Axxar Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) Hello BioWare, just wanted to share some stuff that's been on my mind lately! TLDR at the bottom! Part 1: Mr. Bormu One thing I've noticed visiting the various planets of the game is how beautifully crafted the natural environments in Star Wars can be. One thing I've also noticed is how static the wildlife usually seems. Often there's plenty of it, but its actions is limited to pacing back and forth a few meters. How can we do this better? I think I have a good example. Let's talk about Balmorra. More specifically the grasslands just outside the Markaran Imperial Outpost. I believe they're called the Markaran Plains. It looks like this: http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/2730/wildlife01.jpg http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/5708/wildlife02.jpg Very scenic. Unfortunately also very static. See the big guy in the picture? That's Mr. Bormu. He's a friendly sort and won't attack you unless you start poking him with your glowstick. He'll just stand there all day. We get that not all creatures on Balmorra are hostile, so that's fine. But why's he just standing there? I've seen one of his friends in the area move about, but the rest haven't seemed to discover the power of locomotion How can we improve it? I can come up with at least one idea. Bormus are herd animals, so that means usually they should be moving around in groups. Instead of just having a few Bormus spread around the area, let's say Mr. Bormu and his friends are all grazing in the same area. Instead of just standing there, they'll also mill back and forth a bit in the area. But not forever. After perhaps 5 minutes of grazing, they'll decide to move on. Now there is one problem. There's a codex entry on bormus that very specifically states the bormu used to be herd animals before the Imperial bombardments. Fortunately this problem is easily overcome: http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/626/wilfelife04.jpg With that out of the way we can now concentrate on the aforementioned scenario of bormus moving around in herds. Let's go with the idea of a main herd moving around the grasslands. Due the bombardments we'll keep a few stray bormus here and there. These are ones who've become separated from the herd because they ran off scared when a shell dropped close by. The grasslands actually cover a pretty huge area. I've outlined it on the map below. I've also placed some grazing spots and drawn lines to show the paths the creatures might take to get there. Some adjustment would be required as there might be objects, other NPCs and things in the way at some of the spots (I didn't investigate the locals that meticulously). Take it as an example rather than a 1:1 implementation. If we want to keep things real simple, let's say they work the area from the top at grazing area 1, then move down from point to point until they reach grazing area 6, after which they reverse their movements. Here's the map: http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/774/wilfelife03.jpg So it's like this: - Mill about grazing area 1. - Move as a herd to grazing area 2. - Mill about grazing area 2. - Move as a herd to grazing area 3. - Mill about grazing area 3. You get the picture. I don't know about you, but I have a feeling something like this would make your pretty yet battle-scarred grasslands a hell of a lot livelier with relatively little work. Especially considering I just did the whole creativity part for you! There's a lot of missed opportunities like this one across the various worlds. Maybe you already have this stuff on a to do list, but I'd sure like to see it in the game, too. I don't know how much of this sort of thing impacts server performance, but I've seen other MMOs have herds and other kinds of wildlife moving around in moderate amounts no problem. So it does seem possible. TLDR: lolz lets have some animals move around in packs 'n stuff Edited January 15, 2012 by Axxar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
face_hindu Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Hello BioWare, just wanted to share some stuff that's been on my mind lately! This is a great idea! I hope things like this get noticed and at least considered by the devs. A few dozen tweaks to the so called "little things" would go a very long way to upgrading the entire experience. Don't look down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbrahamDKK Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Great idea! One thing I really miss is better wild life for immersion. Even SWG had so much more varied wild life. Where are the krayt dragons, Rancors and other larger critters? The herd concept is great!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toweleeeie Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) I would love this! Also I would like to see enemy soldiers actually doing stuff besides just standing in a spawn point or patroling. Like cleaning their weapons, fixing a speeder, having conversations with each other about the war, recent news. Using their radios to report an attack at their position. For a story driven MMO, I would think BioWare could have done better with how spawns look. Right now most of the time they are just standing there waiting to die. Edited January 15, 2012 by Toweleeeie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bladehamster Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 The OP's idea is a good one. We could also have enemy NPCs going away from their posts into the cantina doing intimate stuff and also playing SWTOR on their laptops. Ok this is far fetched, just JOKING. BUT, the OP's idea is a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scyld Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 /Bump Great idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marshalleck Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Great idea! One thing I really miss is better wild life for immersion. Even SWG had so much more varied wild life. Where are the krayt dragons, Rancors and other larger critters? The herd concept is great!!! No krayts to my knowledge, but there are rancors on Belsavis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanharn Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 No krayts to my knowledge, but there are rancors on Belsavis. Big ones too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTurniipKing Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 You know what we need? I know what we need. MONSTER IN-FIGHTING. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
face_hindu Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) You know what we need? I know what we need. MONSTER IN-FIGHTING. You know, hostile beasts really should attack players/NPCs equally. Why wouldn't a beast attack an Althorian Gunner's Mate, but would gladly feast on me? EDIT: Can you imagine how cool that would make the Beast fight in Athiss, if he stomped on the adds too? They could just send a steady stream of adds out, and it would be deliciously chaotic. Also, I like the idea of training a group of beasts into a Champion that you want to solo. Don't look down Edited January 15, 2012 by face_hindu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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