New game mechanic for survival: Fish Whisperer

<span style="font-size:10px">So recently I made a <a href="http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/146906/we-need-a-combat-self-defense-update#latest">post</a&gt; involving more violent solutions to violent fish. Controversial to say the least, but there were some ideas in the comments and it got me thinking about non-violent solutions to these creatures.</span>

I present to you the idea of us as survivors being a...

Simply put: We learn about creature's behaviors, and find ways to get them to do things we want them to [IE: Big munchy things to leave us alone, small helpful things to help, ext.]. We already have something similar to this with stalkers and how we can get them to be temporarily passive with peepers (the snack that winks back).

This is my list of ideas and an example with them. I will say this might be far harder to code given the fact that you have to deal with different movements of the player for some of them, but I think a few of these might be pretty easy to do.

These ideas will be split into 3 categories: deterring predators, Pacifying Aggressiveness, and befriending Creatures.


Sonic weapons: These weapons would include things like handheld "explosives", a torpedo, and maybe a sound gun. Basically it will screw with some creature's senses and cause them to flee. The first enemy that made me think of this was none other than the Reaper Leviathan and it's data entry. It relies on it's roar like a sonar, which means it likely has very acute hearing. Any sonic weapon will cause it to freak and run so long as it can hear the noise. be warned this would only work as long as the sound, wherever it would come from, is active, and once it stops the Leviathan returns. Any creatures that rely on sound would be instantly paralyzed or flee because of the noise. Creatures like the peeper... wouldn't even know what you're holding; nor would they care.
Tool/weapon ideas: Sonar bomb, blast torpedo, Frequency Cannon.

Mimicry: This will come up again in the other categories. Mimicry would involve some sort of cloaking device or something that would make you look like a different predatory fish. You'd have to scan fish to get the blueprints for the equipment to make you look like a fish, but it would basically cause lesser predators to flee (such as a biter running from you looking like a stalker). There would be 2 limitations. 1st: Size. You are not looking like a Sea Dragon any time soon, but your cyclops can. Specific sized creatures require specific vehicles or lack there-of. 2nd: Biome. a Sand shark lives at its lowest in the dunes and so a river prowler would never have likely met one, and so it would be aggressive to it, and vice versa.


Movements: This would be one of the harder coding for behaviors, but it could be a very fun and very interesting tool. Lets imagine 2 stalkers fighting for a piece of scrap. In this display of power they both start by circling one another, then one charges forwards. The one being charged at moves out of the way and moves to charge at the stalker. This repeats until one of them gives up (lets say 1-3 times). You can then emulate this behavior when meeting a stalker looking for a meal. As you swim with it and go back and forth it eventually gives up and becomes passive for a time (until it looks for another meal.) The big parts would be the potential creature interactions as we see predators fight for territory, food, scrap, ext between one another for that more immersive feeling, while also making it more fun to watch species for both entertainment, and genuine improvement of survival skills.
*side note: maybe you could also mimic other predator behaviors when facing lesser predators to get a similar result, except them fleeing (aka: movements for "Deterring predators")

offerings: We already have this with stalkers, so how about other creatures. Not much else to say.

Mimicry: This is just about the same with mimicry, except that creatures wouldn't flee, but just not care. A given would be predators of the same species (although you could have to use "movements" if something thinks you're encroaching on its territory). The only other big difference is that if you were in a cyclops hiding as a reaper, going into the blood kelp zone, the Ampeel wouldn't be keen on attacking, but wouldn't flee either. It doesn't know what it is, only that it is big so unless it shows aggression, there isn't necessarily a reason to flee to it.


Long term interaction: After being in contact with a creature for a while, it may gain a sense of alliance with you after constant "movement" interactions or "offerings", similar to temporarily passive stalkers, but this would be more permanent.

Saving a life: Say you find a reaper leviathan going after a lowly sand shark, and before the sand shark dies, you use your sonic gun and get the reaper to swim off. That sand shark would have a chance at becoming a friend. The same can be said if you find an injured creature, be it a reefback or a crabsnake and you do a "movement" interaction, then sacrifice a health pack or something to heal it. Another chance for it to ally with you.

Mimicry: Just like before, you watch interactions but this time you see how a pack hunter, say a bone shark, would get another bone shark to become an ally, then you do just that after you make it neutral with you.

*side note: Up to the devs if we'd ever get a reaper/sea dragon as a friend. (that would be soooo cool though)


These are just some ideas, and things like movement behavior can be pretty difficult to properly code between how the player moves with a level of forgiveness/strictness in that movement and the mistakes made in it, to how the fish itself interacts and how the player responds. It's all a bit of a pain, but if this game goes in a unique, non aggressive approach, I'd like it if even one or two of these things gets implemented because of how interesting it would be interacting. I understand where people come from not wanting weapons in the game, but something needs to happen because right now the only difference between a shooter and this is that you don't kill the things, you just run from them. For all the difference that makes, this isn't a horror game so it isn't AS noteworthy as it could be.

EDIT: I would also like to say that this game's aggressive enemies need to be toned down a bit. Seriously get within earshot of them and there is a 90% chance they're looking at your behind like there was a hamburger between your buns. Most non-apex predators (basically predators that aren't leviathans/emperors of the real world, and what should be this world) won't attack strange/unusual creatures unless provoked or starved. So unless there is a creature made that just so happens to look a lot like a human in a diving suit across every place there is a predator, we should be looked at with a bit more caution by these creatures unless they're described as being abhorrently vicious... or as I'd like it to be known: new genus of angry Sea Honey badger

EDIT #2: (January, 5th)

As the Carar spreads throughout the host, different behaviors begin to emerge as their neurons are disrupted by the virus. These can be classified into Neurological Degeneration stages

Stage 1 - Aggressive behavior: As the virus begins to damage neuron regeneration, creatures have a tendency to act more impulsive and on instincts. This causes predators to become far more hostile (basically a first stage infected predator acts like they do now and just straight up attacks you). A creature in this stage will still ignore others of its species and larger organisms.

Stage 2 - Violent Isolation: Once the virus begins to truly take its toll on the victim, a creature will no longer be able to determine friend from foe. an infected individual will begin violently lashing out against even those of its own kind, leading to a social isolation. At this stage the virus has still not fully disabled mental reasoning, and as such the predators infected will still eat and avoid large predators. What few memories it can bring up lead it to at least avoid others with closer relations to it.

Stage 3 - Senseless Self Destruction: Simply put, the predator knows nothing about what it is attacking, or why it is doing it. Big or small, hunger or not, the predator can only comply with its most violent instincts as they are the most ingrained behaviors the predator has. It will not eat what it hunts, it will not be sedated by forced feeding. This is the sign that a predator is in the final stages of Carar, flailing about in what can only be described as its brain's last ditch effort in a fruitless attempt at survival. There is no more violent creature than the end of stage 3, anything and everything is a target until the creature finally begins to lose its ability to move, and finally shuts down and dies.

A Predator at stage 1 can still be passive or even tamed, but by stage 2 it will be violent. A stage 2 predator that has been tamed will avoid the player instead of attacking, although continually pressuring it will cause it to lash out. By stage 3, though, there is no reasoning. Any creature at stage 3 is at the equivalent point of rabies where everything will be attacked. The brain is freaking out and using what it can to survive, that being predator violence. Maybe we see some infected v non infected leviathan fights (just a cool thought). As for prey, maybe they just become more fearful until they're a bundle of nerves swimming frantically too scared to feed on anything as they slowly lose themselves until they die.