Dinosaur AI needs to be improved because it can ruin the experience and limit freedom.
Comfort
Population and Social
I understand that Dinosaurs have specific requirements but can the population and social requirements behave differently so that for example an Akylosaurus (max 8 population) will search for a secluded area with less dinosaurs. If I have an enclosure covering an entire island and have 8 Ankylosauruses on one side and 4 Corythosauruses on the other. Then the Ankylosaurus will try to break out. Which doesn't make any sense because the Ankylosauruses probably don't even know that there are Corythosauruses. This is why specific Dinosaurs should check if there are dinosaurs in a specific distance (which also depends on the dinosaur). If there are too many dinosaurs, then the dinosaur will find a secluded area. If he can't find a secluded area, then he will break out. Social can also behave like that. If there are too many of the same species then a group of dinosaurs will for example split in half and live like two different packs in two different areas. Or two solitary animals will either fight or avoid each other. If the habitat is too small and two animals can't avoid each other or two packs can't avoid each other then they will break out.
Habitat
The habitat requirements should stay the same but if a dinosaur favors forest, wetland or grassland it should hang out in that area more. It should also detect habitats in a specific range so that it will look for forest when its in a huge area of grassland.
Hunting
Hunting on goats
First of all, there should be more hunting animations for larger predators. Raptors will always attack from the back but why not from the sides, it looks weird when a raptor walks toward the back of a goat when they could've just attacked it from the side. Larger predators also need different animations. The Indominus will always grab a goat with it's hand. The T-Rex will walk up to it and gobble it up in one bite. After seeing it a few times it already becomes boring. Just two animations would make a difference. Also all the animations are stationary. The goat runs the entire time but when it gets hunted on it stands still. Pursuits would be a great addition.
Hunting on Dinosaurs
Predators should hunt on dinosaurs when they are hungry. Not without a reason. Herbivores should also be able to escape. Currently all hunts succeed. Which is odd and unrealistic (a cheetah has for example a 40% hunt success rate). If a carnivore fails a lot of hunts consecutively then he might search for goats or carnivore feeders. Herbivores like Parasaurolophusus can also be taken down by a single raptor which I will discuss later. This could make it possible for both herbivores and carnivores in the same enclosure.
Hunting in groups
Currently raptors attack larger herbivores on their own which was the most disappointing feature in my opinion. Raptors are pack animals and should try to attack medium herbivores in packs and not on their own. This can be quite hard to implement but I think it should be a requirement for the next game. There are also some larger animals who hunted in packs like Allosauruses.
Strategic hunting
Predators don't care about their environment although they have to. It would be way better to see an animal hiding in a forest or high grass (can maybe be added) waiting for a dinosaur to pass by and strike.
Pathfinding
This is one thing that also boggles me a lot. Phasing through stuff. It looks like dinosaurs aren't physics based objects which is why they can walk through each other and why body parts can phase through fences, other dinosaurs, feeders and more. With a pathfinding algorithm you could stop this.
Conclusion
Comfort
This was quite a long post on not one idea but I felt the need to combine everything in one big post so that ideas wouldn't go unnoticed and so I didn't have to make a million posts. I don't know what the possibilitie is that everything will be seen but I sure hope that if it will it will be considered or added.
Comfort
Population and Social
I understand that Dinosaurs have specific requirements but can the population and social requirements behave differently so that for example an Akylosaurus (max 8 population) will search for a secluded area with less dinosaurs. If I have an enclosure covering an entire island and have 8 Ankylosauruses on one side and 4 Corythosauruses on the other. Then the Ankylosaurus will try to break out. Which doesn't make any sense because the Ankylosauruses probably don't even know that there are Corythosauruses. This is why specific Dinosaurs should check if there are dinosaurs in a specific distance (which also depends on the dinosaur). If there are too many dinosaurs, then the dinosaur will find a secluded area. If he can't find a secluded area, then he will break out. Social can also behave like that. If there are too many of the same species then a group of dinosaurs will for example split in half and live like two different packs in two different areas. Or two solitary animals will either fight or avoid each other. If the habitat is too small and two animals can't avoid each other or two packs can't avoid each other then they will break out.
Habitat
The habitat requirements should stay the same but if a dinosaur favors forest, wetland or grassland it should hang out in that area more. It should also detect habitats in a specific range so that it will look for forest when its in a huge area of grassland.
Hunting
Hunting on goats
First of all, there should be more hunting animations for larger predators. Raptors will always attack from the back but why not from the sides, it looks weird when a raptor walks toward the back of a goat when they could've just attacked it from the side. Larger predators also need different animations. The Indominus will always grab a goat with it's hand. The T-Rex will walk up to it and gobble it up in one bite. After seeing it a few times it already becomes boring. Just two animations would make a difference. Also all the animations are stationary. The goat runs the entire time but when it gets hunted on it stands still. Pursuits would be a great addition.
Hunting on Dinosaurs
Predators should hunt on dinosaurs when they are hungry. Not without a reason. Herbivores should also be able to escape. Currently all hunts succeed. Which is odd and unrealistic (a cheetah has for example a 40% hunt success rate). If a carnivore fails a lot of hunts consecutively then he might search for goats or carnivore feeders. Herbivores like Parasaurolophusus can also be taken down by a single raptor which I will discuss later. This could make it possible for both herbivores and carnivores in the same enclosure.
Hunting in groups
Currently raptors attack larger herbivores on their own which was the most disappointing feature in my opinion. Raptors are pack animals and should try to attack medium herbivores in packs and not on their own. This can be quite hard to implement but I think it should be a requirement for the next game. There are also some larger animals who hunted in packs like Allosauruses.
Strategic hunting
Predators don't care about their environment although they have to. It would be way better to see an animal hiding in a forest or high grass (can maybe be added) waiting for a dinosaur to pass by and strike.
Pathfinding
This is one thing that also boggles me a lot. Phasing through stuff. It looks like dinosaurs aren't physics based objects which is why they can walk through each other and why body parts can phase through fences, other dinosaurs, feeders and more. With a pathfinding algorithm you could stop this.
Conclusion
Comfort
- Dinosaurs should detect the population and social by distance, not by the enclosure.
- If a dinosaur is overcrowded it should search a secluded area, if the enclosure is too small or doesn't have any secluded areas it should try to escape.
- If a dinosaur's social is too high and is a solitary (up to 2 of the same species) dinosaur they should either kill or avoid each other.
- If a dinosaur's social is too high and is a pack animal it split up the group.
- If a dinosaur favors a specific area then it should primarily be in that area.
- More animations for hunting and possibly pursuits.
- Predators shouldn't kill other dinosaurs for no reason and should be able to fail at hunting.
- If a predator fails a lot at hunting dinosaurs it will search for goats, carnivore feeders, weaker animals or try to steal from another dinosaur (regardless of species).
- Pack hunters should attack in packs to tackle larger dinosaurs and not be able to kill medium herbivores by theirselfs
- Predators should hunt strategically; Hunt by waiting in a neighbouring forest for a prey to walk by for example.
- Dinosaurs should use pathfinding to avoid phasing through other objects
This was quite a long post on not one idea but I felt the need to combine everything in one big post so that ideas wouldn't go unnoticed and so I didn't have to make a million posts. I don't know what the possibilitie is that everything will be seen but I sure hope that if it will it will be considered or added.
