[Suggestion] Circle of Life

11 Sep, '21
Mantauk

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agreed that it is more typical to aim for the lungs or other vital organs when hunting... skulls are hard, arrows aren't bullets and you want to preserve the head for a trophy maybe? these aren't zombies after all, Dean...

if the animals can follow our scent trails now then we should be able to follow their blood trails. Play a bit more of theHunter if you haven't yet. Theirs isn't the most immersive way to track animals but I think a legitimate blood trail combined with wound-specific changes to the animal behaviour would be a fitting complement to Icarus. Sometimes you chase a roe deer half a league while she bleeds out from a stomach wound. Other times you surprise a buffalo in the trail and put a slug through his heart without thinking, or get a lucky shot through a lung on that black bear on the far ridge. And a broken leg means they won't go far.

If you did it right, you could almost forget about the weather, although hunting in a light rain should bring its own rewards.

29 Aug, '21
Nick

100% agree with this suggestion. Bears and wolves are natural enemies, yet they would walk right past each other to beeline it to my character and would both attack me at the same time. When they weren't attacking me, neither predator was doing anything other than wandering around, which just seemed silly as I was watching them. The prey at least would hop over obstacles or run away from my character, but also just wandered around.

29 Aug, '21
Jim

Fully agree - If a deer body is left around too long it should attract predators. At times even packs of wolves where the player would have a hard time defending against it so we don't make leaving deer corpses as a way of hunting.

29 Aug, '21
Damian

Yup this will make sense in a game like this that brags about inmersion and hostile life on planets.

30 Aug, '21
Old and Nerdy Merged

It'd be neat to see the bears and wolves hunting the deer and other animals or each other at kill sites.

31 Aug, '21
Alfcon

Totally agree, with Nick and Jim's comments. It will mean that players will have to hunt the predators to reduce there spawn rate if they want to have more of non aggressive creatures to hunt. But this should not last to long or it will become too easy, just enough to allow breathing space when hunter / gathering.

Players should be able to drop an animal they are carrying back to base in order to getaway, but it will also attract more wolves to that grid...

02 Sep, '21
Shawn Jones

As a continuation of this theme, animals that aren't killed in the first shot should be trackable and not despawn after a short distance. I'd also like to see vulnerable hit spots not always be headshots.

10 Sep, '21
Jere Merged

This would bring nice immersive experience to game but I do understand it might cause trouble to players to find game if bears/wolves devour all games in area.

11 Sep, '21
Elissa - Producer System

"Wildlife" (suggested by Old and Nerdy on 2021-08-30), including upvotes (3) and comments (1), was merged into this suggestion.

11 Sep, '21
Jonathan A Baker Merged

have predators actively hunt non predators

11 Sep, '21
Elissa - Producer System

"Make animals interact with one another." (suggested by Jonathan A Baker on 2021-09-11), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

12 Sep, '21
Element_None

Bears DO NOT hunt hunt game, unless it is a Polar Bear. Bears usually only attracted to berries of all types, honey, fish. They don't chase wolves, or deer. Also bears and wolves never hang out together. Bear will only attack other animals or humans if they perceive them as a threat, they do not actively engage in hunting for meat.

13 Sep, '21
Shoppy Merged

Would be good to see animals interacting with each other. It seems a little robotic and lifeless that they just ignore the presence of each other.

13 Sep, '21
Christos

Some basic animal interaction would be useful, even in the means of generic feedback.

Game should not walk side by side with predators. Seeing deer flee would indicate some sort of predator near-by.

Wolves should also flee when a bear is present, not team-up. 1 bear is manageable, 1 bear + 2 wolves is not.

14 Sep, '21
Headache Merged

The animals don’t interact with each other. That chafes against reality. The lazy solution here is to have the non-predatory animals run away from the predators. The better solution is to have some kind of interaction; wolves hunting small animals, bears picking up fish. It's far better if the world was *alive* rather than only interacting with *you*

14 Sep, '21
Mark0l

Thumbs up for animal interaction, although it might be hard to implement right. Interesting would be to have half-eaten corpses (by wolves) as an early source of meat and materials - but would require making killing harder so there is not an abundance of resources.

Kind of off-topic: deers could eat crops, herbs, etc so there is an incentive to kill them or keep away. Btw predator attraction to kills is great mechanic.

14 Sep, '21
Bultar

Wolves should usually act in packs (3-5) and only when they are alone should they avoid bears, else they might fight with them. Also bears being less sneaky would be nice. The way they growl is just slightly different from a deer, but sometimes they don't growl near you or just pop near you.
Wolves would be less of a exp farm and we would be able to know when there is a bear around.

15 Sep, '21
Elissa - Producer System

"Wolves hunting deer, etc" (suggested by Matt on 2021-09-13), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

15 Sep, '21
Falconburger

Make bear and wolf prefer deer (and each other) over spear-wielding humans (unless human foolishly stays in aggro range too long)
Make baby deer too fast for the bear. Medium deer too fast for wolf and bear. Make Full-grown deer slower than wolves and bears.
Give bear and wolf hunger meter that, when deer become scarce, makes them think humans look worth it.
Have deer die of natural causes too so the bears and wolves can eat the dead animal and leave us the bones. They can also fight over it. Meat is too rotten for us.
Too high a wolf population will cull the baby deer and reduce the bigger game abundance bringing bear and wolf to your doorstep. Maybe?

16 Sep, '21
Elissa - Producer System

"[Suggestion] Animal interaction" (suggested by Headache on 2021-09-14), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

27 Sep, '21
SigurdCole

TBH I disagree with this suggestion. The fact that predators are attracted to kills is good, but if they hunted live game it would be easy for them to eat all the prey. I'm not sure the effort and balancing would be worth the immersion, and at least the behavior now is predictable (and more or less controlled by the players).

27 Sep, '21
rolandinho Merged

Every animal class would benefit from some type of fight/flight behaviour based on curiosity versus fear. Non-predators should always flee, as is the case now. Fear should overcome curiosity, altering behaviour.

Aggressive animals should be quick to attack, but not always and not to the death every time. Aggression coupled with curiosity should grapple with fear but an attack should not be 100% assured.

Fear could increase as damage is taken by the animal, eventually triggering a flight response. Not all animals fight to the death if they can escape.

Aggression or fear could be affected by player level; weak bears not attacking a high level player or weaker wolf packs being larger, providing more realistic and varied encounters.

Lastly, a player killing animals in an area should reduce their willingness to return there (increased fear). This would have the effect of making bases safer from predators and also depopulate heavily farmed areas requiring hunting further afield.

28 Sep, '21
Rykar

This would be really cool to see, especially in later chapters when the wildlife is truly alien. A wise hunter would hide and observe an unknown predator to learn its behaviors and capabilities. This would better prepare the hunter to defend against attack, or to hunt the predator if necessary.

28 Sep, '21
Klawful2011 Merged

Don't agree with the last part. I like the fact that Bears lurk around my bases and keep me on my toes, and will even try to get to me through my base. Don't wanna make things too easy.

28 Sep, '21
Elissa - Producer System

"Animal AI suggestion: Basic fight or flight instinct (fear/curiosity/aggression)" (suggested by rolandinho on 2021-09-27), including upvotes (2) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

28 Sep, '21
ZogTheHog

I wholeheartedly agree with this, and as well with carcasses attracting animals, and some kind of animal tracking or bleed over time damage for hunting if you him an animal in the right spot. Frankly there could be way more animals: birds, squirrels, rabbits, porcupines. Maybe even Big Horn Sheep or Mountain goats, and I think if the bears were strong but spawned less, a Mountain Lion would make an amazing addition to this

26 Oct, '21
rolandinho

After BW#5 I feel the animals are a bit too wary now. I had to go pretty far before seeing a wolf and even further for a cuddly bear encounter xD

I hope this is just stuff being tuned in the background, but the starter area around drop zone is safe enough to leave your kids.

Would be good to know what has been done around the animal behaviour - any info Elissa? :D

28 Oct, '21
Gregory

It would make the world even more believable if animals were to react more to their surroundings. You kill an animal next to another, they bolt. You shoot an arrow, miss, and the arrow lands right next to the target with a thud, the animal runs. Animals could have more behaviours and routines. Especially when it comes to bad weather or a fire around them, they could panick, look for shelter, even attack when cornered. There could also be more diversity in animals / more kinds of the same animal and they could interact more, like wolves hunting deer, a wolf pack fighting a bear, bears with cubs protecting their young even more fiercely. Animals could behave differently, a single wolf when not hungry would bolt when seeing the player, a famished wolf would attack, a pack of wolves would attack for sure. Some kinds of bears would be shy, others agressive, territorial even, especially with cubs around(bear in cave with cubs, what a frightening thought). Mix it up with random nature events.

28 Oct, '21
Giddion

I know I can leave out a deer carcass and it will attract Wolves, I've done it a number of times. After they leave the bones are left clean.

07 Nov, '21
Dem

I agree there was some steps made to make AI smart in desert and a bit of forest but not enough. Wolves / Hyena after death you must skin and get rid of bones right away if you leave the bones or unskinned many wolves like hyena will come to that spot and what it looks like is to scavenge off the body of the deceased. Watch the AI in it. Now just make the wolves chase deer til dead or they outrun just as they chase us. No Male lions i saw .. only females why? or maybe just not ready yet hopefully. reduce population tho please

22 Nov, '21
Darth Mord

I've seen some improvements in this area. Wolves and other predators come to investigate dead bodies. I've seen rabbits running from wolves in the arctic.

I would like to see wolves hunting deer on occasion too.

05 Dec, '21
Turbo

Most animals should be less plentiful but give more xp/resources. All animals should have a baby version that makes the parent more aggressive in defense.
Wolves: should be less common but hunt in actual packs. Attack as a group, retreat after sustaining great losses. Maybe add new mechanic where wolves could pin a limb down.
Deer: need to have a defense mechanic. They should aggressively defend their young.
Bears: should just chill and eat berries. They should be faster, swim way faster and freak out if you get to close.
Polar Bears: should just straight up hunt players forcing players to leave dead carcasses to buy time.
Hyenas: like wolves, but larger packs... more laughing.
lions: like wolves but stronger and hunt at night tracking players.
Elephants: should be in a pack and act like bears.
Add crocodiles / alligator / hippos to the rivers. Snakes scorpions / African buffalo (with a stampede mechanic) to the desert.

07 Dec, '21
Aleksei K.

And what about animals behaviour? Deers sleep in the field at random points in time, wolves crying at sun day. Storm and weather conditions do nothing for creatures.

09 Dec, '21
munt

Would appreciate this as well. I find it just confusing that aggroing a bear will also aggro wolves or vice versa. Getting teamed by them, especially in solo is just death. I wouldn't mind it if they also wanted to kill each other or the wolves were scared of bears and stayed away, which I think is probably the best suggestion.

10 Dec, '21
RoKu

The animals even gang up on you, yesterday a bear, wolf and boar attack me at the same time. xD

10 Dec, '21
mr steal your job

Please make the wildlife interact better. Herd Ai would be a great addition for the reindeer other than the Bambi following the mom. It would also be great if the wildlife also got tired and didn't terminator chase me throughout the map until I died. Maybe have them chase other prey if they crossed paths?

21 Dec, '21
Obeahmon

I have been thinking about this as I run into it all the time as well. Why are elephants so angry that I killed a nearby hyena? I love that corpses tend to attract predators, using them as bait works pretty well. I figure the animals should all be playing a similar game with a scaled down version of the same mechanics the player is using. Do they not have an internal 'hydration meter'? Will they eventually lose health from not eating? This would do quite a bit to enhance EvE interaction. If I saw a predator with less than full health, I might be inclined to think that it was starving and thus much more dangerous. Having a pack of wolves rush me only to steal the food I was trying to skin would be awesome. Automating animal behavior based on water/food/shelter needs would dramatically enhance the player experience as it relates to the world. Going to the water to drink, taking shelter in caves, and fighting among each other are a big part of what the natural world is missing right now.

24 Dec, '21
Xyhod

agreed, the game needs more thought here. Wolves and bears aren't exactly friends. Boars tend to be skittish to other animals, etc. The worst part of this issue, I've had a bear some wolves and a boar all attack me at the same time, paying no attention to each other.... then they stand around my corps like they are going to break into a rendition of kumbaya.
The animals simply need a greater level of natural action relative to each other.

26 Dec, '21
Kobura

Wolves coming to bear's aid even though I didn't attack the wolf is so common our team even has a name for it. Starts with B rhymes with Stitch. "There's a bear. Where's his b&&? There it is." Every time.

30 Dec, '21
Hoss

Also, weather effects/events should impact wildlife as well. Animals shouldn't just be chilling near the lake during a shamal imo

30 Dec, '21
Fizban

21 Dec - Obeahmon
"Automating animal behavior based on water/food/shelter needs would dramatically enhance the player experience as it relates to the world. Going to the water to drink, taking shelter in caves, and fighting among each other are a big part of what the natural world is missing right now."

^This. Would LOVE to go into a cave one-day expecting worms only to find a protective momma bear with her cubs!

Could segue into disease as well, eating meat from a dead animal you found could make you sick, and drinking water from a river with a carcass upstream could have increased chance of disease debuff.

10 Jan, '22
velocity7

Having to snipe out a wolf or boar escort for a bear before killing the bear is not what I would call realistic. They shouldn't even be anywhere near each other, let alone co-operating. Maybe if they were hunting each other...

12 Jan, '22
Macdallan

Am I the only one that's seen herbivores stop to eat or drink (or at least that's what they look like they're doing), and predators chasing after other animals? I've seen this in game. I've even seen a deer and its fawn run into a cave during a storm. I often see deer lay down when the weather gets bad, they're getting low to stay out of the weather as best they can, and that's actually what deer tend to do in heavy storms.

The creatures on Icarus are not only genetically modified but probably changed a bit by exposure to not only the failed terraforming but the exotics on the planet's surface. Their behaviour is not going to mimic that of their counterparts on Earth. Wolves and bears do seem awfully friendly - just not with me - but I don't see any big issue with that given the situation is... shall we say abnormal?

From what I've seen there are some inconsistencies and glitches/bugs to be ironed out but generally the animals act how I'd expect.

04 Feb, '22
Stuart Newsom

I believe it would be an excellent concept that persistent predators who hunt, can also get more powerful, potentially creating alpha predators you can hunt for more resources over the course of long prospects. It seems like a really good mechanic.

08 Feb, '22
BigKid

In respect to the original suggestion: Yes... Please...

There is another suggestion about animals being to cooperative (to each other and against the player) - I think these two could be merged...

08 Feb, '22
Eldiin

ISSUE RIGHT NOW: Sometimes animals don't seem to be plentiful, where as at other times there's an over abundance. I have had situations where there where no animals in sight for 40+ minutes, making hunting useless in that timeframe.

If you leave a corpse on the ground, Wolves, Boars, Hyenas, Cougars, Leopards, Bears, and Jaguars will happily eat the corpse you left, or fight you for it.

Sometimes you will see wolf packs that engages as a pack.

Outside of this, there is no game mechanic to make the wild life more engaging.

OPINION ON THIS FEATUREUPVOTE SUGGESTION: If you were to make it more engaging, predators hunt non-predators, there would need to be a balance somewhere else, as well, to help with the potential loss in animal resources because of this. Maybe increase the animal resource yield a bit (not a lot.. just a bit), to help counter the potential loss in killable/skinable creatures, since you will now be competing for valuable resources.

10 Feb, '22
Kassandra L Watson

While I did up-vote this, I like that Macdallan finally mentioned that this is not Earth and we have no idea how the wildlife might behave. That said, the behavior is a bit boring and repetitive. I am encouraged (and very excited) to know that this game is in the early stages and have so much room to grow and could go in any number of directions.

01 Apr, '22
AnonyMoose

I could respect it if they decided not to allow Bears to attack Wolves, because realistically they'd devastate them all and then there'd be none left to threaten the player. But having them ignore each other's existence (and team up aggroing the player) is also silly looking. I'd rather see Wolves be afraid of the Bears, growl and back away if a Bear has stolen their kill (whether dead deer, or an endangered player), and then if the bear roars, have the wolves bolt away in fear, then after a minute or two return to normal patrol areas. That would be pretty cool to see, and basically boils down to only a couple triggers, not that complex.

But I very much agree that the world could really use more wildlife interactions (which adds longevity to the game, spontaneous chance occurrences that surprise a player.)

Also, what about bears and fish? Grizzlies often go for salmon. Could be cool to see a bear at a shoreline, animation to bat at the water, and spawn a flopping fish on the sand.

06 Jun, '22
Deano

Yeah, Cougars attack Scorpions and visa-versa so why not other animals attack their natural food.

11 Jun, '22
Gargathon

The Styx lizards do now make a bee line for downed creature, so its kinda a race to beat them to the bones :)

[Suggestion] Circle of Life

Comments: 51 Oldest • Newest • Most likes • Fewest likes

Comments: 51
Oldest • Newest • Most likes • Fewest likes