New Hunting Achievements and Rewards

Ley

Disclaimer: I came up with this idea for fun, I have no expectation for this to ever be added to the game.

I was thinking about fishing in ESO. A lot of people seem to enjoy fishing and they spend a lot time fishing even though the game provides very little incentive to do so and the activity itself, while relaxing, in my opinion it is pretty unengaging. Anyways, this got me thinking about more similar optional end game activities/grinds for players to engage in which lead to hunting.

There are plenty of wild animals in the game both hostile and docile (deer, goats, rabbits, wolves, bears, lions, mammoths, ect…). Sure you may kill them as you run into them or farm them for some hide/meat/guts but that’s about it. Why not create a set of achievements tied to hunting a comprehensive list of animals split up between zones? I think the lore support the whole concept of hunting and would be an interesting way of giving Hircine a more notable presence in ESO.

I propose adding around 12 rare animals per zone that have a chance to spawn in certain areas on each map. Create unique mechanics for these creatures, that would have specific ways of dealing with these mechanics:

• Stealth – Creature is stealthed.
  • Player must use detection potion or skill (mages light) to find creature.
• Speed – Creature has extremely high movement speed. Creature will pause briefly every so often.
  • Player must use snare/stun to catch creature or have extremely high movement speed.
• Despawn – Creature will run away and evade all attacks for a brief period if disturbed. After 3 failed attempts creature will despawn.
  • Player must use stealth to sneak up on creature.
• Track – Creature must be tracked (similar to “The Heart of the Beast” quest or Ashlander hunting quests in Vvardenfell) in order to spawn creature.
  • Player must stealth to find creature tracks and follow tracks to creature spawn.
• Lure - Must set lure to spawn creature.
  • Player must set correct lure to spawn creature (game to attract large cats, honey or berries to attract bears, corn to attract deer…).
• Genocide – Killing creatures of the same type has a chance of spawning a unique creature of that type.
  • For example, kill normal bears for a chance to spaw momma bear.

Have different rarities of creatures with an increasing number of mechanics:

• Green creatures = 0 mechanics (rare spawn)
• Blue creatures = 1 mechanic
• Purple creature = 2 mechanics
• Gold creature = 3 mechanics

Creatures will fall into one of these two categories, aggressive or non-aggressive:

• Non-aggressive will generally be 1-2 shots to kill but highly elusive.
• Aggressive will be more difficult to find/spawn but will generally not flee.

When searching for creatures in the world, green creatures will exist naturally in the game although will be quite rare. Blue creatures will typically require some additional effort to locate and kill. The purple and gold creatures will have a small chance to spawn upon performing the correct act or several acts (lure, tracking, genocide). You may set a lure to attract a rare deer but instead get several normal deer in the process or even a hostile creature could be attracted by all the deer you’ve killed.

Running into a purple rarity creature could look like this:

• While using stealth detection potion/ability, you encounter stealthed creature. When you approach a certain radius from the creature, it detects you and runs away for a few moments before pausing again. Approach the creature again while crouched (stealthed) and you are able to get close enough to perform the killing blow. If you fail to kill the creature within 3 attempts, it runs away and despawns.

Hunting a gold rarity creature for instance may look something like this:

• Follow creature tracks to spawn destination and wait for it to spawn, stealth to keep from disturbing creature prematurely, snare creature to prevent it running away and finally kill creature quickly before it despawns.

Maps will generally have roughly the same creature variety that already exists on that map, for example Echatere will only be found in Wrothgar. Additionally, the rare versions of these creatures will generally only spawn in areas on the map that you would usually see that creature type naturally.

Rewards:
When you kill a creature you can loot their heart. You can offer these hearts at a shrine to Hircine for rewards. The reward loot table will include generic provisioning meats: game, poultry, red meat, small game, white meat, and a rare chance at a special “Perfect Fillet” (name is a work in progress). The Perfect Fillet will be used to make unique food, drink, and potions:

• Food/drinks you could make with Perfect Fillet could give you a minor boost to quality of looted items and/or maybe a small chance to increase amount of materials harvested from nodes.
• Potions you make with Perfect Fillet could grant Major Evasion.
• Poisons could grant Major Vulnerability to your opponent (does not exist yet, increases damage taken by 10-12%).

*There could also be unique titles, dyes, furniture, costumes, ect, tied to completing hunting achievements.

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Thoughts? Comments? Anything you would add or change?

imnotanother

A+ for your well thought out and proposed idea!

But I do not like it. I just recently finished farming the collectible trophies that drop from killing “monsters.”

It took me almost 3 years to complete. So your idea, only reminds me of the mind numbing experience I just finished.

EvilCroc

Another meaningless achievement grind?
Sure, why not.
+1

DaveMoeDee

Another thing I will feel compelled to do but not have time to complete with everything else going on? Sure, why not. I have come to accept my relationship with this game will always be unhealthy.

How would killing work when 20 people are camping the same animal? What would you need to do to get credit for the kill?

TheNuminous1

EvilCroc wrote: »

Another meaningless achievement grind?
Sure, why not.
+1

So you didnt read the rewards part. or the well thought out system. We have a plethora of fun activities. I would absolutely participate on this one as well.

My bosmer have often wished for real hunting to be relevant.

TheShadowScout

Ley wrote: »

New Hunting Achievements and Rewards

I like those ideas! But then, considering that I had a Hunters Guild idea myself... that should come as no surprise...
And if they were to ever do something like my idea, I would hope they might add yours to the concept, because those "hunting" mechanics might work pretty well with a "Hunters Guild" DLC (and that way the powers that be would get the profit they are after as well...)

Ley

DaveMoeDee wrote: »

Another thing I will feel compelled to do but not have time to complete with everything else going on? Sure, why not. I have come to accept my relationship with this game will always be unhealthy.

How would killing work when 20 people are camping the same animal? What would you need to do to get credit for the kill?

Like many activities in game, if too many people were trying to do the same thing in the same area, they would potentially all suffer. Can't really think of many ways around this.

• Players in the same group and vicinity could share credit.
• Have enough potential spawn areas on each map to encourage players to spread out.
• Instance these unique mobs separately for all players.

I was assuming that much like fishing, there would not be an overwhelming number of players participating in this at the same time in the same area.

TheCyberDruid

Except for the mechanics part I really like the idea.

Ley

TheCyberDruid wrote: »

Except for the mechanics part I really like the idea.

So just random world spawns or something else?
I considered just random world spawns initially but it seemed like it would be unengaging. I wanted the experience to feel somewhat like actual hunting (keeping in mind that it's just a video game) and also different from just randomly killing mobs.

I also didn't want players to complete the achievements unintentionally just by grinding through all the zones. I wanted it to require deliberate effort.

If you have a better approach, I'm always open to improving the idea.

Lyserus

If this is implemented the overland is gonna be wayyy more fun.

Maybe, like the cooking quests we get from Orsinium, CWC, we can get this “hunting rare creature in overland” as another exciting part of the future dlcs?
@ZOS_GinaBruno

+1000 for idea

Vahlyance

Not that I'd ever partake, but it's definitely interesting.
I'd approve.

Ley

Lyserus wrote: »

If this is implemented the overland is gonna be wayyy more fun.

Maybe, like the cooking quests we get from Orsinium, CWC, we can get this “hunting rare creature in overland” as another exciting part of the future dlcs?
@ZOS_GinaBruno

+1000 for idea

Speaking of Orsinium. The House of Orsimer Glories has a bunch of quests and achievements related to collecting Orc relics. It would be interesting to include a trophy room that you would have to fill with trophies from all the creatures you hunted.