Gaining the high ground; Elevated hunting blinds/tree stands

[BlankPaper]

Elevation is crucial in UrW, both when hunting for game and exploring for encounters on the map. Finding game in a coniferous forest without a vantage point is a losing proposition most of the time.

Hence why I suggest; tree stands or raised hunting blinds! Wooden towers with a little optional windowed shed perched atop from where a character might be able to have a good view of the surroundings - and possibly shoot game within range. I figure they might have two different useful modes to them giving them increased versatility;

- A local zoomed-in mode, where you could physically climb up into the hunting blind and get a good overview of the local terrain just like when climbing a tree (and possibly not alert nearby game to your presence quite as much as on the ground) while still being able to take potshots at game coming close (bait coming in handy here).

- A wilderness map mode, giving that one map tile better vision over the surroundings by raising the effective elevation by 1 level (for example; a hunting blind built on a Coniferous Forest tile would raise it to the effective elevation of Heathland, giving sight over surrounding Coniferous Forest tiles and lower, but not over Heathland and up).

The cost is left to be determined, but trading wood, time and effort for one of these could be an attractive option for lots of players; hunters active and passive, merchants, explorers, Njerp headhunters ...


<sub>Hunting blind in a field in Baden Wuerttemberg, Germany


A small hunting tower made from logs in Salo, Finland


A deer stand in Bavaria, Germany</sub>

[Sami]

I reckon these as more modern inventions, and the thrill of the fair hunt would be diminished to something we don’t want to encourage. Plus, you can already find a higher zoomed-in terrain locations and lurk your prey there.