Likelihood of creature to attack

[NinjaSalad]

I hope I'm not being to posty, but another Idea would be to have a Forester NPC you could go to to get the latest information on the animal enviroment, like food shortages and mating seasons. these are just ideas to help you along I guess, nothing makes a better mod then global input, and of course programers like yourself. Which I thank god for!

[Marxist ßastard]

I'm already going to implement such things through normal dialog -- things like "My friend says that the famine in the West Gash has really gotten to the animals; he said that a caravan was attacked by creatures right before his eyes, and that he, himself, sustained a couple of attacks, even though there wasn't a second where his weapon wasn't drawn." and "Are you going down to the Ascadian Isles? I heard that attacks on farmers have grown more frequent as of late. A couple of farmhouses even had to be abandoned when things got really bad, I heard." in the Latest Rumors topic -- and through books like "Savant's Note on Animal Behavior," which will describe non-random aggressiveness spikes in a region and species.

[NinjaSalad]

This I will congradulate you for, I find this idea to be one of the few plug-ins that I would actually keep using for all my charaters, I think it would add a much needed touch of realizm to the game, Thanks.

[Akrid]

YES! I want this when your done. Stupid monsters are always attacking me, in video games too. Also I think monsters should attack other npc's and other monsters, is that possible? What if say a golden saint was batteling two clan fears, and you jump in and help her, she should be cool with you and your disposition to all golden saints should go up a little, as then you find your self never being attacked by them becasue everywhere you go you help them for exsample. And if you get a monster to like you enuff they should even help you in fights if thier around. this would mean balancing it out though, maybe you could asighn monsters to have enemys and it may be dadria are enemys of npc's, when you get good with one you lose points with the other. Monsters fighting eachother and npcs would really bring morrowind to life.

[Dilvish]

I like your ideas M.B. Real animals are smart. They don’t often attack a stronger opponent if they can avoid it. They run away if they are hurt badly enough.

Here are some thoughts:

 

Add an attack penalty when PC is carrying torch. Animals fear fire.

(Your drawn weapon penalty idea is really good.)

 

Does your “Armor Equipped on PC” calculation translate to PC armor rating? Could you just use PC armor rating directly?

 

Make higher level characters less likely to be attacked.

Something like this:

 

a) PC level >1.5 animal’s HP = attack penalty

B) PC HP >20 X animal’s HP = attack penalty

 

Animal HP down to ~20% = animal breaks off attack

Can you make a wounded animal break off an attack and wander off slowly?

[Marxist ßastard]

Does your “Armor Equipped on PC” calculation translate to PC armor rating? Could you just use PC armor rating directly?

 

Unfortunately, no for both of those questions. A full suit of Iron armor will count the same as a full suit of Daedric (and will count more than a full suit of Glass), because I'm limited to checking only what pieces of armor the PC is wearing and what the weight class of each piece of armor is through scripting.

 

Make higher level characters less likely to be attacked.

Something like this:

 

a) PC level >1.5 animal’s HP = attack penalty

b) PC HP >20 X animal’s HP = attack penalty

 

A combined Strength, Willpower, and Endurance consideration appears in the maximum Fatigue penalty.

 

Animal HP down to ~20% = animal breaks off attack

 

That's handled by the AI rather nicely.

[Jarron Ip Arondale]

If the PC is running or walking might cause an animal to react differently. Also there are old stories that say never to turn your back on a wild animal. But it may be detrimental to be too nitpicky.

[Marxist ßastard]

PC running directly past creature is already a condition for wolves, nix-hounds, and alit. I've been strongly thinking about putting a "turned back in critical area" bonus in for these same creatures.

[batesmotel34]

I'm not sure that weapons and armor should factor in for most animals. Since most animals don't use weapons or artifical armor, they are not likely to recognize the significance of them for how vuylnerable a human is. In the real world, game animals don't react on seeing a hunter, e.g. a person with a gun or a bow, versus a non hunter. They're much more likely to react in general either based on non-familiarity with humans and hence an unknown quantity, or based on whether humans in the past have generally been hostile or firiendly or neutral. "Wild" animals in Yellowstone Park where they are fed by unwary tourists and hunting is generally not allowed, will show a much different reaction to a human than anumals whose interaction with humans has been primarily being hunted or trapped by humans.

 

So the general fear level of the human, their physical condition (healthy/fatigued/injured), and the size of the human versus the size of the aniumal, and the past experience of the animal with humans in general would seem to be much more real criteria in determining whether an animal will attack, than wether an individual human is wearing armor or carrying a drawn weapon.

[NinjaSalad]

I'm native myself, so I do ALOT of hunting, it would seem that animals do react diferently when you have a gun then when you don't. I think it's because your thinking of killing that animal when you have a gun. I not sure but I think animals can sence a kind of hostile feeling form you, mabey having your weapon out would cause an animal to attact/ flee in the game?