Hunting, prey animals and taxidermy : V - Skyrim

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:14 pm

An ecosystem with lots of wildlife that is non-insta-hostile would be really great. I also want to be rewarded more from killing a deer. In oblivion you would hardly ever get enough money from selling venision to cover the cost of the lost arrow, which tells something of how crappy that system was. Instead, we should be able to take more than one piece of meat from it, worth much much more than 2 golds each, maybe 3 pieces of meat worth 25 each? Then we could take their skin, crafting it into our own fur armour or sell it too, for 20-50 golds? Hunting should be a method of easy money, not only dungeon scavenging.

I like the idea of traps, maybe it could be part of crafting? And shops would also have pre-made traps that you can buy. We place them somewhere out in the wilds, mark the position on out maps and wait a day or two and come back and see what we got. Maybe we could start of with small traps with a piece of cheese as a bait for small animals. Then we could make a bigger trap, using the small animal as a bait. If we would wait too long before going to the trap, the possibly trapped animal could have been eaten by another animal.

Yay to hunting!

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:13 pm

Hell yes. This would be a great complement to the crafting system as well (would make it more difficult to obtain hides/other parts), as well as alchemy (for the same reason).

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 12:46 pm

MMM was originally Martigen's Monster Mod for Oblivion.

Ah well, it still doesn't matter since I'm all-console :/

Imagine a Animal Friend Perk like Fallout in Skyrim...Wolves (for example) should not attack you if you have Animal Friend Perk Level 1... in Level 2 they could also help you attacking foes... with the short animals (rabbits, squirrels) they could just follow you for some time if you have some Animal Friend Level Perk... Don′t need to be a "Snow White effect", but it would be funny to see reaction of this tiny animals in your presence with some Perks... =)

Hehe that's an interesting thought, "Snow White effect"

Let's just hope it doesn't turn out like the new Adoring Fan with an entire forest population chasing after you xD Maybe just make them neutral, like they know they don't have to fear you?

Taxidermy in real life is just evil, if it is about just having a dead animal(like a tiger) standing in the livingroom as a trophy.

True, but that's what games are for!

I'm not a hunter in real life who likes to kill animals, I just think that during the middle ages like in TES, hunting was justified. And imagine having a hunting cabin in the middle of the forest... there are some really atmospheric features to this whole idea I think. You'll see the world from another perspective, and, if implemented, see how amazingly detailed it really is.

I also want to be rewarded more from killing a deer. In oblivion you would hardly ever get enough money from selling venision to cover the cost of the lost arrow, which tells something of how crappy that system was. Instead, we should be able to take more than one piece of meat from it, worth much much more than 2 golds each, maybe 3 pieces of meat worth 25 each? Then we could take their skin, crafting it into our own fur armour or sell it too, for 20-50 golds? Hunting should be a method of easy money, not only dungeon scavenging.I like the idea of traps, maybe it could be part of crafting? And shops would also have pre-made traps that you can buy. We place them somewhere out in the wilds, mark the position on out maps and wait a day or two and come back and see what we got. Maybe we could start of with small traps with a piece of cheese as a bait for small animals. Then we could make a bigger trap, using the small animal as a bait. If we would wait too long before going to the trap, the possibly trapped animal could have been eaten by another animal.Yay to hunting!

I can imagine the loot from a deer could be like: "Antlers", "Head" (for taxidermy), "Fur" and several pieces of "Meat". Maybe if you took the head and antlers, there could be a taxidermy option in the inventory menu or something, so you can sell it or hang it on the wall. About the traps, it's exactly like I pictured it. And if you don't pick the trap up it might disappear after a while (someone else might have taken it) to prevent hundreds of traps from lying everywhere. But any ideas on how to prevent the player from just making hundreds of deer heads? It wouldn't feel very rewarding if it was too easy... Maybe you shouldn't be able to make it yourself? Basically, you'd have to take it to a taxidermist, who'd do it for a pretty expensive fee?

EDIT: A better idea would be to make it even more realistic and simply make prey much more alert. A deer for example should notice you if you don't walk VERY slow on a pretty long distance. That way it won't get too cheap. Actually catching/killing a deer could be quite a triumph.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:33 am

I like the idea of having a hunting throphy...and it would be great to make the hunting a bit more challeging.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:32 pm

I like all of these things. Especially taxidermy. Which I'm interested in, in real life. Being able to have taxidermy'd(?) creatures in my hall was one thing I really liked about Battlehorn castle in Oblivion :thumbsup: And with Skyrim taking place in, well, Skyrim. I could see this being a feature. Can you imagine having a giant stuffed wooly mammoth in your house?

A dragon would be awesome too, but according to the Game Informer article they burst into flames when they die and turn to ash. At least the one he saw did. Dragons who use frost (for instance) may do something different.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:19 pm

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

So what do you think? Do you want every single bloodthirsty being to appear behind every stone, chasing you down whenever you go into the forest, or would you rather have a more dynamic and realistic world? Will this make the game get less appealing to the casual audience, unpatient as it may be?

You know, I really wouldn't mind adding a little animal crossing this this. I'd love to go bug catching and record the findings in a book, but 900X more than that I want to go fishing, and find all the fish I can in the world and own a piece of land that's a giant aquarium, ok that's not likely going to happen, but at least be able to mount things, animals and fish and whatnot. Hang a bug collection on the wall even.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:43 am

Well, we can cook in Skyrim so I think they would put some effort into a hunting system.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:32 am

.... 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....

This is a great idea. BGS should use this, and pay you for it.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:29 pm

farm animals and animals in packs that is all.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:52 am

Update: Predators attacking animals have been confirmed:

"There are a wide variety of these random encounters," says design director Bruce Nesmith. "Many of them are things the player can interact with, some are not. You might save a priest who then tells you about a dungeon where there are people trapped that need saving. You might run across mammoth beset by a pack of wolves." - http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/01/17/the-technology-behind-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim.aspx?PostPageIndex=2

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:19 am

we need chickens as well as white eggs,brown eggs and rarely gold eggs.

Yes and black bass too