Homeland Robbers (Spoiler)

[spamgoose]

Does anyone know if there is anything that can increase the odds of finding the robbers in this quest?

I've been wandering around the bush for days searching every square in the quest area, and still nothing. Luckily, there is a persistent eagle-owl so my dogs bark in alarm frequently to give me false hope.

The description called them forest robbers, so I hoped that maybe that would limit them to forest. However, I have no idea if forest includes all treed terrain (e.g. heathland, spruce mire), or just things with forest in the name. Also, this may have no bearing whatsoever. I started with all the forest named squares (or at least as many as I can keep track of) and am now exploring all the rest with trees.. which is all of them.

[PALU]

"Forest Robber" should mean their "tribe" is vagabond (rather than one of the neighboring "real" tribes). It's very useful to keep track of what kind of robbers you're looking for, as it's not at all uncommon in this version for multiple robber gangs to be present in the same area, so if you've e.g. found a group of Kuikka Tribe robbers you know that's not the ones you're looking for (a bug in the current version causes too many robber gangs to spawn, especially if you decline to take up such quests).

The only way to find robbers that I know of is to search each and every tile in the rather large target area, and they're very rarely visible on the overland map. I think they tend to have a shelter in their "home" tile, though.
The way I go about looking for robbers is to pass back and forth over the target area like weaving a tapestry, one line at a time. I enter each tile, look forward, turn 180 degrees, look backwards, exit out, turn 180 degrees, walk one tile, zoom in, ... This takes something like 2-5 days to cover the area (stopping when it gets dark: I tend to use markers to indicate where I stopped), but it's still possible to miss the robbers. When looking for the robbers I typically use the beggar tactic, i.e. my character isn't equipped with my top gear, but rather junk I'm prepared to surrender to the robbers if they catch me. When I've found them (robbed or escaped) I typically mark the location, round up a bunch of companions, and return to participate in a sorry spectacle of death, friendly fire, and companions that refuse to help while their companions are fighting for their lives (some of this fixed in the next version).

If you're unlucky the robbers are in spruce infested forest, in which case you probably need luck to find them. In other terrain the visibility is good enough that you probably have to be unlucky to miss them (provided you're moving slightly to see past big obstacles).

[spamgoose]

Thanks for the insights. They are actually seal tribe but were described as forest robbers so I hoped that would limit the options. The area is entirely spruce mire, conifer forest and heathland, so pretty brutal. I might not want to find them if my companions decide to turn tail.

[PALU]

It takes a lot for companions to flee: they usually die long before that. However, that doesn't mean they won't be busy counting how fast they can twiddle their thumbs or how much fluff they have in their navels...

It's usually better to hire companions after locating the robbers, as you then don't have the risk of them deciding the contract is up just before you're going to engage the enemy.

I had one very brutal robber fight where I was told there were something like 3 robbers, so I engaged them with 3 companions and a dog, which should result in reasonable odds. However, they turned out to be 6 or 7, and as far as I understand they were actually two groups from the same tribe camped 100 meters from each other. I lost two of the 3 companions (one companion bleeding out after the fight, and you can't do anything about it...) and the dog, plus having my own character rendered unable to walk (through friendly fire), but somehow actually succeeded in killing the enemy.

[spamgoose]

Yea I am regretting having hired the companions first. For the reasons you say, but also because they tend to get lost.

I was doing long linear sweeps.. starting at the bottom of the quest circle, going straight up, then straight west-east, then little slices up and down. My companions get falling behind so I had to wait for them, but sometimes I'd impatient click through the "they will be left behind message" without thinking, when zooming out again, and would have to zoom back in and find them. One companion got lost and I didn't realize it right away... took 2 days to find him again. Still no robbers.

Instead of long linear sweeps, I am now doing the zoom in, look around, zoom out tactic.

[PALU]

Walking on the zoomed in map ought to have the merit that their "victim homing beacon" ought to have ample time to act, so they'd home in on you (they can do so even in darkness without them supposedly knowing you're there: you can see their light vests even when out of visual range in darkness). The problem of keeping a straight line due to all the trees argues against it, though, and it's also a greater player time sink (50 steps per tile rather than down/turn/up turn/step).

I don't know the range of the victim homing beacon though: If it was long enough you could just zoom in to a few places and then keep walking in a circle for a sufficient time before zooming out and moving to the next lure location. However, someone would have to identify the beacon range first for that to be a practical approach.

[spamgoose]

I found them, in what can only be described as the most galling way possible.

I started marking lines and doing systematic sweeps of areas whether I'd been there or not. I started where I had spent the least amount of time. I felt like I had hit 90% of the squares, so I figured that chances were I had been where they were and just not seen them somehow (it is winter and very forested). I marked a sweep and said it would be my last (this was a lot of hours in the Real World).

All of a sudden, I noticed humans on the zoomed out map in an area I had already been through a fair bit and not that far from where I had built my searching shelter. I manage to find their tracks, saw nothing, then noticed they were surrounding me. Now for the most galling part... when they talked to me they called me "frequent visitor". They're all dead now, and rightly so.

[LoLotov]

Calling you frequent visitor reminds me I wanted to ask something: does anyone know if random-encounter NPCs (robbers included) are linked to villages? I found an adventurer an entire fully zoomed out screen from the nearest village, and I knew his name somehow. I'd met another random adventurer weeks before and somewhat close by and learned his name, but this guy's inventory was also almost the same as one I'd seen in town in the last few days...

[PALU]

Congratulations on (finally) finding and defeating them!

I haven't been able to link any wandering NPCs to any settlements (and in "wandering" I don't include the ones milling about in the tiles surrounding their home villages). That doesn't rule out the possibility of them roaming far away from home, though (which would be cool).

[spamgoose]

does anyone know if random-encounter NPCs (robbers included) are linked to villages?

I don't know. I am pretty sure foreign traders have no link whatsoever because you can start getting "frequent guest, etc." messages from them in multiple places.. and it wouldn't make sense. However, if you want to test the theory with a friendly npc (say random adventurer), hire them for a few days, then tell them to leave. Follow them and see where they go. When people are given the boot they start honing in on home, and I would guess that a NPC out in the wild would do the same... otherwise he wouldn't really leave right away... just mill about walking in circles. Whether that home is a spawn point or a village would be interesting.

[zer0lis]

I don't want to be a thread necromancer but after browsing the whole 1st page of google, I decided this is the appropriate thread to post my insights on the quest.

I am a kaumo, living their lands, having done like 10 quests for them. I really want to complete this one.

My first try, unkownly, was packing some gear and head for the distant journey with my boar as backpack with furs in case I ran into merchants.

After the lenghty journey, discovering also new towns, I reached the spot and started searching for like 2h IRL, found a bear, which was a hard fight, getting a fracture at the shoulder and 2 bruises and 1 shallow cut. Tanned the leather there and I thought the best idea was to sell the 200lb meat to the newly found village.

Reading the quest again and again, it mentioned something like the bandits wondered alot so I thought of searching outside of the quest circle for a while.

Bam, bandits message screen showed up and until the bandits reached me, I dropped most items and positioned myself so I would fight only one at a time.
By miracle, I survived and killed the two bandits(expecting 3 owl tribe ones) getting 2-3 additional cuts. I thought the quest was done.

Healed and packed all the gear and headed to the town to sell duplicate items and the bear meat. Traded for a new boar and some furs.

The quest circle was still present on the map but decided to talk to the quest npc anyway.

The quest was not complete, organised a new journey with even more meat and my two bors carying stuff.

Reaching the circle again, searched again and decided to build a shelter. By mistake, instead of making fire I accidentally hit the boar and enraged him. The fight was awkward, didn't want to kill him but to calm him. I just waited to calm down, dodging but still getting 2 pierces in my abdomen, decided to kick him. After the  3rd kick, he calmed down but got wounded. Made the fire and slept.

I quickly got awoken by a young wolf killing my boar(was equipped with long bow and broad knife...) By the time I wielded my spear, the boar was dead and the wolf ran after a only hit to the legs. Could not follow up due to late summer hardly any tracks and heavy Forrest. Cursed and cut the pig, tanned the leather, etc while still searching...

The following days I encounter the same wolf, got another arrow hit, a badger and a fox which got serious wounded but still lost her. Lost like 10 arrows. This was getting really frustrating.

After the week, the wolf killed my second boar and lost it again! I cursed so hard, decided to build a heavy trap( besides a shovel, cellar in the meantime while searching)

The next morning he was trapped and got beaten with a rough club in the skull untill dead, that's how mad I was. So, 1week in urw passed searching and no goddamn bandits. I have wasted so much time effort and gear that is FRUSTRATING.

I am basically living in the circle now, as I have 5 dehaired skins to do, etc.

I have spend countless hours IRL trying this quest. It's just f***king bad game design. ITS incredibly frustrating and dounting. Just change or remove the quest, really what the ****

If I haven't decided to see what is like to complete 20+quests for a tribe, I wouldn't have tried so much. Now I want to shift delete the game

[MrMotorhead]

I laughed a little bit, but my fingers still sort of hurt from the robbers search that I did, I'm also not sure that my numpad 8 key is really the same anymore.

You should post that adventure in the stories section, losing 2 pigs to the same wolf is gold.

[PALU]

Stories belong to the stories sub section.

- Robbers exist outside in the world without quests, so running into robbers outside of the quest area is not surprising (it's more surprising you haven't done so earlier).

- Attacking everything that moves is generally bad for your health, and tends to lead to the death of your character.

- I usually use a dog of burden, not a pig. A dog would probably have woken you up before a wolf attack.

- Hauling around a lot of valuables on robber quests is not advisable, as you'll lose a lot of valuables if the robbers win (but usually you'll keep your life).

- Searching for robbers IS a pain (the only quest worse than this one is <creature> lost in forest cover). You need to employ a search pattern.

[zer0lis]

Thanks for the suggestions! After reading my post now, I realised it was a bit aggressive but damn it played with my nerves.

I would have used dogs if I could find them, the char will have 1 year after the winter (its beginning of winter)

Nice tip about losing items, but I think I could take the odds of fighting them ( pretty good stats, gear from njarjeps and weapon)

I will try searching soon, I think I'm going to reveal every zoomed in tile pretty soon that's how much I searched. Fingers crossed

[zer0lis]

OK! Did another couple of hours session searching the bandits, woke up one day and the log said:
The homeland robbers quest has expired  and was removed from your quest log

What can I say? A mention would have been nice? If the quest didn't exist at all? Both YES

I believed I searched 1 or 2 months in game.
When I was bored, I collected berries. I think I have collected  100-200 lb of berries. I have killed all wildlife from the circle: bear, wolf, badger, 2 foxes. I have lost 2 pigs and 20+ arrows, but more importantly I have lost my nerves which should not happen in a game.

My advice to future players is to decline the quest, forget about it. It is broken af or bugged.
My advice to the devs is to remove or change the quest, it is bad game design.

Quit the game?
yes
Save the character?
no
Do you wish to die?
yes

That was the story of my longest lived character, died by rage quit.