A More Unique Dinosaur

[Jurassic_DX]

Anyone who has been following my recent activity should be aware at what I am getting at already. I am a big fan of expanding on the number of options and dynamical gameplay opportunities that could be presented in JWE. So I am just going to get right into it. While most people ask for more dynamic and varied Artificial Intelligence (AI) for dinosaurs it is almost predominantly because they feel the dinosaurs are pretty robotic and don't feel like living creatures. What I don't hear about is how improved AI could be used to create gameplay, so that the dinosaurs not only behave in a more realistic manner, but it has an actual purpose that improves how you actually operate and run your park.

I have a huge number of ideas on how to make the dinosaurs more interesting not only from a thematic and aesthetic point of view, but also one that can impact gameplay based on different times of day, weather conditions, disasters, sabotages, among other naturally & artificially occurring events you engineer in your parks. I think that these would really play up Velociraptor intelligence making them seem as devious, tricky, and deadly as their film counterparts while also making ever disaster averted and crisis undergone more unique and interesting an experience.

Picture something like what happened in Jurassic Park after Nedry cut the power. Imagine if during a sabotage or if you overload your power station that your dinosaurs respond to the change. I already see a few species occasionally attack a fence almost like they are testing it before quickly disengaging. Now imagine a raptor that is consistently testing the fences identifies that an electrified fence has lost power and rather than bashing it headfirst like a moron, it will actually climb over the fence to get out. Raptors are intelligent they aren't going to headbutt a steel fence or attack one that is electrified no matter how poor their comfort levels. This has another effect other than making power outages more deadly, it means you aren't ever going to place raptors inside a non-electrified fence since they will just climb right out. You might be thinking: "not if I use concrete" and that is where you might be surprised. Sure there is nothing to latch onto for the raptor to climb over, but what about under? If they are really smart, they will just dig underneath an "unelectrified" concrete barrier and we seen them do this in the Lost World already. Additionally, this could apply to the Indoraptor and other Dromaeosauridae like Deinonychus which are similar to one another.

Why stop there, this is an excellent jumping off point for a call for pack hunting behavior. We can keep this going as well, maybe we could make the Allosaurus and Giga as being able to function in small packs. It would be something particularly unique to larger theropods and we could finally stop seeing a tiny theropod bring down a hadrosaur in ridiculous fashion.

Touching upon the Giga one more time, why is the Indominus Rex the only dinosaur that can attack a sauropod? It doesn't make sense to me that this function is used only for Indominus, why can't you have an aforementioned pack of Gigas and then give them the ability to hunt sauropods?

How about a throwback to Michael Crichton's Lost World, can the Carnotaurus obtain a camouflage gene as well, this would help make it even more distinct and imagine its camouflaging and you are desperately trying to locate your dinosaurs. This could be played up by having the map icon removed while dinosaurs are camouflaged making it more of a real concern you want to attend to rather than, whoops, there it is. You could do this with Indominus as well, so now you have a few dinosaurs you really want to know their whereabouts. The genome modifications in the Secrets of Dr. Wu can also help alleviate worry if you feel its too punishing or not effective enough with its environmental interactions/needs.

Now what about time of day? We could have nocturnal dinosaurs with different behaviors the inverse of their active day time counterparts. Maybe they are more alert at night and hence more risky at that particular time of day whereas they lounge about and sleep during the night? Troodons are small sneaky little dinos that seem even more terrifying at night when they are difficult to see posing a more unique threat. They aren't very strong, but you better hope they don't get out, they can pose a unique threat if you underestimate them. Next, a unique scenario for the Indoraptor, this dino could have no map icon at night, it would still be tied to the time of day, but this would give it some sort of natural camouflage as a result.

How about if there was a heat wave hitting the park? Wouldn't this cause unrest among your dinosaurs and maybe your herbivores decide that if you don't take care of their needs they are going to rampage. They could trigger a stampede and prove themselves as threatening as a loose carnivore. All dinosaurs already seem to get upset during a tropical storm or cyclone, so why not push the envelope in different directions and see all the unique possibilities that could come from it?

Even when we look at the Troodon again, it has a unique status effect that no other dinosaur in the game has, it has a venomous bite. Now why not expand that somewhat, give this deadly effect to say the Dilophosaurus and now its spitting venom is not only lethal to guests, it can also have damning effects on other small theropods that might prey upon it. Further, it is well past time for the Troodon's venom to have a proper anti-venom in place, so why not introduce this anti-venom as a new medical research from the addition of a veterinarian's clinic?

This is even more interesting when you think about the possibility of scavenger behavior in some of the animals. Take a Majungasaurus, for instance, this dinosaur is too often overlooked even though it was one of the components of the Indominus Rex. To give it a little more distinct flare and personality it could be a scavenger. This wouldn't only be a preference in eating habits for the dino, but imagine now this thing could become a real blight to your park as its constant scavenging turns it into a disease carrier spreading it to all yours animals.

Similarly, what if you tweak it so that some carnivores are much more fond of live prey rather than eating out of a feeder. Also, no, goats aren't going to cut it either. They have a hunter's instinct and they want to prey on other animals that can put up a fight. Doesn't it seem fitting that the "tyrant king" should be a real aggressor that wants to hunt real prey not be fed chaff from the mill?

While we are at it, why can't the Suchomimus and its related families have a preference for fish? This would be unique to them and could impact their comfort levels in an interesting way, they might still eat from a carnivore feeder but it wouldn't be their first preference. I could see multiple opportunities to really differentiate our dinosaurs in behavior both meaningful to gameplay and in appealing aesthetic ways while giving a nod to our present understanding of their real life counterparts. I mean, you could make the Spino or Baryonyx swim for that matter and with some decent terrain tools, imagine the havoc you could cause when they break out and cross a river separating their paddock from the guest shops, all sorts of small neat things that unsuspecting or particularly sadistic players could do in their parks.

These are meaningful changes that satisfy our need for gameplay and making our dinosaurs distinct and interesting something you want to add to your park not just because its pretty, but because it could make for some interesting play.

 

[gabeluna27]

These are really cool ideas, my only concern is how, if any of these features are planned for implementation, can be well-balance and not conflict too much on players’ saved games? Some of these may not be too bad, but the ideas of having two or more big carnivores attack a single sauropod, invisibility to the world map, and preferred choice of meat. It just feels like, if they are just thrown in there without further forethought: Nope, you can’t do what you’re doing in your parks anymore, you just have to restart these things when you go back to them otherwise there will be some major problems you already brought, prior.
That’s not fair. That’s not how post full released but still being developed mainstream games like this typically work.

This kind of subject of concern isn’t really talked about here, so I thought I would want to say this to at least get an idea where these might go.

Although, I do want to say that in a developer reveal livestream, Steggs, one of the community managers of Frontier Developments, did say they are dedicated on working on the AI of the dinosaurs. He couldn’t explain in big detail, but he did say they are working on current systems, currently implemented features along with new features in the broadest response. Again, these are good ideas, and you can always share your ideas in the idea/suggestion page where they will guarantee to read them.

However, I also want to point out that they said they have no current plans to have the Carnotaurus camouflage like the Indominus or as it did in The Lost World novel. Their confirmed goal for the in-game dinosaurs is to portray them as they did (or would) in the films alone (particularly a species’ latest in-film portrayal) rather than everywhere else in the franchise, though that doesn't mean they won't appreciate the idea, it just seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.

 

[Jurassic_DX]

These are really cool ideas, my only concern is how, if any of these features are planned for implementation, can be well-balance and not conflict too much on players’ saved games? Some of these may not be too bad, but the ideas of having two or more big carnivores attack a single sauropod, invisibility to the world map, and preferred choice of meat. It just feels like, if they are just thrown in there without further forethought: Nope, you can’t do what you’re doing in your parks anymore, you just have to restart these things when you go back to them otherwise there will be some major problems you already brought, prior.
That’s not fair. That’s not how post full released but still being developed mainstream games like this typically work.

This kind of subject of concern isn’t really talked about here, so I thought I would want to say this to at least get an idea where these might go.

Although, I do want to say that in a developer reveal livestream, Steggs, one of the community managers of Frontier Developments, did say they are dedicated on working on the AI of the dinosaurs. He couldn’t explain in big detail, but he did say they are working on current systems, currently implemented features along with new features in the broadest response. Again, these are good ideas, and you can always share your ideas in the idea/suggestion page where they will guarantee to read them.

However, I also want to point out that they said they have no current plans to have the Carnotaurus camouflage like the Indominus or as it did in The Lost World novel. Their confirmed goal for the in-game dinosaurs is to portray them as they did (or would) in the films alone (particularly a species’ latest in-film portrayal) rather than everywhere else in the franchise, though that doesn't mean they won't appreciate the idea, it just seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Implementation may certainly be another matter entirely. Unlike some of my other posts this one was more generally for ideas and what sort of gameplay you could get out of it. For some there would need to be a lot more specific programming like for the Troodon and the hybrids responses to time of day. I wouldn't necessarily say they are high priorities, but the discussion would be useful for helping to shape the direction we would like the game to go in.

Regarding your saved games, it is a snapshot of your current place in time, so the result for the player isn't a whole lot different than if they just kept playing. Where this would take a toll is on Frontier's end as all that added behavioral AI would need to be recorded as well. I can imagine as all these new layers of AI, weather conditions, etc. it could be a pain although it comes with the territory. In terms of balance for the player specifically, a lot of it would be resolved from simple playtesting and adjusting percentages accordingly. If we are worried about newer players getting overwhelmed, like I suggested in another thread you could simply use DLC to gate the new mechanics similar to how the expanded genetics system was only accessible after having the Secrets of Dr. Wu. Another way is to just place more locks on when this content is accessible during the Campaign similar to how they have slid the new DLC dino packs in. Game balance is an ongoing thing whenever you add new features, I understand the concern that suddenly there is a million things that the player has to keep track of and can't manage as they are all ticking down some hidden variables which is why its important to consistently playtest and give feedback to Frontier upon release so changes can be made accordingly, this is just as part and parcel work for game designers.

Regarding things like the Giga attacking sauropods all it would actually require is the addition of pack hunting behavior and some new animations. It actually wouldn't be too different from what we have now except you have a few more animals synced for the take down. To simply the map invisibility you could simply remove the icon for the Indominus Rex and Indoraptor. The only thing that sets these two apart as more threatening is that they have high attack ratings and they are super aggressive. In both Jurassic World and Fallen Kingdom a big part of them is the suspense of finding the animals and if you have to manually search for them it can be more interesting. Granted, I am not going to die on this hill, its not a huge concern to me regarding map icons.

In terms of diversity of feeders, those don't contribute in the same way the others do to gameplay those are actually aesthetic based improvements something that is very manageable and requires a small degree of work on the programming side. That is actually just more for the appeal, but having something small to differentiate dinosaurs is important to making them feel unique and not carbon copies of one another. I suggested a preference system, this could have a positive affect on dinosaurs to be fed their preferred diet, but wouldn't necessarily have a negative one, in that instance it would require some new code.

Having consequences is integral to a game, I think right now players are scarcely ever punished for their mistakes. It is too easy to overcome your mistakes and if not you can just immediately jump to a save from like 30 seconds prior and you are golden. You can still do this after, but you will have to handle the consequences of your actions. Moreover, you can have multiple saves still, so if the grave mistake was 5 minutes ago, you can go back to that. I know some people have tons of Nublar parks that consume all their save slots and that is an issue Frontier needs to address the truly limited number of save slots is already a detriment. However, the existence of this problem does not discredit the idea itself, more save slots could be a priority before all these could be added, and there is nothing dictating they couldn't have a staggered release schedule.

Moreover, you say it isn't fair, but what is not fair about that? That the game will have consequences that you might have to start over? The Sandbox mode gives you complete control to play as you like with as much or little risk as the player chooses. Additionally, the "Game Over" screen has pretty much existed since the inception of games, its only in recent times we even got the ability to restart from shortly before our crucial mistakes. JWE has the tools to enable this still too, in the meantime you have to value your save slots until and " if " Frontier decides to invest the effort in adding more. It isn't the game's fault if players use all their save slots on having multiple Nublar parks saved and are unwilling to delete or save a slot for their other park playthroughs, the choice is up to the player how they want to use them and play.

I am sure Frontier is keeping the AI in mind, but we have not seen much in ways of that. Given the long wait I am hoping that means pack hunting or other dinosaur behaviors are being worked on and prepared for later in the year like they did with herding last year. Similarly, I am more concerned about their animators, they do good work, but they really ignore some of the problems with the existing/older dinosaurs like all large theropods skidding to a halt, clipping issues, dinosaurs lack of collision boxes causing them to walk through one another when herding, and even that Brachiosaurus having the creation lab's gate clip through its neck.

I am aware Steggs said that about the Carnotaurus prior. Frontier have said many things they later contradicted or changed their minds on. There are some things Universal will prevent them from doing, but this is so inconsequential its almost silly that they would intervene over that. The fact of the matter is that we are also rapidly burning through Jurassic World related content, and Jurassic Park is still part of the franchise and much beloved. Universal themselves can't help but reference Michael Crichton and the original film in Jurassic World, so its silly for them to be so against the very property they built Jurassic World upon, a property they profited off and continue to profit off of to this day. Similarly, even though their rights to Jurassic Park are set to expire soon, that goes for the Jurassic World too since its based on Crichton's work and they would need to renegotiate with his family for them, that is why Jurrassic World 3 is the last Jurassic film, its the last one they can fit in before their rights to use it expire.

No, I am certain that we will see Jurassic Park related content at some point, Frontier themselves want money and it will make money. The Secrets of Dr. Wu was already controversial because of its focus on hybrids and Universal has demonstrated its not opposed to the use of classic Jurassic Park even Lego Jurassic World had a ton of classic content included.

 

[Jurassic_DX]

Don't mean to self-promote, but I think this thread of mine is very relevant given the latest feature focus.

One of the last things I mentioned in my initial post was a member of the Spinosauridae family "Suchomimus" eating from a fish feeder of sorts. I really think Frontier is taking the game in the correct direction, Feature Focus #3 really shows me that, they are making behavioral changes and improvements to the existing dinosaurs species/families rather than only the new dinos which gives me a lot of hope and enthusiasm for the future. Seeing this come to fruition, would anyone like to suggest some new ideas Frontier might pick up and consider for the game moving forward? I would be happy to have more engagement from the community.