Increase in animal attacks.

[Marian]

I've always had an appreciation for what aggressive animals can do for a town ever since I had a char spawn on Aki back in the day. They brought everybody together in a sense of community I don't know if I've ever seen in another town, and even when nothing else was going on, everybody hunting every day was such a big part of the culture it was always something that could be RPed about.

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.

I think if my first character ever had spawned somewhere and then no one moved or spoke for two days, that would have made me quit the game a lot faster than any animal attacks.

[Faith]

I think if my first character ever had spawned somewhere and then no one moved or spoke for two days, that would have made me quit the game a lot faster than any animal attacks.

Yep, that's true. But I play FTO, I'm very patient xD

Another of my first chars (when I started) spawn in a forest (no food) in the middle of an english island with other two chars. First day, no one wake up; second day, no one wake up; third day, no one wake up and animal attack so...I started to walk until I found a place with food (and a community); my char had to learn a new language and etc etc. I found this kind of experience very interesting, buuuut, I have to admit that sometimes, for RL stuff, I can't log in maybe in four days (or more); and if you are with just another char, in a trip, and suddenly have a spawn...I don't know

[oddedd]

I don't have any issue with animal aggressiveness, I totally agree it really adds to the experience and sense of achievement for my character that is in a small group trying to settle preciously unsettled spot on Aki. However what is soul destroying, is when you spend in game years killing off a pack of aggressive animals, and the reappear, again and again. How does this work? Are they just randomly spawning? Or are they actually migrating?

[Doug R.]

They migrate. On Aki, we have a tiger show up one and a half times a week, on average, and getting rid of it hasn't been a problem (then again, we all have battle axes). Also, keep in mind that the aggressiveness of that one tiger is pretty low.

[Mr. Bones]

I think if anything animal aggressiveness has decreased. Ever since staff lowered the animal numbers on the wilder islands they have been pretty tame.

[Poldora]

I'm also in a small settlement on Aki and it's the Warthogs that are causing the problem, breed stupidly quick, reappear up to an hour after extinction and attack even with just one around. Bane of my chara's life!!

[Navi]

0% to 79% damage in the last 4 days for one of my characters, holding a kite shield. And in an area where he had previously been attacked just once in the 20 years before. And no one attacked the animals at all before or during those 4 days. (I don't know if that is a factor in their aggressiveness).

[Marian]

Boohoo, soon it's just gonna be my char and a wooden shield alone against the elephants.

And I have no intention of standing outside during a certain tick if I can at all avoid it.

[Doug R.]

Character aggression towards animals never was a factor in their aggression towards characters. That is a long perpetrated in-game myth. Where is your character, Navi?

[Navi]

A remote area of Fu. It's the wolves that keep attacking. I'm not complaining or anything, just leaving information out there. It could just be random chance that it turned out that way. And his hunting skill is really bad, so that's a factor too.

There were actually absolutely no animals in most of the towns in the area up until the last reset of them, so probably not 20 years... I forget when that was done. Closer to 5-10 years. Before the aggressiveness was changed though. And >75% of that time was spent outside among the animals (not inside, and not travelling).

[Doug R.]

Let me check the pack sizes. There could be some gigantic packs left over from the old system that allowed over-crowding.

[Doug R.]

The wolf packs, while all over-crowded, are within parameters. However, I did find a possible flaw. Essentially, animal migration chances are equal to their reproduction chances. This was done using the logic that rapidly multiplying animals needed to spread out more. However, in the example of the warthogs, it makes it really hard to keep them at bay, and indeed, it's the only population on Aki that our town hasn't been able to cull.

Thoughts?

[Pilot]

With number of players decreasing I find it sad that some noobs might be discouraged by something that is supposed to give food and basic raws to start with. My two cents.

[Cantryjczyk]

That would be solved by something like 10 days of immunity to animal attacks after char spawn. Time to get prepared. And it is less likely to abandon char because of such attacks if you already invested 10 days to play.

[Doug R.]

I think I'll halve the animal migration rates across the board. The upside is that towns that manage to cull their animals will keep them away longer. The downside is that towns without animals that want them will have to wait twice as long.