Tracks and Wolf AI

[HazardousHowitzer]

I really wish that you could actually track animals..    Tracks just disappear, as you're following the animal. One life, a while ago, I shot a dear and was right behind it sprinting with it and the tracks disappeared right in front of my eyes. They just stopped appearing. The tracks from before were still there but no more showed up. I hope I'm making sense. I kept following and ran straight into a wolf who would rather kill me than the easy target dear who is already bleeding... Which brings me to my next thing

 

Better wolf AI... They're not good. I'll wave a torch in their face and they'll run 10 feet and come straight back. This is especially annoying when there are four of them right outside of the little shack I'm hold up in. One will come at me and the others will just walk around. I'll scare one off and one of the others will come over while the last one comes back again. They don't work in a pack either, one at a time they'll come at you. If one wolf is aggroing at you any other wolves in the vicinity just ignore you. It would be cool if they worked together more, flanked you. Right now wolves are either a serious thing you need to look out for, or just an annoyance that traps you for eternity or until you get an off chance of escape.

I also find their pathing a little strange. You can run behind a house and they'll never find you again. If you hear growling or barking you can get away really easy by doing the same thing everytime. Sprint, get high where they can't reach you and then go down really fast (they'll be stuck from trying to get up). Or like I said before, just use a building and run behind it and away. They'll never get you.. If you have a flare, you don't even need to wave the thing at them. As soon as you hear barking or growling light it and sprint and they practically forget about you. Idk, they just seem to be really lacking to be honest.

Also, it would be cool if waving the torch/flare/brand at certain times (times not shown) would effect how the wolf acts. Swinging the torch flare brand over and over again would make the wolf not scared. Just and idea.

[Timber Wolf]

13 minutes ago, HazardousHowitzer said:

Better wolf AI... They're not good.

I agree.  I think the entire animal AI is disappointing and needs a lot of work.  This is one of the reasons I spend so much time playing with the Old Bear.  There is some diversity and randomness to his behavior.  Compared to the other animals, he almost has a personality.

I don't even care what kind of behavior they add, it doesn't need to be more true to how these kind of animals actually are.  I would just like more interesting behavior, so they don't seem like mindless robots as they are now.  It would also be nice to see a wolf or deer show up in random places every once in while, rather than always finding the same amount grouped in particular areas.  And has been mentioned before, the deer really need improvement.  The deer behavior is so ridiculous it speaks for itself. 

I really hope they can give the animals some attention before release.

[HazardousHowitzer]

Couldn't have said it better! 

[Riverotter]

2 hours ago, Timber Wolf said:

The deer behavior is so ridiculous it speaks for itself. 

Right !!!!  Please fix this Hinterland when you don't have a million other things to do, but please fix the deer 

This game rocks!!!

[Jebru]

2 hours ago, Timber Wolf said:

It would also be nice to see a wolf or deer show up in random places every once in while, rather than always finding the same amount grouped in particular areas.  And has been mentioned before, the deer really need improvement.  The deer behavior is so ridiculous it speaks for itself. 

This is where I would like to see the wildlife improved first. Rather than having wolves always guarding a particular area, have them roam. A wolf isn't going to just pace back and forth on the ice. It will cross the ice in search of prey, or to get where it needs to go. If you expand where the wolf can go, it makes it easier for it to surprise you. 

With deer, it's the same thing. I would love to see them move more in herds, even if it's just 2 or 3 together. They could be in the forrests most of the day, then migrate to the water for a drink in the early morning or at dusk. Again, making them have a wider range to travel would make them harder to hunt. You couldn't just sit in one area, unless you wanted to sit there all day waiting. And, once you have the deer roaming throughout the day, you could also have a wolf tracking it. So if you cross a herd of deer running, you know you need to watch for the wolf/wolves causing it to run. 

[pulkmees]

14 minutes ago, Jebru said:

This is where I would like to see the wildlife improved first. Rather than having wolves always guarding a particular area, have them roam. A wolf isn't going to just pace back and forth on the ice. It will cross the ice in search of prey, or to get where it needs to go. If you expand where the wolf can go, it makes it easier for it to surprise you.

No surprises, please. It's frustrating as it is to deal with them when the suddenly home in on you.

If they started roaming in their current state, there needs to be less of them and/or their AI needs a change, because otherwise it will be complete random wolf attacks, which is bad.

The roaming should have some basis in real life, like you suggested with the deer. They could migrate between different areas, maybe their den on specific parts of the day, so the player can predict where they will be.

[pulkmees]

The player doesn't feel in control with wolves. They shouldn't in the beginning, but you're telling me every single wolf encounter should be the same till day 463 ?

What if I don't want to waste bullets or arrows killing them ? They are more useful to hunt down deer and rabbits.

I am constantly forced into just evading or killing them. And the evading part irks me the most since every single plan you had when you went out is completely halted when you see a wolf(READ: wolf starts homing in on you from behind a snowdune)

Also the number of them in an area still frustrates me. I can manage them when there are 4 in an even ground, but 4 of them in a labyrinth on snowdunes is not cool, That's an instant choice of kill or never go there. And it's even worse when they are on a path to my base and/or wood gathering spot like in Desolation point(path from road to Lighthouse)

[mystifeid]

12 hours ago, HazardousHowitzer said:

It would be cool if they worked together more, flanked you.

Wolf packs are already in the road map. Perhaps too when more animals are added (like moose and cougar) the behaviour of existing animals will be modified.

[mystifeid]

9 hours ago, pulkmees said:

What if I don't want to waste bullets or arrows killing them ? They are more useful to hunt down deer and rabbits.

With level 5 cooking, wolves become a tasty meal. With four wolves in the same area it's easy to lead them back to the same spot before inciting a charge so that afterwards with one fire all four wolves can be harvested and cooked.

[CalNieDaGtarGuy]

I also think that weather should affect them. I mean, you could be walking across the field in pv in the middle of a blizzard and run into a wolf. In real life, a wolf would never be wandering about in a full out blizzard.

[Mikhail_Reign]

16 hours ago, CalNieDaGtarGuy said:

I also think that weather should affect them. I mean, you could be walking across the field in pv in the middle of a blizzard and run into a wolf. In real life, a wolf would never be wandering about in a full out blizzard.

They don't. Animals are reduced during blizzards.

But yeah the animal mechanics is why I stopped playing this game. I'd prefer less animals with more random patterns. I mean S.T.A.L.K.E.R SoC had its A-Life mechanics back in 2001 and THEY made the world feel alive. People and animals just went places to do stuff.

As for the tracking. Agreed. I've had the exact same situation. Chasing a deer. Chasing its tracks. Tracks vanish in front of my eyes in clear weather.

[Riverotter]

On 12/23/2016 at 7:11 PM, Jebru said:

This is where I would like to see the wildlife improved first. Rather than having wolves always guarding a particular area, have them roam. A wolf isn't going to just pace back and forth on the ice. It will cross the ice in search of prey, or to get where it needs to go. If you expand where the wolf can go, it makes it easier for it to surprise you. 

With deer, it's the same thing. I would love to see them move more in herds, even if it's just 2 or 3 together. They could be in the forrests most of the day, then migrate to the water for a drink in the early morning or at dusk. Again, making them have a wider range to travel would make them harder to hunt. You couldn't just sit in one area, unless you wanted to sit there all day waiting. And, once you have the deer roaming throughout the day, you could also have a wolf tracking it. So if you cross a herd of deer running, you know you need to watch for the wolf/wolves causing it to run. 

I am all for seeing wildlife improve befor anything eles by exspanding there routes like you said