Mobility of animals

[Okud]

Just a little feedback ... then again, I might be wrong, in which case please correct me.

It seems to me that after the latest change the animals got very mobile. As a side effect, my hunter that lives on a big island with only 2 or three population centres doesn't get a chance to kill one of the big animals. He hits once and before a day goes by all the wolves are gone and a new pack of healthy wolves arrives, and so on and so on. If this is correct, it means you will have to wait several years until the hurt animals spread evenly across the landmass increasing the chance that the new animals arriving to your location were hit by you five years ago and need only one more hit to be slaughtered.


Right now my hunting list consists of a constant string of "You expertly hit ...." but no "You kill ..." unless it's a very small animal.

[deadboy]

But remember that this will happen to everyone, so large animals that other people almost kill will come to you,for you to kill, and the same will happen for them... You wont be fully damaging it but never mind

[Hellzon]

It seems to me that after the latest change the animals got very mobile.

Is this actually true, I'd like to know? I've asked before (noticed the wildly varying populations) but I didn't get an answer...

/Hellzon - curious

[Chris Johnson]

The wildly varying populations you noticed was due to several bugs , mentioned elsewhere on the forum which have been fixed .
One of the fixes does mean that more animals are now currently travelling but these will settle down over a few days (5 to 10)

The general mobility of animals is unchanged from before they were individualised, so once they settle down then things will go back to normal.

With regards Okud's query - Yes your suposition is correct.

Previously the most wounded creature would always stay in the location (unless it was the only one of it's type) . Now it has just as much chance of moving as any other of the same type. In heavily settled areas this will balance out very quickly , but as you point out it may prove problematic in poorly settled regions.

(EDIT: When you hunt you are still attacking the weakest animal of that type)

One advantage of the new system is that animals currently no longer heal as they did before . When the Pack system was in play, if a wounded animal joined a location where there was already a wounded animal of the same type then the least wounded one effectively healed itself. Now it will keep it's wounds.

Another change people may notice is currently there is no longer a cap on populations of each animal type (it was 20 ) in each location.

We are monitoring all aspects of animal behaviour since the changes and when we have enough infomation we may make more changes.

EDIT : as well as introduction of animal predation, resources limitations, domestication and scavanging of food stuffs.

[Rustoleum]

I definitely like the direction you guys are moving in with regards to the animals.

One thing I'm having problems with, which I have Flysprayed already, is when hunting while travelling. I have a character in a desert where there are LOTS of snakes and tortoises. At any one time, I can see 25 different little "packs" of 1 animal each travelling with me. However, when I try to hunt them (hitting select all from the menu and then asterix to strike), I only hit one of each species and get the "can only hunt once per day" error after that.

I'm guessing this has something to do with the way animals are being treated as individuals now, but something seems not quite right. Before the change, I could see packs of more than one animal and could hunt them all accordingly. If it has to remain this way, can the hunting screen get cleaned up somehow to eliminate all the animals you can't hunt?

[Jos Elkink]

Yeah, just like what are in fact individual packs on normal locations are bundled as if it was one pack on the animals screen, the same should happen when travelling. That was more difficult to implement, so I didn't, but it can be done, and eventually should.

[Rustoleum]

Wow, that was fast! Thanks for the clarification.

[Phalynx]

The new system offers more hunting opportunites per day because of animal movment on the big island... do all these islands have OOC names to help with identification???

[Jos Elkink]

The new system offers more hunting opportunites per day because of animal movment on the big island... do all these islands have OOC names to help with identification???

Well, yeah, more or less, but the newer islands have names based on location names that have been removed, so I'm afraid OOCly we also speak of 'big island' etc. ...

In any case, I'm not going to give information on them, since I'd be implicitly giving information about which explorers found the same island or not etc. Only if on the forum gradually a name emerges that can be used. E.g. I never thought of the name 'Burgeo' for an island, but it just emerged that way. It'll happen similarly for other islands.

[Nick]

I never thought of the name 'Burgeo' for an island, but it just emerged that way. It'll happen similarly for other islands.

Or on other forum topics?
I think most island names are talked about here and then people learn them. Names spread pretty fast in game.

[Peanut]

I never thought of the name 'Burgeo' for an island, but it just emerged that way. It'll happen similarly for other islands.

Or on other forum topics?
I think most island names are talked about here and then people learn them. Names spread pretty fast in game.

Just look at what happened with the "Promised lands"