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Wilderlands Ethology


Thalius

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Wilderlands Ethology Mod

A simple mod created for the Wilderlands server that alters some traits as well as the ai behavior of some of the main animal species in the game with the following results:

  • Bighorn Sheep spawn in larger herds but less frequently.  They also will flee when the player gets close enough. Getting close to sheep is much harder to do if they have the open space to run, but they will sometimes aggro on the player if enough damage is done. They basically can become desperate and turn to fight rather than flee.  Hunting from a pillar becomes obsolete, and ranged weapons for hunting are a must unless you can use environmental trapping methods to chase them into an enclosed area.  Trapping in this manner may require aid of other players if your aim is to capture multiple sheep or the majority of a herd. Very rewarding if you can pull it off.
  • Wild pigs now only spawn in dense brush and forest, but across a wider temperature range.  They will aggro on the player if they come too close to them, but usually will not chase the player far- they are more interested in chasing the player off than they are in killing them.  Except for boars- They sometimes get sideways with intruders and might just decide to give the player a hard time over a longer distance.  Boars also do a fair bit more damage than females.  Wild pigs run upon taking damage, but will also turn and fight if the player inflicts enough harm.  Hunting them is harder, but worth it, as they drop more meat and fat.  Sows also birth a wider range of litter size, from two piglets up to 12.
  • Wolves will hunt lambs now, and rams and ewes in return will attack wolves if they come within the herd. When confronted by rams or ewes, wolves will turn tail and flee upon taking damage from them.  This will result in sometimes seeing rams and/or ewes chasing wolves, but rams will not chase them far if there are any lambs left in the herd as their ai keeps them within a certain distance of any young.  Also, wolf attack power has been slightly reduced, but pack size is now potentially larger.
  • Hyenas are a bit unpredictable. They hunt primarily at the end of the day and through the evening into early morning, and sleep and rest most of the daylight hours. They will hunt the player if they are hungry, but might otherwise ignore you altogether during the day.. maybe. They also hunt wild pigs as well as chickens and other small prey.  Pack size of hyenas has also been slightly increased.
  • Health of all of these entities has been increased.
  • AI and traits of some other entities have been adjusted slightly to account for some of the changes in the AI of some predators.

The results of the changes are a more challenging hunting experience and a more dynamic relationship between not only the player and animals in the environment, but also more dynamic interactions between some of the animals themselves in the game world.

As stated in the beginning, this mod has been created for use on the Wilderlands server, but we saw no need to keep it to ourselves. Feel free to use in your personal game or on a multiplayer server if you like.  I will keep it updated as long as there is a need for it, and will incorporate new ai behavior and other entities as more options become available in future game releases.

Feel free to message me with any suggestions or critiques based on your experience with the mod.  Feedback is welcome.


~TH~

Update: Finally got the time to release an updated version of this mod that works properly.
With the Wilderlands Ethology version 2.2, the skittish nature of sheep is tamed out at first generation.  Pigs have also been made skittish until tamed at gen one.  Aggressive seeking nature of sheep and pigs has been removed till a future game release allows for taming out those ai tasks.  All other changes to entities are listed in the original posting, and unchanged.

Link to Mod Database download files: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/1172

 

Edited by Thalius
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Awesome, I can't wait to see how this is once I reach the end of the modding tunnel I'm in. 😅

Any chances of taking a look at the CoB pack or The Neighbors and enhancing the AI interactions there? I'm not saying you should work on their AI directly, but maybe having wolves hunt the giant cockroaches or make sheep gather near bison would be cool? I don't even know if they need help in that regard, but they seem kind of divorced from the rest of the world when it comes to activity... unless I just need to pay more attention.

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1 hour ago, l33tmaan said:

Awesome, I can't wait to see how this is once I reach the end of the modding tunnel I'm in. 😅

Any chances of taking a look at the CoB pack or The Neighbors and enhancing the AI interactions there? I'm not saying you should work on their AI directly, but maybe having wolves hunt the giant cockroaches or make sheep gather near bison would be cool? I don't even know if they need help in that regard, but they seem kind of divorced from the rest of the world when it comes to activity... unless I just need to pay more attention.

I hesitate to work on any mods that are currently active and supported by their author or another that has taken on support for them.  I also have no clue how to write code- I've just learned how to manipulate .json files using existing code.  Modifying behavior is not overly difficult, just time consuming in testing and altering and testing again to find balance between entities and get them to get them to act as you want. 

I could take a look at those mods if their author's did not mind or if they have been abandoned and see what I can make of them, but it might be a bit before I can spend time on them.  I'm currently working on a mod that is a fork of the abandoned Wild Goblins mod, using that mod's code and shape files as a framework to create a new entity that will have some interesting things going on with them.  That project will have my attention for at least another week or two.

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5 minutes ago, l33tmaan said:

That sounds pretty cool, too! More interesting creature interactions are always welcome.

A bit of a teaser...
An Übok and his pet wülf. Not nearly as cute and cuddly as this pic makes them look. 

Rare, but found in nearly all climates. Nomadic and tribal in nature; some varieties are friendlier than others, though none should be approached lightly.

2021-05-24_14-41-56.png

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/18/2021 at 7:56 AM, Rufkut said:

So it works  with Farmlife but animals are aggressive even at generation 5. I wonder if there is anyway to make it work together

I will take a look at it Rufkut. We are seeing a few issues on our server with it as well that require some tweaking. We do not run Farmlife, but I'll download the mod and look it over and see if/where the Ethology mod could be tweaked to make them compatible. 

Life has been busy, but I intend to address a few things soon and get an update out before too long.

Edited by Thalius
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/18/2021 at 7:56 AM, Rufkut said:

So it works  with Farmlife but animals are aggressive even at generation 5. I wonder if there is anyway to make it work together

A new Wilderlands Ethology version has been released! 

Sorry it took so long.. life has been busy, and I had quite a few things to try and figure out with the mod. BIG thanks to EmiyaS in the Wilderlands server for helping slog through the code with me to come to resolution on some issues!


W.Ethology Version 2.2.0 details:

The problem with taming out aggressive behavior in sheep and pigs has been patched.  Current game mechanics do not currently work for taming out seeking and melee ai tasks. Tyron confirmed this, so those ai tasks have been removed. It may be fixed in version 1.16 and the behavior reinstated once taming seeking and melee ai is possible.

The 2.2.0 release does have fleeing ai for sheep and wild pigs enabled. This behavior can be tamed out at gen one.

I did make pigs a bit testy and likely to take a bite out of you if you stay too close to them for long, but they will not seek you unless you provoke them.  This behavior in pigs might tame out at very high generations. I'm not sure and did not test for that. The intent is that you always need to have care around pigs, period.

Both sheep and pigs will seek you if you have attacked them, but only if you are in very close proximity to them while they are in an aggressive state.

All other modified animal interactions remain largely unchanged in this release.

Link to download from mod database: Wilderlands Ethology

Happy hunting!
~TH~

Edited by Thalius
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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, CoB_Kai said:

Lots of my players reported that hyena spawns in hot areas are too excessive, so much that they even wont be able to explore these areas properly. Maybe you could turn down these spawns or change their behaviour.

Odd.. I made no adjustments to spawn frequency or group sizes for hyenas.
Only thing I could think is, I did alter spawn conditions so that they would only spawn in less forested areas and be slightly more tolerant to spawning in hotter areas. Perhaps that pushed the server population to spawn them more often in the areas you are seeing them since effectively the "space" they have to spread that population over has been reduced a bit. But still, I'm surprised it would be an issue or even noticeable.

I'll load up a world and test it, and get back to you.

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As far as i have understood, they told me that hyena spawning increased with the use of your mod. I have also found these errors in the server main log:

Spoiler

15.11.2021 16:25:11 [Error] Patch 45 (target: game:entities/land/hyena-female.json) in game:patches/entities-land-ai_additions.json failed because supplied path /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/2/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 is invalid: The json path /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/2/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 was not found. Could traverse until /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/2, but then 'stopOnNearbyEntityCodes' does not exist. Full json at this path: {
  "code": "seekentity",
  "entityCodes": [
    "player",
    "pig-wild-piglet",
    "chicken-rooster",
    "chicken-hen",
    "chicken-baby",
    "hare-*"
  ],
  "priority": 1.5,
  "movespeed": 0.045,
  "seekingRange": 25,
  "animation": "Run",
  "leapAtTarget": true,
  "leapAnimation": null,
  "animationSpeed": 2.2,
  "leapChance": 0.01,
  "sound": "creature/wolf/growl",
  "whenNotInEmotionState": "saturated"
}
15.11.2021 16:25:11 [Error] Patch 47 (target: game:entities/land/hyena-female.json) in game:patches/entities-land-ai_additions.json failed because supplied path /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/8/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 is invalid: The json path /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/8/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 was not found. Could traverse until /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/8, but then 'stopOnNearbyEntityCodes' does not exist. Full json at this path: {
  "code": "wander",
  "priority": 1.0,
  "priorityForCancel": 1.3,
  "movespeed": 0.006,
  "animation": "Walk",
  "preferredLightLevel": 24
}
15.11.2021 16:25:11 [Error] Patch 50 (target: game:entities/land/hyena-male.json) in game:patches/entities-land-ai_additions.json failed because supplied path /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/2/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 is invalid: The json path /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/2/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 was not found. Could traverse until /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/2, but then 'stopOnNearbyEntityCodes' does not exist. Full json at this path: {
  "code": "seekentity",
  "entityCodes": [
    "player",
    "pig-wild-piglet",
    "chicken-rooster",
    "chicken-hen",
    "chicken-baby",
    "hare-*"
  ],
  "priority": 1.5,
  "movespeed": 0.045,
  "seekingRange": 25,
  "animation": "Run",
  "leapAtTarget": true,
  "leapAnimation": null,
  "animationSpeed": 2.2,
  "leapChance": 0.01,
  "sound": "creature/wolf/growl",
  "whenNotInEmotionState": "saturated"
}
15.11.2021 16:25:11 [Error] Patch 52 (target: game:entities/land/hyena-male.json) in game:patches/entities-land-ai_additions.json failed because supplied path /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/7/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 is invalid: The json path /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/7/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 was not found. Could traverse until /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/7, but then 'stopOnNearbyEntityCodes' does not exist. Full json at this path: {
  "code": "wander",
  "priority": 1.0,
  "priorityForCancel": 1.35,
  "movespeed": 0.006,
  "animation": "Walk",
  "preferredLightLevel": 24
}
15.11.2021 16:25:11 [Error] Patch 69 (target: game:entities/land/hyena-female.json) in game:patches/entities-land-ai_additions.json failed because supplied path /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/2/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 is invalid: The json path /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/2/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 was not found. Could traverse until /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/2, but then 'stopOnNearbyEntityCodes' does not exist. Full json at this path: {
  "code": "seekentity",
  "entityCodes": [
    "player",
    "pig-wild-piglet",
    "chicken-rooster",
    "chicken-hen",
    "chicken-baby",
    "hare-*"
  ],
  "priority": 1.5,
  "movespeed": 0.045,
  "seekingRange": 25,
  "animation": "Run",
  "leapAtTarget": true,
  "leapAnimation": null,
  "animationSpeed": 2.2,
  "leapChance": 0.01,
  "sound": "creature/wolf/growl",
  "whenNotInEmotionState": "saturated"
}
15.11.2021 16:25:11 [Error] Patch 71 (target: game:entities/land/hyena-female.json) in game:patches/entities-land-ai_additions.json failed because supplied path /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/8/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 is invalid: The json path /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/8/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 was not found. Could traverse until /server/behaviors/10/aitasks/8, but then 'stopOnNearbyEntityCodes' does not exist. Full json at this path: {
  "code": "wander",
  "priority": 1.0,
  "priorityForCancel": 1.3,
  "movespeed": 0.006,
  "animation": "Walk",
  "preferredLightLevel": 24
}
15.11.2021 16:25:11 [Error] Patch 74 (target: game:entities/land/hyena-male.json) in game:patches/entities-land-ai_additions.json failed because supplied path /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/2/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 is invalid: The json path /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/2/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 was not found. Could traverse until /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/2, but then 'stopOnNearbyEntityCodes' does not exist. Full json at this path: {
  "code": "seekentity",
  "entityCodes": [
    "player",
    "pig-wild-piglet",
    "chicken-rooster",
    "chicken-hen",
    "chicken-baby",
    "hare-*"
  ],
  "priority": 1.5,
  "movespeed": 0.045,
  "seekingRange": 25,
  "animation": "Run",
  "leapAtTarget": true,
  "leapAnimation": null,
  "animationSpeed": 2.2,
  "leapChance": 0.01,
  "sound": "creature/wolf/growl",
  "whenNotInEmotionState": "saturated"
}
15.11.2021 16:25:11 [Error] Patch 76 (target: game:entities/land/hyena-male.json) in game:patches/entities-land-ai_additions.json failed because supplied path /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/7/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 is invalid: The json path /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/7/stopOnNearbyEntityCodes/1 was not found. Could traverse until /server/behaviors/9/aitasks/7, but then 'stopOnNearbyEntityCodes' does not exist. Full json at this path: {
  "code": "wander",
  "priority": 1.0,
  "priorityForCancel": 1.35,
  "movespeed": 0.006,
  "animation": "Walk",
  "preferredLightLevel": 24
}

 

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1 hour ago, CoB_Kai said:

Oh, wait... entities-land-ai_additions.json is from our mod package. maybe they are conflicting with each other

Gotcha. Let me know what you find out.

Players on my server have reported seeing a lot of hyenas, but nothing concerning to them. They have shared reports a crash that occurs sometimes when hyenas are attacked by a player, so I'm looking into that.

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40 minutes ago, CoB_Kai said:

The newest stable. 1.15.9

Ok. I've not tested the mod with that version, only 1.15.7, which we are running on our server.
Let me know if you confirm a mod conflict. Otherwise I'll have to load up 1.15.9 and see if any changes to hyenas were made in a recent release.
The Ethology mod consists solely of patches to vanilla entities, and was made using the modmaker program after I edited the creatures to obtain the behavior I was looking for. 

The modmaker is sometimes buggy, it seems, but usually gets things right.  It could be an issue with the way the mod was compiled by the program, but that is unlikely.  My guess is either it is a conflict involving another mod on your server, or hyenas were edited recently.  I'll try to eliminate the latter possibility later today.

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I think these errors are not related to your mod, since they add ai behaviour only. So that they interact with custom mobs like bandits. Does not have anything to do with spawn rate, but i have noticed that hyenas do attack players only, no other creatures. but it seems like they once used to attack other creatures like hares, chickens etc. Maybe thats a reason why players have a hard time, because there are no other creatures any more they could concentrate on.

 

Edited by CoB_Kai
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Odd. Nothing I have added via the mod should make them spawn there exclusively, and the mod also expands on what they should attack, adding piglets as a meal option. 

It sounds like a mod conflict of some kind, to me.

Edited by Thalius
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  • 1 month later...

Greetings all!

Posting a bit of a teaser on a upcoming update to the Ethology mod:

2021-12-31_15-33-33.thumb.png.001d3feed706a82d409ac412066be584.png 2022-01-06_12-00-39.thumb.png.f35c13d70c9c991825eb8e97602adae5.png

Once a stable version of 1.16 drops, or soon afterwards, I'll be releasing a major Ethology mod update that brings a number of new entities to the Vintage Story world.
Among the larger "game" animals that will be included:

Mule deer
Water Buffalo
Antelope
A large species of cow (not sure what I'll call them yet)
Musk-ox
Capybara

Other possible "game" animals that will make an appearance, sooner or later:
Elk
Caribou
Red Deer
Caimans

Also to be included:
Various other small creatures such as lizards, snakes, turtles, and crabs. Maybe even fish, if I can work the bugs out of their ai to keep them in the water.

I'm looking into making all larger game animals breed-able and tamable, and of course each will have some pretty well defined spawn parameters, making them show up in species specific environments.  Some will also be quite dangerous in their wild state.

Ahead of that release, if anyone has any issues with the current mod version that I should be aware of, or suggestions, feel free to share. Feedback would be helpful, especially if anyone has encountered anything odd.

Looking forward...
~TH~
 

Edited by Thalius
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  • Thalius changed the title to Wilderlands Ethology
On 1/6/2022 at 11:30 AM, Thalius said:

A large species of cow (not sure what I'll call them yet)

Depending on how big, pleistocene aurochs were well over 8' at the shoulder, weighing in at over a ton and a half. By the time they went extinct in the 1600s, they had shrunk to the point an average adult male was a "mere" 6' at the shoulder.

Edited by Stephan Jerde
typos
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