Battle Encounter Rarity [Data needed!]

Introduction

Hello! You may know me from my hunting prey rarity research thread. I promise that one is not "abandoned" for this one, though I know it may seem that way given how long it's been! A short and sweet update: thank you so much for all your contributions, and please keep doing so! There is a lot of data to process and I have begun to create graphs and interpretation summaries for the biomes with enough data to sufficiently identify the rarities.

In the mean time, I noticed with the Fox update that the news post mentioned that foxes are a "common" species. This raised the question of if battle encounters have a rarity associated with them. In my very general, preliminary research to double-check this, I found that there does appear to be a rarity associated with battle encounters. Therefore, I would like to open it up for more contributions from you all, especially when you have been so helpful with my prey rarity!

Contributing & Privacy

All you have to do is fill out this form. I know for the hunting prey rarity, the form was quite daunting, particularly if you elected to contribute your information with your hunting party's stats and synergy. That's why this one is short and to the point. The form has three questions: Biome, Encounter, and Encounter Level. List the biome you were exploring in, the species of the battle encounter, and the level listed for the battle encounter. Do not list your Lead Wolf's level.

Alternatively, if you do not want to fill out the form, feel free to copy and paste this post template and add it onto this topic or PM me. You may also, if you so desire, search "battle" in your userlogs and copy paste your user logs to me; in order to save space, either send in a DM, or upload to pastebin/your own thread/Google Docs and link here or in a DM. However, userlog data at this time may be used in a limited form. Currently, there is not enough data to indicate if, for example, "Cougars" are the same rarity no matter what biome you are in, or if it differs between each biome (for example "Common" in Mountains but "Rare" in Swamps). In the event of the former, userlog data will be incredibly helpful and perfectly adequate. However, I cannot guarantee if it will be able to be used or not. Anyone who takes the effort to do so is greatly appreciated for putting in the effort.

Just like my prey rarity research, I plan to credit the top contributors who provide particularly high amounts of data for my research. This will be updated as I have time to go through the data and tally up submissions. In the event you would like to rescind your data, please DM me or reply on this thread with your request. I will delete all records of any entries where you have input your username & ID. If you submitted any data without inputting your username & ID, unfortunately I do not have any way to delete it, but ensure that it is completely anonymous and in no way is able to be associated with you or your account.

Additional Instructions

I would like to specify which kinds of encounters I refer to when I say "battle encounters." While some explore encounters can certainly lead to battles, I specifically am referring to encounters which are stand-alone battles; there are no other interactive options you can choose, and it is stated upfront in the encounter which species you are encountering and what their level is. I am not including NBW encounters which can be attacked, even if that wolf cannot be befriended (i.e. your den is full). Battle encounters will look like this:

• "You see some small critters running desperately in the opposite direction." leading to a battle with a wolf.
• "A small herd of collared peccary are moving through a rocky passage, trying to stay unnoticed." leading to a battle with a cougar.
• "A grey jay is caching some food for the coldest months within dead tree bark." leading to a battle with any enemy.
• "A trail of smelly skin patches scattered on the frozen ground leads you to a moulting elephant seal pup." leading to a battle with an elephant seal.
• "Loud noises, a nasty smell, and aggressive thumping give away the fact that you're approaching a massive walrus horde." leading to a battle with a walrus.
• "This great skua is circling the area, likely in search of food." leading to a battle with a wolf.
• "A giant anteater is foraging through the brush, looking for tasty insects." leading to a battle with a frenzied razoerback.
• "Oh no! It's Tala!" leading to a battle with Tala.

In the event that there are any errors with the form, i.e. you encountered a species which is not listed under the biome you encountered them in, first confirm that you selected the correct biome. If this still holds true, submit your species under "other" and make sure to leave a message here on the thread or in DM to me. From time to time, this may happen as Wolvden changes the names of encounters, changes where they occur, or removes or adds species over time. I will manually update the form and ensure that your submission was submitted correctly. Alternatively, you may elect to, in lieu of submitting through the form, submit your encounter as a reply to this thread or in DM to me. I will update the form as required and will submit your encounter myself, so that you will not need to submit it again.

Conclusion

I will update this topic as more data is collected. Thank you very much for any contributions you may add, and I appreciate any and all input, questions, and feedback.

Credits

I would like to credit the Grouse House for their multiple guides, specifically their Battling and Explore Encounters guides. I would like to especially highlight their Battle Encounters Spreadsheet, which has been immensely helpful for matching battle encounters with biomes, as well as identifying the full list of possible encounters.

Top Contributors

Top contributors are identified as the number of contributors (up to the top 10) who have contributed the most submissions. In the beginning stages, there will be a minimum requirement of 10 submissions. This number will gradually be raised and adjusted as more submissions and top contributors occur. I will track userlog submissions and form submissions seperately, as they contain different levels of data and require different time & effort commitments from contributors. For userlogs, each individual encounter in the userlog will be counted as 1 (one) for top contributor tracking purposes.

Form Submissions
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Userlog Submissions
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Methodology

I intend to review this data and match up the rates at which certain species are encountered when exploring. I plan to analyze if there is a correlation between species and biome, i.e. is one species the same rarity no matter which biome you explore (so long as it is native to that biome) or will it be more rare in some biomes and more common in others. Level data is recorded seperately in the event that it may be relevant as well, i.e. is it more rare for one species to appear at higher levels. I also would like to track if, in general, higher level encounters occur at a rate more frequent than lower level; and what are the ranges that species can possibly occur, i.e. does one species only occur with levels 10-20?

I plan to use typical statistics and probability calculations and tracking to interpret this data. The actual formulas and calculative approaches may differ depending on the data I receive and if specific trends occur which may change the routes my research takes. I plan to provide charts illustrating the data I received as well as explaining my interpretation at the end.

In the event that it becomes clear that all encounter rarities are not influenced by biome, I will request the public to submit their Userlog records of battle encounters. I will not require users to manually input each entry one by one into the form; however, I will make an updated version of the form that will no longer require Biome entry in order to save the time it takes to submit data. It will become an optional question.

I will be utilizing Google Spreadsheets for a great deal of the automatic data parsing and calculation. In the event of Userlogs being utilized in my research, I will run them through a Userlog interpreter I manually programmed myself using Python which will create data I can then insert into the spreadsheet along the other data I have received, so that it may be included quickly and efficiently.

[Reserved for data and results]

Changelog:

• 12/21/20 2:42 CST: forum topic created and form 1.0 posted.

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Replying to sub to the topic, been sending all the battle encounters ive found through the day and will keep doing so :D

@Dust#7939 Thanks friend! It's greatly appreciated!!

We're already at over 675 responses!!! I am absolutely thrilled by the turnout from everyone, it's already so much and so beneficial.