Hunters and Hunted - Testing Branch Update
Hi All,
I have just released the first version of what I am now calling the "Hunters and Hunted" update to the Testing Branch.
Please note: This is only available on the Testing Branch right now and the Full Update to the Default Branch will still take some time as I add more features and tune/fix bugs with all these new systems.
Anyone can opt into the Testing Branch under Game/Properties/Betas, but please be aware that there will be some bugs as I work toward the full Update #10.
When trying the Testing Branch, please report any bugs or questions on the Steam forums here or on Discord.
There is a detailed change list below, but I will also go over some of the major additions that are currently working. It has been a very busy 5 weeks and there is still more to come.
[h2]Deerhound[/h2]
So back in the age before firearms, it turns out Deerhound were very sought after as hunting tools/companions in in 1300's Scotland. A home was not complete without one. They are huge, fast, and loyal dogs that were used to bring down deer/wolves.
It also turns out they sound a lot like my Standard Poodle (Max) who is now the voice of the Deerhounds. Right now the Deerhounds are all business, but I have recorded many day to day cute, confused and playful sounds from Max that I plan to incorporate into the daily Deerhoud sound profile.
Deerhound are currently primarily used for hunting. They will pick an owner once spawned, but unlike cats, their owner can be reassigned using the key icon when clicking on a Clanfolk. It is best to assign the Deerhound to your main hunters.
When an Owner-Hunter goes Hunting, the Deerhound will detect this and come along. The Deerhound use a stalking mechanic (thanks wolves) and see the Hunter as their pack leader. They will try not to startle the prey, but once the prey starts running, they will race off and bring it down. Hunting with Deerhound is automatic, and VERY efficient. This is probably why they were so popular.
Deerhound are very loyal and will tend to follow around their owner most of the day, unless their is some kind of activity that needs their attention like eating, drinking, or defending livestock.
When not on a hunt with their master, Deerhound keep an eye/nose out for trouble on the homestead. If they detect wolves (or foxes soon) approaching livestock, they will come running and frighten off the predators with their angry barking. If a predator is starving, it will lose its fear and the barking will not be enough and the Deerhound will fight off the intruders. Note: Right now the wolves do not fight back, but soon they will and the fights will be less one sided.
Deerhound will continue to be worked on, and I even have new sleeping and sitting views on the way for them. I want to get them playing and napping throughout the day and acting like lovable pets when not being all down to business hunting with their master. I also am curious about Dog/Dog and Dog/Cat interactions.
[h2]Deer[/h2]
The Scottish Red Deer do very well in the Highlands of Scotland and are still common today. To improve authenticity, I have used recorded sounds from Red Deer in Scotland as well. So as strange as some of the calls sound, that is indeed how they sound. You will know them when you hear them :)
Deer are our first migrating animal. They do not live on the map and will come and go at different rates throughout the year. In late spring and early summer they will bring fawns with them and in winter there will only be rare sightings.
The Deer will attract wolves, but they are also a great source of food and hide, (and probably antler soon) Hunting Deer without Deerhound is possible (especially with the improved hunting AI discussed later) but it still can be an all day job without the Deerhound to help once the Deer flee.
Deer arrive in the mornings and form groups that travel together. As the group loses members (usually 1/3) the entire group will flee from the map, so there is strategy in which deer you hunt first.
The deer population and spawn rate is based on the wildlife slider, so keep that in mind when building the map. -3 on the wildlife slider will mean few deer (but also few wolves)
[h2]Wolves[/h2]
Wolves are where this update really started to come together. Their pack logic transferred well to the deer herds as well as the Clanfolk/Deerhound relationship while hunting.
In 1300's Scotland wolves were very common, but as of today there are no longer wild wolves in Scotland.
The Wolves also use authentic wolf sounds and they can get quite noisy in the evenings. Soon the wolves will announce their arrivals with calls and also their livestock hunts. The Deerhound keep a good watch on the wolves, but I would like some more added presentation when the wolves begin a hunt.
Historically wolves were hunted ruthlessly in 1300's Scotland, as I discussed in the previous post. I am trying to side step the most brutal aspects of those hunts while still keeping the wolves threatening.
It should be noted that wolves currently do not attack humans, but eventually they will in certain circumstances such as when wounded or starving. Wolves also do not bite back at the Deerhounds yet, but they soon will. Wolves currently try to stay away from people as much as possible, but will steal livestock if there is a good opportunity.
The historical accounts of wolves were much more vicious where they had gotten a taste for humans due to the battlefields and would even dig up bodies. There were even apparently little houses along roads to hide in from wolf packs while travelling.
Wolf pups will spawn with packs in early summer when the wolves come to chase the deer fawns.
When wolves make a kill of a large animal, there will now be a carcass. This carcass will be stopped to prevent hunters from getting put into a bad situation or being dragged across the map, but if you want to steal the wolf kill (this will be very dangerous in the future) you can un-stop the carcass.
Over time as the wolves eat on the carcass they will take meat from it and there will be less available if it is butchered. The animal feeding on the carcass also spoils it much more quickly.
[h2]Sneaking and Startling Sounds[/h2]
As I worked on the wolf pack hunting, it became quickly apparent that I needed to expand on the cat's sneaking to make it more universal and tunable per animal (and Clanfolk)
So all animals now have a detection range (prey tend to be more aware) Predators are aware of this detection range and will start sneaking before they enter it. Cats are the best sneakers, able to get very close, but also sneak the slowest.
When a creature becomes alerted from sound or from seeing a predator, their detection range doubles. That does not mean all the sneakers get seen, but they will be seen 2x as far away. So the best sneakers may still be ok if they are not too close.
Creatures in the alerted state will begin to flee if they now see a threat. This flee sound also alerts other creatures nearby and entire herds are triggered by members like you see in nature.
Once prey is fleeing, the predator will stop sneaking and will chase down the prey. It has gotten as close as it can and it has been seen, so it is time to chase now. It looks like a wildlife documentary :)
Units are also aware of Sound now. Arrows make a noise when hitting the ground, and this makes hunting more difficult. If the arrow misses, it will alert the prey, and if the hunter is close, they will get noticed. Once again Deerhounds come to the rescue here as missed shots will just trigger the Deerhounds to chase down the prey once it flees.
[h2]New Clanfolk Hunting AI[/h2]
With the new Alert and Flee mechanics as well as the Arrow sounds, hunting the old way with the constant chase across the map became impossible. Hunting is now much more of a game of cat and mouse. The hunter will stalk toward the prey. Then once the hunter gets as close as they safely can, they will shoot.
If it is a hit, a few things can happen. There can be a kill and then the hunt is over and the prey is picked up and taken to the butcher block.
If it is a hit, but not a kill, the arrow may cause bleeding. This may be enough to finish off the prey over time, but likely not. In this case the prey will be alerted and will flee. The hunter will not pursue, instead backing off, waiting for the prey to calm back down or become incapacitated from blood loss.
If it is a miss, the prey may notice the hunter and flee, if so, the hunter will also back off. This back off is very important is it prevents the hunter from being pulled all over the map and is much more efficient (and looks cool)
I also had to add a "Finish Off" task, because in most cases the arrows and Deerhounds do not kill the large prey and just incapacitate them What was happening was that the hunter would then take endless shots at the poor grounded animal, but that was too awful, so now the hunter will finish the prey off by hand and pick up the carcass to take it home.
The Hunting skill is now VERY important to hunting success..
Hunting skill gives greater accuracy and fire rate as before, but it also:
Allows hunters to sneak closer without being detected
Allows hunters to sneak faster
Improves the hit location of arrows so they do more damage
Increases the chance of a critical hit which makes arrows so 3x damage
Hunting is now quite interesting to watch, even without the deerhounds joining the hunter.
[h2]More To Come![/h2]
So even though there is a ton of stuff here, this is not the end of Update 10. I still have to put quite a few finishing touches as well as day to day behaviors in for the Deerhounds.
I would also like to get the Bunnies and Foxes hooked up to the new seasonal world spawner and also get the foxes hunting chickens.
I am sure there will be a ton of feedback from this testing branch update as well and many new improvements will come from that.
The next set of testing branch updates will come at a faster pace now that I have set v0.334 live. I had to deliver all this content as a unit, so it took quite a bit of time, but I will get back to incremental updates to the testing branch now as bugfixes/smaller systems come online.
[h2]And Here is the Changelog![/h2]
[h2]v0.334 – Testing Branch Only[/h2]
Thanks again for your patience everyone!
This has been a really exciting update so far, and I have particularly loved getting Max in there. There is still much more to come in update 10, and I will continue to do my best for you and Clanfolk.
Andrew (Blorf) Hume
MinMax Games Ltd.
I have just released the first version of what I am now calling the "Hunters and Hunted" update to the Testing Branch.
Please note: This is only available on the Testing Branch right now and the Full Update to the Default Branch will still take some time as I add more features and tune/fix bugs with all these new systems.
Anyone can opt into the Testing Branch under Game/Properties/Betas, but please be aware that there will be some bugs as I work toward the full Update #10.
When trying the Testing Branch, please report any bugs or questions on the Steam forums here or on Discord.
There is a detailed change list below, but I will also go over some of the major additions that are currently working. It has been a very busy 5 weeks and there is still more to come.
[h2]Deerhound[/h2]
So back in the age before firearms, it turns out Deerhound were very sought after as hunting tools/companions in in 1300's Scotland. A home was not complete without one. They are huge, fast, and loyal dogs that were used to bring down deer/wolves.
It also turns out they sound a lot like my Standard Poodle (Max) who is now the voice of the Deerhounds. Right now the Deerhounds are all business, but I have recorded many day to day cute, confused and playful sounds from Max that I plan to incorporate into the daily Deerhoud sound profile.
Deerhound are currently primarily used for hunting. They will pick an owner once spawned, but unlike cats, their owner can be reassigned using the key icon when clicking on a Clanfolk. It is best to assign the Deerhound to your main hunters.
When an Owner-Hunter goes Hunting, the Deerhound will detect this and come along. The Deerhound use a stalking mechanic (thanks wolves) and see the Hunter as their pack leader. They will try not to startle the prey, but once the prey starts running, they will race off and bring it down. Hunting with Deerhound is automatic, and VERY efficient. This is probably why they were so popular.
Deerhound are very loyal and will tend to follow around their owner most of the day, unless their is some kind of activity that needs their attention like eating, drinking, or defending livestock.
When not on a hunt with their master, Deerhound keep an eye/nose out for trouble on the homestead. If they detect wolves (or foxes soon) approaching livestock, they will come running and frighten off the predators with their angry barking. If a predator is starving, it will lose its fear and the barking will not be enough and the Deerhound will fight off the intruders. Note: Right now the wolves do not fight back, but soon they will and the fights will be less one sided.
Deerhound will continue to be worked on, and I even have new sleeping and sitting views on the way for them. I want to get them playing and napping throughout the day and acting like lovable pets when not being all down to business hunting with their master. I also am curious about Dog/Dog and Dog/Cat interactions.
[h2]Deer[/h2]
The Scottish Red Deer do very well in the Highlands of Scotland and are still common today. To improve authenticity, I have used recorded sounds from Red Deer in Scotland as well. So as strange as some of the calls sound, that is indeed how they sound. You will know them when you hear them :)
Deer are our first migrating animal. They do not live on the map and will come and go at different rates throughout the year. In late spring and early summer they will bring fawns with them and in winter there will only be rare sightings.
The Deer will attract wolves, but they are also a great source of food and hide, (and probably antler soon) Hunting Deer without Deerhound is possible (especially with the improved hunting AI discussed later) but it still can be an all day job without the Deerhound to help once the Deer flee.
Deer arrive in the mornings and form groups that travel together. As the group loses members (usually 1/3) the entire group will flee from the map, so there is strategy in which deer you hunt first.
The deer population and spawn rate is based on the wildlife slider, so keep that in mind when building the map. -3 on the wildlife slider will mean few deer (but also few wolves)
[h2]Wolves[/h2]
Wolves are where this update really started to come together. Their pack logic transferred well to the deer herds as well as the Clanfolk/Deerhound relationship while hunting.
In 1300's Scotland wolves were very common, but as of today there are no longer wild wolves in Scotland.
The Wolves also use authentic wolf sounds and they can get quite noisy in the evenings. Soon the wolves will announce their arrivals with calls and also their livestock hunts. The Deerhound keep a good watch on the wolves, but I would like some more added presentation when the wolves begin a hunt.
Historically wolves were hunted ruthlessly in 1300's Scotland, as I discussed in the previous post. I am trying to side step the most brutal aspects of those hunts while still keeping the wolves threatening.
It should be noted that wolves currently do not attack humans, but eventually they will in certain circumstances such as when wounded or starving. Wolves also do not bite back at the Deerhounds yet, but they soon will. Wolves currently try to stay away from people as much as possible, but will steal livestock if there is a good opportunity.
The historical accounts of wolves were much more vicious where they had gotten a taste for humans due to the battlefields and would even dig up bodies. There were even apparently little houses along roads to hide in from wolf packs while travelling.
Wolf pups will spawn with packs in early summer when the wolves come to chase the deer fawns.
When wolves make a kill of a large animal, there will now be a carcass. This carcass will be stopped to prevent hunters from getting put into a bad situation or being dragged across the map, but if you want to steal the wolf kill (this will be very dangerous in the future) you can un-stop the carcass.
Over time as the wolves eat on the carcass they will take meat from it and there will be less available if it is butchered. The animal feeding on the carcass also spoils it much more quickly.
[h2]Sneaking and Startling Sounds[/h2]
As I worked on the wolf pack hunting, it became quickly apparent that I needed to expand on the cat's sneaking to make it more universal and tunable per animal (and Clanfolk)
So all animals now have a detection range (prey tend to be more aware) Predators are aware of this detection range and will start sneaking before they enter it. Cats are the best sneakers, able to get very close, but also sneak the slowest.
When a creature becomes alerted from sound or from seeing a predator, their detection range doubles. That does not mean all the sneakers get seen, but they will be seen 2x as far away. So the best sneakers may still be ok if they are not too close.
Creatures in the alerted state will begin to flee if they now see a threat. This flee sound also alerts other creatures nearby and entire herds are triggered by members like you see in nature.
Once prey is fleeing, the predator will stop sneaking and will chase down the prey. It has gotten as close as it can and it has been seen, so it is time to chase now. It looks like a wildlife documentary :)
Units are also aware of Sound now. Arrows make a noise when hitting the ground, and this makes hunting more difficult. If the arrow misses, it will alert the prey, and if the hunter is close, they will get noticed. Once again Deerhounds come to the rescue here as missed shots will just trigger the Deerhounds to chase down the prey once it flees.
[h2]New Clanfolk Hunting AI[/h2]
With the new Alert and Flee mechanics as well as the Arrow sounds, hunting the old way with the constant chase across the map became impossible. Hunting is now much more of a game of cat and mouse. The hunter will stalk toward the prey. Then once the hunter gets as close as they safely can, they will shoot.
If it is a hit, a few things can happen. There can be a kill and then the hunt is over and the prey is picked up and taken to the butcher block.
If it is a hit, but not a kill, the arrow may cause bleeding. This may be enough to finish off the prey over time, but likely not. In this case the prey will be alerted and will flee. The hunter will not pursue, instead backing off, waiting for the prey to calm back down or become incapacitated from blood loss.
If it is a miss, the prey may notice the hunter and flee, if so, the hunter will also back off. This back off is very important is it prevents the hunter from being pulled all over the map and is much more efficient (and looks cool)
I also had to add a "Finish Off" task, because in most cases the arrows and Deerhounds do not kill the large prey and just incapacitate them What was happening was that the hunter would then take endless shots at the poor grounded animal, but that was too awful, so now the hunter will finish the prey off by hand and pick up the carcass to take it home.
The Hunting skill is now VERY important to hunting success..
Hunting skill gives greater accuracy and fire rate as before, but it also:
Allows hunters to sneak closer without being detected
Allows hunters to sneak faster
Improves the hit location of arrows so they do more damage
Increases the chance of a critical hit which makes arrows so 3x damage
Hunting is now quite interesting to watch, even without the deerhounds joining the hunter.
[h2]More To Come![/h2]
So even though there is a ton of stuff here, this is not the end of Update 10. I still have to put quite a few finishing touches as well as day to day behaviors in for the Deerhounds.
I would also like to get the Bunnies and Foxes hooked up to the new seasonal world spawner and also get the foxes hunting chickens.
I am sure there will be a ton of feedback from this testing branch update as well and many new improvements will come from that.
The next set of testing branch updates will come at a faster pace now that I have set v0.334 live. I had to deliver all this content as a unit, so it took quite a bit of time, but I will get back to incremental updates to the testing branch now as bugfixes/smaller systems come online.
[h2]And Here is the Changelog![/h2]
[h2]v0.334 – Testing Branch Only[/h2]
- Dogs will socialize with Humans who they sense have a low social attribute and will stay with them up until the bar is mostly full.
- Dogs/Cats will try to find Human Companions sooner when a new game starts, it was taking until the second morning.
- When choosing companions, pets will try to find owners who don't already have a companion.
- Fixed Flax Stems breakdown showing that they spawn Flax Sheafs instead of Straw
- Animal carcasses that have been fed on by wolves can still be butchered, but the condition will determine how much usable meat and hide can be extracted.
- Predators pouncing on prey now has a chance to inflict health damage on them in addition to a temporary movement stun.
- Increased AI update rate for hunters and prey while a hunt is active. This should lead to a lot less chasing the last place the target was vs going to where the target ends up. This also helps the fleeing creature sense and get away better.
- As health lowers, movement speed now decreases. This means that as prey is injured, they are more easy to catch
[ - - When a predator kills a large animal, the carcass will be stopped (red x) to prevent Clanfolk from wandering into a bad situation, trying to butcher the kill.
- Upgraded Threat assessment such that fleeing and wandering see the same creatures as threatening to prevent AI thrashing
- Upgraded Graze Task such that grazing areas that have predators will be avoided where possible.
- Wolf Cubs and Fawns will try to follow their Mother
- Deer and Wolves pick a group leader and will try to base their wandering rooted around the leader. New leaders are picked if previous ones die.
- Wildlife Manager Maximum Population and Daily Spawn Change is now modified by 1 + (0.25
- WildlifeSetting)
- Changes Heather and Thistle from 14 -> 10 days for full growth (in perfect conditions)
- Added new Hunter task to Finish Off Hunted animals that have been downed, instead of firing arrows at them.
- Groups of animals will leave the territory when too many of their members have been killed or incapacitated.
- New ambient sound system that works based on time of day. This means Roosters will crow more at sunrise and wolves will howl more at sunset and evenings.
- Deerhounds will inherit the keys of their owner. This allows them to follow their owner into rooms. They also inherit door ownership to allow them to get into the houses of their owners.
- Fixed Owned Doors showing a gold lock for Units that could not pass through (it shows red in these cases now)
- Added Dog Beds
- Deerhound can have their owner set manually by using the set owner button when clicking on a Clanfolk, or using the toggle ownership button when clicking on the Deerhound. There is a new key Icon with a paw to show this relationship.
- Deerhounds will help their owners hunt
- Fixed Bug in v0.331 where a carried tool could be seen as slightly further away than a tool on a perfect path to the target object. This could cause the AI to pause.
- Damage will now cause animals to abort their current task and re-evaluate their AI instantly so that they will flee right away.
- When a creature is damaged, they will temporarily get a larger flee alert radius so they will be much harder to sneak up on.
- Added new Damage Types, Bite and Claw, these will connect to the new bleeding afflictions
- Animals now have base damage types defined. Bite, Claw and Blunt (no bleeding)
- Pierce, Slash (not used yet), Claw, and Bite all have chances to cause Bleeding
- If a unit is Bleeding and is hit again with more damage that causes bleeding, the bleeding will get worse.
- Bleeding allows arrows to sometimes take down animals that flee
- Bleeding will stop over time, but heavy bleeding is likely fatal. There will be treatments once the Clanfolk run into cases where they are bleeding. Not a problem yet though.
- Flee Task upgraded such that the pathfinding calls are instant so there is no pausing to wait for the pathfinder to find the next best flee node. This leads to much more effective fleeing
- Flee task tries to avoid thistle and other terrain that slows down the fleeing unit.
- Creatures now have variable sneak visibility based on their type. Cats are the best and can get the closest before being spotted.
- Creatures also have variable sneak speeds now as well. Cats are the slowest sneakers.
- Flee Task now reads flee visibility to allow good sneakers/hunters to get a lot closer before startling the prey.
- Added Alerted Effect, see small ! rising off alerted prey right when they get alerted.
- Added Noise system where certain noises will cause creatures within a radius to become alerted. Alerted creatures are harder to sneak up on and may notice nearby hunters.
- Arrows striking the ground will trigger a short range alert sound
- When Animals flee it will trigger an alerted state in all animals nearby, allowing them to detect hunters who are sneaking.
- Hunting task upgrade. Hunters no longer chase prey around the map now that they know how to sneak. Instead, they will wait for alerted prey to calm down before approaching so they can get a better shot.
- Hunters are also able to back away from prey not to ensure that the prey does not notice them. They can be quite stealthy now.
- Arrows are less likely to hit targets that get in the way now. It can still happen, but it is less common since we can assume the arrow went above the entity we were not shooting at.
- Grazing shots hitting non targets will do half the base damage since they were not targeted shots we will assume they hit somewhere non vital.
- Hunters have a critical hit chance with bows. The base chance is 5% but increases to 15% at level 10, and can be as high as 24% at level 18 if there is an 8x affinity hunter. (Legolas) Critical hits do 3x damage.
- Bow damage also increases with Hunting skill as the Hunter will hit better spots on the target. A level 10 Hunter will do 3x the damage of a level 1 hunter. Note: these numbers are subject to tuning.
- Increased base projectile (arrow) damage from 2500 to 3500
- Movement speed when Hunters sneak is now improved as the Hunting Skill increases
- Visibility range for sneaking hunters is lowered as the Hunting Skill increases
- Fixed Arrows from loaded games having their trail renderers active, leaving trails while stuck into prey.
- Fixed loaded arrows not mounting to the unit art properly, they were not bobing with the prey they were stuck into
- Fixed Arrows sometimes looking like they were floating next to shot prey
- Hunters now gain hunting skill points as they sneak to get close to prey
- Wolves will lose their fear when starving and will be much less afraid of the Deerhounds/People.
- When not hunting with their Master, Deerhounds will try to defend Livestock from Wolves. Usually the Deerhounds will be able to scare the wolves off, unless the wolves are starving. Then there will be a fight.
- Wolves try to pick easy targets, so if Deerhound are guarding one livestock animal, they will try to pick another, or perhaps go after a further away deer or rabbit
- Deer will not arrive before day 2
- Wolves will not arrive before day 5
- Reworked Pregnancy requirements for tamed dogs and cats (pets) The pet cat pregnancies were limited based on rat population like the wild cats, but now they spawn based on the Clanfolk population. This then does not stop the player from having pet cats get pregnant if the rat population is low. Rat population still applies to wild cats though.
- Pet population maximum for pregnancies: 4 + Clanfolk^0.5 So 1-3 clanfolk have up to 5 pets, 4-8 have 6 pets, 9-15 have 7, 16-24 have 8 pets, etc.
- Added Pet Zone. It works like the BedZone for Pets. It allows you to set a place for the pets to come sleep before you have the Cat Bed or Dog Bed unlocked. It should be replaced with a proper bed once one is available.
- Fixed a case where Doctors were reserving beds for patients instead of the patients reserving beds themselves, leading to cases of patient juggling.
- Livestock will be 2x as likely to choose raw food vs cooked food when stealing from Clanfolk
- Pets will be 4x more likely to steal raw food vs cooked food (They still prefer their bowls though)
- Pets(Dogs/Cats)/Livestock(Chickens/Pigs) prefer older/stinkier raw food
- Raw Food left on the floor or in the wilderness is more attractive to Livestock/Pets than ones in stockpiles
- Note Deerhounds need 2x as many calories as Cats do. Deerhounds eat about the same as Clanfolk
- Increased time for a Cat's instinct bar to drain from 1.25 days to 1.75 days
- Upgraded the Flee Task to take facing direction into account and make it less likely to double back and get stuck in an infinite loop between two nodes
Thanks again for your patience everyone!
This has been a really exciting update so far, and I have particularly loved getting Max in there. There is still much more to come in update 10, and I will continue to do my best for you and Clanfolk.
Andrew (Blorf) Hume
MinMax Games Ltd.