02/06/2015 - Creatures Technical Issues

I'm resuming work on creatures and combat this week. We'll keep this thread open for feedback on what's in progress.

Here is a list of what's on the agenda:

1) Creatures currently run full speed up slopes. Terrain needs to affect creatures as it does players.

2) Creatures sometimes go through walls. This is due to the path finding blocking system which needs to be improved.

3) Creature stats need to be balanced again.

4) Creatures are not growing in power fast enough. Too few creatures are reaching max legendary power.

5) Creatures that reach old age but not enough power will die of old age to enable more creatures to breed.

6) Creature names need to display more information so that players know what they are up against (for example an old age legendary chicken is going to be tougher than a normal run of the mill chicken. It's size is not enough of an indicator of its power).

7) Creatures need proper collision on ramps.

8) Creatures need to either attack players on boulders or run away, avoid them and reset.

9) Creatures should not be able to attack players on walls above them.

10) Ranged combat needs to be implemented.

11) Any desynch with creatures needs to be dealt with as best as possible. Desynch is well explained in a link provided by one of our players here

12) Ranges need to be adjusted. Most likely we need to go with less realistic melee ranges in favor of more playable ranges (like in many other games).

Our overall strategy for creatures is as follows:

- Small wild creatures will be easy to kill but will avoid players and should be hunted with ranged weapons.

- Small city creatures (rats) will be easy to kill and will be attracted to towns. They will mob players in groups.

- Mid size domestic creatures (cats and dogs) will be attracted to towns. They will pose a medium threat in a fight and will be easy to tame.

- Mid size wild creatures will often attack and pose a medium combat threat. They will be a primary target for melee hunters.

- Raccoons will be attracted to towns and scrap piles. They will pose a medium to strong combat threat but will often avoid combat.

- Deer will primarily need to be chased and hunted and will attack only when they feel very threatened.

- Bear and coyotes will be aggressive and tough in combat. The largest legendary specimens should require a group of players to kill.

- Mutants will range in behavior but in general they will be difficult in combat. The larger mutants should require a group of players to kill.

For now, this is mostly to keep you all informed. If you know of any other major issues with creatures, feel free to post them.

This is not a thread to start discussions or debates. When changes are ready to test, I will request specific feedback.

Thanks!

Copied from the Bugs Forum:

Pwnuts says:

1.i'm using a pick / shovel which should have the highest range for combat and still its almost not possible to hit a bear aon 400+hp or a mutant bear on 800+ hp. only if you'r lucky and hit him on the side it works.

problem here seems to be that the center of the mobb which i need to hit to deal any dmg is covered by the body which is really huge on the HP i told. you can not go through critters, which is correct, but if you go close you get blocked by their body. so right now i can not get close enough to deal dmg on them.

2. i havnt seen any bear or deer mutant with full hp. i know it takes time to grow and there are a few people hunting. but i also recognizes that some really big critters go into the mist and didnt came back for more than 30minutes. so they are maybe to far in the mist to hunt them or they stop growing at some point.

3. another problem is that a lot of small critters do not stay/breed in low danger zones. most of them are in extreme danger zones ( not talking about mutants ). i havnt seen a chicken in any low danger zone yet, but there are plenty in extreme. anyway imo there are not enough small critters for new players around. at least not in the zones where new players are supposed to settle down. if there will be a steam release soon, there will be a whole bunch of players joining and the amount of critters around the lake should be much higher.

This is what I experience with combating animals, when I charge right hand full charge, then release, it should hit the target, about 70% is a miss, even if I am close enough to my target, also when I release my charged right hand and push my right mouse to charge it again then my previous charge is canceled-out following with a miss.
And some times creature can sprint even with low energy.

once you continue with the animals behaviour, please take a look at "deers & racoons" i can find one of them almost everytime i cross the lake. usual they have 200+ hp (deers). i can also prove it with a couple of screens of diffrent days