Sorry if this has been addressed before, but I find it very lacking, that the Japanese Macaque does not go into water to swim. I get it for the other monkeys, but a central characteristic in Japanese Macaques is, that they bathe regularly in Hot Springs and that is actually also why they are famous in my opinion. I was really surprised when I found out they won't go into the Hot Spring I created for them, as surely Frontier should be aware of that fact. Especially since they always try to make Animals and Behaviors as realistic as possible
Big Flaw with Japanese Macaques
- Thread starter DongersDown
- Start date
I don't think their rig contains swimming animations, so it's more of a limitation than unawareness.
If Frontier has done it's homework as they claim to have done, sure they would have read that Macaques are excellent swimmers. So if it's a limitation, they do not hold themselves to their own promise.
There is no reason for this limitation tbh.
The Japanese macaques share an "apes" rig with the chimpanzee, bonobo, and mandrill. Because more animals with the rig don't swim than do, the devs may have decided it wasn't worth the effort to make swimming animations for the 1 animal that would actually use them.
You don't know that or have you helped them design the apes?
From a design perspective that would sound plausible, but I think this is just an oversight.
If they say they do research, there should be no limitation.
There's always limitations. It's not possible to recreate reality on a 1:1 scale, there's always gonna have to be things cut out.
And when other animals have the ability to swim, all of a sudden that is not possible with another animal?
While there are limitations, this cannot be one when other animals can have that ability. Even when these are "different rigs".
It's not a limitation, it's a mistake, a oversight.
Those other animals use different rigs, ones where there was a majority of animals that swim (therefore, worthwhile to implement).
If you have a 3:1 ratio of something, it's in your best interest to support the majority, even if the minority doesn't get a perfect treatment.
I think the Author get's that, but I think the main problem here is, that Frontier claims to raise awareness to these animals and tries to implement realistic behaviour as good as possible. And in that spirit, I think it is crucial they go the extra length to make macaques swim. Obviously it is more work for them and might not be applicable to other apes but that is a work, they should have to put into this game. In my opinion it is simply not a question of "Is it worth it", it is a question of improving the overall appeal of their game
But then we are not talking about a limitation obviously.
It's a game, not every detail can be put into every animal or the game would never be released. As a lot of people are hung up on swimming and diving in water there are a bunch of animals that would almost never swim in the wild that swim in PZ. Realistic no, improving the game overall and reducing development time almost certainly yes.
I am sure everyone has there favourite animals and would like them to different things, it can be close but getting 70+ animals to have exact traits for launch I think would be very tough.
I am sure everyone has there favourite animals and would like them to different things, it can be close but getting 70+ animals to have exact traits for launch I think would be very tough.
I'm ok with them not swimming, but it would be nice if they would sit in water at least, like they do in the wild. It's just bizarre that they chose to create this particular species for the game instead of a different species, if they weren't going to have them sit in hot springs like they're famous for. Just a really bizarre choice, in my opinion.
This! I think you managed to put exactly what bothers me into words. That's what really baffles me. There are other Monkeys and Apes which are famous as well, but they chose to go with the one which is famous, because they chill in Hot Springs
From what I know, only specific populations of Japanese macaques exhibit that bathing behaviour. It is not something that is universal for the entire species, so I understand why they wouldn't implement it. To me it seems like a minute detail, that yes the macaques might be famous for, but it really doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. I'd rather have Frontier work on improving the climbing behaviours, because right now they still just look silly to me, especially since the other animations are so good.
As the natural habitats of Japanese Macaques are widely spread not every animal is in reach of a hot spring. However, devs made lions and bears climb trees or even barriers (the latter being not very realistic) or elephants swimming, which is not very common among adult elephants (in contrast to just bathing). But one of the rare primate subspecies, which is able to swim (up to 500m), completely lacks this ability. In fact, in game they are even hiding indoors from rain because it's the same rig for every ingame primate.
While you are right, I would point out that they still added new animations to animals that share the same basic rig, so having the macaques swim is entirely within the realm of possibility.
That said, I'd rather they didn't, as I enjoy exhibiting non-swimming animals with moat barriers quite a lot. Instead, they could have added a macaque-specific enrichment item in the form of a hot spring, similarly to how they created the mud pool. Granted the mud pool has multiple users, but still, I think the spirit of the thread is right in saying that it is something missing from this animal that seemed quite obvious to include.
I'd actually preffered this option as well, at least 1 species in captivity (i know of) would work with that feature too: Capybaras
Edit: A bit curious so I googled a bit more about this: Buffalos/wild horses also.
Not a bad idea, actually !
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