Smart animals...

[Mike_McBrien]

Smart animals...

I have heard that AI currently is quite impressive with monsters that heal each other and use combos.... this made me think. There is a ton that can be done with UOs dumb animals the following are a few ideas.

Herding deer: As a rule of thumb deer usally heard into groups if they see each other. generally the is one dominant male with several does, but some deer herds can reach amazing numbers of hundreds or more. So why not have UO deer do that, try to group together when ever the get the chance or see one another.

Also deer tend to be quite flighty around people or any animal that it could be threatend by. and When one deer runs... they all run. So make deer scamper away from people.

Reproducing Animals: Ever wanted to have a sheep farm in UO. If your a tailor it would be almost indespecable to have sheep in your back yard. but getting the sheep there may be a problem. and since sheep die (non infinate lifespan is a good idea for animals too) after so long it would be quite useful to have a sheep that could reproduce. But that would also mean that you have to properly feed and water animals, or they will get weak and die.

Chicken Fights: Oh this is a good one. Imagine having chickns the you can train to fight against each other. Weekly events could be help allowing a good deal of player interaction and alot of betting.

Of course this idea would be about 100 times better if you include reproducing animals. And to make it even better have these baby chkns carry over their parents genes. yes I said genes. Imagine 5 chickens that have different traits. some chickens may be strong, others agile others smart, agressive, docile, shy, etc... If these genes could be carried over 2 or 3 generations from a set of parents the chicken fighting possibilities would lterally be endless. However be aware that chickens die of age so even the best strain of cocks wont last forever.

Trainable Horses: having a horse instantly follow your very command would be nice wouldnt it? I think most horses require a bit of training to ride correctly.

Trainable pets: They say "a dog is a mans best friend" Not if he wont do anything. Imagine a dog that you can train to fetch bird you've hunted, or track a person through the woods.

Just a few ideas that would be really awesome to have!

 

[Zippy]

There are very good ideas.... and lucky for you, most of them arent THAT hard to impliment...

I would love to see deer heards myself

 

[AlejandroX]

I also think these ideas are great and could be expanded on. I am all the idea that RunUO can be better than OSI's server. I think we discussed better ai on the irc channel one time. I support it fully.

 

[Kiwi]

I like the idea of wild animals running away from humans, and staying in packs, etc

 

[AlejandroX]

Yea, why stop at monsters too?

 

[Rainman]

I plan on working on the chicken script, as I was working on it with UOX for a long time. I guess I just have always loved the idea of cock fights

 

[Rainman]

Hmm, i got censored when I meant it in a non-sexually explicit way

 

[AlejandroX]

Why make it chicken specific? If you're going to do it go all out. Have it fuckin PokeMon style or something. A gump comes up "Alejandro has challenged thy pet to a battle..." and its legal anywhere with mutual consent. Perhaps make taming less of a lame ass skill.

 

[AlejandroX]

Anyone here ever played Monster Rancher? Think of that concept Rainman but try to keep it tasteful. *imagines*

 

[SickLab]

Beign able to trade our Pet would be very exciting

 

[rlitt3]

This might have already been implimented or discussed but npcs that use archery or magery as far as I have seen always run in for melee combat rather than staying a distance away to attack at range. Would be more realistic if these type of npcs would try to run from you to avoid hand to hand combat.

 

[fenris]

:idea: i think it would be interesting too try to implement some sort of pack mind on animals nad perhaps monsters and npcs. so when you attack a wolf in a pack the other wolves run to its defense, or when a brigand ambushes you the others will help him instead of just thinking on themselves.

it would work also when one of them tries to flee, it would affect the morale of the groud as a whole, possibly all them will try to run away!!!

what do you think?

 

[AlejandroX]

I think that that this is a great idea as well. One of the things that made me lose interest in OSI's server is how lame the NPCs were.

i think it would be interesting too try to implement some sort of pack mind on animals nad perhaps monsters and npcs. so when you attack a wolf in a pack the other wolves run to its defense, or when a brigand ambushes you the others will help him instead of just thinking on themselves.

I've been trying to think how feasible something like this would be and perhaps the devs could shed some light. Would pack mentality and other AI screw up spawning and the balance of the game, or would it be easier to do? Perhaps if there are three of the same monster 2 of them follow one, the strongest...

 

[Etalicus]

:evil:
this sound pretty cool it would be intersting to have herds of animals attacking some one because the person got to close to say an injured animal or having a bird that learns to speak a few words and be able to use the bird as a messanger

:twisted:

 

[Mike_McBrien]

as Etalicus said... a carrier pigeon type bird or even a parrot that learns words that it hears frequently. Also in depth AI would make it great for when players are hunting alone (or on small servers).

Could also possibly make "game hunting" and actual sport, and exciting in the game. Say you go deer hunting... you have to shoot the deer with an arrow (no way your gonna be able to catch up with it, because it runs away) and even if you do shoot it.. it would run for a bit before it dies... so that means you would have to track the animal... or possibly lose you kill.

Enhanced monster AI would also be a plus becasue you are going to have to use team work to kill some of even the easiest mosters... for instance you hit one Ratman... and if any ratman in hearing distance hears the fight, they will undoubtedly join in... making a double team of ratman much more difficult to defeat.


Is there people out there that are willing to work on these AI scripts while the core is in process of being devolped (Rainman has already shown intrest) ? If there is I would like to know if you guys need ideas or are willing to work with what we have givin out already... because as Zippy said..

I would love to see deer herds myself

 

[AlejandroX]

Lets try to organize our ideas for anyone interested in actually scripting them:

• NPCs of same species more together and attack anyone attacking one of their kind
  
  Animals run away if they are substantially weaker than oppenent
  
  Pets can be trained to grow stronger and perhaps it is possible to have, gump-based, legal fights in which the loser's pet isn't killed but defeated and money can be bet
  
  Carrior pigeon type message bird (no idea how this would be done)
  
  Animals that spawn other animals. Perhaps only if they are tame. good for tailors
  [/list:u]
  
  I'm not suggesting that all of these ideas are good or even feasible but some would make the game much more interesting.