A couple of ideas for animal behavior.

[aylwyne]

As I was traipsing through the Tryker wilderness trying to dodge Cutes and Ragus, I had an idea...

It'd be cool if a mob's aggro distance dropped significantly while it was asleep. Several mobs have a very distinct sleep animation so it'd be easy to tell when this was happening. It'd make it so you could sneak by them if they're asleep.

To keep it from being too easy, it could be made so if you perform an action (i.e. make a noise), within their normal awake aggro distance, it would wake the animal up. They could even make it so you had to walk or else the animal would wake.

Of course, I think they'd have to tweak the timing of the mobs' behavior for this to really work. As it is right now, the animals switch from awake to asleep too rapidly. I rarely see an animal stay sleeping for a significant amount of time, certainly not long enough to walk by them. Also, the times/duration of the animals' sleep patterns would vary from one type to the next, making it so you had to learn about the different animals.

Incidentally, this could also tie into the "sleep" skill. Casting this could put the mob into their sleeping state without aggroing them, thus allowing you to sneak by.

Another idea I had was in regards to day and night on Atys. I think it'd be neat if vision was affected as we cycle through day and night. For example, some mobs would have poor night vision so their aggro range would drop. However, I think this should apply to us homins as well. Our radar distance could be reduced at night. These would combine to make it so you could travel closer to the animals but would be at a disadvantage to the animals with good night vision or the fast-moving patrols.

It would be really slick if they could make this happen graphically also by having mobs fade out past a certain distance at night.

[toneh]

Yer be cool to sneak past sleeping aggro, esp a group of them. Prehaps you can only walk, if u run it would wake them up.

But as you say, they'd have to be a bit more sleepy!

Concerning the night time thing, mobs eyesite be less, but surely some would smell you! esp if you got old stinky armour on

[amitst]

I love the idea, and wish that it was also applied to the defensive affliction spell.


It's pretty dumb for them to wake up as soon as the link is broken.
It would add a good strategic element to the game.

[amitst]

Being a tryker I bathe whenever I go from city to city, but I don't think that bathing sould reduce aggro range lol :-/

[sehracii]

Incidentally, this could also tie into the "sleep" skill. Casting this could put the mob into their sleeping state without aggroing them, thus allowing you to sneak by.

I would love for a more advanced use of Sleep such as this!
Right now, it's not really useful except for lvling on stun immune mobs.

I mean, having a spell that stops working the moment the mob is hit, is really quite pointless for just about any combat situation.

When I was a new player I had hoped that I could use it on a mob, then run while it slept, and hopefully get out of range before it awoke. But to my dismay, they awoke as soon as the link broke and was pretty pointless to cast.

It seems like it might be too easy if casting the spell didn't aggro the mob, limitless tries? Let them run for me if it fails, but when it does succeed, clear their aggro "list" when they go to sleep, and let the link hold even when I run (or maybe jsut walk) It would still be subject to normal link durations though, so if it broke too soon I'd still be in aggro range. Can't perform any other actions though except walking/running.
That seems fair.

Actually, I think ALL link spells should let you walk while they're linked, just no actions. But that's another topic.

But I agree with your other ideas too. Variations in visibility with night and day and reduced aggro range in their natural sleep.

[toneh]

Prehaps a decoy spell.

You cast it on a another mob, and all the aggro go mad for it for a while. ( and hopefully the unluckily mob runs in the opposite direction to which you were planning to go.) prehaps even one for each type of mob.

[sehracii]

Prehaps a decoy spell.

You cast it on a another mob, and all the aggro go mad for it for a while. ( and hopefully the unluckily mob runs in the opposite direction to which you were planning to go.) prehaps even one for each type of mob.

That would be nice! Then there would be a reason for the "Summoner" title on DA.

[rushin]

There is (or at least was?) a difference in behaviour when mobs where alseep/not facing you. Basically you are able to move within their normal aggro range and out again without getting spotted, so long as you do it quick enough..

I can't guarentee this hasnt changed in a subsequent patch but back when there were guardian kincher on the pr portal tunnels i got a lot practice sneaking.. it was the case then that if the kinch was asleep or not facing you could enter their normal zone of attack to slip out of the tunnel, but you needed to be outside of it (aggro range) within 3 seconds or u would alert them and get munched.

[petej]

Agree on all those great spell ideas

On the reduced visability (for players) at night tho all that is needed is for the Desert/Lakelands to lose their glowing sand (bug ?) , Forest and Jungle regions already have very poor visability on pitch black nights (except the desert areas lol) . If youve ever been on a beach at night youl know they dont glow ,they are infact pitch black unless illuminated

[riveit]

I love the complex behaviors that animals in Ryzom presently display. I would suggest adding more categories of mixed behavior - between aggro and herbivore. Having animals that were aggressive in certain situations would be interesting. For instance, a herbivore could become aggressive if you got too close to its children, or during mating season, etc. On the other end, you could have aggressive creatures become placid at times, for instance, when they are satiated and no longer hungry. After that torbak eats one team, it lies down and lets the next team pass by.