Are we ever going to get more creature behaviours?
GlyphGryph
USA Join Date: 2015-02-19 Member: 201435Members
USA Join Date: 2015-02-19 Member: 201435Members
One of the best things about this game is the atmosphere, and one of the best ways it was communicated early on was through the behaviour of creatures, like the Stalker, that have behaviours that give them a place in the world, behaviours player can discover and interact with. Like you're dealing with actual living beings in an actual ecosystem.
But it seems the longer development goes on, the less of this there is. All of the new creatures just feel like basic "patrol/aggro" robots. None of them really do anything. This has only gotten worse with the Cyclops update. Why is that? Is behaviour simply going to be added later? Or has that whole aspect of development just being abandoned in favour of a more FPS style "everyone you are fighting is an unthinking, unfeeling killbot" behaviour set?
Edit: Actually the new companion critter is obviously good for behaviours too! But I mean more in terms of normal wildlife.
But it seems the longer development goes on, the less of this there is. All of the new creatures just feel like basic "patrol/aggro" robots. None of them really do anything. This has only gotten worse with the Cyclops update. Why is that? Is behaviour simply going to be added later? Or has that whole aspect of development just being abandoned in favour of a more FPS style "everyone you are fighting is an unthinking, unfeeling killbot" behaviour set?
Edit: Actually the new companion critter is obviously good for behaviours too! But I mean more in terms of normal wildlife.
Comments
Speaking of which, I think that all hostile creatures need warning sounds. Getting mauled to death out of nowhere isn't fun.
I thought all creatures *did* have warning sounds?
They don't they just make noises when they are charging you
IMHO, if predators were more surprising, unpredictable or moved around over greater distances - then we could get by with less of them. This would make encountering even a sandshark exciting and interesting.
My own personal perspective:
The game would be a lot better if the predators had randomised levels of aggression.
Imagine trying to guess whether a predator is full? Trying to decide whether it is safe to swim nearby it. It'd add a bit of complexity. I made a mod years ago for Notrium which had the level of aggro oscillate depending on the exact distance to the player (the aggro change wasn't linear - it was hi lo hi lo hi lo)... it gave the predatory aliens something of an unpredictable nature (randomly affected by player movements relative to them) which really enriched the experience.
And according to the devs it was added for the interactions of the environment with the player so does removing this system means no behaviors for creatures
Like the ones you guys are talking about?
I don't know but for myself I like interacting with the environment whether its fauna or flora
Exactly, take bonesharks for example, they don't even act like they think you're a threat, they just charge at you with their mouth gaping open
Which is a real shame, since what we can see of the stalker's behavior shows the promise of a much more interesting, dynamic behavior system that the devs originally intended but weren't able to make work. Also, the undue aggression of much of the wildlife doesn't mesh well at all with the game's stated goal of not including much in the way of weaponry for self-defense.
Hopefully we can get a mod/update at some point that improves creature behaviors across the board.
If they've got all that... why don't they actually use it. None of those factors play into the behaviour of most creatures at all. We've got... Stalkers using curiosity I guess, and Sandsharks using hunger... possibly? Maybe the shroom worm dudes as well? It seems based more on fish proximity though. Do they track all that stuff and then, just... not use it? Or is it implemented so poorly it doesn't really have any impact on the behaviour fo the critters?
...and everything always attacks - there is no randomisation whatsoever!
I haven't seen anything like that in the game.
Right now curiosity doesn't seem to be a thing aside from in Cuddle Fish and kind of in Sea Dragons last I checked. Happiness and friendliness only seem to be a thing in Stalkers, and it's pretty basic there. Aggression just appears to be an attack state that creatures go into if you enter their range with no real variation. And there isn't any type of hunger system that I can see. I've seen a couple biters go through multiple schools of fish with no indication of stopping, and half of the time they don't even eat the fish they kill.
Behaviours like what you listed were planned early on, but it seems to have been pushed off over time and eventually abandoned, and now it seems like the only chance of getting more behaviour variation is in post v1.0 updates.
These limited interactions between you and the environment, and the environment and itself compared to what was originally planned are my biggest disappointment with the game right now. I'm not saying the game isn't good the way it is, but I would have preferred more focus on the fauna, flora, and the general ecosystem.
The roaches in HL did various things, hardly anyone knows about them.
Perhaps we need more reasons to interact with the creatures beyond eating them and running away from them.
oh my god that's awesome