increase quality of fox and boar meat/hide/bones

[Lahrmid]

gief bear cubs with q15-ish meat

[sabinati]

I think whats needed in animal quality is a more reasonable variation in quality within each animal type rather then the very rigid ladder of quality. Why is every Bear made of succulent perfectly marbled and tenderized Meat, ware are the scrawny, malnourished parasite ridden Bears with q10 meat on them? I can understand their being on average a superior or inferior animal, the best Rabbit might be only q20 ware the worst Bear is q30. This might also be paired with a bump in population so to get AN animal is not so hard but getting the BEST is still quite a challenge. If Hunters could identify the quality of live animals (perhaps a new skill?) they could chose to ignore some animals 'not worth their time' and keep looking for the 'prize kill'' and this could add a bit more thoughtful decision making to hunting.

this. but it should be like +/- 50% of base for the range.

[Potjeh]

I wish we had persistent animals, then they could gain levels by killing hearthlings. Bear version of these guys would be awesome. They gain combat skill with levels, of course, so we can have some seriously legendary beasts that take a team of titan characters to take down.

[Jackard]

I'd rather animals gain Elite and/or Boss status (with a visual aid!!) than see them with levels. Dire animals, you know.

[Potjeh]

Yeah, that'd be a lot nicer. But I don't really care either way, as long as I get my legendary maneaters.

Killing the beast that killed your character's ancestor would feel quite epic.

[sabinati]

animals could leave scents! malodor of mauling, lol.

[Jackard]

that would be pretty sweet, especially if they had burrows/dens

good stuff for the Ecology of Mobs thread:

A bear fishes for salmon in the shallows of a river. Farmers put up fences and scarecrows to protect their crop from pests. The fox preys upon a bird and shies away from hearthling fires. Ghoulish creatures emerge from caves at night to feast on corpses. A herd of aurochs make their way to a drinking hole. Wolf packs hunting down boar.

Basically, the idea that wildlife should do more than wander around randomly - making creatures different by giving them interesting behaviors and abilities instead of arbitrary strength levels. This can be used to make the difference between night and day more significant - some mobs might be nocturnal, similar to rats ingame. It can be used to improve gameplay - knowing where creatures are likely to be found, setting fires to ward off wildlife or setting bait to lure them into your traps. Farming becomes a little more challenging. If animal behavior leaves enough traces behind, like how foxes kill rabbits/birds, you can even use this for tracking them.

(Keep in mind that alongside this suggestion I favor introducing more creatures and a smaller world with altered resource distribution to encourage more player interaction.)

[Molblin]

I think whats needed in animal quality is a more reasonable variation in quality within each animal type rather then the very rigid ladder of quality. Why is every Bear made of succulent perfectly marbled and tenderized Meat, ware are the scrawny, malnourished parasite ridden Bears with q10 meat on them? I can understand their being on average a superior or inferior animal, the best Rabbit might be only q20 ware the worst Bear is q30. This might also be paired with a bump in population so to get AN animal is not so hard but getting the BEST is still quite a challenge. If Hunters could identify the quality of live animals (perhaps a new skill?) they could chose to ignore some animals 'not worth their time' and keep looking for the 'prize kill'' and this could add a bit more thoughtful decision making to hunting.

I like this idea.

[Danno]

What about mouflon/aurochsen? Their materials have been worthless all this time and breeding them to value is limited by your soil quality now. Well, I think it's pretty pointless either way and I don't really want to see increased quality/stats as the game's only reward.

+1 to animals becoming stronger/not despawning and Jackard's ideas. People would inevitably feed alts to a bear in some region, so the animals would have to have their own LP system to prevent them from becoming overpowered too easily; killing a fresh alt would eventually just be worthless gain for them. It would be fun for people to fear a certain region due to rumours of an unearthly beast lurking about, though I fear it would be ruined with slings+boats at this point.

[jorb]

Pesudo-persistent animals could be really cool.