Zalanthan Ecology

[Miradus]

It's recently been brought to my attention that mobiles spawn in different rates, different locations, etc. based on the season.

Have you considered mobs that spawn and despawn according to diurnal cycles?

For instance, some type of predator which spawns at night and wanders around until it picks up tracks and then follows those tracks within a limited range? That might be a bit of a complex mob_prog to do safely but simply spawning and despawning on a percentile chance (5% chance for a megapredator to spawn in the grasslands at dusk) wouldn't be too difficult.

[Shoka Windrunner]

Nocturnal beasties would be cool.  +1

[Miradus]

On second thought, I die enough just to the daytime critters.

-1 for !Fear the Night! Zalanthan mod.

[Feco]

I dunno about spawning/despawning, but I know of at least one location where the animals have pretty complex seeming behavior.  They have certain behaviors during certain times of the day, atleast.  Very cool stuff.

[Esadal]

Maybe instead of despawning, these nocturnal predators/notpredatorsmaybe would have a cave/hole/other to return to during the day to sleep?  Kind of like the code that city guards have for patrolling the streets, except this one..  Eats everything in its path instead.  Maybe not so different from city guards..

On second thought, I die enough just to the daytime critters.

-1 for !Fear the Night! Zalanthan mod.

More fear of the night would be cool!  Give Jihae more of a reason to be the terrifying omen it's suppose to be when it's the only light source you have.

With the shortness of the night though (30 minutes if you include dusk), the path of the creature might be pretty small.. Or would it run around rooms quickly in its wild nightly rampage?

Just some ideas to throw at your ideas!

[Armaddict]

Nocturnal creatures and 'a different sort of danger' at night would be awesome.

'Fuck.  We're camping out?  You'd better not have led us into tembo country.'

[Shoka Windrunner]

I could see some gortoks running everywhere at night as the sniff for their prey and surround and run them down. Lots of snakes prefer the night, maybe some new screeching owl-like mutant thing that hunts at night and swoops down on frightened Bynners. 

A terrifying screech is heard from the night sky above you.

[nessalin]

Nocturnal creatures and 'a different sort of danger' at night would be awesome.

'Fuck.  We're camping out?  You'd better not have led us into tembo country.'

[Armaddict]

Yes.  Exactly.

Tie this in with ranger listen sometime, and we'd be killing lots of birds with rocks!  Woo!

[nauta]

I love all the neat ecology things in the game, and I think night-time creatures would be super cool -- especially if you could have this:

Code Select Expand


> l
Darkness

Someone releases a keening cry.

> l
Darkness

(You notice: Someone hisses nearby.)

> l
Darkness


Vaguely related:

Is it just me, or do creatures stop respawning towards the end of the week (that is, the further you get from a reboot)?

I guess it could be that they somehow get spawned in pits or in really foreign spots, but I've noticed with a few creatures now that around Saturday or Sunday they are nowhere to be seen.  Then reboot, and poof they are all back!

[Riev]

I would probably attribute that more to more PCs around to thin out the herds, myself. There are a few spawn points that I've check before, and ALWAYS found what I was looking for, and other times where for a few RL days in a row, there was nothing... and then suddenly, a pile of bones left behind.

+1 for 'additional' nighttime predators.

[Miradus]

I would like to send in some designs for Zalanthan night-critters. Can I? Huh? Can I? Can I?