Feedback about the predators in the game

Seldkam

Well, the thing I dislike about this game the most is very simple.

The predators feel like docile sheep. Seriously, aside from the Bone Shark and Stalker's growls, I've been in a kelp forest (nighttime and daytime, a whole in game day) and have aggro'd countless Stalkers. How many bit me? None, so far... I'm sure I will be successfully chomped on eventually, but this is more of a hopeful question than anything: will the stalkers become more dangerous? the Bone Sharks more dangerous? will they be able to track the player more easily instead of the occasional spaz out if one just simply swims past them? (Also IDK if this is true, but it seems like most creatures in the game that bite do around 30 damage? I think the predators should be buffed a bit basically.)

I don't mean to tell you guys "stop everything and fix this exact part of your game" I really don't-- I'm just stating what I hope to see improvement on the most. I'm actually very happy with everything else.

dottedfish

The thing I'm unsure of is the mechanics behind predators. For example will danger be realized using higher numbers of predators or using scale? You could have 10 stalkers coming at you from 5 directions and you'll probably be dead. Or you could have a single big and fast one go at you and most likely die unless you stun him or feed him.


What I didn't like that much is that I can't tell when I provoke most them. Are they fed, are they hungry, are they agressive? I don't know. That makes it something like: you go near them they go after you. Which is too simple I believe.
I really like the Crash and Mesmer aggro states - you can clearly tell when you shouldn't come any closer. However, I feel there could be one more state where you can feel tensions rising, especially in groups like crash. After all they are about to give up their life (for what? maybe put some eggs that we can harvest down there)


That said I agree with you - there should be specimen almost instant killing you. But they should always have a reasonable mechanic behind so you can work around the attack in a natural way that's enjoyable even after doing it 100 times.

Squeal_Like_A_Pig

Agreed, there is still a lot of fine tuning that needs to go into many of the creatures. The Stalkers were the first dangerous creature we added to the game, but as we get more and more creatures implemented, we can start to balance between them all, to figure out which ones should be the most aggressive and deadly, and which ones less so.

Also, we had to be careful tuning the creatures to be too deadly, because there was a lack of gameplay mechanics that would allow the player to deal with them. But as we get a lot more stuff in, like the Stasis Rifle, we can probably start ramping up the aggressiveness on some of these creatures.

Seldkam

I think the mesmer is awesome, by the way, did I mention? I ran into one and he was totally passive until I went up to his face to take a picture-- he didn't injure me, funnily enough, just "mesmerized" me. One tweak I'd love to see is instead of a blood damage indicator, more of a psychic effect, otherwise players will think they've been bitten or something, "why can't I move" etc.

That said, I haven't been actually damaged by one-- I assumed they damaged the player by using their strange mesmerizing powers, but then again, maybe it isn't spacemagic and it's just their amazing looks?

Squeal_Like_A_Pig

Seldkam wrote: »

I think the mesmer is awesome, by the way, did I mention? I ran into one and he was totally passive until I went up to his face to take a picture-- he didn't injure me, funnily enough, just "mesmerized" me. One tweak I'd love to see is instead of a blood damage indicator, more of a psychic effect, otherwise players will think they've been bitten or something, "why can't I move" etc.

That said, I haven't been actually damaged by one-- I assumed they damaged the player by using their strange mesmerizing powers, but then again, maybe it isn't spacemagic and it's just their amazing looks?

Hmm, he should actually be injuring you. It should actually be doing something like this


He should mesmerize you and pull you in and then he strikes out with the grabby claw tentacles that are inside his mouth. And, as you mentioned, we would like to add some kind of trippy screen effect to show that you are being hypnotized.

Seldkam

Sounds good, though there was no indication I was being damaged at all... I think even with nodamage on there are still injure effects and sounds, while none happened anyways

Still awesome creature just seems very small for what I had in mind, then again we had this discussion before with the kelp forests hehe

Kaiserfront

At first, would prefer one (very dangerous) predator for each biome part. So if you have a Kelp Forest next to you, there should be one Stalker roaming in it. This one predator could be to big to follow you into the caves in the Kelp Forest so you can hide in there.
Second, I don't know if thats already discussed here, but I think for a game like this, animal attack should be handled like in Far Cry.

Seldkam

I don't know, how does that even work? I mean the Far Cry shark attacks? I'd prefer to avoid the "mash button to live" but I agree it should be more fleshed out than what it currently is

Kaiserfront

Well as seen in the video, the attack keeps you completly occupied and its kinda like a small video sequence where you can't do anything but fight with the attacking animal. It feels more immersive to me that way because it kinda simulates an actual animal attack where you also would just try to hit/stab the attacking animal.
If you survived multiple attacks, it could get like in Assassins Creed where you can avoid the attack by hitting the animal first if you push a button fast enough.

Formous

Squeal_Like_A_Pig wrote: »

Agreed, there is still a lot of fine tuning that needs to go into many of the creatures. The Stalkers were the first dangerous creature we added to the game, but as we get more and more creatures implemented, we can start to balance between them all, to figure out which ones should be the most aggressive and deadly, and which ones less so.

Also, we had to be careful tuning the creatures to be too deadly, because there was a lack of gameplay mechanics that would allow the player to deal with them. But as we get a lot more stuff in, like the Stasis Rifle, we can probably start ramping up the aggressiveness on some of these creatures.

Something I'd like to see when we get huge monsters is us actually being devoured, and if possible, see the fleshy insides till death. Imagine being pulled through the jaws into the tube like interior of a coral snake for a few seconds, being digested before death? Make some animals too big to fight and persistent. I want to be hunted, and this could be especially important for the bigger creatures. Morbid as this is, it would be cool to have animated, and disgusting death animations for some of the unique animals like the Leviathan or Coral Snake.

Seldkam

Formous comment would be awesome if applied to the larger creatures, maybe the sand shark since his gullet is huge