Trapping vs. hunting yet again, some ideas for trapping

[just_dont]

I've read lots of suggestions on how to make bunny-hunting harder (the "make them run for any relatively close hole away from hero" is a favorite of mine), however I haven't seen any suggestions as how to make trapping more manageable.

At the moment, I feel like the biggest problem with trapping is too much inventory management. For a time-effective approach, you need several (in my experience -- at the very least three) traps, and probably bait -- although you can nicely trap stuff without any bait at the moment, it always seemed "wrong" to me. So that totals to 3 to 4 inventory slots, plus morsels.

I was thinking that the whole idea could be just rebalanced with no-durability traps: instead of getting 1 non-stacking trap for 5 bunnies, you'll be getting 5 single-use traps, which can be stacked to 10 (large item) in one slot. Same with bird traps.

The only other thing that it'll be affecting are the spiders. Being able to quickly set up a bunch of traps will make spiders-clearing way easier. However,

There's also a simple, but "it feels weird" case of trapping stuff without any bait. Bunnies, birds, and spiders shouldn't be THAT stupid to get in an empty trap (well, perhaps a running bunny springing a trap could be an exclusion). If we are to make trapping mostly impossible without a bait, then spider-trapping won't be much easier even with stacking traps.

[dbrn]

I also think that stackable one use traps would do the job.

[Bogpad]

I don't see any problem with baitless trapping to be honest, since it only works under certain circumstances.

baitless trapping for birds works, but is not that efficient, because there are several spots the birds land frequently, and you can't move away too far from the trap since birds only spawn in your view, and they have a higher value ingredient, silk, making it hard to littler your whole camp with birdtraps to catch as many as possible.

baitless trapping on rabbits is not that much of an issue aswell, yes, their spawn rate is too high and needs a fix, that got discussed somewhere else to death already, but to do the trapping without bait, you need not only rabbits, but rabbits with holes, and not all islands that got rabbits on them also have rabbit holes. sometimes you end up with a lot of exploration till you find a good place with lots of holes, sometimes, these holes are not really near other valuable resources, like stones, or the beefalo herds, so if you chose to use baitless trapping, you are limiting yourself to only certain possible camp locations.

trapping spiders with bait seems weird to me. when you go to trap spiders, you usually do that to take down their nests. when you attack the nest, the spiders come out to kill you, it would seem weird if they go from "waaahhh, you attacked out nest, BLOOOD!" to "Oh hey, look, there is a turned up basked with meat below it, let's forget about the dude and omnomnomnooooeesit'satrap"

I am not sure how I feel about one use stackable traps, I think that will be too powerfull compared to the way it works atm to be honest.

[mobius187]

baitless trapping for birds works, but is not that efficient, because there are several spots the birds land frequently, and you can't move away too far from the trap since birds only spawn in your view, and they have a higher value ingredient, silk, making it hard to littler your whole camp with birdtraps to catch as many as possible.

Those all sound like good reasons to me. That's why I always bait my bird traps, just for that added success rate. Maybe I shouldn't pluralize, as I only have the one trap. And I don't trap for food... I wanted feathers so I could make the feathered hat.

baitless trapping on rabbits is not that much of an issue aswell, yes, their spawn rate is too high and needs a fix, that got discussed somewhere else to death already

But I so love discussing it.

Just say the word people and I'll rehash it here all again...

...but to do the trapping without bait, you need not only rabbits, but rabbits with holes, and not all islands that got rabbits on them also have rabbit holes.

Unless I'm mistaken, did you mean "not all islands have rabbit holes". I don't think I've ever seen a rabbit spawn on an island without a rabbit hole...

sometimes you end up with a lot of exploration till you find a good place with lots of holes, sometimes, these holes are not really near other valuable resources, like stones, or the beefalo herds, so if you chose to use baitless trapping, you are limiting yourself to only certain possible camp locations.

I believe it's random. On my second island I have grassy plains containing beefalo which forms an "o-shape", and at the center is a small green grass area that has 5-8 rabbit holes. It's one of the reasons I made my base camp on that island.

trapping spiders with bait seems weird to me. when you go to trap spiders, you usually do that to take down their nests. when you attack the nest, the spiders come out to kill you, it would seem weird if they go from "waaahhh, you attacked out nest, BLOOOD!" to "Oh hey, look, there is a turned up basked with meat below it, let's forget about the dude and omnomnomnooooeesit'satrap"

Agreed. In fact, I question how a those traps can actually hold a spider.

I am not sure how I feel about one use stackable traps, I think that will be too powerfull compared to the way it works atm to be honest.

No opinion from me, as I'm not a trapper so I wouldn't know.

[just_dont]

Well, all of the survival elements "work only under certain circumstances", that doesn't change the fact that some of them are noticeably easier than the others. Specifically on the matter of finding a good plain with many rabbit holes is akin to the "but gathering tons of berry bushes in one place require exploration, tools, etc etc". The "circumstances" in both situations will invariably happen in every game, often -- much more frequently than once.

Reduced baitless trapping should go together with stackable traps, as they sort of compensate each other, while altogether making trapping less tedious. Just one change without the other will have a much more pronounced effect and generally feels too drastic.

About trapping spiders -- this is exactly what I'm talking about, except from the other side. You place a basket standing up on a twig in the grass, and OF COURSE bunnies are like "I'm just going to run under the basket while pushing off that twig, because it's such a cool and unexpectedly clever move on my part!"

That's how baitless trapping feels right now. Even worse if you're somehow trapping bunnies just looking out from their holes at night.

PS: I too not sure how exactly spiders-trapping works. Simply judging by the size of the spider and the basket -- it really shouldn't even work.

Edited November 16, 2012 by just_dont

[mobius187]

PS: I too not sure how exactly spiders-trapping works. Simply judging by the size of the spider and the basket -- it really shouldn't even work.

And yet, I'm told it traps them.

Also my opinion on baitless traps is that the trap itself is a generalization. There are traps you can make to capture animals in real life that don't need bait, but using bait obviously helps. In this case I believe the trap itself is meant to symbolize both types of trap without getting too technical.

Personally I'm fine with baitless traps, so long as capture speed is the defining factor between them.