Critters have REASONS

[BlazeStryker]

There have been many attempts to improve the behavior of the wildlife of Skyrim. Some folks limit the aggression radius, others fiddle with the responses, and virtually everyone thinks that wolves and the Frostbite or Skeever the pack are after suddenly joining forces to attack you is flipping stupid, if only because it's flipping stupid.

I suggest a combined mod, something that makes for a reasonable set of radii for something to notice you, focus on/warn/avoid you, and deal with/fight/flee you. The criteria? Well, as the title says, critters have reasons to be out there doing their thing.

1) Critters have needs. Face it, critters need food, shelter, and safety from enemies/inclement conditions.

2) Critters have kin. Depending on individual species' concern or lack thereof, critters will not want their spawn (or retained "field rations") to die.

3) Critters have enemies. In any ecology, the food chain happens and untamed critters will avoid getting munched on. Likewise, predators will generally keep after their prey instead of swerving and going after that guy on the road some distance off.

So. working out and assigning those behaviors (probably via SPID) would help a lot. More than that, it adds to what a guy might do to not get attacked if he's fortunate enough to have what's needed.

1) Feed the hungry... and leave. If something's after food and you have food it would like, why not drop it and go on your merry way while it scarfs down the food or fusses over it with the rest of the pack in the case of wolves?

2) As the saying goes, never get between a mama bear and her cubs. Likewise, don't interpose yourself in the path of a predator after prey if you don't want to save the farm sow or go for wolf eyes (By this point anyone reading this far's into Hunterborn, so why pretend otherwise?)

3) Why can't we be friends? If you're a regular non-hostile, the local wildlife should know what to expect and may accept you, may be accepted in return. This is how domestication started!

We have enough means to add to the game engine's capabilities that making a comprehensive ecology mod (maybe even called Comprehensive Ecology) is doable.

Or you can assume that 3 skeevers, the Bristleboar, and that Sabretooth are all best buddies whenever a human's within a hectare.

 

Take all the time you need.

 

[InDarkestNight]

Skytest-Realistic Animals and Predators already does most of this. It changes the aggression of animals, increases spawns, adds baby animals, makes animals do things like seek out water and mates, and also alters their stats to be more in line with what the MO though they should be. On top of all this, it also adds new farm animals into the game, along with some new ambient spiders and rats.

Of course, many of of its new models really need an update. Its changes also don't carry over to most mod-added creatures. The stat changes in particular cause problems because they put mod-added creatures out of line with the vanilla animals (such as making a mammoth have over twice the health of an indricotherium, when without the mod indricotheriums have more health than mammoths). Yes, there's the integration project, but all they do is carry over the AI changes. They don't alter stats, or add in new baby animals for the newly added species.

SPID may be a good idea to make an auto-patching animal overhaul that's compatible with all newly added animals.

Despite its faults though, I still like the mod. When I did a short-lived playthrough with it for the first time since before Trump was president I think (seriously), I was actually talking to the geese in Riverwood about how much I missed them I was so overjoyed in having it back. Bad models and lack of compatibility means nothing to me. I'd rather have smarter and more realistic animals over vanilla creatures cosplaying as new creatures. That mod's given me a better experience than any other creature mod I've ever used. I still vote for it to be mod of the month, just so I can 'endorse it more than once'. Its right up there with Frostfall in mods that are essential to me. Skyrim simply isn't Skyrim without both those mods. I would still like better models and compatibility, but even without that I still see it as essential and the only contender for Frostfall in terms of what is the best mod ever made.

Edited May 12, 2024 by InDarkestNight
fixing embarrasing typos

[BlazeStryker]

I agree that skyTEST is a good foundation to build on.