Natural alliances

[Ivan]

The current threats in VS are drifters, wild pigs and wolfs. All of these pose a threat to the player (humans). However if a slain drifter left a corpse behind, and it was in the vicinity of wolves or pigs (or dumped there), those wild animals might be better fed, and so less aggressive towards humans.

Alliances with wild animals could be possible, but alliances of convenience rather than friendship (which of course should be impossible).

This sort of alliance would not protect players who stray too near to dangerous animals, but going forward maintaining alliances could be a matter of balance and good practice, so in practice a sort of subtle husbandry. Logically I would imagine a Wolf or a wild pig would attack a Drifter before it assaults a humans (if it is a matter of choice). So a sort of wild husbandry could exist, whereby a fed wolf pack in the vicinity of a players house would not harass a player (or at least have a reduced chance of attacking), but would attack drifters who are attracted to that house.

So killing the wild animals may not be necessary, in fact it could be undesirable, as long as the player attends to their needs in some way.  In the end drifters have to eat, so one assumes that would be recognized as foes to animals like wolves, whose pups the players would have a vested interest in protecting and see come to maturity.

 

I am sure there are plenty of related possibilities that can be expanded upon, the most basic of which may not require any major changes to anything other than the level of animal aggression in certain areas.

[heptagonrus]

Lolz, a simplification: kill one drifter in a group to distract others and run away white they are tearing/feeding on its corpse.