suggestion Idea: Mountain Lions

[the_funk-71]

Hi, first post. Love the game, and I would love to see more content added to increase how the player interacts with wildlife and the environment.

Mountain Lion (Puma concolor): Indigenous to the Americas from Northern Canada to the southern cone of Latin America. Size ranges from around 6-8 ft. with weight sometimes reaching 200 lbs. Poses another challenge for the player as an extremely dangerous creature to avoid or hunt along with moose, wolves, bears. I could see this creature working well in a challenge scenario as a hunt-or-be hunted survival deathmatch.

Ideas for interactive mechanics regarding mountain lion 

-Challenge mode scenario: survive X amount of time, reach a designated safe destination to win, or kill the stalking mountain lion

-Additional map idea: New map containing the habitat and territory of mountain lion. If entered, the player is immediately marked as 'hunted' and the mountain lion begins a long, drawn out, protracted hunt culminating in the perfect ambush where it attempts to kill the player. 

-If added, the mountian lion could be an animal that spawns in and actively  seeks out the player across the entire sandbox world in an elaborate hunt waiting for the moment to strike undetected in an ambush attack. Alternatively, an additional map could be the habitat of a mountain lion, and if the player enters the zone, the player becomes hunted prey for encroaching upon the territory of the cat.

-Warning signs: mountain lion tracks on ground, mountain lion vocal cries, distant sightings, ravaged corpses of prey (rabbits, deer) on ground, claw marks on trees, tumbling rocks, glowing eyes in dark, falling snow, snapping branches, mountain lion stalks and observes player base over long period of time (days/weeks). More conceivable ideas could be generated to help warn the player that they are being hunted and to adjust play accordingly to give the player a fair chance to resist, flee, or fight.

-Mechanics: Attempts to stalk player by climbing trees, rocks, and hiding in brush. Initially stalks from extreme distance then moves closer in different stages of hunt after days eventually attempting a kill. Warning signs present to indicate player is being hunted. Circles, stalks, monitors player base if player takes refuge in shelter until puma has opportunity to attack. Possible to scare off lion temporarily with rocks, torches, flares, distress pistol, arrows, bullets, etc to reset ambush timer and buy player time if player catches lion in close proximity before being ambushed.

-AI Characteristics: Avoids player sight at all times except from extreme distance (further than deer, wolves, bears) in order to stalk. Prefers to pounce player when condition is deteriorating negatively especially in cases of injury or weakness (encumbered, sprained ankle, freezing, hungry, thirsty, tired, etc). When player is healthy, strikes when player neglects to detect or deter animal is near and stays stationary for an extended duration of time (starting fire, cooking, sleeping, harvesting meat, etc). Possibility the cougar will only attempt to injure the player in order to steal a kill the player has made on a deer/moose and the ambush timer on the mountain lion resets as a result.

-Adjustable settings: With custom mode, the creature settings could  be tuned to match preferred difficulty. Such settings could include whether it spawns at all, the frequency of warnings, the amount of time before it attempts a kill, whether it only attacks weakened players, the amount of time between 'resets' of the lion's hunt after player has deterred stalking or attack attempts, whether it respawns or not, and how long a possible respawn might be for a cougar (days, weeks, months?). More possible ideas to help scale difficulty of mountain lion encounters are, again, conceivably possible to help player reach preferred difficulty.

New items:

Trip Wire - made from cured gut and bones/scrap metal and can be set up to indicate wildlife movements, warn player, or scare off predators.

Predator Trap - steel, jagged toothed trap designed to injure wolves, cougars, bears to be deterred or later hunted

Scent Mask - made from glands of killed animal to hide player scent and interact with unique animals in different ways

New skill: Tracking 

- Newly introduced skill, tracking, adds a level of further depth in dealing with both animals and the environment. Levels 1-5 with skill points like other survival skills.

- Gain skill points with successful snaring, trapping, or hunting. Also possible to research with books.

- Level 1: Ability to see vague, indiscernible disturbances/prints in snow. Low frequency/number of tracks to low player skill. Orientation of tracked prints uncertain and possible to lose prey/quarry by mis-tracking incorrect direction. Ability to see low frequency of blood droplets from wounded wildlife.

-Level 2: Ability to discern type of animal imprint within snow. Ability to distinctly recognize signs of wildlife (rabbit trails/burrows, tree scratching/rubbings from puma, bear, moose, type of fur, broken sticks, dragged/devoured corpses, disturbed bushes, etc.)

-Level 3: Ability to notice and map possible spawns of rabbit groves, deer grazing pastures, moose habitat, wolf/cougar territory, and bear dens. Frequency of detected tracks/blood increases and orientation of tracking becomes more accurate as a result.

-Level 4: Ability to track through fog, blizzards, and during the night- including one's own footsteps for navigation.

-Level 5: Possible to know whether one is being hunted by a predator immediately. Highest level of footprint tracking, blood tracking, and orientation of prints/tracks becomes much more definite with a higher frequency of signs able to be detected.

I would also like to state that everything I said for the mountain lion could apply to an aggressive wolf pack that hunts the player in a similar scenario and might be easier to program in since the assets are already present in game.

 

Curious to see what people think, and I am open to criticism.

[writeright1]

Welcome to the forum! 
I think a mountain lion is being considered for eventual addition to the game.  Someone might be able to confirm or deny this, but I think it was in the plan somewhere.

[ThudYeo]

Great idea, great writeup!