up in and you cant move on till you kill the existing one it means a player will need to own every map to make use of the feature not average player friendly which is the main point of the feature

[hardy bolt]

Exactly

[scenic flax]

Just buy all maps. 😁They aren't so expensive and are on sale every now an then.

[sick steeple]

Dont give them ideas they while add turrets as a new placeable next

[wary bluff]

@hardy bolt .... So when the score resets the hunter knows at that point that A g1 has spawned on that reserve? Am I following ??

[hardy bolt]

whether to limit the maximum score is the developers' decision, but if there was such a thing, I think they would have put it. Otherwise, after a certain number of hours, the player will not have an increased chance, but a guarantee for G1, which will greatly devalue this trophy

[hardy bolt]

it can be made hidden, but the mechanics can be explained to the player inside the game

[scenic flax]

Yeah but the probability must be massively increased after reaching such score. You shouldn't need thousands of shooting gallery kills after reaching that level

[sick steeple]

This is such a bad argument because the whole point of this idea was to make great ones more accessible to the average player which im sorry even on their best sales getting all the maps would be over $100 for me so its not accessible

[scenic flax]

It was a joke... the emoticon indicates that

[wary bluff]

Also this will incentivize EW to add a feature like this ... Lets face it they are a company that needs to make money ... Its a game to us but a business and livelihood to them ..... It also doesn't preclude the Waldo G1 from spawning on a map that you do own

[sick steeple]

I actually really like this having it so that the more you care for the reserve ie do missions get ethical kills spread out hunting pressure raises a score it would change the grind in ways that support the message of the game and promote hunting over shooting gallery

[hardy bolt]

There hasn't been a significant discount on Nepal yet, I'm waiting and then I'll take it

[scenic flax]

For me it was worth buying all dlcs in terms of supporting our magnificent devs. But i understand, that not everybody has the needed financial freedom.

[sick steeple]

I totally misread that emoticon sorry

[hardy bolt]

for me there is no point in buying all the reserves yet, I have only played two on the current account, so far 52 hours are shown on steam

[wary bluff]

Well Honestly if you look at the main OP for this thread I have updated and added links to Ideas that are the most likely and most interesting ....

You will also Notice I hope that the ideas are not interconnected which means EW can have maybe 2 or three ways for players to get a G1

For example You can grind, You could do Mission/progression, You could pursue map reset as an option and you could do Wheres Waldo at the same time as grinding ....

So if you don't like one method then choose another ....

[hardy bolt]

the score can also be increased once for completing all the main tasks, and once for completing all the additional ones

[normal storm]

This idea would be great and you are completely right but apart from this I would add more difficulty to the GOs, that is, make it much more difficult to get one since they are supposed to be super exotic diamonds or so I understand, so I would make it more difficult to get one especially for players who grind, that is, those who search for them extremely quickly and for the GOs.

[wary bluff]

I'm interested in hearing more about @hardy bolt 's idea ... please continue to discuss and post a single post that summaries the Idea .... I'll definitely be back later to check it out .... Thanks for the support !!

[sick steeple]

A reserve rating could almost act as a difficulty system as well if say as you gained a score the animals become higher level a natural difficulty progression would help the steep learning curve of the game plus allow more common diamonds.

It should be hard to raise the score and easy to lower it so a messy drawn out kill is worth 3 times what a good kill is worth

High scores could increase rare skins as well not much but like 0.01% increases and the reserve hits a threshold at which points dont raise difficulty anymore but go towards a meter that spawns a great one somewhere on the map

Also controversial but i think the map score should decrease slowly the longer you play on other maps

This system could also interact with other aspects like quests map completion and artifacts to incentivise exploration

[scenic flax]

Over 700 hours and still no g1 - because i do hunting, not grinding

[hardy bolt]

I played on another account for 300 hours, no G1 too

[scenic flax]

I'd also like the idea of animals in the population growing. Imagine you spot a safe diamond and you leave it... in 100h of gameplay it might grow to a g1.

[hardy bolt]

I know one game with a similar mechanic, hehe

[scenic flax]

I have said game, but it stutters on ps5 in fidelity mode and looks ugly on performance mode... i don't like the time pressure to harvest the grown animal until it dies naturally. This forces also to do some constantly checking and so on....
In fact I lile cotw more than woth due to gameplay mechanics.

[sick steeple]

Thing with great ones is in the current system when a map generates around 5 diamonds and 5 rare skins spawns but there are no forced great ones this means that unless you grind you will not find one especially since animals tend to stay around the level you killed so its hard to progress to great ones without active grinding.

[scenic flax]

For the score mechanic: I think it shouldn't decrease when you play other maps. Please no micromanagement and punishment for enjoying other maps... Just enjoying hunting and working towards a goal.

[hardy bolt]

I posted a thread

[spice solstice]

The Great One Red Stag only has one unique specimen and is available on five maps, while the Great One Fallow Deer has five distinct specimens and is available on three maps. Don’t you think the Red Stag deserves a few more Great Ones?

[spare pawn]

Imo, add initial spawns and reset populations every 6 months so people have the ability to grind

And it also allows players to continue to hunt on their own maps for trophies without grinding if they don’t like that style of hunting

[wary bluff]

Due to character count limitations in the OP this additional was added

Population Resets #1242416386031091753 message

Hunt Club Seasons
https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1124385608522006579
.
.The Wandering G1 spawning and de-spawing in a random manner
.https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1275151432634466304
.
Update Dec 2024....
The next Alternate Method involves using the New Challenges system to spawn a very elusive G1. This is referred to as the
Where's Waldo G1 Challenge #1242416386031091753 message

Next we have Another interesting method that can be seen here
https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1317806821498556496
this is a very interesting idea with some additional enhaqncements to the above method found here Visual clues ..... #1242416386031091753 message
...

Here's a simple Idea in concept but would be a challenge to all grinders and non-grinders...
#1242416386031091753 message

[tawny hill]

I think you didn’t take into account that the chance for a diamond (and probably also a G1) to spawn is not fixed, but Variable depending on the strength of the trophies I’ve already hunted before.

So, if there’s a species on the map with a lower average trophy score, the chance for a subsequent diamond (and probably G1) spawn is higher.
But by resetting the population, I would lose this advantage (which I worked for by hunting high trophies).
Please correct me if I am wrong

[sick steeple]

Based on what i understand of how respawns work the chances of diamonds and great ones entirely rely on the weight of the last killed animal.
When an animal is spawned it randomises a number roughly between 1 and 20 to add or minus from the weight of the previous animal to make the new animals weight this then determines the rest of the scoring process.
So low scoring animals will never produce a great one or diamond but concentrating high scoring animals helps to create more efficient grinds as your only killing animals with the potential to make diamonds.

So your right it isn’t fixed its just a super rare spawn from killing a super rare set of individuals. What we are talking about is either forcing a single spawn after a special event or to raise the odds of higher level animals spawning so killing them creates more chances for great ones

[wary bluff]

... 223

[scenic flax]

Bump

[wary bluff]

.... 231

[true jetty]

very cool

[wary bluff]

.... 236

[mellow cloak]

I want them to still be super hard bc its a g1 but maybe a tiny% easyer

[wary bluff]

Here's a twist to the Map Scoring Idea presented in this thread #1317806821498556496 message

First devs will come up with some visual clues that a G1 might be present on a particular map... these G1 clues can be things like unusual tracks, scrapes, rubs, disturbed vegetation, sheds and unusual calls ….

These clues appear randomly while you hunt giving you a random chance to find one... So the more you hunt a certain map the more likely you are to find or hear a G1 clue .... They could even code it so that the more G1 clues you find the more likely you are to find another clue …

When a G1 clue is found this increases your overall map score as described in the OP of this thread #1317806821498556496 message

Once your map score reaches a certain scoring level a G1 will spawn somewhere on that Map but you still must find it

If the map contains more than 1 potential G1 species then the G1 species will be random and you will not know what species it is until you spot it ….

[wary bluff]

Many ways to get GO's without Grinding/HM

Another way to get GO's without Grinding/HM

[tawny hill]

I don’t like this at all. Spawning G1 should be completely random and not based on the idea that the longer you play, the higher your chances of finding it. The element of surprise gets lost this way. It would help a lot if G1 had a slightly higher percentage chance to spawn than it does now so that even non-grinders could very rarely find it.

—
That would be a rigged system. The only worse spawning system was the legendary fish in The Angler.

—
But even if I never catch G1 as a non-grinder, that’s okay. It’s enough for me to know I have a Chance to find it. That there’s a chance for G1 to spawn that isn’t rigged.

—
If finding G1 were really based on discovering its tracks, where more tracks mean a higher chance of spawning, G1 would completely lose its value. It would feel like a mission. I have no Interest in a G1 like that.

[wary bluff]

Thank you for your feedback 👍 🤔 .... I understand what your saying when you say ... the element of surprise gets lost .... and I agree there should be an element of surprise in finding a G1 .... However what this idea is doing is shifting the element of surprise from the G1 to finding the clues .....

And EW can adjust the rarity of finding the clues so that its roughly equivalent to how long it might take a full time grinder to spawn a G1 ... Posts to this thread would suggest somewhere between 2 to 3 months of grinding 4 to 6 hours a day ... Or somewhere around 1500 to 2000 kills seems to be the current average.

So that a full time organic Hunter might be able to spawn a G1 in the same amount of time as a full time grinder in 2 to 3 months, A casual hunter it might take 4 to 6 months , a very casual hunter might take 8 to 12 months ....

But I agree we don't want to down play the element of surprise and excitement but rather multiply it because the excitement and surprise will come with each clue that's found .... And keep in mind that when the G1 is spawned you still have to hunt for it on the map .... I think this will be great fun and exciting

Also the point of this thread is not to highlight my own ideas but also the ideas of all the community concerning this topic ... This is why I gave full credit to the OP of another thread by linking it .... #1317806821498556496 message ....
But my overall purpose is Just to show that are many ways and many approaches that can be just as challenging as grinding without having to grind ...

And my post here ... #1242416386031091753 message ....
is meant to enhance or high lite their idea which at first wasn't one that I was particularly fond of ....

[sick steeple]

I still think the best thing they could do is have a reserve score that as you hunt and progress slowly makes all animals higher level.
This way grinders still have a reason to grind, everything is still random and the actual difficulty of the map increases over time. It also provides an active goal to work towards and can be a great way to encourage certain behaviors from players.

[wary bluff]

@sick steeple This way grinders still have a reason to grind,

I don't think any of my ideas or really any other ideas presented here changes grinding in any way and I personally don't endorse making G1's easier to attain ... Grinding is a viable play style that many enjoy ...

So its entirely possible to have alternate methods to get a G1 without diminishing grinding ... It should take just as long to get a G1 using any method ...

Randomness can be built into any of these methods to make some take longer or shorter than others but the average time for every player should be roughly the same depending on the amount of time they play ...

Now it may be that some current grinders will shift from grinding to one of these other methods because they are no longer feel forced to grind .... But for those who truly enjoy grinding it should stay as is ..... 242

[fickle gyro]

The Go mission ideas isnt a bad idea. Red Dead 2 has a similar system for legendary animals. You have to find track or scat then track for clues of the animal after this then the animal will appear.
I think you could do something similar with missions. After the missions the game warden of the reserve will let you know they spotted a great one and a G1 would spawn on the map.
Would still like Great ones to be hard to gain or they lose there value in the game.

[wary bluff]

Thank you for your feedback .... How does someone quantify if something is hard or easy ? Is it the amount of time it takes to complete a task?

In most cases especially in a game it is all about time ... The longer it takes to accomplish an objective then the harder it is perceived to be ....

But the people who really enjoy grinding time is not as big an issue because they are doing what they enjoy doing ... And grinders have testified in this thread that on average it takes somewhere around 2000 - 2500 kills to finally spawn a G1 ....

So now its just a matter of how much real time you put into doing something that you already enjoy to get those 2000-2500 kills ...

Now contrast this with the player that doesn't really enjoy grinding but they do it because they want the G1 .... Or the player that absolutely hates grinding and refuses to do it regardless of the reward?

So when it comes to grinding; ... as the only way currently to get a G1 in a reasonable amount of time .... Which player perceives how hard or easy it is to get a G1? Is it the player that truly enjoys grinding? How about the other players that do it even though they dont enjoy it? Or the ones who just hate it and refuse to do it ?

This is why this thread exists ... to provide enjoyable ways for most if not all players to get a G1 but still requiring about the same time investment....

And frankly with the amount of dev time put into creating the G1's it deserves to be enjoyable by as many players as possible .... and enjoyable game play for all translates to profitability for EW ....

244

[frosty elm]

I like wander around the maps. I hunted 90% of diamonds this method. I hate grind but I like this game. Hunters like me deserve a GO also but this method not work. Randomly spawned GO in time of the session could solve this problem. It don't drink and disappears after exit. The devs created the very good game but they haven't figure out how to keep those who don't grind.

[cursive totem]

There should be really only a very minimal spawn chance, would raise the worth of a GO by a lot. Grinded GOs are meh..

[wary bluff]

If you examine the alternate ideas presented in this thread you will see that the idea is not to replace grinding or making G1 easier to get ....

All the ideas here are assumed to be time restrictive so they will take about the same amount of real time as it takes the average grinder to kill 2000 to 3000 animals ....

Of course there are outliers .... some get a G1 after a few hundred kills and some it takes 5000 to 7000 ... but the average time for the average grinder takes 3 to 4 months of real time playing 3 to 4 hrs per day or 2000 to 3000 kills ....

[cursive totem]

I read the whole thread, dont worry. 🙂

[wary bluff]

Your a very rare commodity 👏

[wary bluff]

... 254

[wary bluff]

Here's hoping we will soon see this dream become reality!

Yesterday on His stream Jaxy mentioned the need to not have any content that was accessible by only one particular play style ....

He also spoke in the context of G1's when he said this ....

This gives me more hope that we will soon see a G1 system that can be enjoyed not just by grinding but also by hunters of all play styles

[mystic bronze]

I really like the idea of just having a G1 roaming any map you log into anytime but there is one EVERYTIME you log in to play ... but only one, and they are VERY hard to hunt. This would be my preference.

[wary bluff]

Thanks for the feedback .... sounds like you would lean more toward the wheres Waldo Challenge here : #1242416386031091753 message

Or Possibly the Visual Clues idea where after playing on a map for a certain amount of time the G1 is spawned in a random location on the map ... Then you can start receiving visual clues ... Like signs, scrapes, tracks, peculiar calls, brief glimpses, all to lead you in the location of the G1 .... #1242416386031091753 message

[mystic bronze]

Yeah 100% just love the idea of the G1 just being spawned into the map while I am playing and then I come across hints nad clues it is around ... but it has to be in standard hunting, not tied up in challenges or missons. Personally I'd like to see a G1 on the map EVERYTIME I hunt ... but they should just be EXTREMELY difficult to hunt.

I 100% hate the missions and challenges thing in this game. I don't play ANY of the map missions or challenges, they are boring and cheesy. I just play COTW specifically for the live hunt aspect. So any content that is locked behind challenges or missions is not something I'll ever engage with.

[wary bluff]

@mystic bronze ... Many feel the same way about grinding and It used to be thought that grinding was the only way ...
Ultimately it's up to the devs how they choose to implement this feature going forward but this thread lives to show EW that there are many ways to hunt G1's .... Many ways that are just as challenging and rewarding as grinding .........

[wary bluff]

..262

[mystic bronze]

I really hope they do make some game changes around this.

[frosty elm]

I dream about it. GOs roaming around without need zones. Only tracks. I would add one thing. Payment for information about it. For 300 000 you can receive information about approximate weight or size. Because I don't now what to do with money. It growing up constantly.

[queen nimbus]

I like the mission idea. They could limit the G1 missions to currently underutilized zones, for example black bear great one missions are only in Mississippi . ( Mississippi missons were minimalistic anyway, that zone would deserve more missions.... a Mission backfill.... )

With the current grinding method I just don't feel I am doing anything, since it is random based... If I burned X hours a day grinding, and no G1 - I am not closer at all. With a long and complicated quest chain, if I can finish 1 quest, I know that I am that one step closer..... Not a wasted time.

[wary bluff]

@frosty elm , @mystic bronze , @queen nimbus
The thing is the devs don't have to just have one alternative way to get a G1 because to summarizes this thread all the methods mentioned here really come down to real time (RT) ...

Even with grinding it's about RT ..... Even grinders have testified in this thread that that their expectation for getting a G1 are based on a number of kills and how long it will take them to get those kills (2500 - 3000 ) ... So it all comes down to how much RT it takes the average grinder to reach that number .... Sure their are outliers some take longer and some are shorter but EW has the analytics to determine what that average is ...

I think we have guessed in this thread that the average grinder playing 3-6 hrs a day can get 2500-3000 kills that spawn a G1 in 2.5 to 3 months ..... that's what grinding boils down to.

So all the various alternate ideas in this thread come down to the same equation of how much RT should it take for the average player playing 3-6 hours a day to spawn a G1 doing one or more of these alternate methods .... And as we have shown in this thread, it doesn't have to be one alternate method it can be more than one method ... so that EW can accommodate a number of different play styles ...

Grinding will stay as is because its a method that many players seem to enjoy .... but it doesn't have to be the only way .... 263

[frosty elm]

When I killed 30 animals in stalker style I feel good. When I killed 30 animals in grind style I feel bad. Unfortunately I feel unnecessary after I bought all maps and got all the diamonds.

[lusty fractal]

I feel that

[torpid cargo]

Same. Breaks the fun (at least my fun) a bit

[quaint eagle]

I’d be worried that folks would just cheese the last mission over and over tbh but this does sound cool

[wary bluff]

There are several alternate G1 methods mentioned in the thread ... All are summarized in the OP ....

As for missions they can be designed so that they are not repeatable .... That's game design 101 to prevent exploits ....

[quaint eagle]

It was a long post lol I couldn’t read all of it at the time. Now I can’t read it because there is endless pages of people talking about it lol so that’s unfortunate. Either way, still sounded neat from what I did get to read.

Sure you can do your best to make it so folks can’t exploit those things, but a lot of game devs don’t actually put in effort to do that 100% of the time. If they were to put this in the game they should definitely do what they can, though. Even though gaming folks are notoriously crafty and like to figure out how to bypass things like that lol anything helps. 🙌

[wary bluff]

I deliberately but links in the OP to take you to only those posts that summarizes the various methods suggested. You can bypass all the discussion just by clicking on the links in the OP....

[quaint eagle]

Again, can’t check out the OP because I have to scroll through all of the discussions. I’m on mobile. All good. I thumbs’d it up for you anyway.

[wary bluff]

Okay didn't know the mobile browser wouldn't let you click on links ....

[quaint eagle]

You can click links, but it would take 87 years to scroll up to the post and find them unfortunately haha I did try for a minute but it’s endless scrolling because of how long this post has been up with everyone commenting

Scrolled nonstop for a good 3 minutes 😅 still didn’t reach the top. Mobile sucks sometimes haha if only discord would add a “scroll to the top” button the same way they have a scroll to the bottom one it wouldn’t be an issue

[wary bluff]

@quaint eagle here you go link to top/ OP --->> #1242416386031091753 message

If you get a chance to read .....

[mystic bronze]

I don't think G1 chances should be based on missions or grind numbers .... there should be like a 25% chance of them appearing any any map I am hunting at the time ... but they should just be EXTRA hard to track down and hunt. That would be the way that appeals the most to me. I don't enjoy COTW missions in any way so that's off the table for me ... totally fine for other players, just not my thing.

[wary bluff]

How would you make them extra hard to track down?

[cursive totem]

No tracks and no need zones.. could be a solution.

[frosty elm]

I would do this. Without of need zones only tracks. It always roam of hours randomly routes. (within the range of it species). Stopping for an hour for food and rest without drink. The need zones disabled for check. You can to buy information about it for 200 000 but the description will vague.

[wary bluff]

Could also give them extremely heightened senses of hearing, smell and eye sight ....

[cursive totem]

No tracks and no need zones should be enough. Most hunters only know how to hunt with their help. 😏

[slim zodiac]

From my experience, as the tracks are graphically.. not great in this game, is there really any option other than to make them glow? In real life tracks are more visible anyways, so yeah, in this game people usually only know how to hunt with their help.

[cursive totem]

I play without hud/infos/outlines etc. Using the pointer dog (with bloodhound as sec) does work without any problems for me. Offtopic sry!

[slim zodiac]

I forgot about dogs completely.. my bad, I admit my wrongs, I can't believe I seriously forgot about hunting dogs

[mystic bronze]

These are all great ideas ... I really think it could work that way. Even simple things like when it spawns on the map it spawns at the furthest point from the hunter to start. It's a vey small thing but it kicks it off, with everytnig else suggested it would be a fantastic, satisfying hunt.

[wraith stag]

I like this idea, but was just wondering if only certain maps would have it, or if the map will have a mission for every G1 species on the map?

[hardy bolt]

at the moment I think that there is no absolutely correct solution to this situation. Any change will have significant downsides. This does not mean that changes are not required. But any edits will require preliminary analysis to avoid an absurd or illogical result.
I hope it is written clearly

[slim zodiac]

Bring back initial spawn great ones.

[frosty elm]

I can do it (initial spawn) 24/7 in PC. Console players no.

[gentle pike]

We need an aging system, static animal populations are the reason grinding was a necessity to begin with.

We know the devs don't fully support grinding because of the fast travel spook update and the comments made by community managers about it.

If animals had a set life span then that would allow casual players to get a fresh set of animals more often, instead of having to always kill every single animal to get a fresh set of animals.

[wraith stag]

Then it would be too similar to WOTH, so they'll never do it.

[wary bluff]

Any time there are changes there will be a chance that they will break something else .... And I will admit that EW has not had a good track record in this regard ....

Still it makes no sense to spend so much dev time on creating new G1's .... when the only way to truly get one is through grinding .... There should be alternatives that do no involve grinding ....

[hardy bolt]

I don't like polishing either

or is it called sandpapering?

[wary bluff]

Still hoping we will see one or more alternatives this year ..... 272

[gentle pike]

These are the things in woth that would've made it better, if it had animal ai that wasn't so static.

Thumbs down all you want but it's the truth.

[frosty elm]

WoTH doesn't have GO. UH probably the same. EW nothing to worry about. Besides, the grind has formed a large community of fans shooting at drink time. They very active in YouTube. Killing GO collect a lot of views. The devs won't change anything.

[wary bluff]

No one is suggesting that grinding should be removed .... In fact every suggestion in this thread is promoting an Alternate way to get a G1 ....

We don't want to make it easy and we don't want to replace grinding ... We just want alternate ways that take the same amount of player time and commitment as grinding .....

And if you look at the OP and follow the links explaining the various suggestions put forward you will see this .... We don't want to do away with grinding but there needs to be other ways to get a G1 for those who don't enjoy the grinding play style ....

[frosty elm]

I play this game 4 years and 5000 h. During this time there have been so few changes. And honestly I don't believe that they will do anything drastic. Because I bought all the maps and lot of dlc. Why do they need me after this if I'm not a grinder?

[wary bluff]

This would be for the newer players that haven't bought all the DLC .... The devs spend a lot of time developing G1's but that content is only available to a percentage of the players that enjoy grinding ..... Just seems like a waste of dev time and effort not to make this change .....

G1's need to be made more accessible to all play styles .... Not easy just accessible through more than one play style .....

[frosty elm]

Year after year the game became more and more complicated. And now it's like a jenga. Even a small change can lead to multiple problems. Which is what we see with every new dlc. Maybe that's why our requests often haven't answer.

[scenic flax]

Bump

[rose acorn]

Getting one without grinding is going around shooting stuff casually

[wary bluff]

... 277

[frosty elm]

We need a weekly GO. One random in a random map. The GO only eat and rest. For those who play a long time is a good way to stay in the game.

[wary bluff]

@frosty elm .... Thank you for your input on this topic ....

[frosty elm]

New map comming. Everyone will forget about their requests. So we will grow old without waiting for changes.

[scenic flax]

We need another way to get it without grinding. Now!
Otherwise they can keep their g1s. I will not turn a game centered around ethical hunting into a mass murder shooting gallery just for grinding that trophy

[frosty elm]

Grinders are the top bloggers. Grind is easy way become a blogger. Another way is a problem because devs need more bloggers.

[scenic flax]

Yeah, but i am pretty sure, that the grinders do not represent the majority of cotw players.

[mystic bronze]

This ^

[frosty elm]

not. but they are more active.

[scenic flax]

The loudest ones aren't necessarily the majority and not automaticly right 😅 😁

We need access to g1s, too. We deserve this too. I have about 1000h in this game and just hit the new game button (to get rid of old drink zone markers with wrong drink times (the bears..., they got updated some updates ago) ) and just work my way back up to lvl 60 (currently 52). I deserve also to get a g1 sometime without unethicly mass murdering animals in a game that is centered around ethical hunting.

[frosty elm]

I know but they allow the devs not to worry too much about this problem. I hate grind and also want change with GO. But for the last 4 years I don't see it (with go). 5000 h in game. Therefore I full of pessimism till. But don't lose hope.

[scenic flax]

I think, changing the g1 spawn logic is not so much dev time consuming. Some complex stuff like modelling whole maps, species, rifles and completely new mechanics like feeders... they just need to change some codelines in that logic.
If they WANT, it is easy and fast to implement

[frosty elm]

Didn't play the game about 3 months. Was returning for a short period for a pheasant GO. The problem is not about GO, the problem about "stay in the game". It more complicated. GOs are the genius invention. Something like that that keeps players for years from one side and is an apple of discord for another side. If devs don't solve this "an apple of discord" they will constantly lose "1000+h yawning from boredom players". Do the devs need those who bought lot of maps and dlc or not?. The money has already been received.

[humble flume]

I love the idea of getting a great one without having to grind like everyone does we need this, this is a really good idea

[scenic flax]

We need this... now!

[scenic flax]

Bump

[wary bluff]

The methods listed in this thread are not "easier" than grinding .... In fact they are designed to roughly take the same amount of play time as grinding does .....

The difference is these ideas are more targeted toward organic hunting styles so you can choose a method that fits the way you enjoy playing ..... If you like grinding then grind, but if you just want to hunt organically you can do that as well ....

You still have to put about the same amount of time into the game ....

[wary bluff]

Average kill count to spawn a g1 is 2000 kills .... Why do I have to grind 2000 kills of the same animal? If I just hunt and kill Organically why cant I spawn a g1 after basically the same number of kills?

The G1 can be chosen at random and a message generated telling you what Map its on..... The player will still have to find it and kill it .....

[frosty elm]

Base activity in RPG games is grind. And a bunch of identical weapons also. Devs want to cover as much as possible users without go deeper in complicate mechanic. Only a tiger in 8 years of development. Into one map. I don't think they will give us an alternative g1. Because 99% of bloggers mechanic is run to the water or around water.

[scenic flax]

Exactly that. It does not make sense to encourage running only a monotonous gamestyle around water instead of encouraging what irl hunting is really about.

Therefore we NEED other ways to get a g1.

Keeping only the old mechanic just because the prominent Youtubers seem to love it is just NO argument. Apart from being prominently visible, I guess they are a minority compared to the silent majority. I guess the average cotw player isn't even on this discord. Maybe most don't even now, that there are g1s at all.

Also... ethical hunting (in comparison to mass killing a certain species with a maximum caliber) should be encouraged

[wary bluff]

I most definitely agree that only ethical Harvests should counted toward a G1 tally .... So kill only using the appropriate caliber for animal class and pick up you kills .... Vital organ kills are not mandatory ....

[frosty elm]

I found another way. My wife kills mules instead of me.

[torn ether]

I’d like great ones to be more available, but i want them to be really rare too, i mean nobody have control over if they will spawn or not and when, sometimes after 200 kills, sometimes after 5000. I agree they could up the spawn rate a little bit since i don’t grind i got my first great one hunting tahr when they were released to Te Awaroa, but other than that i’ve gotten 220 rares, 60 very rares and 1 great one playing in a span of 2 years (i study and i’m unemployed). I can imagine how even rares it is for you who don’t have much free-time so i’m for great ones being more available, just not to available so they become like any rares.

One suggestion i have to get a great one is get a diamond of every animal on the reserve, then you could choose a mission for getting a great one, like it could pop up on your huntermate or something like that

And yes just a great one, maybe you shouldn’t even be available to choose, because it would be cool once you get all diamonds on say Parque Fernando you could get a call from the lady saying: A great one animal has arrived in the valley, if you want a real trophy this is your shot. I think that could be uniqe too, but as i said, no choosing of fur types or animals, just because mystery is fun and we all won’t have the same great ones either

[wary bluff]

I like your idea on killing a dime of every animal on a map to spawn a G1. This would definitely be a challenge and could be done by both those who like to grind as well as those who don't ....

EW could also expand on the idea for maps that could spawn more than one species of G1 ... In that situation it would choose a G1 at random and have the reserve warden send a message to the hunter .....

**I've heard rumors of an unusual animal spotted around this location ... The reports are too impossible to really believe but just thought I would let you know .... **

When the hunter gets to that location they will discover a track, some hair or maybe even a strange call never heard before .... At this point the G1 will spawn in a random location and the hunter must locate the G1 ....

Ill add it to the main thread of ideas ...

[frosty elm]

I got all diamonds in all maps (without grind) except Askiy map. 4 years of live into the basket. I like this "voice" from lady.

[frosty elm]

I taught a newbie how to hunt in the game. In begin she hunted like irl. Walked around and search tracks and trophies. It was fun. After I told about a g1 and showed how it works, she lost the game. No hunt no fun only repeating the same thing. The same lakes the same time the same animals. Give me a new game. This game spoiled. I assume lot of newbies leave the game after grind. Weekly g1 could be bring a fresh breath if air. Because after we have 8 of g1 they aren't rare and fairy.

[scenic flax]

That's why many of us don't even start a grind and play like irl hunting. I know, grinding would break my gaming experience in cotw. I have done minmaxing in many a game juat to stop playing the game after building e.g. the ultimate spaceship after grinding. The grind itself and the repeating always spoiled the game so much for me, that I lost interest, even after reaching the grind goal and being free again. The grinding process and the therefore needed digging into the game mechanics made the respective game always lose its magic. I want to play naturally intuitively, whithout minmaxing my grind to make it more effective. I don't want to exactly know about respawn mechanics, optimal grind setups, ... and mass murdering animals with biggest calibers, to make the grind even more effective and fast --- that is so way off from ethical irl hunting, that the game is intended to depict.

[torn ether]

I completely agree, what’s the point of playing a very immersive hunting game and just shooting a bunch of animals to get a rare one? I don’t mind people who do it, i just hope that’s where the game isn’t headed. Sure i love getting rares every now and then, but the hunting is why you play the game not for getting trophies, they’re just a bonus as i see them

[frosty elm]

Idk why devs don't see obvious things. Grinders don't need all the maps and all dlc with guns and additional. Only "stalker and ambushers" pay for it. Devs trying to fix this situation and add g1 to all maps but it's a wrong way. It's like the same sweets every day. Good for short period bad for long. From the outside this looks like regular customers look at how all the best offered only for rare and noisy clients.

[wary bluff]

As I have stated previously in this thread .... the goal is not to do away with grinding ... IMO grinding is here to stay but all of these suggestions are about providing another way or ways of getting a G1 without having to grind ....

[frosty elm]

Thread has two opinions. 1) If you want g1, go to do grind. 2) If you still want g1 look to paragraph 1.👏 This thread brought brilliant idea about "weekly g1". In random map without a drink time. (like a snow leopard). But unfortunately lot of us afraid that it would be too much easy. It delusion.

[wary bluff]

Many Ways to get GO's without Grinding/HM (No Easy Mode )

Many Ways to get GO's without Grinding/HM (Not Easy Mode )

[mystic bronze]

Wrong.

[frosty elm]

About?

[wary bluff]

Your translation to English was not very clear .... Maybe you could restate your problem with the thread again?

[frosty elm]

This thread has a brilliant idea about a weekly g1. It appear in random maps and doesn't have a drink time. (like a snow leopard). But unfortunately lot of us afraid that it will be too much easy. It's a delusion.

[spare pawn]

Add initial spawns back, just increase the chances of an initial spawn great one, the spawn chances when grinding will stay the same. The reason for this is because you’re getting a ton of animals to spawn. I get why people don’t like to grind, I’m at 2145 kills into mule deer 😭, hoping for my first great one soon

There should definitely be “another method” to spawn great ones for those who are more casual, people do not have all the time in the world to grind

[frosty elm]

PC gamers will take an advantage.

[wary bluff]

The weekly G1 suggestion could be consider too easy by some but it would depend on how it's implemented .... If its done like the weekly Angler legendary fish then it probably would be too easy ...

In HCOTW as with most games time is considered to be the determining factor of whether something is easy or hard .... Grinding takes time .... It takes on average 2000 to 3000 kills to spawn a G1 while grinding .... sometimes its less and sometimes more but most grinders really start expecting their G1 to spawn in that time frame ...

So any other method of getting a G1 should take a roughly equivalent amount of game time .... If your idea is implemented it in such a way that the G1 only spawned once in 2 or 3 month time frame it might not be considered too easy .....

And if they added some random probability where the G1 might not spawn at all so that it wasn't too predictable then it could work as an alternative ....

One suggestion is to have a kill count like grinding but not requiring the kills to be all the same species .... This way you could hunt what you want to hunt and not be forced to set up grinds to kill the same species over and over again ....

[frosty elm]

I like to search. "kill count" not mine. Looks like alternative g1 it's a dead end. I want it because on those maps where I did this (grind), I lost interest to hunt.

[torn ether]

Idk i don’t think they should be guaranteed like that because no other skin variations are like that, they gotta be rarer tho fs, maybe if we get all the other skins on let’s say a red deer: if i get the piebald, melanistic and albino skin, the great one will have the same chance to spawn as the others, but the chance of the already aquired fur variations will deplete or something.

[wary bluff]

I hear what your saying ..... you enjoy exploration .... I do as well, I try to do all the missions on a map and I like finding zones .... but the G1 must be rare or it's not really a trophy ...

So EW must be able to gauge how long someone is actually playing the game and some kind of kill count is the most obvious way to do that ...

Of course there are other ways like with sill points and leveling through the completion of missions but creating enough content to keep players occupied while keeping G1's rare is a difficult thing to do .... Even diamonds and Rares are tied to how many animals you kill .... I would like to see a few more diamonds and rares tied to mission completion .... https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1089958791103119502

[frosty elm]

Top bloggers do grind 24/7 for the sake of content. Mission, weekly or kill count or idk g1 might interfere them. Devs put all the chips on the grind. It's a big problem.

[rancid bramble]

I also think there should be a pay to find GO feature. For one million in game currency you can pick a species and spawn it onto the map. This is totally realistic, as IRL people can pay a lot of money to hunt enermous trophy animals. Maybe for 1.5 million you can choose the fur type also.

[torn ether]

Honestly great idea, because that takes time and it gives me a reason to use all money i’ve gathered over the years. But honestly i like the mystery so i would want the fur type to be random, the great one to be random and that it’ll spawn randomly on the map so you could go look for it. It could be a special type of mission

[wary bluff]

It's an interesting idea ... Not certain how much money the average player has .... EW would know that number and would have to set the price to make it reasonably attainable.

And I have no idea what the average to hardcore grinder can make pursuing a G1 spawn ....

[gentle pike]

The thing is, grinding is such a miserable way to play. I dont do it and so i dont care about great ones. i groan when i see the new ones. just wish theyd spend that development time on something else tbh. We could have had non typ racks like in classic if that were the case.

[torn ether]

I agree, i tried grinding and it ruined everything i liked about the game, because then the goal doesn’t become be immersed in a beautiful hunting experience, it becomes shoot animals until a rare comes up-simulator. I think great ones are a cool concept though they should just revamp the entire system of getting one. cotw could get way different marketing from streamers and youtubers if grinding wasn’t available to such an extent. (for me i don’t like getting the rares spoiled and just seeing them when i see them for myself). Now most people will mostly know it to be the hunting game with the cool rares, instead of a beautiful and fun hunting experience

[wary bluff]

@torn ether As I have said previously grinding is here to stay ..... The devs wont remove it ...

But if we can get them to implement an alternative or alternatives that is just as time consuming as grinding but more in line with actual organic hunting then we will have done what this thread set out to do

This thread has many idea's that provide several viable alternatives and I have posted them in the OP at the top ....

The devs have just invested too much time creating the G1's for only 50% of their player base ... I hope they will see the sense in this approach ....

[torn ether]

Yeah true they most likely won’t remove it but i can always hope people can see the true beauty in that game, like woth isn’t marketed like that at all, and seeing a great one is the cherry on top or how you say it. So hopefully they’ll add some other options ik i suggested some time ago

[rancid bramble]

It could also give a discount if you say 'spawn on any map this animal could spawn on' for example you know a go moose spawned in your game but dont know what map it is on

[rancid bramble]

1000 red deer males is going to get you about 1.5 million, the point being that it is sorta a mercy mechanic for people who are putting in the work to grind for a go and never get it, and a bonus mechanic for those of us who just like to walk around and shoot what we want all day

[frosty elm]

pc gamers will know this by scanner.

[torn ether]

Wym by scanner?

[wary bluff]

Wow that's how little I know about grinding .... But doesn't this idea just give grinders more of an advantage over everyone else?

The title of this thread is many ways to get a G1 without grinding .... So you can either grind to spawn the G1 or you can grind to get the money so you can spawn a G1 .....

I'll be the first to say grinding for a G1 is not going away but there needs to be an alternative or alternatives that don't involve grinding ....

[torn ether]

That sounds even better

[torn ether]

I think it should be like this person above me said: kill 1000 of a specific species to spawn a great one

[frosty elm]

Animal population scanner. It doesn't help to find but it will help to see list of animals.

[wary bluff]

That's my point grinders already have an opportunity to get a G1 ... Non grinders do not ... And if they implement another way(s) to get a G1 it doesn't preclude grinders from using that method ....

it sounds like your saying... I just want to make my grind easier .....

I just think buying a G1 spawn with ingame money gives more advantage to grinders who already have an advantage ....

[torn ether]

Tbh we don’t need to make as much money as we do, pheasants for example and turkeys are really easy to kill and they give you what 1200 dollars? They should give like 300 at a diamond

[torn ether]

Once you played enough money won’t matter, so it might as well take longer for you to get it

[weak hollow]

i like the idea of more ways to get great ones.

like how theres the unique fur wolves in colinas, there could be some sort of animal unusual and specific enough to be a great one but still be part of a mission.

[wary bluff]

I agree buying them is a bad Idea because then you will always have some animals that are just easier to harvest than others .... And that would just set up a different kind of grind .... A grind to just make money .....

One of the ideas in this thread uses progression to increase levels past 60 in order to qualify for a g1 spawn .... but the G1 could only be available ever 60 or 90 levels past 60 ...... And even then it would only be allowed every 2 or 3 months ..... This would prevent power levelers from getting one to spawn every week or two .....

[wary bluff]

Please 👍 in the main thread if you support or 👎 if you don't

[weak hollow]

maybe? my problem isnt someone getting lots of great ones but actually just someone else getting none

[torn ether]

I mean true but you don’t have to do that, someone said before grinding is here to stay and i think people who grind will try to set up the most effective way for it. This way you can really earn a great one and put your money to use, levels would be the same concept, earning a currency enough to get a great one. I’d prefer they use levels for something else

[wary bluff]

level progression is used to make sure they are actually playing the game and not just logged in and doing nothing . The real control is only allowing one G1 spawn every 2 or 3 months ....

Grinders will still be able to grind as normal to get a random G1 and providing they have the minimum level requirement will be able to spawn a G1 through progressing system every 2 or 3 Months ....

So just play the game how you want, earn levels and every 2 or 3 months youll be able to spawn a G1 ...

[torn ether]

Oh ok yeah maybe

[cold tapir]

what does HM mean?

[wary bluff]

Herd Management ...

[restive monolith]

His Majesty 😉

[gentle pike]

I remember when HM meant HunterMate... dark times we live in.

[ruby niche]

This is the darkest timeline

[frosty elm]

I got g1 (non-typical) in the hunter classic. It roamed around like others. No grind, no tents, no boring. Pure luck. After it Cotw looks like a private club of herd managers.