Poachers & Rival Hunters
You're not the only one out there. Poachers, bushwhackers, rustlers and rival hunting parties can turn up on a trail, and they shoot first.
Hunting with a fight in it. Gunmen waiting at the scene, riders galloping in from the hills, snipers on the ridge. Clear them out before you can read the sign they were guarding.
🗺️ How it works
- Walk into trouble. When you get within 70 metres (
triggerRange) of a sign or scene that has an encounter, the enemies appear and a red banner names them. - Clear the area. Enemies show on the map with enemy blips, and the trail HUD counts how many are left. You can't examine the sign until every one of them is down.
- Collect the bounty. Examining the sign after the fight pays a small bounty and some reputation, then the trail goes on.
If you ride far enough away (despawn, 350 metres), the ones still standing give up and leave. The fight starts over when you come back, and the bounty is only paid once the area is really clear.
🧭 Where they turn up
| Where | What |
|---|---|
| Ordinary trails | From rank 3, a 12% chance that poachers are working the same trail (Config.Encounters.trail) |
| Story hunt chapters | Some chapters of a story hunt always have trouble waiting at the scene |
| Story hunt lairs | Some legends have rival hunters at the lair who want the kill for themselves |
| Legendary | Encounter |
|---|---|
| Onyx Wolf | Poachers at chapter II |
| Bharati Grizzly | Poachers at chapter II |
| Iguga Cougar | Bushwhackers at chapter II |
| Mud Runner Buck | Rival hunters at the lair |
| Snowflake Moose | Poachers at chapter I |
| Katata Elk | Rival hunters at the lair |
| Red Streak Coyote | Rustlers at chapter II |
| Gabbro Horn Ram | Bushwhackers at chapter II |
| Sun Gator | Poachers at chapter II |
| Tatanka Bison | Hide hunters at chapter II, rival hunters at the lair |
🤠 The enemies
| Encounter | Who | Bounty |
|---|---|---|
| Poachers | 2 to 3 gunmen at the scene, 1 to 2 riders | 6, 40 reputation |
| Bushwhackers | 2 snipers on high ground, 1 to 2 gunmen | 8, 45 reputation |
| Rustlers | 3 to 4 riders | 7, 40 reputation |
| Hide Hunters | 2 to 3 riders and a sniper | 8, 45 reputation |
| Rival Hunters | 2 to 3 hunters at the lair | none, the legend is the prize |
| Poachers (ordinary trails) | 2 to 3 gunmen | 4, 30 reputation |
- Gunmen wait near the sign and come at you on foot.
- Riders start 100 to 150 metres out and ride in.
- Snipers hold their ground 55 to 80 metres away with long rifles.
👥 In a party
The first hunter to reach the sign stages the fight, and everyone in the party gets the banner, the blips and the counter. Any member can examine the sign once it's clear. The bounty goes to whoever examines it.
🔧 Configuration
Config.Encounters in shared/config.lua:
| Option | Default | |
|---|---|---|
enabled | true | Turn every encounter off |
triggerRange | 70.0 | How close to the sign the enemies appear |
despawn | 350.0 | How far away you have to be before the ones left standing leave |
accuracy | 25 | How well they shoot, from 0 to 100 |
blips | true | Enemy blips on the map |
trail | { chance = 0.12, rank = 3, encounter = 'trail_poachers' } | Encounters on ordinary trails: the chance, the rank they start at and which encounter. Set chance = 0 to keep them to story hunts |
✍️ Writing your own
Encounters live in LegendEncounters in shared/legends.lua. Give a story chapter or lair encounter = '<id>' to use one.
poachers = {
label = 'Poachers',
text = 'They want the pelt for themselves, and they don\'t want witnesses.',
xp = 40,
cash = 6,
groups = {
{ kind = 'gunmen', amount = { 2, 3 }, distance = { 10, 20 }, weapons = { 'WEAPON_REPEATER_CARBINE', 'WEAPON_SHOTGUN_DOUBLEBARREL' } },
{ kind = 'riders', amount = { 1, 2 }, distance = { 110, 140 }, weapons = { 'WEAPON_REVOLVER_CATTLEMAN' } },
},
},| Field | |
|---|---|
label, text | The banner's title and line |
xp, cash | The bounty for clearing it |
groups | Each group: kind (gunmen, riders or snipers), a random amount, how far from the sign they start (distance, in metres), the weapons to pick from, and optional models |
LegendEnemyModels and LegendHorseModels in the same file set the default enemy and horse models.