Ideas for Future Updates

[Windstrider]

I'd love if we could do away with "seeing" the health bars of all the elk as you approach. Determining how healthy one is - in my opinion - should be dominated by what you learn from the scents and how quick they are/how much stamina they have when they run. Because of this it'd be especially interesting if Injured, Old, and Ill were all unique and separate conditions animals you encounter can have that set the elk's health to a lower margin. The conditions should also have the ability to stack, and thus further deplete on the target's health to make them even easier to kill.

It'd also be lovely if all animals in the game could have these sorts of statuses put onto them, not just cow elk, but bull elk, fawns, the deer, moose etc, even down to bears, and other wolves.

The player is a possibility too, but I kind of doubt having to tolerate such things would be in any way fun. It worked well in old games like LION and WOLF as it kept you from being reckless and only really hunting if you really needed it, but was otherwise quite bothersome when you did have to tolerate an injury since the heal time was abysmal.

The scent thing could be interesting but maybe turning health bars on/off should either be a separate checkbox option or as part of the higher two difficulties.

Also gotta agree with what you said about not having things like sickness or injury affect the player, because yeah, there's a fine line between realism and fun. I really hope that doesn't become a thing in the game because that would deter a lot of people from playing or using the higher difficulties. I know it'd deter me; a decent challenge is one thing but 'mission impossible with 99+ problems to deal with' is another. xD

[Lebron BMT]

If you guys are able to implement dynamic day-night cycles please consider making the days longer in the summer and shorter in the winter, and the nights shorter in the summer and longer in the winter.

Also, I would think that injuries to wild wolves would mean almost certain death. Hopefully we keep that out of the game. Although if player wolves could get injured then it is only fair that other animals could get injured too--including the other predators--however, I think this dynamic is already at play in the game since you can 'injure' any animal in the game by biting them. Perhaps if biting animals such as elk or bears actually had an impact on their speed or something the game would be better off. It's only fair since players are obviously slowed when we lose health, so why not bears and elk? (and others)

Oh and another thing, it would be nice if the team redesigned the bears a little. I just realized how similar in size they are to player wolves, and something about that seems off. Most of the other animals in the game are in perfect scale in relation to the player's wolf, but the bears are too close to wolf size imo.

I get that female bears don't get too big, but maybe having a noticeable difference between male and female grizzlies could help solve this because as of right now, the bears are not as ferocious and intimidating as they could be. Male grizzlies should have even greater health bars and should be the most difficult animal to take down in WolfQuest. On this note, if we could have the ability to kill bears and cougars that would be excellent. Taking on these animals would really be a pack challenge that perhaps can only be done with a pack of many wolves.

Also, if it is possible, please bring back the animation where the bears stand on their hind legs when you approach.

EDIT: Eh, since I'm on a roll today, I will also kindly request more missions for Amethyst Mountain. Above all else, missions are what add depth and playability to a game, and Amethyst Mountain only has one. The find a mate mission is only difficult the first few times you do it until you come to understand the wolf spawning system in that you need to visit each wolf territory at least once before potential mates start showing up. I know there is a new spawning and territory system--as well as a new scent system--so these new mechanics in themselves should make this first mission more complex and dynamic.

But, a few more missions could be added to Amethyst Mountain and all of it very simple to implement but a great addition to the game nonetheless. For instance, adding hunting missions with your mate should not be very difficult to add but also a worthwhile addition. Such mission/s could get players to practice hunting with their mate and get used to the mechanics of hunting with a mate since up to that point players have been hunting on their own. It would be important practice obviously because players will end up spending a lot of time hunting with their mate in Slough Creek, and it would also be a neat marker of progression because one day players will be hunting with their pups and their pack taking on bigger and more difficult prey--perhaps at first in another designed mission.

[PearlyReborn]

Not to come off as a backseat moderator, but remember not to triple post.


But yeah, more missions in Amethyst Mountain would be really cool.

[Loach]

The scent thing could be interesting but maybe turning health bars on/off should either be a separate checkbox option or as part of the higher two difficulties.

Also gotta agree with what you said about not having things like sickness or injury affect the player, because yeah, there's a fine line between realism and fun. I really hope that doesn't become a thing in the game because that would deter a lot of people from playing or using the higher difficulties. I know it'd deter me; a decent challenge is one thing but 'mission impossible with 99+ problems to deal with' is another. xD

And I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum, haha. I hate that I have very little influencing my chances of success other than how much health I have compared to how much health my prey does. It's sort of immersion breaking. I'm used to games where I have to not die and carefully time my attacks to kill things faster with little damage done to me.

Maybe either make it an on/off feature or have the health bars be less...big? They've always seemed a little too big, but that might just be me. Maybe making them smaller would make them easier to ignore/less bow to look at.

[Koa]

@ Lebron BMT- Do not triple post.

Not to come off as a backseat moderator, but remember not to triple post.

Telling someone not to triple post actually comes off as a backseat moderator. Please use the report feature instead so an actual moderator can handle the issue. Thanks.

[Lebron BMT]

Levels Suggestions:

Consider renaming them from Pretty Easy, Challenging, Arduous, and Bring it On to something like Easy, Somewhat Realistic, Realistic, Very
Realistic. I suggest this because the main purpose of the game is still to be educational, and so having difficulty levels that are difficult for
the sake of being difficult is not in line with that purpose. Rather, difficulty levels should be correlated to realism. I don't know what Bring
it On is like but it shouldn't be so impossible to succeed in or so overwhelming with predators, for example, simply because of the difficulty level because such scenarios are unrealistic to begin with.

All of the difficulty levels should have realism be the varying factor. The levels are already somewhat designed according to this principle obviously since random elk carcass are more abundant in lower difficult levels--which are less realistic--and vice versa; so I assume this would simply be an issue of renaming the difficulty levels.

[7KodaWolf7]

I'd love if we could do away with "seeing" the health bars of all the elk as you approach. Determining how healthy one is - in my opinion - should be dominated by what you learn from the scents and how quick they are/how much stamina they have when they run. Because of this it'd be especially interesting if Injured, Old, and Ill were all unique and separate conditions animals you encounter can have that set the elk's health to a lower margin. The conditions should also have the ability to stack, and thus further deplete on the target's health to make them even easier to kill.

It'd also be lovely if all animals in the game could have these sorts of statuses put onto them, not just cow elk, but bull elk, fawns, the deer, moose etc, even down to bears, and other wolves.

The player is a possibility too, but I kind of doubt having to tolerate such things would be in any way fun. It worked well in old games like LION and WOLF as it kept you from being reckless and only really hunting if you really needed it, but was otherwise quite bothersome when you did have to tolerate an injury since the heal time was abysmal.

The scent thing could be interesting but maybe turning health bars on/off should either be a separate checkbox option or as part of the higher two difficulties.

Also gotta agree with what you said about not having things like sickness or injury affect the player, because yeah, there's a fine line between realism and fun. I really hope that doesn't become a thing in the game because that would deter a lot of people from playing or using the higher difficulties. I know it'd deter me; a decent challenge is one thing but 'mission impossible with 99+ problems to deal with' is another. xD

I completely agree with both of these passages. It would add an element of realism to the game to rid of the health bars, as least until you began biting a specific elk. Perhaps health bars can be available for easier modes and not harder ones.
The diversity of having all AI creatures be randomized with health and age as defects to their survival ability would definitely be an amazingly helpful gameplay feature.
I COMPLETELY agree with not having sickness or specific injury affect the player. This would take away from the game being a game and take away half of the fun. If this were to be implemented at all, it should be optional in the settings; switched off by default. However, integrating the sickness/injury system could do worse for the ratings altogether.

[PearlyReborn]

How about an "Instinct Mode" unlocked upon acheiving Pack Elder, where the HUD, Map and the little sign in scent view are disabled so you have to use your knowledge of the game and wolves to play?

[Loach]

How about an "Instinct Mode" unlocked upon acheiving Pack Elder, where the HUD, Map and the little sign in scent view are disabled so you have to use your knowledge of the game and wolves to play?

I don't have the free time to grind that much EXP, rip. Having it set to difficulties or maybe as an unlockable mode for getting all surviving pups to adulthood or something on a harder difficulty seems a bit more fair.

[Koa]

@ Lebron BMT - The post you quoted from Wolvencall was from April. Let's not bait anyone into (what you deem) a "political" argument. I've split your post. Thank you.

[Lebron BMT]

@koa wew. I was agreeing with Wolvencall, and I just have some free time this week to read older posts. Whatever happened to this place to make the mods so tense?

[Koa]

@koa wew. I was agreeing with Wolvencall, and I just have some free time this week to read older posts. Whatever happened to this place to make the mods so tense?

Arguments that have started based on posts that were similarly worded to yours and brought up in a similar manner. You can PM me if you want to discuss this further.

Anyway, continue discussing ideas. Thanks

[PearlyReborn]

How about an "Instinct Mode" unlocked upon acheiving Pack Elder, where the HUD, Map and the little sign in scent view are disabled so you have to use your knowledge of the game and wolves to play?

I don't have the free time to grind that much EXP, rip. Having it set to difficulties or maybe as an unlockable mode for getting all surviving pups to adulthood or something on a harder difficulty seems a bit more fair.

Haha, I get that! (I actually have gotten to that rank though, through abusing bear spawn points). But I do want the highest rank to be rewarding beyond bragging rights. Now that your wolf is so experienced, it can tackle most anything, right? But I see what you mean.

[Polynesia]

When you pick up a scent trail, the game will tell you if the animal is a male or a female. It would be cool if you could find out the gender of another player by sniffing them or their tracks. (Maybe have a sniff emote in multiplayer games, which tells you about the wolf you're greeting, like their gender and health.) Wolves in real life can do that, and this would be helpful in the case of players who have gender neutral names.

I would love to see signs of pregnancy in the female wolf!! You could have a -10% speed decrease for heavily pregnant wolves, and increased hunger..

I don't like the idea of breaking off and carrying chunks of elk meat (just because it sounds messy and difficult to implement) but I think it would be great if you could pick up hare carcasses. Just like when you approach a pup, you have the option to click on 'Pick Up' or 'Feed.' The same system can be used for hare carcasses but with 'Pick Up' or 'Eat.'
The hares are much lighter than your pups so I don't think they would drain your stamina.

Mousing in winter: you can listen carefully for scuffling under the snow, and then dig. If you dig in the right spot you can catch a mouse. If you're smart you can follow a fox and let him find the best mousing locations for you.

[Windstrider]

Being able to carry food would be great, whether some types or all, that would be pretty useful.

Also, unless this would cause way too many issues, having a pack description or multiplayer description would be nice, as well as a view/search packs function so you could get the scoop on a pack before joining.

A description could look something like this:

(Pack name)
(# of members)
(*Type of pack; rp, semi-rp, or non-rp)
(WolfQuest thread)
(Pack website)
(Description box)

*Specifics could be taken further with things like 'rp allowed', 'rp allowed on-site', 'rp not allowed', 'plotted', or 'unplotted'. There could also be an option that says 'see description'.

And of course WQ Thread and Pack Site would be optional but nice and useful for packs that do have them.

*The 'type' info could also be done as tags, maybe. So you'd put things like 'rp', 'casual', 'sited', 'multiplayer only', etc as tags instead of picking from a drop-down list.