I was going to postpone this until later, but seeing that the elk thread is hot lukewarm I thought this might bring something to that discussion too.Also yes I anticipate some point out that roe deer is a recent comer (1900s) to Finland but they have just become extinct earlier. After a quick search, Swedish wikipedia says they "returned 8000 years ago to Skandinavia" and Finnish that there's some speculation of it being native based on some old place names. Anyway, being the realism-nerd that I am, on historical perspective, I'd still be happy about them being featured .
What roe deer would bring to the game?- variety (yea!)
- ungulate with less meat (yea!) (Finally the clichée idea of a hunter carrying a deer carcass back to camp
)
- there is lack for medium sized food game - between a rabbit/capercaillie and a sow/reindeer. Ickyucky predators don't count.
- AI could be like that of reindeer, though less aggessive
- would exist
most commonly/mostly in South / river areas
- variety (yea!)
You've been ranting about too much easy meat. What about game difficulty?- timidness = escape likelihood and distance
- elks and reindeer could be made more timid and
less common - at least in some regions- roe deer would be as timid than their bigger cousins are currently
- roe deer could be more abundant but less easily spotted on overland map
- being lighter and very small feet: less easily tracked
- smaller targets!
- forest reindeers could be made less common in extreme south / and not exist in archipelago
Additional ideas- what if they could spontaneously die if too harsh a winter? (We have them sometimes here in north of Finland, spreading from warmer areas in North of Norway (even more north but warmer because of the ocean). But they tend to die off during winters - because of too much snow.)