[Suggestion] Animal AI needs an upgrade
I know that this is way easier said than done, but there are some weird behaviors currently. Deer walking right up to you then freaking out and running away for no reason. Deer just randomly jump in the middle of walking, which is funny because it doesn't stop them getting stuck everywhere. Not to mention they suffer from the 10 second alzheimers after getting shot in the head.
Bears locking on to you from across the map and charging towards you only to stop at where they "should" notice you and forget you exist for 1 second, then going right after you again. Or spawning behind you? And I guess not noticing you until you turn around and see them like a cartoon. Then as soon as you look at them just chilling out then suddenly the hate you and you're lunch.
Wolves would rather set themselves on fire and walk into spikes to get to me than eat a baby deer right next to them.
The goat turns into a racecar at the slightest thing and runs to the border.
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13 Feb, '25
kingcodebraHighlighted comment
Things I've noticed:
1. Creatures don't seem to always have the desire to attack you from the front, back, or side. Sometimes they instead try to invade your abdomen(giggity) and work their way out from there.
2. Some creatures appear to have NO survival instinct or intelligence. A sandworm popped out in front of an elephant and a scorpion. The scorpion ran past the elephant to attack me instead, while the elephant just stood there looking at the worm. XD
3. On that note, almost all aggressive animals will blindly run past weaker prey to get to a player instead. Creatures who haven't seen humans would likely shy away or observe for weakness first. And come on, Bambi is RIGHT by your snout.. I swear I don't taste good.
4. Lastly, thanks to me messing around, I've also discovered that they will also just straight up run off of a cliff to get to you. But I guess that's how gravity hunts.. lol. -
13 Sep, '21
XP-Zzyzzx MergedAnimals have significant pathing issues with terrain elevation changes.
There are often clusters of animals trying to path over small rises, or get out of rivers/lakes at places they cannot. Sometimes the approach of a player will scare them off in a different direction, but many times they just continue to fail at pathing forward. Even attacking them does not always make them run, leading to exceptionally easy hunting. -
14 Sep, '21
Elissa - Producer System"Animal pathing issues" (suggested by XP-Zzyzzx on 2021-09-13), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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15 Sep, '21
Chrissy System"[Suggestion] Wild animals must be feared of open fire" (suggested by Rico70ru on 2021-09-14), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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08 Nov, '21
Mike Bryant MergedThey should travel in groups and respond when one of their pack is attacked. Sometimes this happens in the arctic but it feel pretty rare. In the desert, hyenas were no threat because they were almost always solo. Sure, in low level areas, have just a stray mob. Once you get to high level areas, make them travel in packs.
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08 Nov, '21
Chrissy System"Wolves / Hyenas need better teamwork" (suggested by Mike Bryant on 2021-11-08), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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28 Mar, '24
AtrakTamed animal AI should also be included in this. I've lost a lot of animals in my latest save, and it has become so frustrating that I'm probably going to take another break from the game. I don't mind a game being hard because it's difficult. That can be rewarding and fun. When it's hard because the AI is dumb, it isn't fun. The examples below are from this past week (week 120):
1. Pack buffalo fell behind (follow+defensive). It attacked a non-aggro'd jaguar. Jaguar ignored it and locked onto my horse from 400 feet away.
2. Had animals in a pen (defensive). Croc aggro'd on them and tore down the fence. Couldn't kill the croc because all of the animals grouped up on it, but didn't attack it.
3. Riding horse through Styx central artic area. Tried to jump over a 1' crack, but horse rotated 90 degrees and fell inside. Wolf aggro'd and started killing it. I dismounted, fell through the terrain, and remerged in the far west artic area.
Frustrating. There are more, but character limit. -
27 Jun, '25
Krystof Wysocki MergedThe animal AI gets stuck on anything that has even the slightest divot or indent in it. This is especially frustrating for anything that requires defending a fixed position like radar scans or vapor condenser waves because you can get situations where 1. the animals get stuck and build up numbers before getting unstuck and pouncing all at once 2. for vapor condensers you'll need to leave your defended to area to scour nearby obstacles to kill any stuck animals before the next wave can start (then run back as fast as possible before the next wave gets onto you). A pathfinding code that kicks in after an animal is detected as stuck for 3 seconds or so should do the trick?
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01 Jul, '25
Elissa - Producer System"Animal AI gets stuck very easily" (suggested by <Hidden> on 2025-06-27), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.