I'm the Boss...or Not

[loboLoco]

[youtube]2fpxMunm8Bo[/youtube]
https://youtu.be/2fpxMunm8Bo

We’ve had wolf fighting in WolfQuest since the very beginning, but it was confined to the turn-based social arenas with stranger wolves. In WQ 2.7, we added stranger wolves defending their territory in Slough Creek, but you can’t actually fight them. You stay in your territory, they stay in theirs, and everyone’s happy. But since fighting is such an important aspect of a wolf’s life — fights are the number one cause of death of wolves in Yellowstone National Park —we’re building a much more realistic system for fighting in WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition.

Our goals for this fighting system are the same as for all the new game systems in WQ 3: to represent the complex, dynamic, and active nature of a wolf’s life within the constraints of a game simulation (and our own limited resources). Fighting of course is a common mechanic in computer games, but we want to make sure that our wolf fights are not merely recreational, but truly represent both the reasons for fighting — namely, to claim and defend territory — and the tremendous dangers that fighting presents for wolves. We also want to our NPC personality system to come into play, so a bold wolf responds differently in a conflict than a cautious wolf.

So we’ve designed a system where territory, personality, and the power balance (based on the relative number of wolves on each side of a conflict, as well as their current health) are all factors in how the wolves behave. How aggressive are they? Can they be intimidated by growls and snarls, or do you have to actually fight them, with all the risks that entails? Furthermore, this dynamic changes from moment to moment as the situation changes.

We’ve built the core system now and have been playing around with it to evaluate its fun-factor….and we think it’s pretty fun. For that we’ve been using placeholder animations and doing our best to ignore a lot of awkward moments when the wolves bite each other. Now the next step is to make it look good, by refining all the various ways that wolves can interact in a fight.

This video gives you sneak preview of some of the gameplay. Once we get everything working better, we’ll show more in a future blog post.

Notes:
* This is pre-alpha (i.e. very rough!) gameplay footage, just enough to prototype the new fighting mechanics. We’re now working on refining the animations and interactions.
* In nature, wolf fighting is almost entirely between packs, not within packs. While the latter has been known to occur, it’s only in much larger packs than the small family pack in WolfQuest.
* Fighting will be an option in single-player games, and in pup-raising multiplayer games (with your pack against NPC stranger packs). We do hope to add player vs. player in the next episode, Tower Fall.

And thanks to JayPlays for video clips from WolfQuest 2.7! Check out her channel for gameplay videos of WolfQuest and many other animal games! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4e517 ... fEf_HsnFaQ

[LamarWolf]

The new wolf fights look awesome and I like how the wolves attack as a group. I noticed in the video that you can pin wolves down when fighting and that made me excited.

[SolitaryHowl]

This is awesome, can't wait to see the system in its polished glory!

(Gotta love those bloopers, though!)

[SnowSprite]

I'll have to watch my back when playing... this is gonna make exploration so much more interesting! Thanks for all your hard work!

[DispersedHowl100]

I love the new way wolf fights will be presented! ( The bloopers are HILARIOUS!!!)

[YellowstoneWolves1]

The idea of the fighting looks nice, despite the current bloopers. If I had to decide which part would be the hardest in the Amethyst Mountain map, I would probably say fighting aggressive wolves. You would need a good strategy, especially when the personality traits are cleaned up for wolf fights. Good work, all of you.

[MysteryFoxSpirt]

I love the new fighting mechanics especially because the wolves circle, bite, hold on, and chase you, like real life! Can't wait for multiplayer pups.

Also, in the multiplayer pups, will tier be more or less stranger wolves do to the amount of players in the game? Such as 4 wolves vs a small pack of four strangers? Or maybe 8 players vs 8 strangers? Or more.....

But yeah. Gotta love those bloopers, and looking for a mate will be harder now! Pack wolves defending their territory, even the not so claimed areas. And potential mates spread around the map. Can't wait for mobile!

[Phasoli]

This is beautiful work, as always. Even though the animations and some of the mechanics aren't pristine, it still looks amazing so far! The way that the strangers circle the player and dart after it when it starts to run off it so beautifully realistic. And when they do snatch a bite--wow!

I'm curious, though. Will we ever encounter more than three wolves at a time? Either way, I'm excited to try out this new gameplay. Can't wait to see it all finished!

[poncho0287]

Love the new fighting wolves. And the bloopers are so funny.

[AmberZeWolf]

More excitement! This makes me kind of wish that strangers wolves could be enabled for Pack Life multiplayer games, like a toggle feature. Make the game more interesting and have fights between the pack wolves with your own pack.

[Polynesia]

That’s really cool, I think it’s one of my favourite updates so far. Do you think, in the Slough creek arc when you have chosen a home, an neighbour pack will ever actively seek out and invade your den site?

[TimberRaven]

Ah! Ah! So funny! So cool!
Some of these bloopers are as friendly as Floppy XD and others are just wrong. But either way, the wolves, their reactions, and their animations are amazing!!!
Will a single whine change a fight? Could you attack someone in MP?
Keep up the incredible work, WQ Team!!

[wolf_whisperer98]

Very interesting. However, all throughout the video, I had a question that I thought I should ask for confirmation. Depending on how strong we make our wolves, will that, in turn, depict the outcome of fights? I'm almost positive that it will, but there's no harm in asking.

[Sinfulcliche]

Those must be the brothers and sisters of the moonwalking wolf!
Even though this is the bare bones of the fighting mechanic, I can already imagine the epic battles. I've been waiting for this announcement for a long time, and I loved the way the team put it together! It was even better than I expected. Thank you WolfQuest!

[watergoat]

I love the new stranger wolf interactions. Its going to be so much fun playing this when it comes out.

I have a question, when you come up on a group like that will each stranger wolf treat you the same or will they all have different opinions of you?