The other day I was reading some logs, and I saw a pack of snow badgers tracking a PC. I thought it was pretty damn amusing to "hear" a pack of snow badgers yelling "Hey Asshole! Now you die!" when they caught up to him.

That given, how big a deal would it be to make animal/non-sentient mobs act something along the lines of shifter forms when it comes to speaking/yelling?

I believe nearly all NPC's are made from the same code, with stats and cosmetics added on, as well as flags such as "aggressive". There may be a "beast" flag as well, but other than that, a beast mob is going to be almost completely indistinguishable from any other mob, save its various descriptions (long, short, etc.)

If there is a "beast" flag, it should be a relatively simple change; i.e., apply a "noyell" code onto the properties of the beast flag, the segment of the shapeshifter form code which would apply to this case, or a homemade code such as one that would make area echos of animals roaring instead of yells.

If there is no beast flag, then one of two things would have to be done. A) A flag could be created and then hand-applied to every animal mob in existance, which would be hell. Or B) Do nothing because it is simply not worth it, and they like the way things are now.

I can see why the Imms would want to do B). Not only would it save a lot of work on a purely cosmetic change, the yell serves two very useful purposes. It identifies the person the mob is tracking, and it shows that the mob is indeed tracking someone. Very useful for someone on the hunt. The only other way I could see this being communicated is through an area echo stating something like: "An animal roar reaches your ears as (NPC) catches up with (PC)."

Of course, I could be completely wrong about how NPCs are coded and if that is the case, this entire post is invalid. But I enjoyed thinking about it! Hope this helps.

Splntrd

Of course, I could be completely wrong about how NPCs are coded and if that is the case, this entire post is invalid.

Yup!

Actually, what Moridin is asking for is roughly half-coded, from a couple months ago. I don't remember what happened to the rest of it, but I'll dig a little.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Nice. I love making an ass of myself on the forums, thanks for helping!

So out of curiosity, how is the new "mo' beasty beasties"(tm) code going to work? Area echos? Mobs yelling "ROARGH!!!" ?

Splntrd

A thunderous roar of an arctic polar bear reverberates through the immediate surroundings.

At the least :

If ranger can tame, don't yell.
If ranger cannot tame, yell.

That alone would be a vast improvement.