Your Feature Request / Idea
Personally, I find that it's a pretty big break in the immersive dinosaur experience that Jurassic World Evolution attempts to be when Carnivores always catch their prey item without fail when Hunting. It goes without saying that catching prey that can't fight back doesn't always go according to plan for predators, be it with modern animals or prehistoric ones. A predator will botch an ambush or the prey item will manage to escape before the predator can kill it. I for one don't think the way Evolution handles the predator/prey relationship should be one-sided either. Therefore I'm proposing alternate outcomes/animations for encounters between Small and Medium Herbivores and Carnivores when the Herbivores are selected by the Carnivores as their target when performing the Hunting behavior. Here's a rundown on how I personally think it should work:
First of all, the Small/Medium Herbivore and Carnivore (be it Small or Large) lock into place and synchronize together to display a Hunting animation as they do in the current game. However, the game then randomly decides between one of three different outcomes:
Outcome 1 (Success): The Carnivore succeeds in sneaking up on, catching, and killing the Herbivore. This would use the same animations we currently have in the game.
Outcome 2 (Failure): The Carnivore charges toward the Herbivore from behind (perhaps not sneaking up on it like in Outcome 1), but the Herbivore turns its head, notices its incoming attacker, and begins fleeing from it earlier than in Outcome 1. The Herbivore is therefore able to outrun or outmaneuver the predator (perhaps using different escape tactics/animations depending on the family of Herbivore that's fleeing), leaving the Carnivore with no choice but to abandon the chase and try again when it gets another opportunity. This would require new animations for both the Herbivores and Carnivores in question, although the animations could be based on or use aspects of their default running animations that already exist.
Outcome 3 (Escape): The Carnivore succeeds in catching up to the Herbivore and injuring it, but the Herbivore manages to break free of its attacker's reach/grasp and get away. This would result in the Carnivore having to try again and the Herbivore narrowly escaping with its life, but with a chunk of its health lost in the encounter (Perhaps losing 25% of its maximum Health?). Small Carnivores could also potentially receive minor injuries to their Health bar from falling off of/being thrown off of their prey's back. These injuries to both Herbivores and Small Carnivores would of course heal over time though. This outcome would have to be completely new and require the most work given that all of the Small and Large Carnivores would have to have appropriate animations for interacting with all of the different families of Small and Medium Herbivores, although Ornithomimosaurs and Pachycephalosaurs could potentially share the same escape animation. This outcome would also give Small and Medium Herbivores the unique opportunity to sport scarring from these encounters, something that they can't currently possess while still alive.
Outcome 3 Animation Examples:
1 - A T. rex chases after and manages to nip at a Gallimimus, but the Gallimimus speeds up or changes the direction it's running in a desperate but successful attempt to throw its attacker off, with the T. rex becoming winded or unable to change direction in time to keep up.
2 - A Velociraptor chases after a Parasaurolophus and leaps onto its back, biting and scratching at the back of its neck before either losing its grip and falling off or the Parasaurolophus managing to shake it off while running. The beginning of this particular animation could reuse some aspects of the existing Small Carnivore/Hadrosaur kill animation, just with a different attack lead-up and ending.
Important Notes: None of this would apply to Goats and park guests however, as it seems a bit unlikely that they would be able to escape a hungry Carnivore due to their lack of speed. This also wouldn't affect the Troodon at all seeing as its Hunting method and animations are completely unique and don't have a definitive outcome every time.
One other thing I pondered was perhaps allowing the Indominus rex, Indoraptor, and maybe even the Spinoraptor to catch their prey every time without fail, as at least the first two are regarded in the canon as near-perfect killing machines. I'm not sure about this though...
So there you have it! What do you guys think? Do you have any concepts to add to this idea? Would you like to see something like this implemented in the game?
Personally, I find that it's a pretty big break in the immersive dinosaur experience that Jurassic World Evolution attempts to be when Carnivores always catch their prey item without fail when Hunting. It goes without saying that catching prey that can't fight back doesn't always go according to plan for predators, be it with modern animals or prehistoric ones. A predator will botch an ambush or the prey item will manage to escape before the predator can kill it. I for one don't think the way Evolution handles the predator/prey relationship should be one-sided either. Therefore I'm proposing alternate outcomes/animations for encounters between Small and Medium Herbivores and Carnivores when the Herbivores are selected by the Carnivores as their target when performing the Hunting behavior. Here's a rundown on how I personally think it should work:
First of all, the Small/Medium Herbivore and Carnivore (be it Small or Large) lock into place and synchronize together to display a Hunting animation as they do in the current game. However, the game then randomly decides between one of three different outcomes:
Outcome 1 (Success): The Carnivore succeeds in sneaking up on, catching, and killing the Herbivore. This would use the same animations we currently have in the game.
Outcome 2 (Failure): The Carnivore charges toward the Herbivore from behind (perhaps not sneaking up on it like in Outcome 1), but the Herbivore turns its head, notices its incoming attacker, and begins fleeing from it earlier than in Outcome 1. The Herbivore is therefore able to outrun or outmaneuver the predator (perhaps using different escape tactics/animations depending on the family of Herbivore that's fleeing), leaving the Carnivore with no choice but to abandon the chase and try again when it gets another opportunity. This would require new animations for both the Herbivores and Carnivores in question, although the animations could be based on or use aspects of their default running animations that already exist.
Outcome 3 (Escape): The Carnivore succeeds in catching up to the Herbivore and injuring it, but the Herbivore manages to break free of its attacker's reach/grasp and get away. This would result in the Carnivore having to try again and the Herbivore narrowly escaping with its life, but with a chunk of its health lost in the encounter (Perhaps losing 25% of its maximum Health?). Small Carnivores could also potentially receive minor injuries to their Health bar from falling off of/being thrown off of their prey's back. These injuries to both Herbivores and Small Carnivores would of course heal over time though. This outcome would have to be completely new and require the most work given that all of the Small and Large Carnivores would have to have appropriate animations for interacting with all of the different families of Small and Medium Herbivores, although Ornithomimosaurs and Pachycephalosaurs could potentially share the same escape animation. This outcome would also give Small and Medium Herbivores the unique opportunity to sport scarring from these encounters, something that they can't currently possess while still alive.
Outcome 3 Animation Examples:
1 - A T. rex chases after and manages to nip at a Gallimimus, but the Gallimimus speeds up or changes the direction it's running in a desperate but successful attempt to throw its attacker off, with the T. rex becoming winded or unable to change direction in time to keep up.
2 - A Velociraptor chases after a Parasaurolophus and leaps onto its back, biting and scratching at the back of its neck before either losing its grip and falling off or the Parasaurolophus managing to shake it off while running. The beginning of this particular animation could reuse some aspects of the existing Small Carnivore/Hadrosaur kill animation, just with a different attack lead-up and ending.
Important Notes: None of this would apply to Goats and park guests however, as it seems a bit unlikely that they would be able to escape a hungry Carnivore due to their lack of speed. This also wouldn't affect the Troodon at all seeing as its Hunting method and animations are completely unique and don't have a definitive outcome every time.
One other thing I pondered was perhaps allowing the Indominus rex, Indoraptor, and maybe even the Spinoraptor to catch their prey every time without fail, as at least the first two are regarded in the canon as near-perfect killing machines. I'm not sure about this though...
So there you have it! What do you guys think? Do you have any concepts to add to this idea? Would you like to see something like this implemented in the game?