The wolves at Derailing

[Hotzn]

This is to discuss the new wolf spawning and the location "Derailing" (don't know exactly if that is the location name - I'm talking about the derailed red traincar in Mystery Lake where sometimes a rifle and/or frozen corpse can be found inside the car). I personally like the new wolf spawning and its randomness very much, it adds something fresh even if you know the maps very well as a player. However, it also has repercussions on how easy or difficult it is to access certain location that we all know to hold valuable loot. The best example in my view is the Derailing in Mystery Lake. Formerly, this was a chokepoint with 2-3 wolves patrolling around it. If we wanted to get to the loot or pass by (for example when going from Camp Office to the Dam), it either had to be a very lucky moment or we had to face the wolves. Now the Derailing is often deserted, and we can just walk in and pick everything up. This seems somehow wrong. What to do?

Maybe for such important strategic points like Derailing there should be a high percentage that wolves spawn near there even under random spawning conditions. The heavy wolf presence at Derailing formerly had an impact on how I "handled" the whole ML map. To avoid the wolves, I would mostly circumvent Derailing in wide arcs. This made the map feel bigger and more varied.

Currently, I am playing an early TWM stalker run. I took refuge in the cave connecting the two plane engines (one in Echo Ravine). There are two wolves patrolling near the engine in the ravine, and that made looting the container there quite exciting. So I am on the fence - on the one hand side I like the randomness of wolves, but on the other hand it makes the game more interesting if they hang around certain strategic locations. A solution could be to identify such strategic locations and raise the chance of wolf spawns there considerably.

[ElvisHunter]

1+ I like random wolves around the map and predictable wolves also! They could add to these "strategic locations" a wolf den. With always a wolf or 2 guarding the area. 

[hauteecolerider]

I've been playing ML on Pilgrim since the v.325 update. Here's what I have observed about wolf and deer behavior. They tend to group together (three to five deer, two or three wolves so far) and hang out in a specific area for up to five days, then move on to another area.

I'm still seeing lone wolves and single deer like before, but they don't seem to travel regular patrols anymore. 

So I imagine that wolves will hang out in a specific location for a few days, and that would make it challenging to access that location. I rather like it, because it affects my play style to the point where I'm thinking "okay, there's three wolves on the lake, forget Plan A, let's go to Plan B and check out that other location I couldn't get to before . . ."

And it's Derailment. That's the name of the location you're looking for . . .

[Wasteland Watcher]

 Just want to throw my voice in there with you all. 

 I really love the way that animals may, or may not be in locations that they once were. It adds a real freshness to the game and I am just as cautious now as I was when I first started playing back in December. 

 I really make a mental note of where I see them, or where I don't. It really affects the way I move about maps now. 

 

 Every update they come out with I just seem to get sucked in more

[KD7BCH]

I actually prefer the random nature. It would be nice if we could get the wolves off the CAP patterns they keep using and just moving about more randomly. Maybe have them sometimes randomly simulate the chase for prey and just play rather than always on the lookout until you or a rabbit comes into their view. Something to add variety. 

[lupineways]

10 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

I actually prefer the random nature. It would be nice if we could get the wolves off the CAP patterns they keep using and just moving about more randomly. Maybe have them sometimes randomly simulate the chase for prey and just play rather than always on the lookout until you or a rabbit comes into their view. Something to add variety. 

On a semi related topics, I would like to see wolves sometimes fail to take down a deer they are after. The deer never seem to get away. Makes deer hunting with wolves a bit too easy IMO. 

[KD7BCH]

Agree and suggested this before as well. The biggest failures in the AI are the consistency with which they can be depended on to act or react in a certain way. The latest update changed that for wolf-player interactions in some ways and has greatly improved the game. The next step is to make it so that wolves do things like play or pretend to hunt even when they dont have a target, pretend to stalk, where wolves sit and pretend to watch over a point in the world, and then where they sometimes fail at their pursuit of deer. This would reduce the rate at which you can accumulate deer meat. 

Another step they have taken is that if you drive them off with a gunshot or a bow arrow near their position, the come back to draw you off from the kill they made. That is huge. The whole point of their kill was for them to eat and they aren't going to give up a kill to you unless they perceive more risk in engaging you or trying to draw you off than in just moving on. Even so wild animals are creatures of instinct rather than logic. They will not size you up properly sometimes which means you will be easier to make them run off some of the time or harder other times but what will dictate their behavior is their emotions and their desperation. Severe hunger for an animal or a lot of energy invested in making a kill will make it so that animal is more fervently protected as opposed to taking down a very weak animal that didn't offer much fight. They are doing a good job simulating animal behaviors in the AI already. 

Animals in the game always have to be gameplay objects first and then realism second but they are getting a better development pattern down and a really good balance is emerging.

[lupineways]

Yes, they have definitely made some changes to the AI behavior I am quite happy with so far and agree with more unpredictable behavior on an incident by incident basis. I'm not sure if this is getting too complex for AI but it would be neat if the wolf AI had a sort of short term memory. For example, if you encounter a specific wolf in they will remember that encounter and how they initially responded. The circumstances of that encounter could have some influence over how the wolf would respond if it encounters you again in the near future. Maybe something similar is already in place but its hard to tell.  

[HeWhoWalksByNight]

1 hour ago, lupineways said:

Yes, they have definitely made some changes to the AI behavior I am quite happy with so far and agree with more unpredictable behavior on an incident by incident basis. I'm not sure if this is getting too complex for AI but it would be neat if the wolf AI had a sort of short term memory. For example, if you encounter a specific wolf in they will remember that encounter and how they initially responded. The circumstances of that encounter could have some influence over how the wolf would respond if it encounters you again in the near future. Maybe something similar is already in place but its hard to tell.  

We've already individualized the wolves to a degree (Fluffy), but it would be a vast improvement as you say, if each wolf became even more of an individual, with different markings, sizes, gender, and more complex behavior patterns such as KD7BCH suggested. This would be so awesome. And Fluffy could become a huge, old wolf, like the bear in the hunt challenge. Then maybe, with more complex lupine social behavior... cubs? Cubs we could tame as companions?

[ShawnB]

Agreed that more varied animal behaviour would add more the the game. More deer escapes, less wolf barks giving you warning, etc. I'm sure the Devs have thought of that already, it would just be good to see more.