Great Ones are changing the game to a "shooting fish in a barrel" simulator

[shut ether]

GOs are a great addition to the game, but they have been implemented poorly. Currently, there is no way to hunt a GO legitimately. The ONLY viable option to ever see a GO on your map is to grind thousands of animals over and over, which is an affront to the hunting spirit. The only content you see about COTW these days is how to manipulate the game to try a spawn a GO.
GOs should be accessible to all play styles, especially to the core hunting experience.

[jagged burrow]

The entire point of g1s is for them to be rare to quote someone that made a similar point "The thing with G1s is that they’re only meant for the most dedicated and hardcore of hunters. They were specifically mentioned when they came out as something that “the average hunter may never see”.(ty Schrader)

People just found an optional method to find them you can still play the game how you please and grinders still put hrs and work into their g1s so the trophies are justified, its not like the devs are forcing you to grind just people choose to do so

[wheat tendon]

I agree with this! And would add that great ones are still accessible to all forms of players due to the fact that they can spawn at any time, I've seen ppl get one for whitetail after only shooting 50 on a fresh herd and others it took 1200. yes herd management does play a factor but they can spawn without it, so just casually playing the game can still spawn a great one it just may take a while or you could get one tomorrow

[shut ether]

Gatekeeping will be the death of this game. The fact that every one is grinding for them shows that there is a huge demand for them. Which is why I say they have been implemented poorly.

[jagged burrow]

If something is rare there is always gonna be huge demand. The rarer something is the more people want it, sure they could've been implemented in some other way but as I showed the devs intended it for average hunters to possibly rarely see one, grinders work for it and get a paid for their hard work

[shut ether]

They can still keep it rare, but at least make it obtainable. Picture this, we already have daily and weekly challenges. If they were to add a monthly GO challenge which spawns a GO, player engagement goes up. Hunters get a shot at a GO. Grinders can continue grinding. And GOs are still super rare. That is the smart way to implement them.

[jagged burrow]

But what's the point of grinding if you can just crank out a go challenge monthly and get a g1 guaranteed every month?. It could backfire badly missions aren't the way to go for g1s, just gonna be like intial spawn g1s all over again

An example being the formally bugged mr black mission where mr black spawned as a g1 sometimes, that proved that mission g1s would make g1s basically pointless if people can just keep resetting and get a completely new one

Im all for giving casual players a way to get g1s more easily too, yet there's just too much that could end up backfiring

All I can say is dude if you want a rare trophy you gotta work for it. You wont get it handed on a silver platter

[shut ether]

That is the point. You cant work for it at all unless you abuse spawn mechanics (grinding). The only option other than that is to have lottery level chances.

[polar rover]

The OP makes a valid point that is discussed here in this thread which also gives many alternative ways that G1's can be implemented in the game apart from grinding. https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1242416386031091753

The thread doesn't suggest doing away with grinding but focuses on other ways to implement G1's while at the same time keeping them rare and challenging for the more advanced hunters ....

[wheat tendon]

The problem with great ones is they aren't just rare, or super rare, they are above that. Rare is gonna be your diamonds and rare fur types, super rare is gonna be your rare fur types that are also diamond, then there is the great one, it's not just rare the chances of one spawning even on a herd managed map is less then .01%. Adding another method to obtain a great one would take away from the great one and. The only way that would be viable would be if the challenge was something ridiculous like, kill 1,000 whitetail while on said map for a 1% chance to get a great one. The DEVs said themselves that a casual player may never see a great one cause they are that rare, so rare in fact that even grinders have to play the spawn system in order to even have a better chance at getting one.

[lyric ginkgo]

I am now over 2k kills in my whitetail grind and it took me 3 weeks so far. Its tedious and feels hopeless. I did this with Red deer, fallow deer and moose. I got the go's of these species but it didnt feel like a win or an accomplishment, it was more a relief that it was finally over. Afterwards i stopped playing the game for at least half a year and i think once i get the whitetail i will stop again because it just burns you out. Great ones are nice but i agree that it shouldnt take several thousend kills to get one.

[mossy depot]

I am pretty sure a super rare is harder to get than a great one

[wheat tendon]

Depends on RNG

[mossy depot]

both great ones and super rares are entirely rng. But while a great one only needs to spawn as 10 - Fabled, a super rare needs to spawn as a diamond AND with a rare fur, which should make it rarer

[wheat tendon]

I got 3 super rares before getting my first great one whitetail

[mossy depot]

your luck is both insane and horrible at the same time then

[wheat tendon]

Tell me about it, when i want something I never get it but as soon as I'm not looking for it boom there it is

Like when I did my fallow grind, took me about 1400, and got to a point where it was just replacing diamonds with more diamonds so I ended with 60 diamonds before getting the great one

[shut ether]

This is exactly me. When I finally got my black bear GO after 4000 kills, I was not happy. I also felt relief that it was finally over, and angry that I wasted so much of my time on this.

[shut ether]

Thanks for linking the thread. I am glad to see how many people feel the same.

[willow vine]

Grind is the constant repetition the same action. It's like a drug. Devs never to change this style. Because greatest part of hunting community has of grind addiction.

[fierce kite]

That is just not true it just takes time, I have 2600 hours in cotw and for the first halve of that I never saw a great one and I just hunted a lot of whitetail on Mississippi and rev and then my great one whitetail spawned, I've gotten two more g1s since. If you want your lodge to be filled with fabled animals then youll need to grind, if you just want a shot at maybe killing one of these mythical bucks you don't need to.
For me there's a reason they are called fabled.

There could be one out there at any moment that you play the game. And that makes it so fun.

[jagged burrow]

Even if its starting to feel boring you can just simply turn off the game and play something else you are just purposefully burning yourself out

[rigid reef]

Definitely agree

Although I think it's good that GO's are very rare, I think it's ridiculous that you should literally employ culling tactics. I mean at that point might as well call the game The Culler or something. On a side note, I personally despise the goofy, unrealistic fur types. I think a more realistic and better looking approach could have been followed in making a number of the GO's, but that's my opinion on it

[fallow spoke]

I agree with this fully (mostly because I said it lol). But still, I love how rare G1s are. If I could, I’d do a much more passive grind, but since I work I prefer to do efficient grinds. People can work to get their G1 any way possible. I only grind to get 1 G1 of every species and then I go back to hunting how I normally do.

[crisp arrow]

I work a pretty rough schedule, I get maybe 2 or 3 hours a day to play a video game. I don't want to spend an hour of that repeatedly shooting the same animal over and over again.

Aside from it just not being that fun, I don't like most of the GO's and a random spawn would be a waste of time to me. I rarely ever see diamonds and have never seen an SR.

I don't see a point in posting my diamonds or trying harder to get a GO because someone with more time has already killed a few hundred just like it and posted it.

Getting a diamond used to be a once in while thing you could be happy about. Now grinders post them 50 at a time and you just don't feel like it means anything