Dragomir
Member
Yes, I think it's essential for this game to work out well. We have a persistent world with NPC's going about their buisness, all animals should do the same - including natural monsters. They should hunt and eat each other, sleep and reproduce (we don't have to necessarily see it though). I think an illusion of a living environment would suffice, but then pushing it even further would also be great.
I mentioned it in LindyBeige thread that in Gothic such illusion was present. Predators attacked us because they were hunting, and after we died we could pretty much sit and watch being eaten by them. Another thing is that they attacked each other and had different behaviours.
In Gothic 2 I think it was done even better, let me explain.
One time I was on my trip to monastery. I was a complete fledgeling with very basic gear. I could take a small animal if it was single, but in that game most of them wandered in packs. Suddenly I walk into a pack of scavengers - big birds that even though usually fed on carcass will attack if unsettled. I was really scared, because before I managed to run away they charged at me. Then - a pack of wolves suddenly ran out of a forest. I was sure that's my death sentence and I was ready to reload the save. But they didn't attack me. Scavengers were much more a meaty prey and a human could've been more dangerous. The scavengers of course started to run away in panic, and wolves followed them into a deep forest. The road was clear.
Now this kind of behaviour indicates many great AI mechanisms. Wolves hunt - when they find a prey they will kill it for food. They had their priorities right, my character was not the most important thing in the world, nor was he the most tasty, so they went after their natural prey. The prey ran away to save life. I just loved how animals would react to humans in that game, and every animal would react in a different manner. Most of them tried to scare us away before charging, while some predators (like raptor-like snappers) would regularly hunt on us, following our character quietly and attacking when they found it suitable. Most of the animals also had their dens. Some of them, mostly prey would go back into bushes or under a rock after the day of scavenging was finished. Predators on the other hand left their hideouts at night to hunt. That made nights especially dangerous and... Exciting. And forests at night were to avoid until pretty high levels.
In some cases that AI behavior also made pretty interesting differences in difficulty. According to stats a monster called Lizard was significantly stronger than a Snapper. But Snappers were far more difficult to fight, as they would creep up on us and attack from an ambush, while lazy Lizards would just lie down on beaches near water and sunbathe.
As Sui Generis' world is to be persistent, a lot of the focus is taken away from the main character - and I love that. We ought to be the part of that world and not a center of it. A system that will make animals act natural - hunt for each other or us, find food, reproduce, sleep in dens, fight for turf or even leadership would really bring life to it. I don't want to feel like the game is throwing at me waves of mobs to slay as in many other RPG and H'n'S games. I really want to feel like everything I find or meet is an integral part of the world I'm exploring, every animal in it's place, doing what it's suppose to do and only interacting with us if it sees us as a threat. That would also make hunting so much more interesting and tactical.
I mentioned it in LindyBeige thread that in Gothic such illusion was present. Predators attacked us because they were hunting, and after we died we could pretty much sit and watch being eaten by them. Another thing is that they attacked each other and had different behaviours.
In Gothic 2 I think it was done even better, let me explain.
One time I was on my trip to monastery. I was a complete fledgeling with very basic gear. I could take a small animal if it was single, but in that game most of them wandered in packs. Suddenly I walk into a pack of scavengers - big birds that even though usually fed on carcass will attack if unsettled. I was really scared, because before I managed to run away they charged at me. Then - a pack of wolves suddenly ran out of a forest. I was sure that's my death sentence and I was ready to reload the save. But they didn't attack me. Scavengers were much more a meaty prey and a human could've been more dangerous. The scavengers of course started to run away in panic, and wolves followed them into a deep forest. The road was clear.
Now this kind of behaviour indicates many great AI mechanisms. Wolves hunt - when they find a prey they will kill it for food. They had their priorities right, my character was not the most important thing in the world, nor was he the most tasty, so they went after their natural prey. The prey ran away to save life. I just loved how animals would react to humans in that game, and every animal would react in a different manner. Most of them tried to scare us away before charging, while some predators (like raptor-like snappers) would regularly hunt on us, following our character quietly and attacking when they found it suitable. Most of the animals also had their dens. Some of them, mostly prey would go back into bushes or under a rock after the day of scavenging was finished. Predators on the other hand left their hideouts at night to hunt. That made nights especially dangerous and... Exciting. And forests at night were to avoid until pretty high levels.
In some cases that AI behavior also made pretty interesting differences in difficulty. According to stats a monster called Lizard was significantly stronger than a Snapper. But Snappers were far more difficult to fight, as they would creep up on us and attack from an ambush, while lazy Lizards would just lie down on beaches near water and sunbathe.
As Sui Generis' world is to be persistent, a lot of the focus is taken away from the main character - and I love that. We ought to be the part of that world and not a center of it. A system that will make animals act natural - hunt for each other or us, find food, reproduce, sleep in dens, fight for turf or even leadership would really bring life to it. I don't want to feel like the game is throwing at me waves of mobs to slay as in many other RPG and H'n'S games. I really want to feel like everything I find or meet is an integral part of the world I'm exploring, every animal in it's place, doing what it's suppose to do and only interacting with us if it sees us as a threat. That would also make hunting so much more interesting and tactical.