Ranger Archive
Thread: Let's make a database: Understanding the behavior of SWG creatures
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BioEngine
Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:57 pm
#1
At the request of Ackira, I have moved my post in the Game Guide section to the appropriate areas.
I have been hunting for a while now, and when I get into a group I give them some advice after they seem to display a lack of knowledge in a certain field.
A guildie needed to get the Mask Scent ability to make his DNA sampling easier, so we went hunting Kaadus for about 30 minutes, and got him his xp.
So, I will post what I know about creature behaviour in the hopes that it helps some of you.
Male/Female Creature Herds
1) If you attack the females first, the Males will also attack you. However, if you attack the Males first, the Females will not usually defend the Males.
Insectivorous species
Due to simplicity's sake, this category includes spiders of all forms, as well as butterflies, beetles, moths, and the like. Many species of birds should show an interest in this prey, but I need to do more research to confirm this hypothesis. I would also appreciate any other species to be posted here, so that I may update this thread. I wanted to address this category, because I do not think that the database websites take this possibility into account.
Interaction Between Herbivores andCarnivores
1) If you are being attacked by a large group of Carnivores, and you are in danger of becoming incapacitated or even killed, then your best chance is to lead them into a pack of ferocious Herbivores. The Herbivores will ignore you, and go after your more predatory pursuers.
2) If you are in the same dangerous situation with Herbivores, you can lead them into a pack of carnivores, but you also run the chance that they will single you out for prey as well. To avoid this, reach within 30 meters of the Carnivore pack, and stand your ground while fighting against the Herbivores. The Herbivores will surround you in close combat, and therefore have at least one of their herd present the Carnivores with a preferable target.
Here is my most noteworth experience with this system
I was going after Bolle Bols with the mission terminal. I arrive there, but what do I find? Borgle Life-Sappers!
Gah, I hate those things so much......
Well, unfortunately the Bolle Bols wouldn't aggro on it, but to my luck there was a lair of Blurrgs right next door! I pulled the Borgles over there, and I ran through the Blurrgs until all but one Borgle was attacking me (I didn't have mask scent up at that time, hehe.) I finished it off and stood by as the Blurrgs finished the rest of them off for me! Hehe, made my job a lot easier, and because I hit each of them once I still got to harvest 
.
. Unfortunately, I was not very far up in the Unarmed Combat tree, because I couldn't even handle the Blurrgs by myself hehe. They didn't aggro on me, I tried to finish the wounded ones off for more hide (I was still grinding survival xp at the time.) It was a good thing that I didn't go after the Bolle Bols from the start, because I dragged the Blurrgs close enough to aggro the Bols onto them! Hehe, they helped me finish my mission, and I was able to harvest the hides from both groups .
.Territorial nature of certain species
Creatures may attack others based upon their presence, instead of whether or not they are prey or predator. This has been observed in Lantern Birds and Bolle Bols on Endor by myself and the Scout correspondent. I would appreciate any other confirmed species which display similar forms of aggression.
I am starting to think that the level of ferocity that they have might affect what they will and will not attack, but I would sooner continue to think that the Blurrg were their natural predators 
Now, to list what has been reported to attack certain species:
(Contributor) | Species |Attacks
(JB) MaklokRancor
(JB) Gaping Spider Rancor
(BioEngine)BolsBlurrg
(JB)RaspsTorturs
Sharnaff
Gronda
Huf Dun
(BioEngine)Bluurg Borgle Life-Sappers
(BioEngine) Deranged Wrix Giant Carrion Spat
(JokitoRoyo)Krayt Bantha (high priority)
Bantha Krayt
Dune Lizard Krayt
(BioEngine) Capper SpineflapKaadu Female (high priority)
(BioEngine) Kaadu MaleNightspider (high priority)
(BioEngine)Rabid Shaupaut Gnort
(BioEngine)Crazed Gurreck Swirl Prong
(BioEngine)Boar Wolf Swirl Prong
(BioEngine)Lantern Bird Arachne Drone
(BioEngine) BordokMareCrazed Gurreck
(BioEngine)Bantha Matriarch Cannibal Dewback
(BioEngine)Bull BanthaJuvenile Krayt
This is what I have at the moment. I travel a lot, so I will be able to report on what I observe weekly if not daily.
Happy hunting, all!
I would also like to note that I ampursuing a Bachelor's Degree of Biology, and will graduate with honors, so I have an interest in this field. I will not "flame" people who attempt to correct me, because science never uses the word "prove." If you have seen on a commercial that something has been "proven," then they did not have an ethical scientist's consent.
If anyone has something to add to this, then I will edit it into my post with your name at the top so that it will be easier to find the information.
"I'd tip my hat to you, but I haven't got a hat."
- Some Twi-Lek
Rabideko
Ranger 1032
Teras Kasi 0242
Information Broker of Bloodfin
Message Edited by BioEngine on 03-28-2005 01:43 AM
Message Edited by BioEngine on 03-30-2005 08:01 AM
BioEngine
Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:50 pm
#2
I moved this into the top thread.
Message Edited by BioEngine on 03-22-2005 05:26 PM
BioEngine
Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:38 pm
#3
What^ said, hehe.
Message Edited by BioEngine on 03-22-2005 05:27 PM
agent156
Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:06 am
#4
You forgot scouts. Hell a catalog of creature vs. creature agros would be great.
Dewbacks vs. Womprats Etc.
Dewbacks vs. Womprats Etc.
BioEngine
Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:12 am
#5
Hehe, I didn't think about scout "creatures" lol. I thought you meant posting it on the scout forums 
.Message Edited by BioEngine on 03-27-2005 08:46 PM
BioEngine
Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:20 am
#7
Ackira wrote:
My 10th post and I'm already getting cited
Hehe, if you complain about your technical problems on the Tech Support forum, bumping it to the top so the TSR's would see it gets your posts up pretty quick
BioEngine
Thu Mar 24, 2005 8:31 am
#8
I am copying and pasting conversations from the Scout forum that I have also posted this on.
Some good info, but it seems to be Naboo specific -
1. Sometimes attacking the males will get the female to attack. See Robas on Endor and Talus. The femals are aggressive and will bring the clan. Males are loners, engage one and you get one, unless a female sees the male being beat on and she will enter the fray. And attacking mommy animals always seem to draw in the babies floating around.
1 and 2. Sometimes Herbies will ignore the Carnivore, and vice versa. It all depends on their relationships. Makloks hate Rancors. Gaping Spiders hate Rancors, but Makloks will ignore Spiders, and usually Spiders will ignore Makloks. On Endor, the birds (Lantern, all types) rarely engage other targets and they are herbie. Bordoks, also herbies, will engage other creatures. Bols are also herbie and will engage. Gurrecks will engage, and they are carni. Rasps on Corellia and Talus will engage, and they are neither herbie nor carnie, but avian.
3. Well known fact, maskscent allows you to enter signle combat with a variety of combat professions. See the opsts on the subject.
Creature patterns vary according to planet.
JB
As a reply to this, I typed the following (man, I can't copy and paste cause of some error, so I have typed everything here word for word )
)
I am not going to flame here, but the only mentioning of Naboo was an example of the Male-Female creature relationship that I have observed. I doubt that SOE would be clever enough to implement all of these proposed behaviors, but I can hope that it is a fix to their glitch that hasn't been /bug reported yet
And here is his response, for your benefit of knowledge
I think that I should repost what I have in another thread of this. I addressed the Bols there, being ferocious and aggressive would incline them to attack other creatures which may end up portraying a "territorial" behavior instead of a predator-prey relationship.
Aren't Rasps insectivorous? I haven't tried to pull them into Corellian Butterflies yet....
Maybe the Laterns are strictly territorial, like the Bols....
I was not trying to imply a "enemy of my enemy is my friend" motive as the cause of their behavior. I go by what the animal looks like, what it's hide and meat are, and what creatures I have observed it attacking without interference from players or NPC's
If you will let me, I can update the original post here and in the Ranger thread with your input. I will, of course, cite my sources.
Rabideko
In real life, I am a Honors Biology Major, so I have an acquired interest in these topics
And here is his response, for your benefit of knowledge
All I am saying is what I have observed, and some of which is in direct contravention to what you reported. And these are not proposed behaviors, these are observed behaviors of the animals I listed. By no means is the list complete. Continuing on -
Rasps will attack anything if you drag it through them, torturs, sharnaff, gronda, huf dun, it doesn't matter. Never dragged butterflies through anything, or anything through butterflies, as they die too quickly to matter.
Also, creatures that share names but that live on different planets are totally different. The roba on Talus are either light blue (crazed) or blue (male and female) cons. Go to Endor and they are all white cons.
Creatures that look alike but with different names (torturs and tortuns) are totally different - leather v wooley hides for example. Naboo "butterflies" are meaner than Corellian, and have more HAM.
You may want to add the "scout" creature into your research. Shoot that one first and if it reaches the lair, the entire clan comes to play.
And don't ignore NPCs in your research. Good faction may mean they will help you by engaging. This behavior has changed since the most recent publish however and needs to be checked out.
JB
Just one more back-and-forth to go, so bear with me hehe
I guess there's a communication barrier hehe.
I wasn't talking about the behaviors you were mentioning, I was talking about those that I had listed in my post. I was afraid that the behaviors that I was proposing were non-existant, and instead a random set of actions designated to the creatures. I would love to think that the Dev's would be as creative as to implement these prey-predator herbivore-carnivore aggressive-nonagressive territorial-docile natures in the creatures that they release, but I will try to provide more evidence in my future updates.
I'm starting to get the feeling that no one likes this idea of mine 
Rabideko
And now, his response
I like the idea, but we need to get specific, as to what hates what on which planet and what will aggro what.
I started off with some stuff I know about. Come one y'all, expand and we can get something useful here.
JB
I would like to see some participation on all of our parts. I hope that these patterns do not change after the CU, but if they do I'll be updating everything that gets put in here. I'm gonna make a list of what we have found to aggro what so far on the original post, so I'd appreciate some input as to your own experiences.
And now, my latest adventure.
I was fighting the, um.....
{
Ctrl+n
Favorites
Star Wars Galaxies
Community Sites
SWG Creatures
Advanced Search
Corellia, Advanced Search..... Ah, there it is!
}
Grand Wrix (I forgot the name lol) on Corellia the other day, and one of the Deranged Wrix's was attacking a Giant Carrrion Spat. Their lair was about 60 meters from where the Wrix were, so there's a chance that the Spat just wandered too close to them, because they didn't continue on to the Spat's lair.
I guess I'll keep a Microsoft Word document on my PC saved, and describe encounters like a diary or something so that I can give a better account when I update this thread.
Can anyone else contribute their experiences to this? I'm thinking that this would make a very interesting project, and maybe we could even work it into the GRM. Of course, that's not my call hehe.
Rabideko
Message Edited by BioEngine on 03-24-2005 09:49 AM
BioEngine
Sun Mar 27, 2005 10:30 am
#9
Ok, I updated the list from yesterday. I would like to make this more organized, so I added the (long range) descriptor to show that the encounter was not the result of an invasion of their territory.
Rabideko, Novice Ranger, Information Broker of Bloodfin
MasterArtisanPell
Sun Mar 27, 2005 4:24 pm
#10
I can personaly 2nd the bit about Krayts attacking Bantha's. I was out Bantha hunting yesterday (great Wooly Hide shift going through) and I shot the lair and all of a sudden about 5 Banthas spawn. I was aggroed and I couldn't hold them off so I decided to try to lead them past a Krayt Dragon that was in the distance. Low and behold the Krayt aggro'ed the Bantha's and finished them off. Then the Krayt disipeared so I was able to go back and harvest all the hide off the now dead Bantha's. It was great to watch the showdown between Krayt and Bantha. Someone said we should keep tabs on NPC's as well... A Tusken Scout attacked me and I lead it through a near by group of Jabba's theifs and swoops and they all aggro'ed it and saved me!!
BioEngine
Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:44 pm
#11
Thanks for the confirmation. It seems that a lot of funny stories of life and death can come out of these "natural instincts."
I updated the "long range" to reflect a particular presence of animosity between one creature and another.
"I'd tip my hat to you, but I haven't got a hat."
- Some Twi-Lek
Rabideko
Ranger 1032
Teras Kasi 0242
Information Broker of Bloodfin
Message Edited by BioEngine on 03-28-2005 01:42 AM
Almagill
Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:44 am
#12
Remember also that, if the creature attacking you uses an AoE attack, that any creatures you can manage to 'direct' that attack on will defend themselves against what they see as the aggressor.
I've used this to get veermok to aggro on faamba, dath spiders and beetles to aggro on malklok, etc. On occaision you'll also be able to drag NPC into the fight this way, for example, villagers on Lok v kimoglia.
I've used this to get veermok to aggro on faamba, dath spiders and beetles to aggro on malklok, etc. On occaision you'll also be able to drag NPC into the fight this way, for example, villagers on Lok v kimoglia.
velm
Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:54 am
#13
I had rancors attack Brackasetts once, as well as having a rancor attack Kwi's.
I have also seen Rancors attack Night Sisters. The attacking of NS is more common than the other two.
I have also seen Rancors attack Night Sisters. The attacking of NS is more common than the other two.
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