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Creature Movement Feedback

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With last nights update Celebration is now running some of the changes outlined in the last dev blog regarding Creature movements. The reason for it only being on Celebration to start is mainly for performance testing and tuning, but it is also a good chance to get feedback on the changes from a smaller group before enabling it on all servers - so this thread is for that feedback.

 

Note: 'Fleeing' creatures include: Bison, Cow, Calf, Deer, Hen, Lamb, Pheasant, Ram, Seal & Seal Cub, Sheep, Tortoise, Unicorn, Bull, Chicken, Foal, Horse, Rooster.

 

Some information to explain the new behaviour that you'll be seeing for a start:

  • Fleeing creatures no longer run away from any players inside local range.
  • Branded, bred or cared for creatures that are on deed will no longer flee.
    • Their movement will also be more random to account for them most likely being inside pens. They will most often move in their current direction, and when hitting a fence or wall, bounce off it in a different direction and continue moving. This should help with penned creatures being all caught up in one corner.
  • Fleeing creatures will now only flee when another hostile creature (including players) moves within range of them.
    • This range is dependent on the toughness of the hostile creature compared to the toughness of the fleeing creature.
    • Cap on this range is dependent on the fleeing creature's vision range (usually around 4 tiles, a few can see for 7 tiles).
    • The length of time they will try and flee for depends on the relative strength and distance of the hostile creature that triggered their fleeing.
      • e.g. If a player moves close to a Bison, it might move away from that player for a couple of seconds. If a spider moves near a Bison, it will likely be trying to flee for about 20 seconds.
      • Note: This reduces previous movement time from 60 seconds in most cases - so creatures should be running away for less time on average.
  • Fleeing creatures will now take into account their surroundings before deciding where to move to.
    • They will try and move to the least hostile tile within their vision range based on a heatmap-like system.
    • Creatures that cannot swim will avoid water, creatures that can swim but are considered land creatures will try to avoid water, but still may find it is their best option in some cases.
  • Fleeing creatures that cannot find a valid route to their target tile (e.g. those that are penned) will revert to the same movement that penned branded, bred or cared for creatures use.
    • If they aren't bred, branded or cared for (or they are off deed) they will still attempt to flee for the full amount of time - this might result in some pens with creatures that like to move around and pack the ground a lot if there is a hostile creature within distance.

 

Known Issues:

  • The rate at which grass is packed from movement is too high with the extra movement these creatures can now do.

 

If you have any questions about behaviour you're seeing in game relating to fleeing creatures or have noticed something that is not covered by the list above, please post here.

If creatures are doing something weird in your area, please post a screenshot and where the area is so I can come take a look.

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i have 3 hens in a 2x2 pen 3 fields and one oak tree , 1 of them tries flee from my alt even trying go through fences.

 

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Just a few things, as this is a developer feedback thread please keep discussion on topic to reporting feedback about creature movements on celebration. 

 

Enchanted grass also will not pack when walked upon like normal grass, enchanted grass can only be eaten back to dirt when grazed upon (in a tiny chance). It cannot be packed by moving so extra movement will not impact enchanted grass. 

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Horses in pens (hell horses included) now tend to protrude through the fences - this did not happen before the update (see the imgur gallery below - not embedded into post).

I have a penned hell scorp 5 tiles away from the nearest horse pen - horses do not seem to be alarmed from the scorp so this distance seems working fine.

 

http://imgur.com/a/yUAbH

 

EDIT: the good news: I was riding a lot yesterday night on Celebration and did not notice any performance degradation on the server -not in fps or menu lag-, except a single lag spike of 10-15 secs length but that could very well be unrelated.

Spoiler

 

Edited by Jaz
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I also am having penned animals (horses, cows, sheep, etc) protruding through fences and walls of nearby buildings. Especially the enclosed stables that we house them in. I also noticed that some of the animals seem to be sitting within the tile border area and not within the tile itself.  I have noticed a couple of packed tiles, but no increase in fps or anything of that sort. I am at Peaceful Harbor on Cele. E22ish on ingame map.

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In one day the chickens have stomped down all but one grass tile. After turning on creature movement there running around like crack monkeys this isn't even right,. 

WKyGdit.jpg

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I'll have to log luv in this weekend to check horse pens. If I can sail wikid home I'll go hunting and report anything wonky. 

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We'll be doing a hotfix for Cele in the morning with two changes:

  • Reduced how often fleeing creatures pack tiles when moving.
    • 20x less often off deed, 50x less often on deed.
  • Changed fleeing creatures to be less afraid of aggro creatures that are bred/branded/cared for or dominated (tamed).

With the creatures poking their heads through fences, there's no worry of them actually moving through the fence, they'll just be as close as they can get to it while still being on that tile. I'll have a look to see what I can do about it.

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Hotfix is in.

 

I also wanted to ensure no animals managed to get stuck in fences, and so far the few I found who were on the fence about being in their pens were happy to move back into the pen when I lead them that way. I also tried to lead them from the other side, but the fence was rather adamant about where the cow was supposed to be!

 

 

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I do still see some animals in the fences and buildings after the fix. Let me attempt to coax them away and see what happens.

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This hotfix didn't have any changes for them sitting inside fences, that'll come next week.

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Ok! I did notice that they weren't running around like mad. Less packed tiles so far.

 

Thanks for letting us know :D

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Yeah my post came from someone (I forget who) that was concerned with animals escaping or being stuck in fences on restart. We used to have that quite some time ago in the old days of Wurm, so fair concern :)

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I have no fear about them crossing the fences - it is only visual I know so not a gamebreaking thing at all; but looks real weird.

Edited by Jaz
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Have you tweaked the creatures on Exo as well? 

 

After spending several hours hunting last night everything seems a lot more active, you have to keep an eye on your next target now as they are speeding around at a good clip.

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Keenan, that was probably me. I was afraid they'd get loose like you mentioned above.

 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

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The code appears to have broken confinement - I'm on Release, and my Champion Unicorns have never been like this before.

https://i.gyazo.com/ac367f0e8e950a14b80cf8705b7433a7.mp4

 

Spot the non-champion unicorn. Until recently, the champions all behaved as the non-champ does. The champions are like this all of the time now, which may not be desirable.

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I've seen this on Celebration today - it is a corner next to see, big castle on the other side of the 1 tile road:

fTi2jp6.jpg

 

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On den 7 juli 2017 at 7:48 AM, moogien said:

i have 3 hens in a 2x2 pen 3 fields and one oak tree , 1 of them tries flee from my alt even trying go through fences.

 

That running around hen doesnt get a fat layer , i drop food to ground ( 5 or 6 ) , next day its gone but the hen still not getting fat.

Hand feeding it, 1 food each day, the 2 other hens have gotten the fat tag, that doesnt run around.

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On 7.7.2017 at 3:56 AM, Budda said:

If you have any questions about behaviour you're seeing in game relating to fleeing creatures or have noticed something that is not covered by the list above, please post here.

 

Please note that the movement changes seem to have made their way onto multiple servers, see here: https://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/155951-budda-bug-bugged-unicorns-since-last-patch/

 

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Bulls aren't fleeing from me. Also, I have horses trying to go through fences and walls on my deed.

In ways, I kind of like the fact the horses are walking about in my pens; makes them feel more 'alive' than only used for transportation. But when they are able to be halfway through a wall (or look like they're about to glitch through a gate), there's a problem.

Edited by Benie

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My running around hen died, even cared for, fed every day with one potato ql 20 ish, even dropped 4-6 potatos on tile.

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Yeah honestly i don't like the movement thing going on its really hard to keep track of animals had to baby horse in the wall didn't even now they were born chickens dying because there running to much. I do appreciate the dev team working on the movement of animals. But the actions the animals are doing at the moment are not natural in the least.:(

 

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On 15/07/2017 at 10:40 PM, Jaz said:

I've seen this on Celebration today - it is a corner next to see, big castle on the other side of the 1 tile road:

fTi2jp6.jpg

 

I could shot the same pic today - 10-20 bulls and other domestic animals at the same corner. Also 5-10 non-swimming creatures in the water drowned - 2-3 tiles away from the shore.

I've been leading away a few horses, as soon as I let them go they instantly started to walk back to the same location.

 

UPDATE: a few hundred meters away- the cow is already wounded (plus a pheasant and a few sheep in deep water):

Spoiler

 

 

Edited by Jaz

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