food chain

[jayleann 143]

Okay, I admit this is a very special idea and I have full understanding if people say it is too much or leads Dayz in a wrong direction. But I really liked to see a food chain and a natural cycle included in the game, reduced to an extent where it adds something to the game experience.

As far as I know we have predators and we have plant eaters. So it would be cool, if the predators hunt for themselves, and in that way control the population balance.
We know there will be a life cycle for zombies, so it maybe was possible to add a life cycle for animals as well.



In what way would it add something to the game?

sounds:

You would hear dangerous or attracting natural sounds, like a wolfpack hunting a deer, or the communication between animals. A lot of people say they want only sounds which have any real effect in the game. With a food chain there would be events with real background. They can be warning signs or hints for good hunters, but in both ways woul contribute to immersion.

animal habits:

You would have predators or mother animals who attack you, and animals who avoid you. Animal behaviour would be dependent on comprehensible variables which would make them appear more lively and real.

Also you could try to steal prey or carrion from predators... or the other way around? Animals could scent wounded animals and humans. Not funny when you kneel over your own prey or try to hide something for later.

catastrophe:

Animal populations can decrease and increase on their own, they can also collapse. People are confronted with different mods of difficulty when they go hunting, depending on how stable populations are.

hunting grounds:

Predators could have hunting grounds (maybe moving when prey decreases), in which it is more dangerous to rest or survive. The whole system would be hunter-based. It would also explain why predators attack humans much more often than it is actually realistic. They and zombies reduce the plant eater population to such an extent, that they have to adopt new modes of survival. Maybe some of them are infected with "rage", to borrow from 28 days later.

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Only a few thoughts, I suppose there are a lot of elements that could be added once such an food chain interaction between animals is put in place. I am open to criticism or complete rejection, but please give an explanation. And also I never was hunting, so I'd appreciate people who corrected misconceptions or just discuss how a similar system could work properly within the engine.

Edited February 9, 2014 by jayleann

[blackberrygoo 1416]

It's definitely the right direction for dayz seeing as its realism haha but it is a bit much for alpha but who knows what the dev team has up their sleeves. It's a great idea though that many including myself have wanted . Just the feel and complexity of hunting a deer that's being hunted by a wolf or bear or something would be badass.