u/Lynx7654321

Aahhh my first big KK litter!!! I made it through my first year with my one little pup (this post here) and to my surprise, I got three pups for this year <3

Two boys, both runts, and my first girl in the pack who isn't a runt!

Charpup - Looks dissimilar to the other two, I'm suspecting 830F coat possibly?
Flamepup - Similar to Ember, struggling to figure out either of their coat possibilities.
Emberpup - Similar to Flame, same as above.

I'll be adding updates as I continue with them!

Figured a video with map location would be helpful as well as the in-game bug report!

This isn't even a litter at this point, yeah "meet my new litter" and it's just my singular son. Just the one lil' guy. I'll protect him with my life🥹RNG deaths are off, so it's just up to my ability to defend against predators! Having a mate that'll attack on her own is very helpful, since I can just hold the precious lil' guy to keep him safe.

His stats are -4 total, with +1 and -5 (strength -2, stamina +1, speed -1, health -2). Has anyone had a pup with -5 or lower..? Wondering for future litters.

I'll be posting picture updates below!! He's been named Bluepup, he'll be Blue after the first attack in Growing Pups, and his suffix will be decided as he becomes a yearling :]

Updates-
He has the 859M coat!!
Named Blue after the WORST coyote attack of all my time playing (had to reload twice after I died from biting them!!! Attack ended with me and 1% health but we made it😭).

Out looking for a KK mate just for fun, encountered these two 4-yr-old dispersal females both with the half black coat! This one holds a special place in my heart because it's the coat my very first legacy pack founder had :]

Finally got all rival packs down to just one hex! I'm currently sleeping at this carcass, then I'm gonna go north to get all the territory from last year that I haven't marked in Young Hunters yet this year.

However, the Norris Peak (pink) pack's hex is in a spot I don't want it. My initial plan was to let that one hex next to Lamar Canyon (purple) decay until Norris Peak takes it, then kick them out of their first hex. But I've seen in some saves that the game will allow only three packs on the map without trying to have another one move in. My main question for y'all: Do I try and move Norris Peak south, or kill them off entirely?

It's currently only the pack leaders alive, and the other two packs have 5 and 6 total wolves respectfully. Would the game allow (including mine) just these three packs on the map without a fourth moving in?

Complaint/Feedback/Suggestion

I'm trying to target Calliope here, since she had just done a couple emotes that I usually respond to a certain way(whenever she does T1, I do T4, she does T2, I do T3.5, she does confident wag, I do regular wag, then there's a bunch of hearts and I gain affinity, a little tradition way back since our courtship), but it took me too long to respond and she laid down.

Targeting always seems to prioritize everything else above my mate. It'll target pups, food, even items a lot further away than she is, no matter how close I get to her or what angle I approach her at. Of course when there's less things around, It's not impossible to target her, but it gets obnoxious in crowded settings like at the den. In my larger pack saves, it's also annoying when trying to send packmates home when near quite literally anything. Carcass, antler, toy, meat chunk, a coyote or fox lurking in the distance? It'll get priority over my packmates that are standing face-to-face with me.

My suggestion would be to tweak it to where the current baseline is only applied when in combat, and more balanced targeting is used in all other settings. I'm definitely a player who pays a lot of attention to my packmate's emotes, and it'd be nice to have a little change that would streamline being able to respond to them without spending more time on lining my wolf and mouse up at just the right angle than it takes to do the emote itself.

(Feel free to change flair to Media or Pack Updates if deemed more suitable than Story)
Some footage of this annoying attack.
(Pre-video event retelling + play-by-play, story-esque writing)-->

I started screen recording when the bear had been just standing outside the den, unmoving, not attacking, for probably close to 30 seconds, but my mate finally bit right as I started the recording and it started running.

I thought I'd checked everything before I set out to go hunting; checked scent view, barked everyone toward me (usually that triggers the attack if a predator is already lurking), even ran just outside the den boundaries and back without anything triggering. I even set out in the same direction as the wind so I'd pass any predator that hadn't shown up on scent view.

But after I'd already set out to hunt, gotten way out of den boundaries and half way up that cliff on the right side, passed NO bear along the way, the icon popped up without music (does that sometimes but I've never missed it regardless). I book it back, woofing and looking for the bear.

Pups took a little too long getting into the den (curse you bold/semi-loner/lazy mate</3), I didn't even see the bear at all until I was already back at the den and looking around. It eventually came around the hill and charged. Pups were on the way into the den, but for SOME cursed reason, Ash decided to get sick DURING the attack and Amber got stuck behind him in line for the den and didn't get in before the bear got too close.

Ash was already mid-walk into the den but Amber was still queued, he freaked out and ran away. I grabbed him, but the bear just started camping my den instead of chasing Caelum or Calliope like I was expecting, and I knew it'd start chasing Amber again if I put him down. This is where I was getting a bit confused, I'd never seen a predator just stand and stare at the den like this. After it had been an oddly long time of it just standing there like that, I started the screen recording, but Calliope decided to bite and interrupt it the moment it was rolling.

Strangely it just ran in a loop and went right back to staring. I was freaking out a bit; I couldn't put Amber down because it was body-blocking the den, but I needed my mouth free to attack and get it to move, as well as woof again so the pups didn't leave the den. Calliope, despite usually being bold, gave no assistance this time.

Then Nightshade got bored of the den. She just wandered right out into the jaws of a boar grizzly, not a single thought in her little puppy head. I needed my jaw free and my stamina back, so I tried to set Amber down, and missed first try (dumb cliffside den). Thank the RNG gods that Calliope finally woke up and attacked when Nightshade was fully out, preventing the bear from grabbing her right away.

Once there were pups on the ground, the bear seemed to snap back into charging and swiping, finally letting me lead it far enough away from the den to get the pups inside. Amber was smart and ran straight to safety, but Nightshade, faced with the hungry jaws of a grizzly bear for the first time in her life, scrambled for the slope without thinking. I scooped her up, dodged the bear, and set her right in front of the den, yet she still only had the sense to run in the opposite direction of the bear. Her paws failed her, ironically her saving grace, and she rolled to a halt into the snow. The cold seemed to clear up the fog of panic in her logic, and she finally retreated back to the safety of the den.

I kept watch, jaws in the hide of the bear but my eyes on Nightshade. I saw the bear tensing to charge at the den again the moment I let go, so I ran back first to woof again and further enforce my daughter not to stray from the den. I intercepted the charge, giving Nightshade enough time to be between the rocks of the cliffside and out of reach from the bear.

But damn this bear must've been hungry. It didn't care about me or Calliope, it just stared into the shadows of my den, my home, like my five perfect pups were a midday snack that it could just come and claim. Caelum may have been timid with his family, but he was a protective father when anything threatened them. I bit into the bear with the rage of a provoked parent, not caring about the exhaustion of poor sleep or the sting of teeth being snagged on muscle. Calliope guarded the den once it finally began to back off, and when it was finally fleeing, she chased it into the lake while Caelum stood back, tail raised high and wagging with the pride of victory.

Dunno if previous generations play into pup genetics, but Caelum came from:
Grandparents - KK x kk
Parents - Kk + Kk

He's a mere Kk wolf, and in a litter of five with Calliope (kk) as a mate, I would've expected the usual balanced 2 or 3 Kk pups. But it seems I got lucky since all five of their pups are Kk! Woulda been great for sicknesses if this wasn't their first litter and I didn't already have all RNG deaths off :,)

Stats (str/stm/spd/hth):

• M Caelum 1/-2/0/1 [Perks: 2/-2/1/2]
• F Calliope 1/0/0/-1
• M Ripple 0/0/0/0 [Heir potential...]
• M Amber 2/-2/0/0
• M Ash 0/-1/-1/2
• F Nightshade 1/-2/-1/2
• M Batty 0/0/-1/1

I'm curious to see if this will continue next year!

Enjoy the pack pics :)