The wolves are borderline intolerable. Here is a better option.

So I think everyone will agree that wolves fleeing from players like whipped dogs is both unrealistic and annoying. I don't know how it is in Texas, but it's not in a wolf's nature to immediately run in fear at full speed.

They are inquisitive animals and are willing to plot and scheme to get a kill and feed themselves. Id go as far as to say they are unhealthily brave in most situations... so, instead of the current mechanics, Id like to ask if its possible to change their behavior to the following...

As a pack animal, wolves howl to call their kin to a kill. I suggest that if a player engages a lone wolf, the wolf would immediately howl to call for assistance, flee for a period of 2-3 seconds (circling) and then engage the player. If the player doesn't kill the lone wolf within a set amount of time, a random number of pack members between 1 and 3 spawn to join the fight. If the player gets the pack down to a single enemy, the pack leader spawns with a slightly higher difficulty. For example, if you're fighting a pack of elder's, an obsidian would be pack leader.

That pack leader would be the enemy that has a chance to drop the pristine heads.

This is just a thought. I'm honestly open to any alteration of the current wolf behavior because its super annoying as it is today.

Thanks,
- Grave

 

I disagree with your assessment. The behavior is slightly odd but mainly because of the spacing of the animals. There is little pack behavior in game now. Lone wolves will run unless desperate. <-- oh wait, I used the same unfounded argument mechanic there. Oh well, I still disagree and wish they clustered in bigger packs.

 

What the wolves do, or do not do, is insignificant at this time. I certainly would not want Portalarium to put something else aside to bother with a wolf that runs away.

 

The spacing of wolf mobs isn't exactly sparse. Most scenes have them densely set, which is why its broken. They run about 80% of the time, then eventually leash back to their spawn point at 200mph and upon return they have suddenly and miraculously developed enough bravery to attack since you're already fighting a different mob that didn't run. So now, you're not fighting 2-3, but 5-8 due to poor mechanics.

There is no consistency at all unless you're high enough level to kill 8 at a time and that's no fun.

P.S. Bears are complete loaners, so grouping 10-12 of them in a single area is also inaccurate. I say we buff them and spread them out more. They are loners except in the rare case that they are mating which would make a lot of current scenes huge bear orgies.

 

I don't see anything wrong with posting suggestions to fix things even if they do become back burner and/or future efforts.

 

Wolves make multishot a worthwhile skill! Spray in a cone to grab all wolves. Repeat. First crit is free.

 

I agree.

I disagree with comments like "Don't do this Port keep working on what you're doing!"

That just derails what could be a good brainstorming exercise. Port has a plan and isn't going to derail it just to fix wolves.

When they do get around to fixing wolves, they may do a search of the forums and see some great ideas that have already been generated for them.

 

when it's salmon season for the bears tou can see several at a time. I dont know much on the subject tbh but the bear hill in Ulfheim sure is unnatural.. good exp but really there are more bears than trees on that tiny hill

all with you on wolf behaviour however i thought that obsidian creatures and normal ones wouldnt get along well.
they seem to get along but should they?

 

???

1)
Its a game

2)
Its New Britannia, not earth

3)
Here on earth wolves actively avoid humans in the wild. Normally they will hear or smell a human from afar and simply take a detour as to not cross paths. Thus if the game would emulate something like earth reality then you wouldn't normally see them at all.
If the behavior you describe would be "realistic" then there would be wolf attacks all the time, since there is not we can safely deduce that that is not "realistic" wolf behavior.

4)
I like that they run away, it makes them pseudo-smart in that you can scare them away - start harvesting a node - and get hit in the back.
I want more special behaviors like this, not less. It is what makes mob variety and the game less repetitive.

5)
BUT with all of that said, with the exception of the running away bit I'd LOVE for your suggestions to be implemented . So while I disagree on your reasoning I'd say that what you describe with the howl/call would make for great gameplay which we need more of.

It would be great if most mobs would have a "Call for Aggro" glyph/special, which we can 'break' by a timely attack. Where wolfs could have one chance to make such a call before engaging, but also a chance when really hurt and running away.

So we can see the wolf start preparing for a howl, which we can 'interrupt' by attacking, and if the howl succeeds then the aggro of all wolves within X distance increases.

Where an old suggestion of mine would be a similar special for bandits (maybe scouts or leaders) - where they could pick up a 'horn' and start tooting, where if we don't 'interrupt' that call then all bandits close-ish in the scene gets some aggro and comes running.

This would make for an excellent "oh sh*t" moment when you realize what is happening and try to do something about it. Or when trying to sneak up on that one so you can surprise them without them sounding the alarm.

I also like your suggestion of adding a spawn. Although I'd prefer a patrol from edge type of thing over a visible spawn suddenly popping up.
This could even trigger emergent game play where the player can taunt and harass enemies to get them to call in reinforcements to fight.

Here is my old post from 2015
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...eam-and-154-negative.35092/page-8#post-409422

 

I like the wolves the way they are. I find them massively annoying, and will generally leave you alone unless in they are in a pack or you try to take a resource that is nearby. That gives me options. If I want the resource, I have to kill the wolf first. If I see a pack and I expect to die, I get to turn around and go the other way. See annoying, but also pretty realistic, so I say keep em as is.

Cypher Black

 

wolves and bears dont hang out together in the real world, if there are bears and wolves together one is tryin to eat the other!

wolves will pack up to take down bigger prey just sayin! The wolf thing in this game, honestly makes no sense, and i have to agree if a wolf pack attacks something they normally work together to take out that one thing, with spurts of attacks rather than just standing there taking the hits or giving the hits! I always laugh when i see a wolf and a bear pawing at the dead rabbit one or the other just killed its honestly stupid, it would never happen!



Notice how the bear in this clip is not enjoying the time with a wolf! lol

Thats the kind of tactics that would be great for the wolves in this game!

 

It would be nice if wolves generally would have a more pronounced pack dynamic. Among a group of wolves there's always a "large" or higher tier specimen which affects the packs behaviour.
If the alpha wolf gets killed the other wolves flea. If the alpha wolf gets into a fight the pack joins.
An exception could be "lone" wolfs, i.e. higher tiered single animals that have their own behaviour.

Also I would like it to see animals (even fierce ones) to flee a fight if they are seriously harmed or don't see a chance to win. Same should be true for sentient beings. It is beyond me why green brigands attack high level avatars even when their bandit brothers were just killed with a single strike...

 

I understand spoons point up there, but typically in a fantasy world the wolves are bigger and more aggressive, from any game ive ever played /RPG type fantasy world they are called Dire Wolves, the Dire wolves in Game of Thrones wouldnt run from a humans, elves whitewalkers etc....!!!

 

R42 has more factions, it used to be in the olden days that animals had only one faction, then they divided it into hunters and prey, but now they are dividing it up even further, so that is the way it will go forward - wolves and bears will no longer team up as they have used to.

 

well i was just in spectral foothills and 2 Obsideon wolves were chilling with 2 patriarchs, and ive also seen it in deep ravenswood, so as of this moment 10 mins ago wolves and bears are chillin together!

 

Correct.
Right now the live server is R41, QA is R42.

But also mind you that usually such faction roll-outs historically takes a while to nudge/balance scenes who were built with the old factions in mind.

 

i hope they fix that it makes me laugh every time i see them chilling together pawing a dead rabbit!

 

I think spiders chilling around other critters is what makes me go so here is to hoping that more factions will make the scenes make more sense.
*toasts*

 

All great points guys, thanks for the replies.

 

I wish the wolves would huff and puff and blow us avatars down! Port please implement that.