Meet the German Pointer

[lamanorbu]

After one day of hunting with my new companion Gustav I have some feedback to share, let's begin with some clarification on the behavior of pointer dogs! When you activate the search command the dog will begin to circle around you and sniff the air, it will run quite far from you (20-30 meters), but it will follow your general direction. When an animal enters the detection radius, an exclamation mark icon will appear in the bottom left corner of the screen and the dog will begin crouching: at this point you should crouch and follow the dog from a safe distance. When the dog reaches the prey (the distance at which it will stop depends on its level) an icon with 3 exclamation marks will appear: this means that you should stop and look carefully in the direction the dog points at, because this is where the prey is! In case you get too close and the animals notices you, the dog will alert you, both with a sound and an icon.
So, just to make sure it's clear, the pointer will only start going towards the prey when the latter is inside its detection radius; the experience shared by @Ravenousfox must either be a bug or extreme luck.
Having Gustav with me made hunting rabbits in Settler Creeks much much easier, especially when rabbits fleed outside of grass fields into areas with thicker vegetation.
I also have some suggestions for the team about some problems I encountered:
- when the prey is shot the dog will walk towards the player - even if the prey is still alive - sometimes getting right in front of the gun. I'd prefer the dog to lay down until further command;
- it seems like the dog is awarded XP only when it finds an animal but, by the time i set up the shot and take it, the "give treat" timer runs out, so I can't award my dog for helping me;
- as many have pointed out, the dog seems to get tired faster than the other breeds - to be honest I'm only used to hunting with a retriever, which means that most of the time the dog is lying in the blind;
- it would be nice to have some way of telling if the cooldown time has expired without having to give the search command, maybe some sort of icon?
- it seems natural that this kind of dog would also flush birds and retrieve small game: I know we have labradors just for that, but it's also true that we can't bring more than one dog per hunt;
Anyways, I think that the german pointer is a great addition to the game and will make small game hunting more enjoyable!

[gas56]

EW missed the boat with the pointer. They basically created a jack of all trades dog and made the scent hound useless to take in the game. The pointer should be for upland game birds only with commands for seek, flush, retrieve. The features it has for the other medium game and deer should be added to the scent hound.

100% agree. Maybe throw cottontails in the mix here too but this would make complete sense.

Don't see how it's a jack-of-all-trades dog, does it retrieve small animals it can carry back to you?
My Bird dogs were always taught on 5 basic command calls or a variation of:
1. Go Hunt
2. Flush it
3. Fetch
4. Heel
5. Stay
Now in recent years Labrador Retriever Breeds in America are being taught to point and are actually good at it.
They no longer rush and flush the upland birds way out ahead of you when trained to do it that way.
I'm glad for the players that want and like the dogs in the game,..
But they don't behave like any hunting dog I've owned so I'm not impressed with them enough to use them while they still have obsolete character that define the
breeds with their best hunting qualities they are known for.
They could still fix all of the breeds to be top notch hunting dogs in their categories.
And if competitions were included to either allow dogs or dis-allow them then that could be the way so they could be used for their full hunting potential and not
seen as a cheat. That becomes a real problem though when it is seen as a cheat using dogs in regular hunts and the player gets rewarded taking the animals.
Maybe they should have another slot in the score box for Dog Aided Hunt = Yes or No
It doesn't really matter to me how they would do it, but that becomes a very tricky subject how it would please the majority of players of attaining high scores with the help of Dogs.

P.S. Now if only Labs in the game could have a bonus to go find Antler sheds once they hit their high skills...................

[whiteonyx]

I have a big wish. Could you please let the German pointer fetch and retrieve the small game - like the do in real life. My old German pointer - he's gone now - did fetch and retrieve many pheasants, ducks, hares and pigeons for me. And i have known many hunters who owned German pointers. Their dogs did also fetch and retrieve small game - even up to red foxes. It's pretty common in Europe. Even in Sweden

[Djehmli]

Woot !

Pawshela (points to avatar) endorses this

[Beano8U]

Thanks for the info Graham. Going to get the chocolate milk pointer but still thinking of a name for it.

I noticed in the UHC signature stat list there is a blank species. I wonder what kind of animal is going to be added soon?

[Tanngnjostr]

I noticed in the UHC signature stat list there is a blank species. I wonder what kind of animal is going to be added soon?

I was asking the same - and it seems that it got there accidently because the pointer is somehow registered as a new species, but of course we can't hunt it. The empty space in the signature will soon be gone...

[Beano8U]

I noticed in the UHC signature stat list there is a blank species. I wonder what kind of animal is going to be added soon?

I was asking the same - and it seems that it got there accidently because the pointer is somehow registered as a new species, but of course we can't hunt it. The empty space in the signature will soon be gone...

Aww Was getting excited for a new species lol.

Love my new dog "Cooper" though

[Pretty_Boy]

I must say I'm very happy with my new dog. I bought a dark brown female and named her Sugar

Story:
Yesterday I got to lvl 6 by hunting Pheasants on the fields of Hirsfelden. I was standing on a distance from a group of 5 birds, and I said: "Hey Sugar, do you see some birds?" ...and she ran stright to the closest one. When I took out that bird with the .17 she automaticaly ran back to me. After this sucksessfull harwest I bagged the other 4 the same way.

Questions:
When I shoot at the pointed animal and I get a hit on the animal, the dog runs back to me, Is it possible for the devs to make the Treats Sircle Orange, so when she dog reaches back to me, I can give some Treats. I think you understand what I mean, sry typing wrongs, it's a very early morning

[Beano8U]

Got "Cooper", the chocolate milk German Pointer a few hours ago (named him after Thomas Cooper, the founder of Cooper's Brewery). My 4th dog on my team now.
Pretty pleased with him so far Especially the feature where the dogs will let you know when you have alerted the target animal. I don't know how many times I have followed tracks only to come across fleeing ones because I was unable to see the target. Found it very useful.
I like how the dog can find an animal I might usually miss due to not seeing a track or spotting the animal, especially in really grassy or bushy areas. Can't be sure what the dog is tracking though either. The dog might be after a small/non trophy animal, even if you do come across tracks for a large animal on the way.
Yet to see how he performs on the next level. I have unlocked the fox/goose/coyote level but waiting for him to get back to 200% bonus again as I really want to see how he goes up against the timid and smart Red Fox at BR.

I found 2 issues so far though. The first one I found is a small sound bug on WR and not too important. I hear a popping sound from the dog's footsteps at around 20m.
The second is similar to Ravenous Fox's

I just had my German Pointer detect the closest Euro Rabbit burrow nest from 1143m away.
You could literally clear the whole map with it.

My dog detected a Snowshoe Hare from around 600m away at level 4, approaching level 5.
I was at the buildings in the north of WR, ENE of Afterland Lodge. Commanded Cooper to go after rabbits/birds. I usually get 4 or 5 rabbits in the area where I gave the command, but he tracked a hare all the way over the mountain to the south.
I think the distance was around 600m or so. (definitely over 500m) Not sure if it was because there were no more hares in my original location or not, but I usually get more than one in this area as I mentioned.
I am still not to worried about this bug either, just a little concerned that it could be used to exploit a win in competitions where you need to harvest as many of a certain species as possible.

Apart from the 2 bugs I have come across, I love the German Pointer a lot and think the devs have done a really awesome job. Those floppy ears are adorable.
Can't wait to try fox and deer tracking
Might have a look at the new improvements for the other 2 dogs while Cooper rests
All up, pretty impressed with the new dogs

[Ravenousfox]

I found 2 issues so far though. The first one I found is a small sound bug on WR and not too important. I hear a popping sound from the dog's footsteps at around 20m.
The second is similar to Ravenous Fox's

I just had my German Pointer detect the closest Euro Rabbit burrow nest from 1143m away.
You could literally clear the whole map with it.

My dog detected a Snowshoe Hare from around 600m away at level 4, approaching level 5.
I was at the buildings in the north of WR, ENE of Afterland Lodge. Commanded Cooper to go after rabbits/birds. I usually get 4 or 5 rabbits in the area where I gave the command, but he tracked a hare all the way over the mountain to the south.
I think the distance was around 600m or so. (definitely over 500m) Not sure if it was because there were no more hares in my original location or not, but I usually get more than one in this area as I mentioned.
I am still not to worried about this bug either, just a little concerned that it could be used to exploit a win in competitions where you need to harvest as many of a certain species as possible.

I think what's happening is it looks like the dog just wants to stay ahead of where you're looking at until he picks up the closest animal you selected for him.