Yesterdays patch included a major revamp of trajectories, damage & penetration for the following weapons:

• 300 Rifles
• .30-06 Rifles
• 8×57 Rifles
• .308 Rifle & Handgun
• .270 Rifles
• .243 Rifles
• .357 Revolvers
• .44 Revolvers
• .454 Revolvers
• .50 Cal Muzzleloader Round Ball
• 12 GA Shotgun Slug
• 12 GA Buckshot

Kinetic Energy

The primary change for all these weapons is that they now use kinetic energy derived from our advanced trajectory system as the basis for their damage & penetration calculations instead of the old legacy system of linearly reducing velocity that did not take into account things like air resistance, bullet shape and weight.

This system has been applied to most new weapons since the release of the 9.3 Rifle, but until now there has not been enough time to convert the old weapons, as a lot of research and experimentation was needed to make sure we got things right.

Air Resistance

While this change mostly affects damage & penetration due to the fact that all weapons already use the advanced trajectory system for things like bullet drop, there have been some additional minor tweaks, primarily involving adding more precision to how air resistance is calculated. I expect that it will be mostly noticeable for large calibre weapons such as handguns, slug & the muzzleloader, although as zeroing has been updated to compensate for the changes in bullet drop it may only be noticeable at very long distances.

Rifles

Penetration and base damage mostly remain the same as before for most rifles as they worked fairly well with the linear system, however, you can expect somewhat more base damage from .300 & .270 rifles, which in turn means quicker deaths at the cost of trophy integrity (better reflecting calibre & bullet weight).

Handguns, Muzzleloader Round Ball, Slug & Buckshot

Previously these weapons had very high base damage and very low penetration. This has now been reversed to reflect how they commonly work in real life. The result is that poorly placed shots become less lethal while well-placed shoots are more likely to result in things like double-lung shots vs. permitted species. It also means that it should be easier to get good trophy integrity values using these weapons as this number is dependent on base damage.

Legacy Weapons

So, are all weapons now converted to this new glorious system? Sadly no, all arrow based weapons still use the old linear system as well as both 12 GA & 20 GA birdshot. But, the good news is that I am currently looking into converting these weapons as well and that by doing so we may finally be able to address some of the realism problems that have been plaguing these weapons since they were first introduced to the game.

Today we’re introducing a couple of significant changes to turkey hunting, with a new “locator” caller, turkey decoys and tweaks in the species’s AI. Our game designer Björn has put together some notes for you, make sure to read them through before grabbing the new lures and setting off for Settler Creeks or Whitehart Island.

Decoys

Turkey decoys work a little differently than the previously released waterfowl decoys. While the latter ones are primarily used to get high-flying flocks to land, the Turkey decoys are in the first place applied for attraction and distraction purposes.

The attraction component is similar to that of scent and callers, however detection is affected by the birds’ field of view, which means that they need to be fairly close to, and have an unobstructed view of the spread to have a chance of being attracted.

While this can be considered a serious downside compared to the traditional “Box Caller”, there are some very nice advantages to using decoys.

Turkeys stay longer at decoys than they do at a call location and, since they do not require active engagement from a hunter, decoys can also be used to draw the birds away from hunters rather than straight to them, which naturally decreases the chance of detection as they approach.

The final and possibly most important advantage to using decoys vs. a caller is that in addition to attraction they also provide distraction. Birds attracted by decoys are highly focused on their target and thus are less likely to detect hidden hunters. This can be thought of as an additional camo bonus being applied to hunters for as long as a bird is at the decoy site.

The attraction and distraction effect stack over multiple simultaneously detected decoys up to a maximum of three.

Locator Caller

The turkey locator caller functions in a similar manner to that of the Pheasant caller. The call sound does not attract Turkey but creates a chance of a response from any male Turkey in the area, which in turn allows the hunter to track it down using the corresponding audio clue on the HunterMate.

Response chance is tied to the score of the individual, with higher scoring Turkey being less likely to respond than low scoring individuals.

Turkey AI Adjustments

Most animals in the game get more spooky and thus harder to hunt the higher they score. This creates a nice relationship between effort and reward, when skilled hunters can increase their chance of better trophies through the way they play. Turkeys have never been a part of this system but this has now been changed as a part of this Turkey flavoured revamp. Higher scoring males are now somewhat more spooky while females and low scoring males remain at the previous difficulty level.

A Final Advice

Since decoys are detected visually, Turkey have to be fairly close to notice them. To increase your chances, try using the “Box Caller” as a means to get them within visual range of the decoys. Decoys always override all other lures, which means that they will forget about walking to your call location as soon as they’ve detected the decoys and leaving you to focus on taking that epic shoot with your favourite close range weapon…