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« on: December 12, 2021, 05:34:59 PM »
I'd recommend starting a hunting newbie character in the Kuikka territory (and Kuikka is a good culture pick overall). There tend to be a lot of game, as well as lots of hills and mountains to serve as vantage points. There are lots of tightly packed settlements with very high populations (meaning you can sell lot of roasted meat) that sell copious amounts of: archery equipment, preserved foodstuff and furs. Hunt an animal, skin and butcher it, cure the skin and cook the meat and sell it. Only downside is that there are no cabins or saunas to smoke in, but you can build a larder with trade. I recommend summer start due to long view ranges. Trade some of your starting equipment for your first bow and arrows if you did not start with one. Shortbow is cheap and functional.
What I do when I spot an animal on the world map is that I first take note exactly how many moves and to which direction I need to do in order to arrive at that exact spot. You can use the look command to calculate the exact amount. I then walk there. If this does not trigger an encounter with an animal, I mark that spot (where I sighted the animal) on my map. After this I walk through all the eight adjacent tiles on the world map. If this does still not trigger the encounter, I walk back to the tile where I initially spotted the animal in, zoom in, and then start walking in ever larger circles until I find the tracks.
If you are desperate for animal in terms of in-game time then Palu's suggestion can work. Go to tile, zoom in and look back and forth. If you see nothing, zoom out and move to next tile. Provided visibility allows it you can see majority of a tile that way.
Some tips on actual art of hunting:
1) Animals as a rule prefer to move diagonally. They might for example head towards general direction of west, but zig-zag diagonally when they do so. If you are not sure where animal went it probably moved somewhere diagonally. I'd say that learning to predict animal AI is the biggest difference between experienced and inexperienced hunter in URW, as it allows you to chase the animal more efficiently.
2) Animals often also tend to rebound backwards from where they came from, particularly herd animals. Meaning they go to some direction, then stop running and circle around and start returning towards the general direction where they came from. If you can reacquire an animal and scare it back to running when it's rebounding back you are hunting efficiently.
3) There's a zoom function. Perhaps obvious, but it might be missed at first. You normally want to be at the furthest or second furthest zoom when hunting.
4) Pick your time and place for hunting. It's visually annoying to hunt in rain. You don't want to hunt in spruce mires and conifer forests if you can help it.
5) Short range shot through many trees is not as good as long range shot with clear arc of fire. While you can chase animals down uninjured, it's much easier if it has a leg wound. Don't neglect broadhead arrows if you can find them, they cause copious bloodloss which can kill even Elks in one hit and makes the animal easier to follow even if it doesn't (it does damage the hide though).
6) You'll be surprised how much you can run with no or extremely little (0%-1%) encumbrance.
Also, when hunting wolf never process the carcass at the site of the kill as this often results some wolf biting your neck from behind, which is often insta kill without mail coif.
Unlike some other commenters, I run often, but I do so periodically in spurts to not tire out. As far as I see there is no real reason to not do this, excepting maybe if are heavily loaded and/or have terrible endurance. The extra speed from running more than makes up the slightly slower speed you have to deal with afterwards.