Predatory Behaviours, Attack Animations, Animal Aggression and "Dinner Bell" Theory

[boreal cypress]

The main idea behind this is to overhaul the predator behaviours and aggressions of the majority of the predatory animals in the game to make them more interesting, scary and lead to more unique encounters with them.

1. Make your downed animal act like a scent lure for animals like bears, cats, wolves and coyotes and make them aggressive towards you instantly when they spot you and compete for the kill (or with smaller predators, attract them in and have them flee when they see you). This would give more reason to carry side arms and first aid kits in game and would be a useful mechanic for luring in bigger predators and actually make them a bit more scary. Distance being similar to scent lures or higher distances with animals with a higher sense of smell.

2. Big cats stalking you! Would work as a chance encounter with the "stalking" call with the animals staying out of the open, moving crouched slowly through the brush getting ready ambush you if your close or have your back turned to them. Another reason to carry a faster firing weapon or side arm.

3. The "Dinner bell" Theory, essentially brown bears and wolves attracted to your gun shot as they are hoping to steal your kill (essentially the audio version 1.) Would have to be more of an RNG occurrence as if it always happened I could see this getting annoying. Distance being similar to calls but potentially further out for animals with better hearing.

4. A feature when you startle or spook large predators, Bores or Bovine animals when close to their need zone (territorial behavior) resulting in an attack or stampede. I think this would also need an RNG element to prevent mechanic abuse.

To go with all this an improved aggressive audio, animations and attack AI to make these events more unique and memorable ie. Cats stalking and pouncing, bears charging in crashing through the brush and swiping etc.

Thoughts?

[frigid condor]

People would just slaughter deer to make predators come in

[thorn flume]

But if they put a range on it, say in render distance, it wouldn’t be so abused

[boreal cypress]

@thorn flume That was my thinking with the scent also aswell as an rng element with the dinner bell theory as that'd be OP.

[thorn flume]

If done wrong it could be the worst addition ever. But if done right it could be fun

[boreal cypress]

@thorn flume one of the main ideas for me was to give the predators a bit more character and make them anxiety inducing when close as currently they're very skitterish. A mechanic for instant attack when you sneak in to close and startle them would be good too. That would be good for the likes of a Bison or Buffalo herd stampede aswell basically resulting in insta death

Another feature added in to raise the stakes could be that if you get downed by the attacking animal or pack before picking up your trophy, the trophy dissappears as the predator takes the kill. I could see how this would annoy a few people, but I think the increased tension of using this intentionally or unintentionally would improve the atmosphere when in say bear or wolf country

[boreal cypress]

It'd give the grinders another way to do that I suppose. I personally prefer stalking through the bush and getting close or bringing animals into clearings using the scents and calls as it feels much more rewarding. In these cases having the chance of say a mountain lion stalking me in the bushes as I'm going to pick up my trophies would make for a tense moment even while making my way away from the area

As stated above it'd have to have an rng and risk element to it (ie. If you get downed by the attacking animal you loose your downed trophies) to balance it otherwise yes I could see the mechanic getting abused

[dense robin]

There is a similar mechanic of attracting predators with bait carcasses in Classic. Brown Bears in COTW used to be very aggressive (as did Wild Boar); I had more than a few jump scares when one would crash through the thick brush on Medved to swipe my face off back in the old days.

[boreal cypress]

@dense robin I do feel like alot more animals use to be more aggressive in the early days. In the first year I remember sneaking up on a mob of bore on Hirsch, getting charged by the lot, almost dying but managed to get up on a rock and take one out below me and it scared them off. These are the kind of memorable chance events that need to make a come back I reckon

[dense robin]

Yeah, they nerfed the aggression considerably because of the complaints. Even Cape Buffalo became quite placid. One of my most intense memories from about 4 years ago was being killed by a boar, who then cased me back to the outpost where I respawned, only to kill me again. Twice. It was fun and I have never forgot that.

[boreal cypress]

I've noticed that too, Buffalo or Bison stampedes basically don't exist now. There might be one that tries to go you if any. Aggression as a whole definitely needs a rework. It give the animals character rather than just being targets to shoot at

Hunting a bear, wolf, big cat, bore or wild bovine at a closer range should not be relaxing it should be a tense, risky affair 👌🏻

Predatory Behaviours, Attack Animations, Animal Aggression and "Dinner Bell" Theory

[steep sun]

I just want predators to be aggressive.. would make the game so much more fun

[thorn flume]

I definitely don’t want them to steal kills

[calm field]

I like the ideas just not sure how I'd feel when I killed a go then only to get eaten by a bear 🤣

[thorn flume]

I’d quit. I think having animals kill/steal trophies is a terrible idea

[carmine island]

Hunting is not dangerous, predators do not stalk and hunt humans, they fear them as well as the sounds of gunshots..

The bovine herds do not attack either, they only defend themselves and if they see a serious threat too close they lash out, but normally not against humans and not outside the breeding season.

We already have aggressive buffaloes in the park and they are very annoying and unrealistic, also have the Wolves and Lions that attack when they are in "Stalking/Hunting" mode, which makes it impossible to hunt during those times, the same with the Pumas that do not attack but emit calls very often and scare the other animals or chase them.

This is not a survivor game

[boreal cypress]

I see your point there, maybe best that that feature got left out as I could see it annoying alot of people

[boreal cypress]

Hence the rng chance on the features as predators have been known to attack lone humans in the wilderness and the chance increases greatly if spooked close or food or their territory is invovled but yes you are right, they do generally flee

[steep sun]

I'm not saying it should happen EVERY time you encounter a predator species, only occasionally. But it would make people think more about running around randomly.. while predators don't 'stalk humans', they most definitely do attack humans.. bears especially are known to attack unprovoked.
Cape Buffalo, while not a carnivore, is one of the most dangerous animals in Africa as well as Hippo.. so I makes sense they charge often.
I don't think mnt. Lions should scare prey, but African lions would. I have no problem hunting during these times, and if anything, makes more entertaining as predators can 'push' the prey towards you.. (and I wait with a shogun to shoot fleeing prey)

[meager imp]

Hey Hunters!

Thank you for letting us know about what you would enjoy seeing in the game. Our Development Team is constantly working on new content and they are open to ideas!

I will pass your suggestions to the rest of our team for consideration.

If you have any other ideas on what you'd like to see in the game, please feel free to share them with us!

[boreal cypress]

Since experiencing the new more aggressive animals on Emerald Coast what are peoples thoughts on this?

[sonic axle]

Need to be better and harder to get away from

[boreal cypress]

That's agreed, also need to do more damage

[sonic axle]

Ye definitely