Wolf Behavior

[TheEldritchGod]

So got to talking with some of the old crew and one of the other gamers I hang out with had some good suggestions. I may be a minmaxing power gaming munchkin, but honestly, she puts me to shame, That said...

Wolves need some coding love.

There should be a number of factors that affect wolf behavior. But first we need what behavior wolves have:

Attack, Flee, Ignore, Search, Monitor

Now, a player should have two scent scores which have a radius modified by wind direction. The two scents should be "attraction" and "Fear".

Attraction should be dependent on how much meat and fresh guts you carry. The more you carry, the higher your attraction score. Modifiers should be if you are bleeding or not. Bleeding should greatly increase your attraction scent.

Now fear scent should be dependent on a if you are wearing a wolf coat. If you are wearing a bear coat. If you are wearing deer pants or rabbit mittens. I think those two should only give you a very small negative to your fear score, but if you are wearing the skin of prey, then wolves should see you as prey.

Also modifying your fear scent should be if you are facing the wolf or not. If you are holding a weapon. Also if there is a dead wolf nearby.

It has always annoyed me that I could be at the fishing hut at PV, surrounded by dead wolves, and another wolf comes over the rise to attack me. I mean, don't you see the other FIVE dead wolves? Nope! Apparently not. So, I propose that your "fear" scent is modified by if you are in a certain distance of a dead wolf. Like a fire, it should have an "aura" that raises your fear score if you are near a dead wolf. BTW, all these modifiers should stack. It should be possible to have two bear coats, standing next to three dead wolves, and any wolf that gets close enough to smell you, should just turn and run like hell.

Other modifiers should be, looking away. Limping. and if your Health percentage drops below 50%. If you look wounded, I don't care how bad you smell, a wolf should be willing to take a shot at your back.

Now, two other characteristics I suggest.

"Hunger Bar" - Wolves should be able to eat and raise thier hunger bar. Depending on difficulty, the amount of calories a wolf can store and at what point he gets hungry again and how fast he gets hungry again, should be variable. However, the basic concept is:

A wolf can store a maximum of 3000 calories. When a wolf goes over 2000, the extra calories are "burned off faster" but they then are converted into harvestable meat. You should be able to "fatten" a wolf. If the wolf drop below 1500, the wolf starts to growl at you and will "Monitor" you. He isn't quite ready to attack you, but he knows he's getting hungry. If you feed the wolf, he'll walk up, take the food, then go away. Depending on how much you fed him, he'll either go back to ignoring you, he'll monitor you, or if you just fed him zero calorie "guts", then he'll more then likely turn around to attack you.

Once a wolf goes below 1000 calories, he will follow normal rules for attacking and killing humans.

However, if a wolf ever reaches 500 calories, he should be "weak" and even though he may attack you, it should be much easier to kill a starving wolf. That said, when a wolf reaches 0 calories, he should automatically lose .5 kg of harvestable meat and gain 400 calories. This still keeps him at "weak", but it's as good a mechanic for simulating a wolf starving to death as anything you can code.

If a wolf reaches 0 cal and 0 harvestable meat, he dies and despawns. No meat should be harvestable, but you should be able to get guts and hide.

Finally, over feeding a wolf.

If a wolf eats enough to get to 3000 calories or more, he is considered "sated". A Sated wolf will no longer do anything with you and will, until his calories drop below 2000, go back to his "den". Wolves can range fairly far over a map and they tend to bunch up until killed and they respawn. However, they never go to sleep. Wolves should have a spawn point that is their "den" and they should return to that location, ignoring everything else, and remain at that point, simply lying down and resting, until they drop below 2000 cal. Then they get up and start wandering about. At 1500 they start giving warning cues, and at 1000 they attack.

So, it should be possible for someone to carry 30 kg of bear meat and wander a map, dropping the chunks of meat like johnny appleseed and basically feed every wolf you come across until they go home and leave you alone... for a while.

This would be the suggestions that me and my friends worked out as workable mechanics for your wolves. You already have the hard parts coded, so it shouldn't be that hard to fit in. The only things that might be an issue are "dead wolf auras", but given the mechanics you have for campfires and "feels like" temp, this shouldn't be that much of an issue.

 

If you have any questions or need any clarification, feel free to ask.

-Bob The Eldritch God