Animal Roaming Behavior And Sight Mechanics?

[InvisibleFlame9]

I'm curious and would like to understand better the mechanics of how animals roam and the paths they take? Is it random? I commonly notice that animals go around in loops. It's annoying sometimes to find the tracks leading me back to the first area I found them. Is this how all animal roaming paths work by going in loops?

I'm also curious how the mechanics of 'sight' of animals work? Anyone know about this? Is it an algorithm that they automatically see you based on set factors? Do they see you only if they look over at you and you are in view? Do they see you only if you trigger them to like make noise which get's there attention? Do they always see you because it's a computer that knows where you are at? If I'm behind a tree does it see a part of me and therefor I'm spotted? Do bushes and shrubs conceal me?

[Levado]

I commonly notice that animals go around in loops.

That's not common, but pure coincidence.

[Tanngnjostr]

I'm curious and would like to understand better the mechanics of how animals roam and the paths they take? Is it random? I commonly notice that animals go around in loops. It's annoying sometimes to find the tracks leading me back to the first area I found them. Is this how all animal roaming paths work by going in loops?

Animals usually roam in more or less straight lines (especially if they are out of render range), but of course they change direction every now and then or even turn 180 degrees and come back from where they came. This does often happen when they are changing back from fleeing/nervous state to roaming. I feel like some animals change direction more often than others (bears do a lot of zig-zagging and circling in my experience) and obstacles like big rocks, rivers or such can make them change direction too, although they will often try to continue in the same general direction as before once they have passed the obstacle.
I'm also not sure whether "need zones" exist (i.e. animals approaching bodies of water to drink or staying on meadows to feed), but I think it has been mentioned in the past. The exact algorithm hasn't ever been disclosed by the devs (as far as I know) and I'm sure it will be for us to try to figure it out.

I'm also curious how the mechanics of 'sight' of animals work? Anyone know about this? Is it an algorithm that they automatically see you based on set factors? Do they see you only if they look over at you and you are in view? Do they see you only if you trigger them to like make noise which get's there attention? Do they always see you because it's a computer that knows where you are at? If I'm behind a tree does it see a part of me and therefor I'm spotted? Do bushes and shrubs conceal me?

As far as I know animals can not see through solid objects (so you can hide behind a tree, a large rock or similar), but through bushes and shrubs. The rule of thumb is: if you can walk through it, animals can see through it. The exact rules and calculations behind it, as for the roaming algorithm, have not been revealed to the players. And since species, score, alertness, sound, scent all play into it, you can never say for sure what happened if an animal flees. What you will notice is that an animal stares at you if it sees you. In this case it helps to lie down for a few seconds and the animal will often calm down and resume walking. Be cautious though: its alertness might still be increased.

[Sherab86]

I'm sorry flame, but while our devs are realy nice guys from what I've noted, they do not give us to much info on mechanics. :/

When it comes to roaming, as others wrote above, it is more less random. But I do find some specific behaviors with might be intentional, or a bug - don't know. I'm thinking here of animals close to water bodies - some of them tend to start circling around in the water or near it, not walking away to far. I've seen this mostly with mooses, but other animlas do this too. Maybe this has something to do with troubles with patchfinding in that shallowings. But this "behavior" certainly occurs. And (and this is official) animals from time to time "search" of water and drink. But it is not said does they realy "need" to find a water at some point, or is this another random behavior with trigger when they are in/close to water.

I can't add anything to animals vision realy. I believe, aside of others wrote, that they also have some viewing radius - I mean they are to some point "blind" directly behind - and this blind cone can differ between animals I suppose.

[Knut]

I'm curious and would like to understand better the mechanics of how animals roam and the paths they take? Is it random? I commonly notice that animals go around in loops. It's annoying sometimes to find the tracks leading me back to the first area I found them. Is this how all animal roaming paths work by going in loops?

Animals roam towards certain attraction zones (feeding, drinking & bedding), in between which they roam more or less in a straight line. Having reached one of those destinations, they might directly head for a next one (hence the abrubt direction changes - might also be one they just came from) or they might mill around for a bit (that's when you find plenty of tracks in chaotic orientation in one spot).
When you track and hunt one species in a certain area for quite a while you'll start to anticipate where they're heading to and where they might change direction.

I'm also curious how the mechanics of 'sight' of animals work? Anyone know about this? Is it an algorithm that they automatically see you based on set factors? Do they see you only if they look over at you and you are in view? Do they see you only if you trigger them to like make noise which get's there attention? Do they always see you because it's a computer that knows where you are at? If I'm behind a tree does it see a part of me and therefor I'm spotted? Do bushes and shrubs conceal me?

Animals have a field of vision. Visual detection requires line of sight, which can in turn be blocked by terrain or solid objects (everything you bump into as a hunter) but not brushes, scrubs or grass through wich you can walk. These are mere graphical enhancements for your pleasure that do not have a physical representation and thus do not block line of sight. If you trigger them via scent or noise enough to make them go alert but not flee, they might look towards you and then might visually detect you (it even has an animation of the animal twisting its head towards you) which might cause them to flee. How this works in detail, I don't know.

[Sherab86]

Animals roam towards certain attraction zones (feeding, drinking & bedding), in between which they roam more or less in a straight line.

Are you sure of this, Knut? I have a feeling, that feeding and resting are rather random behaviors and can occur anywhere. So from my short experience, animals roam in stright lines in more-less random directions. This "normal" roaming behavior is interrupted by feeding or sleeping behavior from time to time (and a chance to occur is at least for some species depended from time of a day). But I wouldn't say that animals "intentionaly" travel to certain locations to feed or sleep. Of course to drink they need water, but again, I don't know do they "actively" search of it, or rather this animation trigger when they are near water.

[Knut]

Animals roam towards certain attraction zones (feeding, drinking & bedding), in between which they roam more or less in a straight line.

Are you sure of this, Knut?

Pretty much, yes.
We even had a community project running to map these zones (which unfortunately died in big part due to me taking a break from the game): http://forum.thehunter.com/viewtopic.ph ... ilit=zones

The existence of such zones was also confirmed by a dev:

Yes, there are attraction zones for feeding, drinking and sleeping that are triggered based on time of day for each species.

[Sherab86]

I see. This is quite interesting. Good to know that animals behaviors are not as random as I thought.

EDIT:

hmm... But this devs statemant acutaly do not tell us do animals actively search for this zones. I read this more like that when they enter given zone, and having proper time of a day, there is a chance to trigger a feeding, sleeping or drinking behavior. This is still important info - because we know that this behaviors occurs only in certain zones. But we still don't know (for sure) do animals actively search for this zones, or this happens randomly (I suppose this zones would be quite big then).

[HooCairs]

These dev posts might help understand.

Attraction zones and roaming:
http://forum.thehunter.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=32323

Improved Animal AI
Animals no longer wander aimlessly through the EHR. Each species have different goals during different times of the day that may attract them to suitable areas for completing them. The goals currently supported are: Feeding, Drinking & Resting. Species X may for instance choose to drink at 9am while spices Y prefers to drink at 5pm.

Animal vision:
http://forum.thehunter.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33120
http://forum.thehunter.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33291

[Sherab86]

Uuuuh!

So now it's clear. Great news.

This "vision" part also explains some of my experiences.