The werewolf is supposed to be a fierce blood thirsty creature that kills everything in sight, there should be gameplay mechanics in place to inforce this behavior on players. I feel that one can not simply turn into a werewolf and be able to do what ever he or she pleases but rather the player should be forced to go on an indiscriminate killing spree. What idea's do all of you have for governing the behaviors or werewolves? I recently came up with an idea to make all victims identical while and werewolf form so that the player can not pick and choose who he slays. But where I am stuck is that there must be something that forces the player too kill.

Please keep in mind that I created this topic to specificaly talk about werewolf behavioral mechanics. This topic is not about werewolves in general, if you wish to discuss that there is another active topic you can find http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1168093-vampirewerebeast/

Were they confirmed? I know people speculate that they'd be in, but has any confirmation been made?

Not yet at the moment this is all pure speculation

I want to know this as well considering I thought I would be the first to attack this info

An easy way to explain circumventing the indiscriminate slaughtering side of things would be the fact you play as the Dragonborn. Perhaps the Dragon blood you have could keep the disease in check to an extent? Otherwise, a similar mechanic to Bloodmoon could be used, where you have to make at least one kill every time you change, or face heavy penalties to your stats and health. That would reflect an addiction to the killing rather than an unstoppable compulsion though - if you really wanted to stop yourself and deal with the consequences instead of killing innocents, you could.

About the confirmation thing, Todd Howard talked about them in the Q&A session with Game Informer. He said that they wanted to include them in the game, but if they ran out of time they'd rather not do it than include a half-finished mechanic. He also said if that was the case, it'd probably end up being released as DLC, a la Bloodmoon.

ithink the werewolf should only attack when you are damaged and/or have blood on sword and they should be able to infect you

If they are in, I think that you should start being forced to kill, then later on you can learn to control it. By forcing somebody to kill, you could make everybody look against you, and make them attack you on sight, as well as the temptation of becoming more powerful each person you kill. When you learn to control your power your vision is normal and people will look scared of you, but you can choose to leave them alone.

I personally prefer that, if they choose not to force the player to kill, they will simply make it a game mechanic instead of making up lore to make it fit.

Penalties if you don't kill are probably a good idea, I certainly don't think you should lose control over your character too much. They might do some fun stuff with this target magnetism they have but that only works if you're already in a fight.

A certain screen effect that has some kind of night vision might shadow faces or something like that so it's harder to recognise people as well.

As mentioned earlier, being a dovahkiin could give you a stronger grasp over your sanity. It would be difficult to force the player to do something unless you forcibly took control. Not just blocking controls, but actually having the game choose how you act, which wouldn't go over well. Maybe add a sort of bite mechanic, if someone gets too close, regardless of what you want to do, you will at least try to bite them. Put it as an involuntary action. This wouldn't mean you will attack indiscriminately, but you will try lash out against everyone.

Well in morrowind the only way to heal as a werewolf was to kill. But I feel that isnt enough. If you guys remember that fighters guild quest (Oblivion) were that Blackwood Company guy gives you that wierd drink and you go and kill those people who you "think" are bandits but when you return discover they were innocent villagers, would be perfect for the same thing to happen for the werewolf transformation.

Yeah, that is what I'm thinking it should be.

i'm not an expert on werewolf lore or anything, but why does the bloodlust have to be targeted towards NPCs? there are plenty of animals to go after or kill to satisfy the bloodlust. just a thought.

Werewolves have a bloodlust that seems to only be satisfied by killing humans. Past that, they eat a lot of twigs, berries, and possibly small game (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:On_Lycanthropy)

gotta love Google, i don't remember the names of all these books in game.

If you are rewarded with Hircine's ring then yes, you should be able to take it off without following through with negative consequences. However, if the player is infected then I suppose Morrowind's system worked. Kill enough NPCs and you are not penalized for another night. I guess if you don't kill then your endurance and strength should in turn be drained or something.

what about this: he must feed himself with fresh blood and meat or he won't be able to return to his human shape.

something like this:
_____________________________________________________________________________
hours without feed ////////////// portions of meet he needs to returns to his human shape ////////
--------------------------/////////////--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-5 hours ///////////// 1 portion
5-12 hours ///////////// 5 portions
12-24 hours ///////////// 10 portions or a mamoth xD
24-25 hours ///////////// 20 portions or 2 mamoths, 4 saberthots etc etc
______________________________________________________________________________
also the meet must be fresh, you can't just buy it and eat it when you want.

is a similar aproach to the vampire in oblivion

I favor a progressive system to penalties. Make willpower your deciding factor on how many NPCs you need to kill, or if you can solve the bloodlust with animals. First time, willpower takes a hit, next day you skip, you start feeling it in other stats (or maybe skills even)

Liking what I'm reading here. But for the most point I just hope that werewolves just get confirmed.

As for forcing us to go on a killing spree, well I think this would make me feel a little bit better about generic NPCs. I loved werewolves in Bloodmoon but I had to be sure to kill guards otherwise one dead commoner would make the world feel a little more empty since they were all named.

Hist sap. Someone above mentioned it without the name. The Fighter's Guild quest. Turns NPC's into Goblins. Or, like mentioned above, pretty much the opposite of vampirism, when you feed, you get strong. The more you feed, the higher the bonuses. Would probably work better if the number of kills from last transformation affected the next one. Unless you didn't kill, in which case your character would (when human) be extremely weak and obviously be diseased.
Personally, the insanity effects from Call of Cthulhu seem right. If you're near someone, especially if they are trying to kill you, you lose control and it turns into more of a video, watching through your eye's as you kill everyone. If you don't kill anyone, the view turns to Call of Cthulhu thing, when your character starts to go insane, vertigo effects basically.

This is the best idea so far. :celebration: Good thinking.

That's an awesome idea, but I think after a certain amount of transformations you learn to control your lycanthropy.