This will be a little bit of a long post, so bear with me. Many of the following ideas for new dino tweaks and mechanics are also ones that are interconnected with each other and play roles in other aspects of those mechanics. The overall idea is to help make the dinos seem more like living breathing creatures by giving them more intricate behaviors and control over said behaviors with the use of new gene mods.
Pacifism/Aggression Genes / Fighting Tweaks
Add in a new set of genes to control how passive or aggressive a dino is : Pacifist 1.0 /2.0 and Aggression 1.0/2.0.
⦁ dinos are now able to flee from battle, the hp % at which they will flee depends which genes they have, if any. They must at least take 1 hit from their opponent before being allowed a chance to flee.
⦁ Default aggression changes : flee from a fight at 50% hp, and will initiate fights when at 80% hp or higher. The default fighting frequency in game is considered the 50% point for comparison to the genes.
⦁ Pacifist 1.0 : will fight 25% less frequently than default, flees battle at 60%, will only initiate fights if at 100% hp. For Hybrids - Applying this would bring it down to Aggression 1.0
⦁ Pacifist 2.0 : dino avoids fighting altogether. For Hybrids - Applying this would bring it down to default aggression level.
⦁ Aggression 1.0 : fight 25% more frequently than default, flees battle at 40%, initiates fights if at 60% or higher. Overrides cross-species tolerance for carnivores (see Territory Section).
⦁ Aggression 2.0 : fight as much as possible (equivalent to max combat in sandbox settings), flee from battle at 30% hp, initiates fights at 40% hp or higher. Overrides cross-species tolerance for carnivores (see Territory Section). Hybrids like Indominus rex and Indoraptor have this innately.
⦁ The genes could go into the same category of genes as the social/stress inhibitor genes that were introduced the in Secrets of Dr. Wu DLC.
⦁ carnivores prioritize food in the following order (with default genes) : Corpses, Feeders, then living herbivores. They only resort to hunting herbivores when their hunger is just above going into the red, and they do not detect any corpses or feeders in range. Carnivores with aggression genes will prioritize hunting over feeders
Fence Tweaks
⦁ Small Carnivores should not be able to break through heavy-steel or concrete fences - they could attempt to climb fences to escape
⦁ dinos attacking electrified fences should take some damage to their health, and panic for a little bit. Large carnivores only have a chance to start panicking
⦁ a electrified fence segment that is attacked or has had an escape attempt will have a chance to have its power knocked out - giving dinos a greater chance to escape. Large dinos have higher chances to knock out the power than small dinos.
⦁ Ornithomimids and Pachycephalosaurs shouldn't be able to break through heavy-steel or concrete either, though unsure about how they would deal with those fence types at this time (open to suggestions)
Hunting
We need actual hunting mechanics : as it is currently, stats on hadrosaurs/iguanodontids, Ornithomimids, and sauropods are essentially useless. Carnivores should have a chance to fail a hunt, succeed, or be partially successful (deals some damage to prey, but prey escapes). That chance would be based upon the stats of the target dino in comparison to their own. If a carnivore's stats is higher than their prey the more likely their hunt will be successful. If evenly matched, they are more likely to only wound their prey. If they have lower stats their prey is more likely to escape unscathed.
⦁ A prey dino that dies from the damage of a partially successful hunt could just ragdoll upon death (like how the loser dies in fights with medium carnivores that dont have a finisher animation)
⦁ If dinosaurs that cannot fight are involved in an unsuccessful hunt, they will escape and flee from the carnivore (partial success will still result in the prey fleeing, it will just take some damage). If a carnivore fails a hunt with a dino capable of fighting (for example, large carnivores vs armored herbivores), the prey dino will turn and initiate a fight with the carnivore instead of fleeing (same for partial success, but with damage taken)
⦁ Sauropods are now huntable by large carnivores, though it will be very difficult (see more details below in stat rebalance section).
⦁ carnivores will have a chance to sustain injuries during their hunts. The harder a herbivore is to hunt, the higher chance for the carnivore to get injured. If it gets injured, it can't hunt again until it heals. They can still scavenge from corpses/meat feeders while injured.
Hunting Cont. - Stat Rebalance & Hunting Difficulty
For the hunting mechanic is to work, then many dinos (especially herbivores) will need a stat rebalance. The categories listed below are a guide line of roughly where an herbivore family's stats should be in comparison to the carnivores hunting it. If a carnivore type is not listed, it means that type will not hunt any herbivores in that category. Large Carnivores will be split into Medium and Large. Herbivore stats will be rebalanced so that they match the listed hunting difficulties below.
-Medium Carnivores include : Albertosaurus, Baryonyx, Carnotaurus, Ceratosaurus, Majungasaurus, Metriacanthosaurus, Indoraptor, Spinoraptor, and Suchomimus.
-Large Carnivores include: Acrocanthosaurus, Allosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Indominus rex, Spinosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex.
-Note - Indoraptor is a bit of a wild-card, seeing as size-wise it fits in Medium Carnivores but strength-wise it's stronger than most Large Carnivores. As the hunts are dependent on a dino's stats, consider the examples below as if Indoraptor were classed as a Large Carnivore.
-Note #2 - due to their sizes, consider Dryosaurus (Iguanodontid) and Homalocephale (Pachcephalosaurid) in the same difficulty category as Ornithomimids, and Nigersaurus in the same difficulty category as Hadrosaurs/Iguanodonts.
a. Hadrosaurs/Iguanodonts - hard for small carnviores, moderate for medium, easy for large. Takes 40% dmg on partially successful hunts
b. Ankylosaurs- hard for medium carnivores , moderate for large carnivores. Takes 20% damage on partially successful hunts
c. Stegosaurs & Ceratopsians - very hard for small carnivores, hard for medium carnivores, moderate for large carnivores. Takes 30% damage on partially successful hunts.
d. Ornithomimids - easy for all carnivores. Takes 60% dmg on partially successful hunts
e Pachycephalosaurs - moderate for small carnivores, easy for medium and large. Takes 50% damage on partially successful hunts
f. Sauropods - Very hard for large carnivores, Extremely hard for Spinoraptor (see pack hunting). Takes 10% dmg on partially successful hunts. Their stats should be high enough so large carnivores almost only ever get a partially successful hunt - larger sauropods should have stats high enough to survive at least 1 attack with pack hunting).
Pack Hunting
Pack hunting would be used to hunt herbivores that are too large to be killed by lone carnivores - success rate could add the stats of the pack members together when running the check that determines if the hunt will fail or not.
⦁ Example : RaptorStats1 is much less than ParaStats1, so it has very high fail chance. But (RaptorStats1 + RaptorStats2 + RaptorStats3) is greater than ParaStats, so the pack will have a high chance for a successful hunt
⦁ A possible way to implement this is to have multiple latchpoints on a given dinosaur type, for example maybe hadrosaurs have 3 or 4 latch points. Alphas will be the only ones to initiate hunts. To start a hunt, the alpha would select a target behind the scenes. It then would call the closest pack members in range if available, the number of pack members being determined by the amount of latch points the prey target has and the number of members that are in range of the alpha. From there the pack would hunt their target as you would expect
⦁ small carnivores can pack hunt ceratopsians and stegosaurs, but if they fail the hunt they will flee and the herbivore will threaten (See Threaten section).
⦁ Indoraptor/Spinoraptor could pack hunt sauropods similiarly to how small carnivores could latch onto prey.
⦁ Large Carnivores can also pack hunt sauropods, their latch points will be for where each pack member bites the sauropod to inflict bleed on it that will gradually reduce the sauropod's hp.
Dominance, Territory , and Alpha Disputes
Large carnivores with will have varying degrees of tolerance for certain other species of large carnivores in their enclosures depending on their territorial level, and the same goes for small carnivores.
⦁ Carnivores could get a new stat value to show how territorial they are, ranging on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 being Non-Territorial (completely tolerant of other species), 2 being Slightly Territorial (will fight other species that are roughly equal or less in stats), 3 being Extremely Territorial (they will fight any other carnivore if able), and 4 also Extremely Territorial but is exclusive to Hybrids. Each species would have its own base values indicating how territorial they are. Carnivores will also gain an extra Gene Mod slot exclusively for the exterritorial genes
⦁ Exterritorial Gene 1.0- reduces a dino's territorial value by 1 point
⦁ Exterritorial Gene 2.0 - reduces a dino's territorial value by 2 points
⦁ tolerated species should not fight to the death if food is plentiful (with appropriate genes)
⦁ carnivores need to be able to establish dominance over other tolerated carnivore species - similarly to how dinosaurs had territory disputes in JPOG. They could have an interaction similar to the existing one for establishing alphas, in that they could square up to each other and the dino with the highest stats would win and scare off the loser. The loser would then avoid being too close to the winner, running away from it if it got too close. Losing dinos modded for aggression would ignore this and not flee from the dominant predator(s) in their enclosure, and will remain open to fight them.
Alpha disputes should still remain based on prestige, but should be slightly changed so that carnivores, ceratopsians, and pachycephalosaurs actually fight each other (non-lethal, would function differently than standard fight). The damage done during the fight would scale based off of prestige rather than the stats. The loser could use that same submissive animation that occurs when losing a normal fight, only instead of dying they panic and run away. For these fights, Ceratopsians (except Styracosaurus and Sinoceratops) could lock horns for their fight, and Pachycephalosaurs could butt heads
Threaten
instead of all herbivores (except sauropods) fleeing from all large carnivores, it would be nice if there was a mechanic so that herbivores could threaten similarly-sized and/or smaller carnivores. Stegosaurs turn and display their thagomizers, ceratopsians face them head on and display their horns, Ankylosaurs bang the ground with their club tails, Sauropods could whip their tails around and/or stomp. Pachycephalosaurs could lower their heads and threaten to charge or, to toss out some examples.
⦁ Ornithomimids / Hadrosaurs - flee from all carnivores
⦁ Pachycephalosaurs - threaten small carnivores, flee from medium and large carnivores
⦁ Iguanodonts / Small Stegosaurs - threaten small and medium carnivores, flee from large
⦁ Large Stegosaurs / Ceratopsians / Ankylosaurs - threaten all carnivores
⦁ Sauropods - threaten all large carnivores
Misc Tweaks
⦁ Each species would have their own preferred time of day to sleep, and would prioritize sleep during those times if their food/water needs are satisfied
⦁ Dilophosaurus should receive an update to its attacks so that its venom is actually meaningful - is able to inflict poison. It will inflict blindness (victim dino will not eat or drink while blinded) and if victim is poisoned for long enough and dilo's stats are high enough, it will be paralyzed (could have the same ragdoll effect from being tranqed). The dilo can then feed on the still-living dino and kill it (just like how carnivores will run up and kill a tranqed dino). If dilo stats aren't high enough, it needs to stack on more poison to increase its effect, similar to how a a victim bitten by Troodons has its hp drain faster the more it is bitten.
⦁ an Indominus rex that is camoflauged should be much harder for other dinos to detect - it would need to be alot closer for them to actually start panicking. Also while camoflauged, ACU/Ranger teams should have reduced accuracy if trying to shoot a cloacked I-rex. As it is presently, the camo-gene seems to be purely cosmetic. Maybe it could even give Indominus an attack bonus if it uses camo during a hunt (this could help it to take down sauropods much more easily than other large carnivores)
⦁ Ankylodocus should be able to defend itself from attackers, and one of the hardest sauropods to hunt due to its armor/clubbed tail
⦁ more fine-tuning with herbivore herding AI
⦁ helicopters should not cause dinos to panic, unless actively being darted by the ACU team
⦁ As gross as it may be, Dinos should poop. It would help make these creatures seem like living breathing things. It doesn't have to be nearly as graphic as the hippo poop from Planet Zoo or anything, just something is better than nothing though.
⦁ I'm aware of the reasons behind the design choice, but I still feel like Tour Jeep, Gyrospheres and Ranger Jeeps should be destroyable by some of the more aggressive large dinosaurs to bring in a little more realism. Seriously... it can't really be any worse than having carnivores swallowing guests alive or being mauled to death. This could also be another use for the pacifist genes.
⦁ Dinosaurs should naturally wake up from being tranqed - maybe after like 5~10min or so (Timer would pause during moves for obvious reasons). It's silly to just have them perma-tranqed until they get moved by a chopper.
⦁ Goats should not be considered to be part of combat, and should be huntable by carnivores regardless of sandbox combat settings or aggression genes.
Pacifism/Aggression Genes / Fighting Tweaks
Add in a new set of genes to control how passive or aggressive a dino is : Pacifist 1.0 /2.0 and Aggression 1.0/2.0.
⦁ dinos are now able to flee from battle, the hp % at which they will flee depends which genes they have, if any. They must at least take 1 hit from their opponent before being allowed a chance to flee.
⦁ Default aggression changes : flee from a fight at 50% hp, and will initiate fights when at 80% hp or higher. The default fighting frequency in game is considered the 50% point for comparison to the genes.
⦁ Pacifist 1.0 : will fight 25% less frequently than default, flees battle at 60%, will only initiate fights if at 100% hp. For Hybrids - Applying this would bring it down to Aggression 1.0
⦁ Pacifist 2.0 : dino avoids fighting altogether. For Hybrids - Applying this would bring it down to default aggression level.
⦁ Aggression 1.0 : fight 25% more frequently than default, flees battle at 40%, initiates fights if at 60% or higher. Overrides cross-species tolerance for carnivores (see Territory Section).
⦁ Aggression 2.0 : fight as much as possible (equivalent to max combat in sandbox settings), flee from battle at 30% hp, initiates fights at 40% hp or higher. Overrides cross-species tolerance for carnivores (see Territory Section). Hybrids like Indominus rex and Indoraptor have this innately.
⦁ The genes could go into the same category of genes as the social/stress inhibitor genes that were introduced the in Secrets of Dr. Wu DLC.
⦁ carnivores prioritize food in the following order (with default genes) : Corpses, Feeders, then living herbivores. They only resort to hunting herbivores when their hunger is just above going into the red, and they do not detect any corpses or feeders in range. Carnivores with aggression genes will prioritize hunting over feeders
Fence Tweaks
⦁ Small Carnivores should not be able to break through heavy-steel or concrete fences - they could attempt to climb fences to escape
⦁ dinos attacking electrified fences should take some damage to their health, and panic for a little bit. Large carnivores only have a chance to start panicking
⦁ a electrified fence segment that is attacked or has had an escape attempt will have a chance to have its power knocked out - giving dinos a greater chance to escape. Large dinos have higher chances to knock out the power than small dinos.
⦁ Ornithomimids and Pachycephalosaurs shouldn't be able to break through heavy-steel or concrete either, though unsure about how they would deal with those fence types at this time (open to suggestions)
Hunting
We need actual hunting mechanics : as it is currently, stats on hadrosaurs/iguanodontids, Ornithomimids, and sauropods are essentially useless. Carnivores should have a chance to fail a hunt, succeed, or be partially successful (deals some damage to prey, but prey escapes). That chance would be based upon the stats of the target dino in comparison to their own. If a carnivore's stats is higher than their prey the more likely their hunt will be successful. If evenly matched, they are more likely to only wound their prey. If they have lower stats their prey is more likely to escape unscathed.
⦁ A prey dino that dies from the damage of a partially successful hunt could just ragdoll upon death (like how the loser dies in fights with medium carnivores that dont have a finisher animation)
⦁ If dinosaurs that cannot fight are involved in an unsuccessful hunt, they will escape and flee from the carnivore (partial success will still result in the prey fleeing, it will just take some damage). If a carnivore fails a hunt with a dino capable of fighting (for example, large carnivores vs armored herbivores), the prey dino will turn and initiate a fight with the carnivore instead of fleeing (same for partial success, but with damage taken)
⦁ Sauropods are now huntable by large carnivores, though it will be very difficult (see more details below in stat rebalance section).
⦁ carnivores will have a chance to sustain injuries during their hunts. The harder a herbivore is to hunt, the higher chance for the carnivore to get injured. If it gets injured, it can't hunt again until it heals. They can still scavenge from corpses/meat feeders while injured.
Hunting Cont. - Stat Rebalance & Hunting Difficulty
For the hunting mechanic is to work, then many dinos (especially herbivores) will need a stat rebalance. The categories listed below are a guide line of roughly where an herbivore family's stats should be in comparison to the carnivores hunting it. If a carnivore type is not listed, it means that type will not hunt any herbivores in that category. Large Carnivores will be split into Medium and Large. Herbivore stats will be rebalanced so that they match the listed hunting difficulties below.
-Medium Carnivores include : Albertosaurus, Baryonyx, Carnotaurus, Ceratosaurus, Majungasaurus, Metriacanthosaurus, Indoraptor, Spinoraptor, and Suchomimus.
-Large Carnivores include: Acrocanthosaurus, Allosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Indominus rex, Spinosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex.
-Note - Indoraptor is a bit of a wild-card, seeing as size-wise it fits in Medium Carnivores but strength-wise it's stronger than most Large Carnivores. As the hunts are dependent on a dino's stats, consider the examples below as if Indoraptor were classed as a Large Carnivore.
-Note #2 - due to their sizes, consider Dryosaurus (Iguanodontid) and Homalocephale (Pachcephalosaurid) in the same difficulty category as Ornithomimids, and Nigersaurus in the same difficulty category as Hadrosaurs/Iguanodonts.
a. Hadrosaurs/Iguanodonts - hard for small carnviores, moderate for medium, easy for large. Takes 40% dmg on partially successful hunts
b. Ankylosaurs- hard for medium carnivores , moderate for large carnivores. Takes 20% damage on partially successful hunts
c. Stegosaurs & Ceratopsians - very hard for small carnivores, hard for medium carnivores, moderate for large carnivores. Takes 30% damage on partially successful hunts.
d. Ornithomimids - easy for all carnivores. Takes 60% dmg on partially successful hunts
e Pachycephalosaurs - moderate for small carnivores, easy for medium and large. Takes 50% damage on partially successful hunts
f. Sauropods - Very hard for large carnivores, Extremely hard for Spinoraptor (see pack hunting). Takes 10% dmg on partially successful hunts. Their stats should be high enough so large carnivores almost only ever get a partially successful hunt - larger sauropods should have stats high enough to survive at least 1 attack with pack hunting).
Pack Hunting
Pack hunting would be used to hunt herbivores that are too large to be killed by lone carnivores - success rate could add the stats of the pack members together when running the check that determines if the hunt will fail or not.
⦁ Example : RaptorStats1 is much less than ParaStats1, so it has very high fail chance. But (RaptorStats1 + RaptorStats2 + RaptorStats3) is greater than ParaStats, so the pack will have a high chance for a successful hunt
⦁ A possible way to implement this is to have multiple latchpoints on a given dinosaur type, for example maybe hadrosaurs have 3 or 4 latch points. Alphas will be the only ones to initiate hunts. To start a hunt, the alpha would select a target behind the scenes. It then would call the closest pack members in range if available, the number of pack members being determined by the amount of latch points the prey target has and the number of members that are in range of the alpha. From there the pack would hunt their target as you would expect
⦁ small carnivores can pack hunt ceratopsians and stegosaurs, but if they fail the hunt they will flee and the herbivore will threaten (See Threaten section).
⦁ Indoraptor/Spinoraptor could pack hunt sauropods similiarly to how small carnivores could latch onto prey.
⦁ Large Carnivores can also pack hunt sauropods, their latch points will be for where each pack member bites the sauropod to inflict bleed on it that will gradually reduce the sauropod's hp.
Dominance, Territory , and Alpha Disputes
Large carnivores with will have varying degrees of tolerance for certain other species of large carnivores in their enclosures depending on their territorial level, and the same goes for small carnivores.
⦁ Carnivores could get a new stat value to show how territorial they are, ranging on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 being Non-Territorial (completely tolerant of other species), 2 being Slightly Territorial (will fight other species that are roughly equal or less in stats), 3 being Extremely Territorial (they will fight any other carnivore if able), and 4 also Extremely Territorial but is exclusive to Hybrids. Each species would have its own base values indicating how territorial they are. Carnivores will also gain an extra Gene Mod slot exclusively for the exterritorial genes
⦁ Exterritorial Gene 1.0- reduces a dino's territorial value by 1 point
⦁ Exterritorial Gene 2.0 - reduces a dino's territorial value by 2 points
⦁ tolerated species should not fight to the death if food is plentiful (with appropriate genes)
⦁ carnivores need to be able to establish dominance over other tolerated carnivore species - similarly to how dinosaurs had territory disputes in JPOG. They could have an interaction similar to the existing one for establishing alphas, in that they could square up to each other and the dino with the highest stats would win and scare off the loser. The loser would then avoid being too close to the winner, running away from it if it got too close. Losing dinos modded for aggression would ignore this and not flee from the dominant predator(s) in their enclosure, and will remain open to fight them.
Alpha disputes should still remain based on prestige, but should be slightly changed so that carnivores, ceratopsians, and pachycephalosaurs actually fight each other (non-lethal, would function differently than standard fight). The damage done during the fight would scale based off of prestige rather than the stats. The loser could use that same submissive animation that occurs when losing a normal fight, only instead of dying they panic and run away. For these fights, Ceratopsians (except Styracosaurus and Sinoceratops) could lock horns for their fight, and Pachycephalosaurs could butt heads
Threaten
instead of all herbivores (except sauropods) fleeing from all large carnivores, it would be nice if there was a mechanic so that herbivores could threaten similarly-sized and/or smaller carnivores. Stegosaurs turn and display their thagomizers, ceratopsians face them head on and display their horns, Ankylosaurs bang the ground with their club tails, Sauropods could whip their tails around and/or stomp. Pachycephalosaurs could lower their heads and threaten to charge or, to toss out some examples.
⦁ Ornithomimids / Hadrosaurs - flee from all carnivores
⦁ Pachycephalosaurs - threaten small carnivores, flee from medium and large carnivores
⦁ Iguanodonts / Small Stegosaurs - threaten small and medium carnivores, flee from large
⦁ Large Stegosaurs / Ceratopsians / Ankylosaurs - threaten all carnivores
⦁ Sauropods - threaten all large carnivores
Misc Tweaks
⦁ Each species would have their own preferred time of day to sleep, and would prioritize sleep during those times if their food/water needs are satisfied
⦁ Dilophosaurus should receive an update to its attacks so that its venom is actually meaningful - is able to inflict poison. It will inflict blindness (victim dino will not eat or drink while blinded) and if victim is poisoned for long enough and dilo's stats are high enough, it will be paralyzed (could have the same ragdoll effect from being tranqed). The dilo can then feed on the still-living dino and kill it (just like how carnivores will run up and kill a tranqed dino). If dilo stats aren't high enough, it needs to stack on more poison to increase its effect, similar to how a a victim bitten by Troodons has its hp drain faster the more it is bitten.
⦁ an Indominus rex that is camoflauged should be much harder for other dinos to detect - it would need to be alot closer for them to actually start panicking. Also while camoflauged, ACU/Ranger teams should have reduced accuracy if trying to shoot a cloacked I-rex. As it is presently, the camo-gene seems to be purely cosmetic. Maybe it could even give Indominus an attack bonus if it uses camo during a hunt (this could help it to take down sauropods much more easily than other large carnivores)
⦁ Ankylodocus should be able to defend itself from attackers, and one of the hardest sauropods to hunt due to its armor/clubbed tail
⦁ more fine-tuning with herbivore herding AI
⦁ helicopters should not cause dinos to panic, unless actively being darted by the ACU team
⦁ As gross as it may be, Dinos should poop. It would help make these creatures seem like living breathing things. It doesn't have to be nearly as graphic as the hippo poop from Planet Zoo or anything, just something is better than nothing though.
⦁ I'm aware of the reasons behind the design choice, but I still feel like Tour Jeep, Gyrospheres and Ranger Jeeps should be destroyable by some of the more aggressive large dinosaurs to bring in a little more realism. Seriously... it can't really be any worse than having carnivores swallowing guests alive or being mauled to death. This could also be another use for the pacifist genes.
⦁ Dinosaurs should naturally wake up from being tranqed - maybe after like 5~10min or so (Timer would pause during moves for obvious reasons). It's silly to just have them perma-tranqed until they get moved by a chopper.
⦁ Goats should not be considered to be part of combat, and should be huntable by carnivores regardless of sandbox combat settings or aggression genes.
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