Hunting Bears

[GrimmSpector]

Heard they winter in caves, have put Bear traps across every cave entrance I can find, almost back to Spring now, no dice. What's a good way to track one down?

[Privateer]

Heard they winter in caves

Never heard that, but usually seeing in the distance, or stumbling across tracks.

[ineedcords]

Heard they winter in caves, have put Bear traps across every cave entrance I can find, almost back to Spring now, no dice.<snip>

Where did you hear that?

What I know is there is a 2.5 year old NEWS entry, listed in game top level directory, inside the news.txt file, as follows:

Version: 3.60 (beta)
Released: 15-Sep-2019

fixed: bears active and awake in the winter.
Now they hibernate during the winter as they should.

As you can see, it mentions the hibernation but not the location or the detail of hibernation mechanic.

This is speculation but I am guessing hibernation in this game's context probably just means animals are removed from the game world.
In other words, it probably does not mean bears going into caves to hibernate there and eventually walk out at the end of hibernation period.
With this suspected background, what you did is logical in the real world (i.e.: what goes into cave will eventually walk out of cave thus a trap outside it makes sense); in the game world though, probably bears magically spawn on tiles rather than walk out of caves so traps in front of caves have no particularly high chance of trapping one.

<snip>What's a good way to track one down?

Bears are everywhere. Just cover more ground, you will eventually find one. If you go north, east, or northeast you will probably have higher chances of spotting one but you do not have to go any particular part of map to spot one.

Won't help with your current game but a tip for later: when you are starting a new character, increasing eyesight would help spot more.
More info on eyesight physical stat is on the wiki, here: https://www.unrealworld.fi/wiki/index.php?title=Eyesight

[GrimmSpector]

Heard they winter in caves, have put Bear traps across every cave entrance I can find, almost back to Spring now, no dice.<snip>

Where did you hear that?

What I know is there is a 2.5 year old NEWS entry, listed in game top level directory, inside the news.txt file, as follows:

Version: 3.60 (beta)
Released: 15-Sep-2019

fixed: bears active and awake in the winter.
Now they hibernate during the winter as they should.

As you can see, it mentions the hibernation but not the location or the detail of hibernation mechanic.

This is speculation but I am guessing hibernation in this game's context probably just means animals are removed from the game world.
In other words, it probably does not mean bears going into caves to hibernate there and eventually walk out at the end of hibernation period.
With this suspected background, what you did is logical in the real world (i.e.: what goes into cave will eventually walk out of cave thus a trap outside it makes sense); in the game world though, probably bears magically spawn on tiles rather than walk out of caves so traps in front of caves have no particularly high chance of trapping one.

<snip>What's a good way to track one down?

Bears are everywhere. Just cover more ground, you will eventually find one. If you go north, east, or northeast you will probably have higher chances of spotting one but you do not have to go any particular part of map to spot one.

Won't help with your current game but a tip for later: when you are starting a new character, increasing eyesight would help spot more.
More info on eyesight physical stat is on the wiki, here: https://www.unrealworld.fi/wiki/index.php?title=Eyesight

Winter bear fur that people have gotten suggests they're not removed from the game world, I recall somewhere even seeing that it was the warmest fur value you can get.

What's the point of caves then?

[Privateer]

What's the point of caves then?

 There can be animals in caves, I've seen lynx before. They make great homes, and very, very rarely there could be treasure stashed.

[GrimmSpector]

What's the point of caves then?

 There can be animals in caves, I've seen lynx before. They make great homes, and very, very rarely there could be treasure stashed.

Treasure?

[Privateer]

Treasure?

Yes, with the addition of quests, some rewards are directions to 'troves' of goods hidden somewhere. Since these can exist even without owning the quest, some players have found troves, some are in caves.

[ineedcords]

Winter bear fur that people have gotten suggests they're not removed from the game world, I recall somewhere even seeing that it was the warmest fur value you can get.<snip>

I cannot argue with your logic & that is how it works in real life I get that. I do not think it works that way in the game is what I was saying.
Seeing something of winter fur does not mean these animals stay in game world (in caves or elsewhere) and realistically change furs.
Programming it that way would be programming unnecessarily realistically in my opinion. Having said that as I mentioned above I was only speculating, I could be wrong...

<snip>
What's the point of caves then?

Caves exist in real life so the developers put them in the game. That alone is a reason enough in my opinion as it makes the game world more believable.

As per Privateer, animals and treasures both can exist in caves and I have seen both in my limited experience.
I have also seen Njerp (human. raider-from-east.) in a cave so be advised there is always an element of risk when exploring a cave. What I have seen the most in caves is 'nothing'. Empty caves, in my anecdotal experience, is like 95-99%.

Having said that I only use caves as free pre-(naturally)built temporary shelters when it is raining/likely to rain. Other than that, personally I do not find 'exploring caves' that interesting or worthy of the time investment these days and have not done so extensively in the first place. A more experienced UrW cave explorer might chip in here in the ratio of finding non-empty caves...

Note that you can use a cave as your home base. As there are naturally built 'walls', it cuts down the construction time (&material) cost by a huge percentage.

[GrimmSpector]

Winter bear fur that people have gotten suggests they're not removed from the game world, I recall somewhere even seeing that it was the warmest fur value you can get.<snip>

I cannot argue with your logic & that is how it works in real life I get that. I do not think it works that way in the game is what I was saying.
Seeing something of winter fur does not mean these animals stay in game world (in caves or elsewhere) and realistically change furs.
Programming it that way would be programming unnecessarily realistically in my opinion. Having said that as I mentioned above I was only speculating, I could be wrong...

<snip>
What's the point of caves then?

Caves exist in real life so the developers put them in the game. That alone is a reason enough in my opinion as it makes the game world more believable.

As per Privateer, animals and treasures both can exist in caves and I have seen both in my limited experience.
I have also seen Njerp (human. raider-from-east.) in a cave so be advised there is always an element of risk when exploring a cave. What I have seen the most in caves is 'nothing'. Empty caves, in my anecdotal experience, is like 95-99%.

Having said that I only use caves as free pre-(naturally)built temporary shelters when it is raining/likely to rain. Other than that, personally I do not find 'exploring caves' that interesting or worthy of the time investment these days and have not done so extensively in the first place. A more experienced UrW cave explorer might chip in here in the ratio of finding non-empty caves...

Note that you can use a cave as your home base. As there are naturally built 'walls', it cuts down the construction time (&material) cost by a huge percentage.

But every other furry animal has a winter fur and a normal fur...so it's already programmatically in the game.

I think a cave would make a terrible base cuz you'd always need a torch or a burning fire in it to see what you're doing.

[Privateer]

I think a cave would make a terrible base cuz you'd always need a torch or a burning fire in it to see what you're doing.

Actually, though it's a good amount of work/boards; Once you set flooring, those areas remain illuminated.

[GrimmSpector]

I think a cave would make a terrible base cuz you'd always need a torch or a burning fire in it to see what you're doing.

Actually, though it's a good amount of work/boards; Once you set flooring, those areas remain illuminated.

Oh, well that's quite interesting, I've had my own cabin be so dark I couldn't do stuff in it without a fire or torch lol so that doesn't seem any worse.

[JP_Finn]

The hibernation season seems to be shorter than the winter-fur season. Animals start to have winter fur around Dirt, and bears seem to go hibernate/disappear sometime around Dead.
Bears seem to be back about Soil-Swidden, and winter furs can be harvested to end of Soil.

There’s also a good chance that a “wounded adventurer” quest will spawn a bear. I’ve tracked and felled bear in Winter month, as part of the quest.