I'm just gonna come out and say it; sandbox needs some work, outside of the issue of having to grind to get everything in the other game modes. There's a lot of holdovers from the other gamemodes that bog down the experience in sandbox and, though these are mostly based on my personal opinion, I hope others will be able to agree with me for the ideas I'm bringing forward.
These suggestions for sandbox options should allow for a more freeform experience. I will also address other issues that become prominent when you let dinosaurs roam freely, such as missing behaviors that were advertised by the team and should be added back in as soon as possible, or just general improvements to their AI.
1. An option to toggle the need for scientists. The scientist system is...a thing. I'm not particularly fond of it, but then I didn't mind the downtime in JWE 1. For sandbox however, there's no need for them to be a requirement for making or healing dinosaurs. Making them optional for sandbox should definitely be top priority.
2. Option for instant synthesis/incubation. This was sorely needed in JWE 1 sandbox and the fact it's not in 2 from the start is even more baffling. There's no reason sandbox players should have to wait for their dinosaurs if they don't want to, especially since some of them just take so long to make.
3. Optional status checks. If the player wants a Site B type game or huge safari exhibits, ranger stations just aren't practical. For the former, the dinosaurs are running free unabated, and the latter the exhibit is so large they may as well be. The amount of ranger posts needed to keep an eye on these animals is ludicrous, and the number of response facilities almost as much. This could even be set to be on a per diet basis as dehydration and hunger toggles are.
4. Optional injuries + injury chance. So first things first, just in general major injuries are far too common and need to be reduced even outside of sandbox. But for sandbox itself, the player should have every opportunity to fine-tune their experience to their liking. Optional injuries are a must have; Disable all injuries, disable major injuries, or both minor and major injuries enabled. This way, a player can choose which they want to deal with, if any. Further, an option for how likely injuries are to happen would be nice for players who still want major injuries to be a factor, but just not ever two minutes as they are now.
5. More freeform gene modification. I'll be blunt, I'm rather baffled by the gene modification system. More accurately, I'm baffled why there's such a great disparity in available modifications between species, so few possible modifications overall with 8 appearing to be the maximum, and why we aren't given the option to make negative traits more likely if we so wish. Gene modification just feels very restrictive in sandbox mode, though I suppose this is a result of dinosaurs only being able to have three traits. Still, I feel like some sort of overhaul would work in its favor.
From here on out, we move on from desirable sandbox options to things to change in general, such as dinosaur behaviors.
1. Pack hunting. I think little needs to be said here; the predators do too much damage, any prey that's not an armored herbivore does nothing even when improved for combat, and the prey makes no attempt to escape before the predators begin their attack. The locking on is so obvious when the prey adopts the defensive stance from 30 yards away. The prey should try to flee up until the predators latch onto it, and they shouldn't be so helpless like they are now.
2. Medium/large predator hunting. Frontier said predators can fail their hunts. I've yet to see in what way this is possible. Every carnivore I've released in Sandbox has a 100% kill rate on any prey that doesn't stand its ground. Predators should be failing to make a kill at least some of the time. It's likely that most predators may need a stamina nerf to facilitate this, and in turn a stamina buff for the prey, predominantly the hadrosaurs and ornithomimids.
3. Just better AI in general. Herbivores seem to completely forget a carnivore was just amongst them when it lies down to sleep, and they even let it get ridiculously close when it's roaming about. This is part of the reason why the carnivores can kill them so easily right now. Panicking needs to be a priority behavior for the AI such that it interrupts any and all other behaviors in their tracks. The Muttaburra face cleaning is cute, but the whole animation shouldn't play out before it runs because a T. rex is nearby. Same goes for eating, drinking, resting, whatever animation. They should all be immediately interrupted for the Panicking behavior. You can even see how jarring it is when tranquilizing an animal. If you dart them in the middle of one of these animations they don't react at all, and just keep on going without a care. Only to then collapse in a heap when it's finished. Dinosaurs as a whole just seem to ignore each other until it's convenient as well. It took close to 15 minutes of 3x speed for a Carnotaurus and Qianzhousaurus to start fighting despite crossing paths many times. The dinos should more readily try to threaten or fight rivals to evict them from their territories, not put it off as a last concern problem.
4. Prey territory could count for a predators prey need. If a predator's territory overlaps with the territory of a prey species, that should then fulfill the prey need. When the predator is hungry, it should make an active effort to then move to the territory of the prey animal and seek out the herd to hunt. This one came to me after watching an albertosaurus starve to death because it didn't move beyond the confines of its territory, despite overlapping with two different prey animals.
I've tried to be truly constructive in my criticisms here. I hope that others agree with my assessments and that some or even all of these changes can be added to make Sandbox, or even the game as a whole, more fun for everyone no matter what their preferred game mode or playstyle!
These suggestions for sandbox options should allow for a more freeform experience. I will also address other issues that become prominent when you let dinosaurs roam freely, such as missing behaviors that were advertised by the team and should be added back in as soon as possible, or just general improvements to their AI.
1. An option to toggle the need for scientists. The scientist system is...a thing. I'm not particularly fond of it, but then I didn't mind the downtime in JWE 1. For sandbox however, there's no need for them to be a requirement for making or healing dinosaurs. Making them optional for sandbox should definitely be top priority.
2. Option for instant synthesis/incubation. This was sorely needed in JWE 1 sandbox and the fact it's not in 2 from the start is even more baffling. There's no reason sandbox players should have to wait for their dinosaurs if they don't want to, especially since some of them just take so long to make.
3. Optional status checks. If the player wants a Site B type game or huge safari exhibits, ranger stations just aren't practical. For the former, the dinosaurs are running free unabated, and the latter the exhibit is so large they may as well be. The amount of ranger posts needed to keep an eye on these animals is ludicrous, and the number of response facilities almost as much. This could even be set to be on a per diet basis as dehydration and hunger toggles are.
4. Optional injuries + injury chance. So first things first, just in general major injuries are far too common and need to be reduced even outside of sandbox. But for sandbox itself, the player should have every opportunity to fine-tune their experience to their liking. Optional injuries are a must have; Disable all injuries, disable major injuries, or both minor and major injuries enabled. This way, a player can choose which they want to deal with, if any. Further, an option for how likely injuries are to happen would be nice for players who still want major injuries to be a factor, but just not ever two minutes as they are now.
5. More freeform gene modification. I'll be blunt, I'm rather baffled by the gene modification system. More accurately, I'm baffled why there's such a great disparity in available modifications between species, so few possible modifications overall with 8 appearing to be the maximum, and why we aren't given the option to make negative traits more likely if we so wish. Gene modification just feels very restrictive in sandbox mode, though I suppose this is a result of dinosaurs only being able to have three traits. Still, I feel like some sort of overhaul would work in its favor.
From here on out, we move on from desirable sandbox options to things to change in general, such as dinosaur behaviors.
1. Pack hunting. I think little needs to be said here; the predators do too much damage, any prey that's not an armored herbivore does nothing even when improved for combat, and the prey makes no attempt to escape before the predators begin their attack. The locking on is so obvious when the prey adopts the defensive stance from 30 yards away. The prey should try to flee up until the predators latch onto it, and they shouldn't be so helpless like they are now.
2. Medium/large predator hunting. Frontier said predators can fail their hunts. I've yet to see in what way this is possible. Every carnivore I've released in Sandbox has a 100% kill rate on any prey that doesn't stand its ground. Predators should be failing to make a kill at least some of the time. It's likely that most predators may need a stamina nerf to facilitate this, and in turn a stamina buff for the prey, predominantly the hadrosaurs and ornithomimids.
3. Just better AI in general. Herbivores seem to completely forget a carnivore was just amongst them when it lies down to sleep, and they even let it get ridiculously close when it's roaming about. This is part of the reason why the carnivores can kill them so easily right now. Panicking needs to be a priority behavior for the AI such that it interrupts any and all other behaviors in their tracks. The Muttaburra face cleaning is cute, but the whole animation shouldn't play out before it runs because a T. rex is nearby. Same goes for eating, drinking, resting, whatever animation. They should all be immediately interrupted for the Panicking behavior. You can even see how jarring it is when tranquilizing an animal. If you dart them in the middle of one of these animations they don't react at all, and just keep on going without a care. Only to then collapse in a heap when it's finished. Dinosaurs as a whole just seem to ignore each other until it's convenient as well. It took close to 15 minutes of 3x speed for a Carnotaurus and Qianzhousaurus to start fighting despite crossing paths many times. The dinos should more readily try to threaten or fight rivals to evict them from their territories, not put it off as a last concern problem.
4. Prey territory could count for a predators prey need. If a predator's territory overlaps with the territory of a prey species, that should then fulfill the prey need. When the predator is hungry, it should make an active effort to then move to the territory of the prey animal and seek out the herd to hunt. This one came to me after watching an albertosaurus starve to death because it didn't move beyond the confines of its territory, despite overlapping with two different prey animals.
I've tried to be truly constructive in my criticisms here. I hope that others agree with my assessments and that some or even all of these changes can be added to make Sandbox, or even the game as a whole, more fun for everyone no matter what their preferred game mode or playstyle!
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