Gameplay: Adding Wildlife

[Panache]

Originally Posted by Apis

I think most people would use the wildlife as something to shoot at when not in the midst of battle. This is disrespectful to wildlife in my opinion. Using buffalo as a shooting prop in PS2 is offensive to me. I hate be political about this but this sort of mentality is a reason animals have become endangered throughout history.

Now, I can argue not adding wildlife for gameplay or performance reasons, but not because we want to be sensitive to the plight of wildlife. That's just silly.

I'm reasonably sure that a real-life cow isn't going to get offended if I decide to shoot a digital video-game space cow.

And I was always under the impression that the reasons animals have become endangered throughout history is (1) encroachment of mankind into their natural habitats, sometimes compounded with over-hunting, and (2) because sometimes species reach an evolutionary dead-end and are out-competed by opposing species.

I do find it perplexing that you have no problem with shooting a game avatar of a person being controlled by a real-life sentient human being in the face with a rocket launcher, but shooting a computer-controlled image of a fantasy Space Bovine to be out of bounds.

[Gugabalog]

Originally Posted by Panache

Now, I can argue not adding wildlife for gameplay or performance reasons, but not because we want to be sensitive to the plight of wildlife. That's just silly.

I'm reasonably sure that a real-life cow isn't going to get offended if I decide to shoot a digital video-game space cow.

And I was always under the impression that the reasons animals have become endangered throughout history is (1) encroachment of mankind into their natural habitats, sometimes compounded with over-hunting, and (2) because sometimes species reach an evolutionary dead-end and are out-competed by opposing species.

I do find it perplexing that you have no problem with shooting a game avatar of a person being controlled by a real-life sentient human being in the face with a rocket launcher, but shooting a computer-controlled image of a fantasy Space Bovine to be out of bounds.

/support

[Phisionary]

I dunno why, but adding a bunch of animals to the game just so a bunch of idiot yahoos have something to shoot at between battles, really bugs me... Maybe because it's the kind of stupid thing armies do in real life.

However, I do like the idea of wildlife. Firstly it would just be awesome and make the world more real. Secondly, I think that it could interesting to be able to detect the enemy by watching the wildlife flee as they approach. Herds of animals turning direction, birds erupting from the trees, and so forth. Thirdly, I'd like to see some kind alien megafauna (if there is any of such) to like, rampage across the screen. Picture a giant space-rhino charging into the column and flipping a vangaurd tank over, outright, with it's tusks.
A magrider tank would, of course, be undamaged after a similar such incident.

[berzerkerking]

Lions tigers and /bumps oh my

[Duskguy]

didnt the planetside lore say that there was absolutely no wild life on auraxis, just plant life and alien structures?

would have to add a seperate lore piece of someone bringing animals....and personally i dont see the need other than roadkill...or airkill

[Gugabalog]

Maybe they were imported? It does mention non-sentient creatures were warped through and killed to test the gates.

[Dagron]

Didn't Smed say he'd like to see wildlife in PS2?

Anyway, i think the reason the lore in PS1 said there were only plants was to keep the game light, but today's PCs and servers can handle much more. As long as it doesn't interfere with performance, it'd be a nice touch to the general atmosphere of the game.

[SeanNewBoy]

Perhaps an animal preserve, spend resources for a visit/hunt?

[Ayasaki]

Didn't really read through the whole thread but the lore states there are only vegetation and no wildlife of any kind on the planet.

[berzerkerking]

[enzero]

If you look into Smedley's five year plan notes he posted somewhere not so long ago, there are even plans of npc alien faction, so wildlife is not really far from it.