Please don't introduce humans as battle-able enemies

It could go either way on this. Personally, I think it should be a toggleable enemy, with the encounter only happening in your home biome as an optional encounter, sort of similar to the "climb the rocks" encounter

Something along the lines of "You smell something cold and wrong. Digging a bit, you find a shiny set of teeth obscured by [leaves/sand/snow]. There's an odd not-prey scent coming from it." It would have two choices: Track the Scent or Inform the Pack. If one chooses yes/Tarack the Scent, it would either start a battle with a poacher (and only a poacher, not a farmer or hunter, or anyone legally allowed to go after wolves for whatever reason) or a small/medium sized carcass ("You find some dying prey trapped. You put it out of its misery and take it back to your pack") Whereas the no/Inform the Pack wiuld give a bit of flavor text: "Followinng your discovery, the pack avoids that area for a bit. A few days later, the strange shiny jaws are gone, as it the not-prey scent."

Im still against humans in game because I feel itd ruin the tone of the game but I dont believe its a "problematic content" issue more than just, users who ARE discomforted by the prospect will more than likely get it forced upon them without content warnings since explore is entirely rng. They CANT avoid it (esp if trophies were added and such player is a completionist) 

Im not of the mindset that problematic content should be censored because of it being bad in the real world, i AM of the mindset however to not force that content on people who dont want to see it.  And thats the issue to me with human encounters. 

I have hesitation regarding even posting here since I feel peoples' emotions have run a little high. So... Disclaimer? I got trigger warning stuff to say?

Growing up, we [my family] had a copy of Nikki: Wild Dog of the North (1961, ours was VHS) and I watched it over and over.  There were a lot of negative impacts of humans upon other creatures in the film.  I also read Jack London's Call of the Wild and White Fang.  Again, there are negative impacts.  I understood as a child that things are not black and white.  I understood someone can be hurt physically and get away, regardless of any feelings of hostility now gained from such interactions.  Heck, to be proper, the understanding that certain creatures probably should not be trusted.  White Fang, in particular, had expressed this complexity well: it's not black and white. 
I was not older than ten; these films expressed this theme well enough that I definitely found them believable!  "Of course, White Fang, they [the humans] are not all bad, you [White Fang] just [as in recently] went through horrible, horrible things, and I'm glad you were able to trust [humans] again!" <~ You would have to have read or watched White Fang to understand this, but I digress.

As I often attempt to do in my replies to Game Development threads, I'm going to look at how we have done it on Wolvden thus far.  Thus far, we "slay" reptiles, wolves, and such from the quest snake.  It's regarded as such in the quest user log.  I choose to believe I'm only defeating the opponent in combat, not killing them.  To slay is to violently kill someone though, so as it currently stands, if there was a quest involving human opponents, yes, we would be slaying them.

Come to think of it, I do not think there is an opponent lacking a quest snake request on Wolvden.  I could be wrong.  I personally feel better defeating something in combat such that it retreats, but that's not what we have.  The combat text will tell me if I lose that I "can no longer fight," or that the enemy has lost a lot of blood and can no longer fight.  So there's a small discrepancy there in wording, I feel.

Do I personally have a problem with humans as opponents? No.  I understand this is a game, and while it is unrealistic to expect a real wolf to defeat a cougar or a bear in one-on-one combat, I enjoy the stories we are given the freedom to create. So, I want to defeat bears, et cetera in combat, not slay them if we are having humans added to the quest roster (as in, if this is unavoidable/something the devs still want to add) - even then, I'm fine with humans lacking a quest objective altogether and even no trophies to come from them.  And, as others have expressed, I like the ideas presented of campsite interactions and being tranquilized, because that happens and would add some consternation for my wolves if they understood what happened (what I'm getting at: more stories!! more conflicts!!).

@oleanderomen that option you came up with seems like a really good middle ground

I agree. Do not add humans!

For one i like to imagine wolves just rule these lands and it is just nature and human free.

but my main reasoning is because battling humans could be a huge trigger! Animal attacks in real life can be devastating and cuase ptsd. also murder and violence like this isnt for everyone! seeing a human get just bitten and attacked by a wolf or even just the idea of it (assuming you do not make it graphic) can be really uncomfortable at best and panic attack inducing at worst. These things are very different when we are talking about another human vs a random animal.

I would like to add, a fair number of us came over from Lioden, and one of the battle encounters there was a poacher. All the battle encounters have two choices, Attack or Ignore, all but the poacher. And it makes sense, lions and many African animals are threatened or endangered, and the same is true of wolves as a result of habitat and prey loss. I fully understanding hunters and farmers going after wolves, I used to live in an area where we would occasionally get mountain lions near the town and trying to go after the livestock. But in Wolvden, we see very little in the way of humans having any effect in the various areas, leading one to believe that each of the areas is a wildlife sanctuary/reserve, and therefore safe from hunting and away from farms, meaning the only humans that the wolves would likely encounter are conservationists, who would know to leave the wolves in peace, and poachers. If people are that worried about humans as a battle-able enemy, then make it a toggle and add some friendly encounters, like maybe "A strange furless creature is watching you from between the trees. As you stare them down, they pull out an odd black box, doing something with it before walking away. What a weird creature... Oh, hey, shiny! [+1-5 sc]"

im personally against a toggle, because it would be more work for the devs. humans can be implemented in ways that dont include battling thatll satisfy everyone most likely. id prefer an encounter where a wolf chases away a human agressively to battling, i think most people on the thread just do not want death or severe implied bodily harm to humans.

My bigger worry is if that they introduce humans in a way more difficult to be avoided. You could avoid or toggle them off theoretically, but if the humans are necessary to kill (trophy items for recipe, event currency, etc), it kind of makes it much more difficult to avoid. I'm able to currently not attack the baby raccoons, but there isn't much lost from that.

oh god i didn't see that until now :(( REALLY don't like that idea. part of the reason i don't play lioden is because of those themes lol. would love to see this game remain a little farther removed from real life

There is one trophy from a human that could work. Not as dropped from a battle, but more that some canines are absolute asses. A human getting barked at and dropping their camera, or a particularly bold wolf sneaking closer and flatout stealing the camera from beside the human. I will forever stand by 'all borkers are adorable assholes.'