Ideas for Future Updates

[noir_187]

the new hellroaring mountain map leads outside of yellowstone park

why not make the anniversary edition of lost river accessible by passing hellroaring mountain’s northern border?
it would be an awesome way to tie together all the dlc maps and make the full package if wolfquest one cohesive experience.
i loved lost rivers atmosphere when i played the trial map.
i hated that i cannot travel between maps when i choose it like with the yellowstone maps.
it is the reason i did not buy lost river today and chose hellroaring mountain instead.

i would really like to see this change:
hares are too easy to kill. it is not very realistic the way they are regarded in the game as a quick, easy snack.
hares are extremely fast.
in real life, it nearly always takes two or three wolves at least to kill one. they try to corner it.

straight up running a hare down should be impossible.

i’ve seen a group of about four wolves split a hare together, as they could not find any other food.
realistically,
hares should be light but not easy game. they are much faster
and often escape. they should require smart chasing and coordination with a hunting partner, then yield about three to four small bites. maybe yield as much as a meat chunk?
i like the idea of working with my mate to catch one and sharing it.

there is still a need for prey that occupies the niche hares currently do.
hares are not a realistic candidate. i would like to suggest using montane voles and yellow bellied marmots.
wolves prey on these animals in real life. they do not favor them because they are small and voles only provide a morsel for one. marmots are a little more.

they are not fast at all like rabbits. a wolf can outrun one quite effortlessly.
they rely on slipping away into cover and burrows.

i’d also like to see adult wolves be able to snag the creatures pups can too!
i think it would be a cute, fun touch.

also, stranger wolf territoriality is too extreme. wolves are not inclined to run miles and miles, viciously attacking and persistently trying to kill even intruder wolves under most circumstances.

i think there should be a radius around the rival packs dens.
they should be more or less aggressive depending on how close you are to the den.

if you are on the outskirts
they should not be running you down, trying to kill you and your mate even after you all have made it past their borders.

i think there also should be yield acknowledgment by npc wolves.
it is very frustrating and often upsetting when you do not want to fight the npc wolves but they are relentlessly trying to kill you and your mate.
i had a mate for my wolf in my current playthrough whom i loved very much for her. i had mate permadeath on to start with in case he would die tragically after they had pups.
i had to turn it off during the encounter i had tonight because losing him to this insane ai was too upsetting.

i think they should be more responsive to the players actions, and sensitive to your proximity to den/borders.

it is defensiveness.
my thoughts are this:
close to the den they should behave not unlike how they currently do.
they are willing to kill you.
if you won’t leave, they will try to do it.

they will chase you away. they’ll chase you and will attack you up to a certain point
if you aren’t fighting back, they will stop attacking you but they will continue chasing you. using submissive emotes should help but it shouldn’t be necessary.

aggression wears down the father you go away from their densite.
nearer to the borders, especially if the hexes are weaker, they still should not tolerate your presence but they should be more cautious of jumping immediately to fight.
i think they should have a “tolerance” meter
well
they technically do now.

if you’re not deep in the territory and are behaving peacefully (walking, resting; hunting they should try to stop you), they should confront you and pressure you to leave by using hostile emotes.
they’ll react accordingly to your responses.
hostile/defensive emotes from the player will cause the strangers aggression meter to rise
depending on the wolves boldness and status, it will continue emoting or even jump straight to attacking then.

if you leave peacefully
they should trail you
but if you insist on proceeding further into their territory
they will confront you.

in the wild, every last fight a wolf here into might mean its death.
in disputes, wolves intend to drive away. they are not set on killing. they want to be safe. they want the threat gone.

they will warn first unless it is urgent, like their pups are being threatened.

right now, npcs are too kill thirsty.
i’d like to see them be a bit more cautious as well as the opportunity for more social engagements with other wolves.

speaking of social engagements, i would love to see dispersal wolves try to court the player! especially males trying to get the attention of females.
i noticed some seem to start with more interest
maybe they already want to get to know you better and they want to convince you to give them a chance.

i had an encounter in the game where one female dispersal drove my wolf away from a male dispersal.
i loved this!
it is very realistic.
i would like to see more things like this.
i had the thought when my wolf was approached by a group of male dispersals that there should be competition between them.

all of them came to her. all of them were interested in becoming her mate. she will only choose one of them. they all want it to be them.

rival dispersals of the same sex will attack you readily. especially males vs males, it seems like.

i think as you are socializing with the group, tension should rise between them as the dispersals interest rises.
the more interested they are, the more they should want to keep other males/females away from you.

it would lead to some very fun scenes i imagine, haha!

i also thought as i was raising pups in my other save that it would be great if walking together with your pups and mate would raise affinity.
canines in real life view walking as a social activity. they feel closer to their pack as they walk together as a pack.

i imagine it would be leisurely walking together at a certain proximity to each other.
sitting closely together too.
being close in general is a way all animals bond, by simply sharing presence.

the game recognizes this already when pups are sick.
i would love it if sharing presence built relationships too.

i also like the idea of playing games with our pups and mate.
things like chasing each other
or playing keep away, with mates and pups now able to try to take things from our player character. (can start tug, too)

games would be initiated a lot like how canines really do.
mates and pups could play bow and run off
they’ll often stop a few yards from you and look expectantly with a wagging tail

you can run at them and they’ll run away, which will raise affinity once when the game starts.

play fights with your mate and pups could be fun too.

[DinoDogDude209]

I personally think it would help the immersion a lot to have more antler/horn configurations for male ungulates, because in real life, two different bucks/bulls can often look pretty different from one another. Here are some different ideas for elk, moose, mule deer and pronghorn.

1. Bull elk. Currently we have a few different antler shapes for bull and spike elk in the game, all of which are preset configurations. I like the current configurations that we have in the game, although my main issue with them is that there's only a few configurations and many of those are very unique. For example, it seems like you have the classic mature bull antler set, one or two smaller ones that always seem to be asymmetrical, and a few wacky non-typical antler configurations that are common in the game, when in reality they should be pretty rare. I think we need a few more antler configurations for the sake of variety and realism so that the more unique ones can be a little less common. The way it is currently, every bull elk herd I come across has had several elk with the wacky nontypical configurations, and seeing the same extremely unique configuration over and over again on different elk is very jarring and immersion-breaking. Elk are the most common ungulate in the game, so I think they need to have the most variety of antler configurations. Below I'll post some links to some images of Rocky Mountain Elk with some more typical antler configurations that I think would look good in the game.
Taxidermy of a young bull elk with multiple angles
A mature bull elk at Bearizona Wildlife Park
A stock photo of a young bull elk, with short antler tines
A bull elk with a taller set of antlers and one broken off antler tine, a unique but plausible configuration

2. Bull moose. The moose in Yellowstone (and the American mountain west in general) are Shiras Moose, a moose subspecies that often has smaller antlers than the bull moose we see in the game. The one we have in the game currently seems to be based on a healthy mature male in his prime, but obviously in real life most bull moose you come across aren't like that. It would be nice if there were just a few more antler configurations that the bull moose in WolfQuest could have. It would be nice to have an antler configuration based on a yearling bull moose with six- to eight inch forked antlers. It would also be nice to have a mature moose antler configuration that has smaller palms/paddles that have less overall mass than the current one does. I also think that a bull moose with a special version of the original antler configuration, one that has one broken antler (not shed, but with the main part of the antler broken off from fighting) would be a pretty neat thing to come across as a rare spawn in Fall (when the rutting season is for moose). Since moose are a species that are encountered infrequently in the game, I think that having three or four antler configurations (with at least one or two asymmetrical ones) will be enough for replay value and realism.

3. Mule Deer bucks. Currently all mule deer bucks have the same classic large rack, with both the second and third tine being forked. While this can happen, it's certainly not the only way mule deer antlers can grow. Many bucks only have the second tine forked and not the shorter third tine. In the case of younger bucks, their antlers might not even fork at all, having an antler configuration more typical of White-tailed Deer. Young bucks can also have a forked antler configuration that is much more narrow. Mule Deer can grow antlers that are slightly taller and not as wide as the ones in the game currently. They can also have one or both of the brow tines (first tine growing off from the main beam) broken off from fighting. They can also have one or more small nontypical tines growing out to the side off of their antlers, which are called stickers. They can also have very wide and thick antlers with fewer tines but a lot of mass. Sometimes a buck might have antlers that fork once and then fork again, on the same tine, and generally these bucks have much taller antlers in general with more mass. And of course, we can't forget about the non typical antlers that Mule Deer bucks can have, which can get really wild and crazy. Of course, the classic Mule Deer antler configuration that we have currently in the game is great and should remain in the game, but having more variations would help to make each one we encounter seem like its own unique animal. For Mule Deer, I think six or seven preset antler configurations would probably be enough to explore the different possibilities for them.

4. Pronghorn bucks. Currently all Pronghorn bucks that we can come across have the same classic mature set of horns, which are the same length and hook inward the same. Pronghorn bucks generally don't have as much variety in the horns as the antlered species have in their antlers. However, in real life there are clear differences between different Pronghorn bucks, especially ones of different ages. There are some that grow shorter, straighter horns, some with larger horns that hook inward (like the ones in the game currently), ones with horns that spread outward more before hooking inward, and some have a larger prong on their horns than others do. They also sometimes have noticeably asymmetrical horns. Since most pronghorn horns have the same basic shape with just a few slight differences, I think four or five horn variations in total will be enough to be realistic.

Since all of the Bison in the game currently are meant to be old bull bison, I don't see a need to make different horn configurations for them.