Goat feeders don't work do they?

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Brutus969
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Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by Brutus969 »

I bought 4 feeders and set them up like so. I have marked the route I take from west to east (dotted line is fast travel). I basically glass the whole view from each of the cliffs, which cover a pretty significant portion of the map.

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On average per hunt over about 5-10 hunts, I'd spot around 30 goats per hunt, when all the feeders were active. (as an aside I'll mention that maybe only up to half of the goats per hunt were directly at a feeder)

Then I tried the same route with INACTIVE feeders. Three hunts, I spotted 11, 37, then 22 goats. Now, maybe I just got super lucky on the 2nd hunt, but I'm starting to think that the feeders have added virtually nothing.

I didn't shoot anything during those hunts because I wanted to up my spotting skill.

What are your experiences?

I was under the impression that bait sites have increased spawns... not convinced this applies to goat feeders.
Last edited by Brutus969 on February 5th, 2021, 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by Fletchette »

I don't believe it was ever said that the feeders increase the spawn, and that really wouldn't make sense. They attract the animals that already in the area and concentrate them near the feeders allowing you to setup ambush spots rather than stalking.
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by Brutus969 »

They attract the animals that already in the area and concentrate them near the feeders allowing you to setup ambush spots rather than stalking.
If this is all they are intended to do...it doesn't even do a good job of that. Half the time the goats I spotted weren't even at the feeder (when they were active)... Considering that the attraction radius is 150m, no wonder.

On the wiki, which can be wrong I suppose, the baiting page says
At the start of the game additional animals spawn around the feeder that contains feed.
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by HooCairs »

Fletchette wrote:I don't believe it was ever said that the feeders increase the spawn
EW did say that, and from my experience also they do.

As for the op, feeders do work but four is too many. Only use one or two. I have to say though that from all the bait stations the goat one delivers the least even in the best spots.
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by Fletchette »

HooCairs wrote:
Fletchette wrote:I don't believe it was ever said that the feeders increase the spawn
EW did say that, and from my experience also they do.
Ok, I thought they just increased the likelihood they would spawn near the feeders, but didn't actually change the total number spawned. I might be misremembering.
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by Brutus969 »

I have to say though that from all the bait stations the goat one delivers the least even in the best spots.
Shame. What are these best spots?
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by HooCairs »

Fletchette wrote:
HooCairs wrote:
Fletchette wrote:I don't believe it was ever said that the feeders increase the spawn
EW did say that, and from my experience also they do.
Ok, I thought they just increased the likelihood they would spawn near the feeders, but didn't actually change the total number spawned. I might be misremembering.
Could be what you say, that they just rearrange and not actually add. I might be misunderstanding your previous post. ;)

I am just searching through the forum to find something that EW said about it.
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by xOEDragonx »

I remember the goat feeders being very effective when they were first released. I only had one set up near your easternmost feeder and I would see 10+ at it almost every time I loaded a hunt. Added a second near the west lodge, and that one was just as effective every time. Added a third in the north... now none of them seem to have big herds anymore. On occasion one or two of them might have 2-3 males poking around it, but never really big herds anymore. Heck, I can see more black bear at either one of my two favorite feeders on RFF or brown bears at my favorite feeder on Hemmeldal at any given time than I can goats at any one of my feeders on BRR nowadays. Maybe that's the key though, only one or two feeders a map. I feel like I've read on this forum that having four feeders can "break" the feeders or something like that which is why I never exceeded three. But even three makes them seem useless.

Back before the feeders were overhauled, it used to matter where your feeders were located too. You couldn't just drop them anywhere on the map and have them be 100% effective. People would find those 100% spots and share them. I seem to remember after the overhaul, people were saying placement did still matter, your feeders just wouldn't have a visual effective rating anymore. Do we know for sure if location still affects feeders too?
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by Brutus969 »

xOEDragonx wrote:People would find those 100% spots and share them. I seem to remember after the overhaul, people were saying placement did still matter, your feeders just wouldn't have a visual effective rating anymore.
What is 'visual effective rating'?
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Re: Goat feeders don't work do they?

Post by xOEDragonx »

Brutus969 wrote:What is 'visual effective rating'?
Several years ago before the feeders received their most recent overhaul, feeders actually had a sort of, I'm not sure what exactly to call it, effectiveness rating to them? It was shown when you hovered the mouse over them on the map before you loaded up a game if I remember correctly. It was displayed as a percentage, 0% meant your feeder wasn't attracting anything yet and 100% meant it was at full attraction power. You'd place your feeder on the map and add bait then it would take several days real time to build up the percentage from 0% to 100%... ideally. Sometimes you'd place the feeder in a bad location and no matter how many days it sat with bait in it it would never reach 100%. There were a handful of areas that players found that always gave 100%, so they were shared on the forums and many people would just use the same spots for their own feeders. When the feeders received their overhaul (it's been a couple years since now...), that attraction percentage went away. Your feeder is now supposed to just attract at it's max power all the time after you wait your initial four hour waiting period and it stays the same attraction until the moment your bait runs out. It doesn't take days for it to build up and work anymore, just four hours which seemed like a great change at the time. Other veterans are certainly welcome to correct me if any of that is wrong, I didn't use feeders much on that old system so that's all I seem to remember of it.

Anyway, that "visual effective rating" was just what I was calling that percentage that used to be visual to players and took days to build up. It no longer exists and I don't think it's relevant anymore. However, I thought I remember multiple players saying that the areas where their feeders used to reach that 100% on the old system were still some of the better spots for baiting on the new system. That's what I wasn't sure about being true or not. Even though all feeders are always 100% effective when they're active nowadays, those "hotspots" may still exist. I simply don't know for certain.

CLICK HERE for an old announcement on Steam when the baiting system changed in 2017. It sort of compares the old and new systems if you'd like to read deeper into it. It actually states that some locations are better than others but doesn't go much into it. They wanted the players to figure it out. Not sure if anyone ever really did...
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