Animal AI improvements

[Wahazar]

There is wide room for mob AI improvement, I propose simply patch to make hunting more immersive - make animals more aware about attack.

- if animal was hit, it should be alerted - either trying to flee, or if aggressive, start searching for aggro

- if animal is hit an is not domesticated, it should alert other animals nearby in certain radius

- if projectile landed, nearby animals (in radius depend on projectile type, small for arrow, larger for spear/stone) should be alerted.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Wahazar said:

- if animal was hit, it should be alerted - either trying to flee, or if aggressive, start searching for aggro

Animals do already run away when damaged, and if they're close enough and inclined to aggression they will absolutely try to attack you.

1 hour ago, Wahazar said:

if animal is hit an is not domesticated, it should alert other animals nearby in certain radius

Domesticated animals will still alert their herdmates if they feel there is a threat nearby, and can be notoriously uncooperative if they don't want to do something. This is why some farm chores are multi-man tasks. 

I would also say that the behavior already exists for in-game livestock, to an extent. Domestication simply causes them to stop automatically trying to run away or attack if you get too close, however, it won't stop them from reacting to being smacked.

1 hour ago, Wahazar said:

- if projectile landed, nearby animals (in radius depend on projectile type, small for arrow, larger for spear/stone) should be alerted.

I'm inclined to agree, however...I'm not sure it would be a good addition in terms of fun gameplay. Currently, it takes at least a handful of shots to kill most game, likely for balance reasons since being able to kill most animals with a single shot would make hunting too easy and strong compared to acquiring livestock. If you can scare an animal away or provoke attack simply by missing, that's going to lead to a lot of frustration on the player's part.

[Facethief]

53 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Domestication simply causes them to stop automatically trying to run away or attack if you get too close, however, it won't stop them from reacting to being smacked.

Which is the only reason why the cleaver has a niche in gameplay.

[Wahazar]

Quote

Animals do already run away when damaged, and if they're close enough and inclined to aggression they will absolutely try to attack you.

It is not true - I often observed wolf or bear getting hit and doing nothing. Probably it is related either with distance larger than animal aggro range, or with no path found due to player standing on block column.

Therefore my proposal, to increase animal aggro/awareness, if hurt.

About animal fleeing due to miss hit - it can and should be balanced by probability of animal speed debuff, if getting hurt. Currently hunting is unrealistic and annoying, with animals fleeing at max speed, no effects of getting hit until HP<0. No blood traits, no speed debuff.

[LadyWYT]

4 hours ago, Wahazar said:

It is not true - I often observed wolf or bear getting hit and doing nothing. Probably it is related either with distance larger than animal aggro range, or with no path found due to player standing on block column.

Weird. I've been playing on 1.20.7 still(because mods) and haven't noticed an issue with it. Maybe it's a bug in a newer version? Or the block column could be messing with the pathing, as you said. 

 

[Facethief]

5 hours ago, Wahazar said:

About animal fleeing due to miss hit - it can and should be balanced by probability of animal speed debuff, if getting hurt. Currently hunting is unrealistic and annoying, with animals fleeing at max speed, no effects of getting hit until HP<0. No blood traits, no speed debuff.

If animals ran when you missed, there would be no opportunity for a “calibration shot”, so it would be harder to hit accurately and thus perpetuate the cycle of misses. I honestly find it fun trying to mentally track animals, it stops me from trying to get too many animals at once, which I feel helps pacing, and it makes me consider the terrain when doing so. If the ratio of animals hit to animals killed was 1, then it might make hunting more boring. Of course, if the tracking system relied on a few particles, then it might be possible to make it optional for those who struggle with hunting.

[Thorfinn]

9 hours ago, Wahazar said:

It is not true - I often observed wolf or bear getting hit and doing nothing. Probably it is related either with distance larger than animal aggro range, or with no path found due to player standing on block column.

Yes, and bears and wolves do not flee until damaged to less than 30%. Might be new in 1.21, but now they stop their idle if they take damage. Or at least that's what it looks like they intend that code to do. I haven't cheesed them yet, so I have no idea if that works yet or not.

[LadyWYT]

6 hours ago, Facethief said:

If the ratio of animals hit to animals killed was 1, then it might make hunting more boring.

Not just that, it would remove a lot of drawback from playing Blackguard. It takes two shots from low-tier weapons to kill a rabbit, and I would say an extra hit on average to kill larger creatures at range as well. Blackguards are very strong fighters, but one of the prices they pay for that strength is that they need more food...and it's harder for them to get said food. Meat is the best food source when it comes to pure calories, so if you make it easy for Blackguards to hunt there's no real challenge left to hold them back in the early game.

[KoviBat]

I do think there's a lot of room for improvement for animal behavior. Something like an A-Life system would probably be the best (but most resource-intensive) solution. Animals don't just spawn in the open, they could have dens and warrens and caves that they live in, where they go to sleep. Then, depending on if they're nocturnal or diurnal animals, go out from during the day. They could have different food types that they specifically look for, be they plants or other animals. During winter they're less likely to come out of their dens, as they're hibernating, though some species are better suited for winter weather than others.

I also think there should be a little more variety in animal behavior when it comes to violence. Big cats are ambush predators that prefer not to attack head-on. If you make eye contact with them, they largely remain still until you turn your back. They likely behave the same with their prey. Wolves mainly chase whatever runs from them on initial eyesight and won't attack things that stand their ground. Bears can stay how they are. Having a system where the way you behave can affect how some potential predator animals interact with you would be a step forward, I think. Maybe even be able to get close if you're crouching with food in hand. I'm not for wolf-taming, but I like the idea of wolf de-escalating.

[Katherine K]

On 6/30/2025 at 2:44 AM, Wahazar said:

It is not true - I often observed wolf or bear getting hit and doing nothing. Probably it is related either with distance larger than animal aggro range, or with no path found due to player standing on block column.

Yeah, behavior in response to a player that's out of detection range is wonky. I'm glad attacked creatures don't just magically know where the attacking player is, but the response should be something other than shrugging it off like it must have been the wind. Seems entirely reasonable for the creature to know roughly the direction where the attack came from and either get closer to investigate or flee, depending on the type of creature and the amount of damage.

[Facethief]

I love throwing rocks at the wildlife, it makes it so much easier to stab them to death.

[Krougal]

5 hours ago, Katherine K said:

Yeah, behavior in response to a player that's out of detection range is wonky. I'm glad attacked creatures don't just magically know where the attacking player is, but the response should be something other than shrugging it off like it must have been the wind. Seems entirely reasonable for the creature to know roughly the direction where the attack came from and either get closer to investigate or flee, depending on the type of creature and the amount of damage.

I am noticing this a lot as well in 1.21. It makes their behavior seem very erratic.