Some Suggestions for Wolf Behavior

[ribbbbbs]

Hello,

I am new to this game. My total experience is ~100hrs in one 1.19 world. I'm now solidly in the iron age and at the point where I can explore the word without constant fear of starving/tools breaking/no inventory/etc. I have many thoughts and ideas from my playthrough thus far that I'd like to talk about, but this is the one I thought through the most.

For me, wolves became very underwhelming after playing for a little bit. It is stupidly easy to exploit their slow swim speed by jumping into a pond and spearing them. And despite their high damage they are pretty fragile and can be reliably killed in mele with iron gear. They also don't really pose a real danger most of the time because their agro range small enough that you are almost guaranteed to see the wolf before you enter it. After the first few hours, I only ever died wolfs if I basically stepped on one while walking through the woods at night. 

Firstly, I think wolves should cease pursing prey (or maybe just the player) when they enter 2 blocks of water. This would still allow underequipped players to avoid becoming lunch while preventing them from abusing wolves slow swim speed for EZ bushmeat, fat, and hides. Obviously, simply increasing the swim speed would make wolves TOO dangerous to under-equipped players. 

Second, wolves' aggression mechanics should better approximate their IRL counterparts. To implement this, wolves should have a "tracking mode" which they enter if a player passes within say 40 blocks of the wolf. While in "tracking mode" a wolf should follow the player at a distance >20 blocks and periodically make a "tracking howl" which causes nearby wolves to move towards the calling wolfs position. If a player leaves the tracking radius of the wolf, the wolf reverts to its passive mode. If a player moves within 20 blocks of the wolf, it becomes hostile. When the number of wolves in tracking mode is greater than or equal to the certain value (for example if there are three or more wolves tracking the player), the tracking wolves all agro and attack the player at once. I think this behavior would increase the threat posed to stronger players, while still being balanced for weaker players, who have to avoid the wolves regardless. I think this mechanic would have very singular fear factor of hearing the howls following you increase until they suddenly stop, and a wave of enemies hit you at once. It makes wolves more interesting and unique than just weaker bears, which is how they feel now.

I suppose these mechanics ought to apply to hyenas too, but I've never actually seen one in game so I can't say for sure.

[cjc813]

Lmao, can you *imagine* the salt if people started being hunted down by entire packs of wolves? 

It's a clever idea, but honestly... it doesn't sound fun to me.

I rather like that wolves eventually stop being a threat within the first year. (Once you get leather/gambeson wolves are trivial). It gives you a sense of progression.

And I think that instead of development time being spent on wolf pack AI, I think it's more important to continue adding new/different monsters to the game.

I do think it'd be better if angry animals didn't follow you into water, though.

Edited January 15, 2025 by cjc813

[Thorfinn]

Agreed, @cjc813. The sound and fury would be something to behold.

@ribbbbbs is correct that as is, wolves are a nothing burger. Oh, they were quite the thing when I was new to the game , but with enough practice, they are just annoying  because you can't jump over them without getting bit. You have to go 2-3 blocks around them to avoid taking damage.

[Xsarda]

well this behaviour would be cool and pretty acurate for wolves behaviour , but also it would make them for difficult to deal with them. Maybe it would be cool if you could toggle this behaviour as sort of new difficulty? 

 

Also it would be cool if wolves ( and other predators possibly ) be attracted to the player's campfire if there is meat on it ( in a way that they dont come very close but stick around the place)

Edited January 15, 2025 by Xsarda

[Steel General]

This is how I thought the wolves would function when I first started playing.  I was disappointed to find out the howls were cosmetic.  It got a lot easier after that.

[ribbbbbs]

@Xsarda,  @cjc813: 
To be clear, a SINGLE wolf would be no stronger than it is now. The idea is to make wolves more RISKY targets, requiring a player stop and use their knowledge of game mechanics and situational awareness to decide if/how they should engage, instead of just going "Me hav stronk geer, wuffs git rekt". 

Also, I'd like to add that wolves (and basically all other large animals) are trivially easy to dispatch with ranged weapons since they are easy to shoot from outside their agro/flight range. Animals should at least run around randomly a little bit when they take damage from an "unknown" source (as seen in the block game that shall not be named). 
 

Edited January 15, 2025 by ribbbbbs

[LadyWYT]

4 hours ago, ribbbbbs said:

Also, I'd like to add that wolves (and basically all other large animals) are trivially easy to dispatch with ranged weapons since they are easy to shoot from outside their agro/flight range. Animals should at least run around randomly a little bit when they take damage from an "unknown" source (as seen in the block game that shall not be named). 

This was actually implemented in 1.20: animals will run away when hit at range, instead of standing there like a target dummy. In the case of predators, it can be a useful way to scare them away from certain areas early in the game, however, said predator may also notice your presence and decide to attack you instead. So it's a risky proposition.

Otherwise, I think wolves are fine, for the most part. They're a hazard early-on, and remain a hazard later to players who get too complacent, but they shouldn't be a huge threat for the entire course of the game. The most I would be inclined to change is make them less likely to chase players into water.