Do you think there will be friendly animals within Skyrim? by this I mean things you can hunt that will not be hostile like deer, but mainly animals to help you like maybe a hunting dog. I know fallout has had dogs in it as kind of companions and I thought it would be quite cool to go hunting out in the wilderness with a dog for company. What really got me thinking about it was a picture in the OXM magazine (I think its been elsewhere too), its of the normal horn helmed guy walking into some sort of town and walking towards him is another guy with a big wolf hound walking next to him. It seems to be screen shot not concept art so this implies at least that dog are in the game, even if they are not available to the playing character. Let me know what you think, will they be in? Would you like them to be in? What animals would you like to see?

yeah i like the idea. As well i want huge fish like 300lb fish in the water that are non-hostile too.

they had dogs in oblivion as well, although you couldn't use them, it was great fun seeing them chase eachother etc. this time however, I'm certenly hoping for a furry companion to keep me warm in the cold skyrim nights ^^

I don't know about friendly animals. But Skyrim will hopefully have more neutral and passive beasts. OB had Deer,sheep,horse and a few dogs that looked like wolves. Skyrim has Elk,Birds,fish and dog(s) that dont look like wolves, plus some beast won't automatically attack you, so were off to a good start. Gothic 3 had Chickens,pigs,lizards,snakes,hares,buffalo,deer and cows, that was neat-o.

There is one screenshot that shows someone hunting a deer, so we know those are in the game, and I'd assume that, like in Oblivion, they're not hostile. I hope there will be other forms of wild life that doesn't attack on sight, though. It kind of annoys me how in past games everything that moves and is not an NPC seems to be out to get you. I'd like to see more non-hostile animals as a whole, as well as generally more believable behavior for hostile ones, for one thing, there should be some animals that act like big horners in New Vegas, as in, they don't attack you on sight, but might still attack you if you get too close for their comfort.

As far as letting the player have a dog, I don't much care either way. In Fallout 3, as soon as I got Dogmeat, I'd leave the animal back at my house, in New Vegas I did use Rex mainly due to being a cyborg, and thus more interesting than a normal dog. Not to mention the alternative was a floating metal ball that beeps and has a laser attached, which isn't very interesting either. In most other games that present the option to use a dog as a companion, I generally just don't bother. I just don't find that dogs make for very interesting companions in video games, I think that the fact that it's rather hard to give them an interesting backstory (Seeing as they couldn't tell you about it even if they hd one.) and the vfact that you can't give them nice equipment has a lot to do with it. Although since we know Skyrim has companions, I could see at least one of the options being a dog.

I never took Dogmeat anywhere 'cause I didn't want to see him get hurt. Yeah, I'm a big sook really.

Thats really odd! I really don't remember them! Were they in towns/cities? Is it possible I missed them or have I just forgotten them? :confused:

Hunting Elk.

The old Conan the Adventurer cartoon has a plotline where Greywolf's brother and sister Sasha and Misha were transformed into werewolves by a Black Lotus flower and Conan was able to help get one potion. Since there was two of them, they split the potion in half, and instead of healing both of them, it turned both of them back into regular wolves instead of full werewolves. But every few months when the moon changes, for one day, they can both transform back into human form. So if wanted to get their backstory that would be the way to go, talk to them on that one day when they are human again. Otherwise, they become wolves again, however they are still very smart, almost able to think on occasion.

Someone should Mod this plotline into a Skyrim Mod. Go Modders, go!

If I remember cheydinhal or chorrol..but it could aslo be bravil or anvil

If you had a hunting dog you could head into the woods and send him off to find prey with you following behind. So maybe you 'talk' to it and tell it to find elk or deer, the dog barks in agreement and turns excitably and starts sniffing the floor, it seems to pick up a seems to pick up a sent and race off ahead, you follow quickly bow at the ready. At some points it seems like the it may get to far ahead, but you just about keep pace. then the dog slows down and goes stiff and stands still looking intently in one direction. you follow its eye line and see a group of deer grazing.
That would be awesome! Or you may have a hunting dog who actually brings down/helps to bring down the deer, rabbit, elk or whatever it is you are hunting.

From my thread:

Something I missed in past games are realistic eco systems that include prey. It seems the only prey in Vvardenfell and Cyrodiil are kwama, guars, mudcrabs, deer, horses and a few more. And the predators only hunt down humans for some reason... There should be so many more, like squirrels, birds, a few fish species that DON'T kill you and maybe even insects if Beth are willing to go that far. But that's not important, the main thing is that there can't possibly exist 10 different predators every hundred meter. It makes the game feel somewhat cheap. Make the encounters a little less common and more exciting, while you can still see prey animals roaming around. Imagine you're wandering in the snowy pine forest. You see a squirrel running up a tree as you walk the trail. Later on (maybe 100 meters down the road) you can see a group of elks walk around among the trees. All of a sudden, one of those elks gets attacked by a troll, and another fight unveils. There can be dense monster zones as well, but they shouldn't be evenly scattered. Hunting grounds for different predators would be great. If you want to level up, go into a cave or to a place where the trolls (if ou want to hunt trolls, that is) usually hunt.

About hunting - you shouldn't be able to chase after a deer, wolf (all wolves shouldn't attack you, perhaps only when they're in packs) or a squirrel as they are way too fast. Instead you could perhaps set up traps or use your bow and arrow. Also, fishing would be great.

Predator or not, it'd be really cool to be able to stuff dragon heads and make wolf pelts that you can use as furniture in your house. There has been a few discussions on this on the unofficial forums, I just wanted to shed some light on it here as well.

Some really cool ideas here! I hope some of this is in the game!

Wildlife should be friendly unless you get too close to them, at which point they attack you for encroaching on their territory. Obviously, they should growl on warn you several times before attacking as you're approaching them.

Seriously, bears are not sadistic murderers, but they should be able to maul you like the sack of potatoes you are (in compaison to them; bears would have a much higher strength score than humans/humanish guys) if you piss them off.

All animals should attack you no matter which specie. When we run trough the woods there should be a horde of berserking deers, squirrels, giraffes, etc... hunting you and trying to drink the last drop of blood from you.

:rofl: Yes and watch out for those butterflys too!

Thanks! Me too! It ruins the atmosphere when every living creature except a few deer wants to kill you. And their motto for Oblivion seems to have been "you can only wander the forest for a maximum of 30 seconds before something comes crushing towards you, be it a butterfly or a minotaur".

I believe in the podcasts Todd mentions that animal AI is greatly improved. he gave an example of a wolf pack that if looking for food would actively hunt anything including the PC. But if they had food they would retreat to their den and guard it so you wouldn't be attacked unless you wanted to storm their den.

also I just went through the videos on the GI hub website. there's a piece of concept art Todd shows (in his tour of the studio) where they have pictures of about a half dozen different types of meat so there's a strong chance of at least a half dozen different animal types (i could make out deer meat on it but the other labels were illegible to me)

if Beth doesnt put those in, they'll likely be modded into the game anyway. OB already had plenty of animal companion mods and wildlife AI mods

but it would be nice if they were already built into vanilla. and i hope hunting is worth it this time. make deer and the like hard to catch but worth it.

Me too. :tops:

As I said many times before,Bosmer are my fave race and I would like to see at least a lesser chance of being attacked by wild animals as a Bosmer. Think of it as a racial perk or power.

Yes if they was to go with something similar then they need to improve the AI of the animal because they would attack everything regardless and most often get killed.

Skyrim could do with some bestiality.

In all seriousness, it would be kind of nice having a dog as a companion, but Fable's already done that, and more than likely Skyrim's going to have mounts.

OXM UK March Issue 2011 - Some of the new AI was tried on some wolves. The wolves have a lair, and leave it a few times a day to patrol. They patrol for food and hunt in packs, if they come accross you they will hunt you. If they don't see you they will hunt for deer for example. If they have a catch, they will not leave this catch even if they see you and instead defend there food, only attacking if provoked.

A furry companion to keep you warm at night, yes they probably have female khajiit followers

I think the animals in skyrim should take after real animals. Like if a animal would most likely run unless attacked then it should, not just attack on sight.