scent hounds are usless

[Lynx]

Well here is a good exercise

Remove the track balls (that is how i hunt) and then come back and tell me how how useless the dog is in that situation (you will follow your dog like a madman and trust his senses more...you know like in real life).

I never leave without my dog, only level 15, and he ALWAYS leads me to the dead animal. When he looses track i just go back to previous track and repeat. I LOVE MY DOGS

Note: My other dog a retriever gets birds at 150m from .22 shots and across huge lakes (you cant beat that).

Lynx

[Ugly Pete]

There is also a chance many experienced and skilled players will sacrifice their harvesting speed (time for them to actually find dead animal and continue with the hunt) just for the sake of immersion and the feeling that they are actually cooperating with the dog and that he is doing the job as he would IRL.
)

I pretty much agree with this, I always bring my dog (Level 26) unless I'm heading to the mountains. It adds to the immersion and on occasion he has helped me find tracks when the animal makes a strange turn or what not. If I'm honest I will have to admit I'm more often waiting for the dog to catch up to me than the other way around but I seldom play games as efficiently as possible, I understand those that do, but for me it's more about the experience of playing and I find the scent hound adds a lot to it.

[Pupic]

Well here is a good exercise

Remove the track balls (that is how i hunt) and then come back and tell me how how useless the dog is in that situation (you will follow your dog like a madman and trust his senses more...you know like in real life).

I never leave without my dog, only level 15, and he ALWAYS leads me to the dead animal. When he looses track i just go back to previous track and repeat. I LOVE MY DOGS

Note: My other dog a retriever gets birds at 150m from .22 shots and across huge lakes (you cant beat that).

Lynx

No offense but i already mentioned why the dog is useful for some and useless for others.
When it comes to exercise with removing tracks its a bit silly since you are doing just what i said some will do - sacrifice your hunting speed for the sake of immersion and feeling that the dog is doing something special - when in fact he is not. (if you have doubts i suggest you do the exercise with tracks turned ON, maybe then you could realize how slow and stupid the dog really is)

btw.... you mentioned dog retrieving bird that is 150 meters away - well i had situations where there are few downed ducks, some 15 meters away some 60+ meters away - and when i turn to that closest duck and ask him to fetch it he turns around and goes for the one across the lake being painfully slow and scaring everything that break down during his field parade. That is making more damage than good..... but that just my opinion

[Lynx]

None taken just missed the line

What you call a slow stupid dog is actually a simulation of the dog (real life tracking dog) working the scent. I dont know how perfect the code is (must be hard to simulate this) but in my opinion this is what the developers were trying to achieve.

The reason why you are faster than the dog reaching the tracks is because you are eye tracking the balls while the dog is scent tracking them (scent tracking simulation code). If you are hunting on steroids only, i guess better leave the dog at home or never buy one. If the dog just went straight for the tracks without doubt then it would not be a proper simulated scent dog.

In the end, each of us plays the game acording to their own expectations and objectives. I prefer a not so perfect "dog tracking simulation" than searching for magic balls on the ground.

The dog is a very important tool for the hunter in real life and in this game can be used to help the so called "imersive hunters". In fact we are very lucky that we have dogs in this game at all.

Im sorry that it doesnt work fast enough for your style, it works for me, maybe a refund

Cheers

Lynx

[Pupic]

.... I dont know how perfect the code is (must be hard to simulate this) but in my opinion this is what the developers were trying to achieve.
.... If the dog just went straight for the tracks without doubt then it would not be a proper simulated scent dog.
.....I prefer a not so perfect "dog tracking simulation" than searching for magic balls on the ground.
.....The dog is a very important tool for the hunter in real life and in this game can be used to help the so called "imersive hunters".
Lynx

I have quoted just some parts of your post (and hopefully not took anything out of context)
To make myself clear a bit; I totally understand that dog is needed for the kind of hunting you do - but lets not confuse hunting without tracking domes with any kind of simulating RL conditions...... Turning it off is like removing the one and only clue about animal (beside visual) from the reserve. For me its a strange thing because (if it is true) then you are either not tracking anything or just walk around holding your huntermate hoping to hear some beeps - in both ways i can imagine that even the lousy bugged dog can seem like a diamond

Anyhow....back to the dog features and his usefulness - and as you mentioned "each of us plays the game according to their own expectations" so i will point where dog doesn't meet my expectations (this is ad-on to my first post where i mentioned that the tracking dog never helped me to find a single animal yet)

1. Dog often gets stuck (just a small bug so this one is not a big deal)
2. Working dog often just stops for no reason reacting to nothing but come here command
3. Dog sometimes just stops tracking with a stupid ? mark even if he is sitting in a pool of blood. Then you need to come and point him on the trail under his ass.
4. Dog is ocasionally unable to find animal even if it is shot in front of him just a minute ago (you first need to guide him on the blood trail).
5. Dog will walk over a dead animal (if not guided on trail the animals and their blood are non-existing for the dog)
6. Dog cant take orders from hunter in prone stance (what an cardinal oversight by devs - we need to stand up just to tell the dog to lay down )
7. Retrievers will not obey any command until they fetch the bird
8. Retriever cant be sent on particular bird....he will pick what he wants.
9. Retriever will take the shortest route across the e.g lake and swim for 5 minutes even if the longer route - by land, would take 30 seconds
10. Both dogs are useless against aggressive animals (unless you have a low leveled dog that will bark - and while the bear is ready to chew my ass, the mans best friend is facing somewhere nowhere ....sky, tree, sunset..)

I could probably write a few more but this is roughly what bothers me - and what i found quite immersion breaking. Yes, the dog probably can perform some awesome task like getting the bird taken with .22 from 220m (RL inspired situations?), but i can`t simply pass all the crap he serves me regularly (as i found most of the guys that ask for functionality can`t). Is he useless? No, as you prove it, it is not useless for the guys that like to make things hard for themselves
What about the rest of us..

[phil1]

Thanks for your post Pupic, scent hounds are going on sale today (27 dec) 50% off, I was beginning to weaken and considered getting one, you helped me make my mind up.

[Conch]

Do the scent hounds spook animals? Wondering if you can have them beside you while trying to pull an animal in close for an archery shot etc. without having them spook your target.

[Hawkeye]

Do the scent hounds spook animals? Wondering if you can have them beside you while trying to pull an animal in close for an archery shot etc. without having them spook your target.

Just command them to Stay and you can bring the animal in for archery shot. The dog won't spook anything if he's laying down being a good boy.

[JohanW2300]

I have a sent-dog level 22, experience 11250.

I regonize some of the things said in this forum:
1. Dog often gets stuck: True
2. Working dog often just stops for no reason reacting to nothing but come here command: Never noticed this.
3. Dog sometimes just stops tracking with a stupid ? mark: True. Sometimes the dogs loses the track if the animal is not bleeding anymore, and i'm unable to find the animal. I know, my fault, i had to aim better
4. Dog is ocasionally unable to find animal: True
5. Dog will walk over a dead animal (if not guided on trail the animals and their blood are non-existing for the dog): True
6. Dog cant take orders from hunter in prone stance:True, you can't give orders if you are lying down.

But there's something else. My sent-dog sometimes starts barking for no reason. Why does it do that?? When that happens there's no trace of animal nearby. Is that a bug??

[HerbHungwell]

if you think these pups in this game are frustrating you oughta try training real dogs lol.. Aggravating as hell but I love them dearly!!!