Unpredictable wildlife

[Kristian2]

Never being entirely sure what to expect from the wildlife would add a lot more tension and make them feel less like robots in a furry disguise. With the state the wildlife AI is right now, once you've figured out how one animal behaves and how your actions influence that behavior, you can be pretty sure you know exactly what to expect from the rest of its species. For instance, an experienced player can predict when a stalking wolf would charge in, what they can do to prevent that and know in advance how effective those preventive measures are, but if there were a large variety of behavior patterns, they would retain some of that anxiety they might have had while facing wolves as a newbie and it would make the wildlife seem more like organic beings. Something that would also make them seem more lifelike is having animations for turning and decent pathfinding.

[Celeblith]

I've seen this general idea suggested in different words in multiple threads, and I think it's a great thought and that the devs should definitely act on it. That said, I'll speak in defense of the poor furry robots before rejoining you in agreement.

On the whole I've found wildlife to be fairly unpredictable--more so than in games like Skyrim or whatever wherein wildlife behavior isn't a cornerstone of game mechanics. But I'll grant that's not saying much. Much of what makes wolves wolves in TLD is, for me, their behavior outside of direct confrontation. When you're just exploring around, little is more blood-chilling than the howls of nearby wolves--actual wolves, mind you (i.e. not just sound effects emanating from nowhere). Furthermore, something truly menacing about wolves is their cleverly designed intelligence. In-game, they behave very craftily, hiding behind objects until you come out from your shelter for a once-around of the grounds, returning to their hiding spots once they've frightened you back into submission. Very mischievous boys indeed.

That said, I couldn't agree with you more with respect to their behavior in confrontations: about-turns without animations (a little bizarre) and silly, unrealistic (even by the game's standards) confrontationality--seriously, how dumb are these wolves? Don't they see my nine hunting knives dangling from my wolf-gut belt in a long, shiny skirt of canine-killing armaments? I'd be very happy to see smarter wolves, more unpredictable wildlife in general, and more or less exactly what you described. 

[Fellow Survivor]

What I think we need (for wolves) is stalking. Instead of a direct attack the wolf tracks it's prey silently without barking until getting into about half the normal charge distance and then charging with all the normal sounds. This is more realistic even as wolves aren't known for brute force and they're kind of cheap bastards in real life - they'd usually go for old or wounded prey with sneaky stalking. Also would be cool if there was more pack interaction where wolves could actually hunt you for an extended period of time together.