Dinosaurs Metricanthosaurus compatible with armored herbivores

[Player 99234567]

Well I was thinking back to when the trailer for the game was first released and there was a clip with metri cohabiting with a pack of deinonychus and how people were excited that metri would be unique in that it could do that. Now that has always been possible but the issue is that all large carnivores can share the same enclosure with small carnivores so metri isnt really unique. I honestly think metri should be the only large carnivore (or maybe one of a few) to have that behavior but regardless of that I think metri should also be able to live with armored herbivores.

My reasoning for this is that metri is the smallest of the large carnivores and if I remember right it is also the weakest in terms of combat stats so I think it would only make sense for it to take on easy prey that cant fight back. There is also the fact that in JW canon it is implied that metri did cohabit with armored dinos like stegosaurus on the cretaceous cruise. It would also set metri apart from the other large carnivores with how flexible it could be in terms of cohabitation.

 

[gabeluna27]

One thing I do want to point out is on Isla Sorna’s science mission, your job is to contain a metria with a certain number of apatosaurus, kentrosaurus, triceratops, and pentaceratops together, the last three which are armored herbivores.

Without the gene modifications from the Secrets of Dr. Wu expansion, this can be challenging as many of these dinosaurs are social needy, like they need more than what the mission requires, and whether or not if you choose to fulfill their default social group needs, you will still have some overcrowded problems, especially for the two pentaceratops you must keep with the others.

Once after all two pentas, three kentros, four trikes, two apatos and the metria itself all together, the next phase is to keep the together for about five minutes with out too many mission required dinos dying. If (from where I’ve read) two mission dinosaurs are killed, the mission will fail. The metriacanthosaurus in-game is the only dinosaur from this mission that can choose to pick a fight with an armored dinosaur should either side wishes; armored herbivores can only fight each other if their uncomfortable; and I’m not sure how fast a comfort default pentaceratops, kentrosaurus, triceratops, or even metriacanthosaurus itself can get stressed.

The question I’m trying to bring is how can the Isla Sorna science mission can still be balanced out to still provide a good enough challenge for the average player who may not have or for some reason chooses not to use any of the specialized genes from the Dr. Wu DLC? Maybe it could be that the mission metria can be enabled to get into “Aggravated” mode which causes dinosaurs to get angry anyway? Or maybe through a different way?

Don’t get me wrong, I do like your conceptual idea of making the metriacanthosaurus more unique by making it live with whatever other else in-game, like the armored herbivores (or at least for certain armored herbivore species) and, to further support this, the metriacanthosaurus would only attack armored herbivores if either dinosaur types get stressed or if you have more than one metriacanthosaurus together where two would hunt/fight in a pair so there can still be both that natural and/or Jurassic Park kind of feel. But, I do think the in-game mission aspect for the dinosaur should still be addressed should the idea become a thing.



(FYI, the confirmation of metriacanthosaurus along with the other plant and meat eating dinosaurs in the Cretaceous Cruise doesn’t necessarily mean they did indeed all lived together in the same enclosure, it just means they can be viewed from the Cretaceous Cruise in the most broadest sense. It was never fleshed out further as to how the visitors can view the carnivores from the kayak ride within the enclosure with the herbivores you see in the film (apatosaurus, stegosaurus and parasaurolophus), but they were still meant to be seen from there somehow.)

 

[Player 99234567]

The question I’m trying to bring is how can the Isla Sorna science mission can still be balanced out to still provide a good enough challenge for the average player who may not have or for some reason chooses not to use any of the specialized genes from the Dr. Wu DLC? Maybe it could be that the mission metria can be enabled to get into “Aggravated” mode which causes dinosaurs to get angry anyway? Or maybe through a different way?



(FYI, the confirmation of metriacanthosaurus along with the other plant and meat eating dinosaurs in the Cretaceous Cruise doesn’t necessarily mean they did indeed all lived together in the same enclosure, it just means they can be viewed from the Cretaceous Cruise in the most broadest sense. It was never fleshed out further as to how the visitors can view the carnivores from the kayak ride within the enclosure with the herbivores you see in the film (apatosaurus, stegosaurus and parasaurolophus), but they were still meant to be seen from there somehow.)

Very good points. For the first the simplest solution could be to use a different carnivore for the mission. If I had to pick one I would say Trex would be an obvious choice but any non dlc large carnivores in this case would do.

As for your second point you are right in that we dont actually know if the metris were or were not in the same enclosure as the other dinos. Still doesnt mean that isnt a possibility. My main reasoning behind this suggestion is that originally it seemed that metri would be the only or one of a few large carnivores that could could cohabit with small carnivores but it turns out all of the large carnivores can be placed with small carnivores. So instead of changing every large carnivore to fix that it would be easier to just change metri to not attack armored herbivores.

dinosaur compatibility should honestly be more complicated than it currently is. one of the biggest complaints is that all dinos are just reskins of each other. until they added the fishing mechanic every large carnivore was exactly the same with the exception of enclosure size. Also I dont see why smaller "large" carnivores like metri, ceratosaurus or majungasaurus would bother fighting dangerous armored herbivores when other food sources are available. Bigger "large" carnivores like t-rex, giga and spino on the other hand I could see killing whatever they wished because of their size and strength. They could make a new class of "medium" carnivores but again the easiest (but not the best in my opinion) fix in this case would be to just change metri's behavior.

 

[Aramus418]

... back to when the trailer for the game was first released and there was a clip with metri cohabiting with a pack of deinonychus and how people were excited that metri would be unique in that it could do that...

You got that much out of a 2-second shot from the pre-order trailer? Interesting...

Anyway, while I’m not opposed to making dinosaurs “more unique,” I don’t think carving out an arbitrary exception to the usual herbivore/predator relationship is the way to go about it. A predator the size of a Met cohabiting with the armored herbivores doesn’t make sense.

 

[LordTrilobite]

I don't see the need to add this specifically to the Metriacantosaurus. But I do think that having a medium carnivore category could be interesting with the same rules. If medium carnivores would be counted mostly as large carnivores but they could also live with armoured herbivores, that could be pretty interesting.

 

[gabeluna27]

A predator the size of a Met cohabiting with the armored herbivores doesn’t make sense.

Well, that’s why I said above that I think it’s a cool idea for the metria to be able to live along side with certain armored species.

For one thing, I don’t see it being able to live with all armored herbivores. I see it being able to live ok with ceratopsians and club-tailed ankylosaurs, but not stegosaurs and shoulder-spiked ankys.

I was thinking earlier last night maybe the metriacanthosaurus for the Sorna science mission would’t attack a trike or penta by default, but certainly would on a kentro.

To further support this, I’ve recently researched that the metria fossils were found in a formation where stegosaur fossils have also been discovered. So, if metriacanthosaurus did indeed hunt adult stegosaurs at some point in life, I think that should stay in-game. Also, since the shoulder-spiked ankylosaurs are of a decent size, I think that if it were to coexist with certain ankylosaurs, I think that half of the ankys should still be vulnerable to the metria.

That way you can play around to see which armored herbivores would be ok to be with a metria without using any sort of tricks (outside of sandbox mode) that are “so out there” that general players may not know about, since this is for the general population who would play the game.

But, as stated above in my previous comment, the metria and all other herbivores should still fight each other if either side is stressed out to start with, that way you can still get that Jurassic Park vibe when something happens whenever you play the game.

 

[DragonNTiger]

Ehh... honestly doesn't make much sense to me... if anything the Bary and Sucho should be compatible. Those guys are so obviously built for delicate prey that attacking anything with armor makes no sense at all...

 

[gabeluna27]

Also I dont see why smaller "large" carnivores like metri, ceratosaurus or majungasaurus would bother fighting dangerous armored herbivores when other food sources are available.

In regards to ceratosaurus and majungasaurus, some published professional paleontologist papers claim that that both dinosaurs, in theory, may have hunted large herbivores in life. Since ceratosaurus itself looks like a beast in Jurassic Park III, I could see it hunting down any large enough herbivores, despite being on screen for only a few seconds.

Ehh... honestly doesn't make much sense to me... if anything the Bary and Sucho should be compatible. Those guys are so obviously built for delicate prey that attacking anything with armor makes no sense at all...

If that’s the case for either spino dinosaur, I think they should be able to live fine with both ankylosaur categories but not with ceratopsians and stegosaurs, just to add some species mixing up variations.




But regardless of what large carnivore could live with any armored herbivore, I think they should still scare the armored herbivores since I like to think that for them, large carnivores are large carnivores. Especially since I think that they should still attack those they would be ok with if either side gets stressed so it doesn't remove the franchise's feel for the game.

 

[Player 99234567]

I don't see the need to add this specifically to the Metriacantosaurus. But I do think that having a medium carnivore category could be interesting with the same rules. If medium carnivores would be counted mostly as large carnivores but they could also live with armoured herbivores, that could be pretty interesting.

A new medium carnivore category would definitely be really cool. I like these types of discussions where people give interesting feedback!