Increase in animal attacks.

[Faith]

Hello to all.
Maybe I lost the announcement about the increased of animal aggressiveness (It's possible because I was a little bit off the last weeks); but in any case, I believe that this HUGE change could be harmful for the game. An example of a common day with a char:

3887-5.09: Usted pierde un 0 por ciento de su fuerza como consecuencia del ataque de un escarabajo titán. Sin embargo ha evitado un 11 por ciento de daño gracias a su escudo de "X".
3887-4.09: Usted pierde un 0 por ciento de su fuerza como consecuencia del ataque de un escarabajo titán. Sin embargo ha evitado un 12 por ciento de daño gracias a su escudo de "X".
3887-3.09: Ves que un dientes de sable ataca a "A".

And this is everyday with all chars.
It doesn't suppose a big problem for me, because I already have all my chars relatively settled, well equiped and they have some place to sleep and enough medicine. But I saw some newspawns that starts to die for this.
Look at the quote, if this was a newspawn char (two attacks of a Kiang in 6 real hours), when the player wakes up (this was during "sleep" hours in Spain) the char is dead or nearly dead.

I don't know, but this could make the new players lose the desire to play.
It's just my opinion.

[EchoMan]

I think this is just a rare event. None of my chars have seen that many attacks, maybe one animal attack per day in each chars location.

Please do report if this continues though.

[SekoETC]

Someone on the Finnish region reported five attacks in two days.

[Faith]

Yes, I was waiting because I know that it happens sometimes; but the past week or so I saw a lot of attacks with different chars (most spanish), one alone in the swamp well...hoppefully had a good shield and is a good hunter

I will save the events and report it if doesn't stop.
Thanks

[Black Canyon]

Definitely an increase. One of mine was standing in the middle of town and was attacked three times in a row by various animals, sustaining significant injuries. And I've seen similar events all over.

3887-3.09: You get attacked by a dire wolf, and you lose 14 percent strength. You saved 29 percent using your kite shield.

3886-7.09: You get attacked by a spotted lion, and you lose 4 percent strength. You saved 31 percent using your kite shield.

3886-7.09: You get attacked by a cape buffalo, and you lose 0 percent strength. You saved 11 percent using your kite shield.

[freiana]

I have seen an increase but not this big. I suppose animals cannot finish a char of from near death state though, so in most cases it shouldn't be lethal.

[Faith]

The animals don't like domestication, they are fighting for their freedom!

[Doug R.]

The increase in animal aggressiveness was announced in September to be implemented in mid-October. This gave players over a month to prepare. The two most dangerous islands, Aki and Burgeo, were completed as a testing ground on-time. To date, I've not received any complaints about the frequency of attacks on these islands, and they are by far the most dangerous. My community on Aki has already managed to eliminate all of it's dangerous animals. The rest of the game has had over five months to prepare.

Now, I'll put it right out there that this game has gotten soft. When I started, survival in the forests of Burgeo was impossible because of the animals, and the players loved it. Then the animals system got out of control and was neutered. The players got used to the reduced attacks. Then the animal code was re-written, and the old attack values didn't work in the new system, so attacks were shut off entirely for the most dangerous animals. Again, the players got used to it. Now things have been set to what I consider a reasonable level, and you'll get used to that as well.

Adversity, and overcoming it, is what makes good stories. Animal attacks create adversity, indeed, the only mechanism-imposed adversity in the game. Animal attacks are based on averages. On average, most animal packs will attack between every other day and once every 3 days. Since it's based on averages, that means it's theoretically possible to have a pack attack multiple times a day, or not attack at all over a period of a week. There are many things players can do to protect themselves:

1) Reduce pack sizes. The larger the herd, the higher the attack frequency. Maxxed out packs attack at a rate 4x higher than packs with only one animal.

2) Eliminate packs entirely. Understand that animal migration and reproduction now works. If you wipe out a herd, they will return provided the surrounding locations have packs of that species. This could be a good time to establish wildlife preserves.

3) Stay around more people. Animals attack randomly. The more people around you, the less likely you are to be the one to be attacked.

4) Carry a good shield. The vast majority of the animals in the game can't get through an iron shield.

But, my stone-age tech hermit can't survive now!

Well, if you look at stone-age peoples, they lived in cooperative clans and tribes. They did this for a reason: Survival is hard!

Life should not be easy. Cantr should not necessarily be easy. Stuff happens. That's what propels stories forward.

[Black Canyon]

For the record, the character in my previous post doesn't live in Aki or Burgeo. And he was injured significantly holding a kite shield.

And I'm not necessarily complaining. I'm merely validating the original poster. Something has definitely changed in the past cantr year.... the animals are attacking much more than they had previously.

[Doug R.]

Something has definitely changed in the past cantr year....

Yes, the attack values were finalized and set for all the animals, 4 months later than announced.

For the record, the character in my previous post doesn't live in Aki or Burgeo. And he was injured significantly holding a kite shield.

Yes, the northern side of Treefeather is quite dangerous with the wolves, lions and buffalo, probably on-par with Burgeo. Guess you'll have to get to fixing the problem and eliminate all those ridiculous anti-hunting laws that I still see in most towns.

[kaloryfer]

i like them changes
i only hope that soon we will get a machine for dead newspawns into usable meat
they will finally find their use

[Marian]

Dire wolves were a new thing to me when I rejoined and I'm always a bit seeing what they can do. I'd never before considered animals even remotely a threat on any of the old islands, it's kinda awesome.

[Faith]

...
It doesn't suppose a big problem for me, because I already have all my chars relatively settled, well equiped and they have some place to sleep and enough medicine. But I saw some newspawns that starts to die for this.
Look at the quote, if this was a newspawn char (two attacks of a Kiang in 6 real hours), when the player wakes up (this was during "sleep" hours in Spain) the char is dead or nearly dead.

I don't know, but this could make the new players lose the desire to play.
It's just my opinion.

The islands was Pangea and Terra Nostra. We didn't have almost animal attacks, but now...And anyway, as I said in the last sentence it was an observation, I think this can increase the abandonment of new players.

I lost two chars by animal attacks when I started to play, I already knew how this kind of games works and It was really frustating anyway...if you're totally new in the RPG...remember that people in a town could be two days sleeping in this game.
Just my opinion.

[kaloryfer]

then they shouldn't leave developed towns, that are capable of protecting people (by pushing them into sleeper storage, for example)
this is realistic - in ancient times, people didnt walk outside alone, for the fear of evil spirits

[Doug R.]

I think some external incentive to log in isn't a bad thing. In my experience, most players either leave because they can't figure out what the game is, it's not what they thought, or they get bored. Animal aggression won't affect the first two, but it can certainly fix boredom. I think the type of person that would get frustrated by their first character being mauled would be persistent enough to either figure out how to survive or start another character, and they would probably be more frustrated by the apathy of the established characters around them rather than the animal itself. Just my opinion.