Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

I have been noticing that some predators hunt some prey animals and not others. Nothing seems to hunt the wild Mektoub, is this true of all social herbivores? Does anyone know if anyone has figured out what animals are hunting other animals?

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

Nothing hunts ybers, izams, and igaras. Or do they?

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

kinchers hunt izam, so do zerx.

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

homins hunts them sometimes... :rolleyes:

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

I've always found it interesting to watch the predators hunt. They each have their own particular habits.

Take the Varynx, for example, more often than not it will make a kill then circle its victim before dipping its head in to 'eat' it. It's almost as if it does a little "haha I win" dance around its prey. Nice touch. :)

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

It's quite simple really, no predator hunts herbivores that are faster than it is. :)

After all, there's always a short chase before the prey is 'caught' and the fight begins, if the herbivore was faster than the predator, they'd simply outrun them. Since we have smart predators, they don't even bother.

Wild mektoubs are faster than any predator, thus nothing hunts them. :D

Some more interesting examples of this: Gnoofs are faster than any predator except cuttlers and kinchers, so only cuttlers and kinchers hunt gnoofs. Since both are so fast and the gnoof is only slightly slower, a cuttler can chase a gnoof over a very long distance before finally catching it.
Jugulas on the other hand, are some of the slowest predators, so there's not much they can catch. Lucky for them, every region that has jugula also has yelks, otherwise they'd have nothing to eat. :D

It'd be neat if we had some predators that could catch prey in a way that wouldn't require chasing them, like laying a trap or something...

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

You can also force a predator to hunt a herbivore that is close to it, even if the herb is not the usual food for the carnivore.

if you stay at max or enough high range and stun (or sleep) a herbivore, the carnivore that's near it will go prompt to eat it. You will not be aggroed as long as you stay enough far.

An easy way to test this is around Avendale, where you can find goaris, messabs and yubos sharing the place. Goaris attack only yubos and don't attack messabs, but stun a messab close to a goari and see :)

This behaviour doesn't work with kitins: a carnivore will never attack a stunned Kipee.

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

Neat. :eek:

It's also amazing how much depth is added to the ecosystem by the simple mechanic of prey speed versus predator speed. Elegant, really.

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

Yep, almost all game mechanics turn out to be really simple but the result is stunning.

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

Wow, neat Gilga. :) That makes sense, afflictions actually alter your speed stat for the duration... it should work with slow move too.

Carnivores know better than to mess with kitin, only homins are that stupid. :D

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

Only thing I frequently "regret" is that Kitin donīt hunt other "predators".
But that is the downside of the "simple" mechanic of "hunter vs. hunted".

Iīd be much more "realistic" if the Kitin would devastate everything living in a swarming/invasion and not simply "concentrate" on waiting to be attacked by Homins out to get them. ;)

To me its always a bit weird to see herbies peacefully grazing and/or "other predators" going on with hunting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happend, right next to where weīre fighting for our lives in an invasion.

CU
Acridiel

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

Hi the homin you may know as Koallasu here.

Thanks so much, please keep sending in your observations about the natural history of Ryzom, not just predators and prey, but other habits of animals and so on. I've noticed animals migrating, I followed a group of yubos who had chosen a somewhat suicidal migration route so I followed them and killed all the predators in my path, but I could not taunt so I could not defend them all!

I was thinking that predators don't hunt 'social' herbivores, because I certainly don't usually. But apparently it's not that, I had forgotten animals have different speeds.

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

Well, another thing to note is that 'social' herbivores are only social when one of their kind is attacked by a homin. No herbivore will ever help another herbivore that's under attack by a predator. :(

I agree muchly. Also: bandits. And primates. They and kitin and predators all walk peacefully next to eachother. In fact, pretty much everything that is aggressive to players seems to be in league together. :p

A point of interest is that this all works very differently inside the Ring. There, predators do attack bandits. So do kitin. But kitin do not attack any animals, not herbivores either. Herbivores don't run either, so predators attack all of them regardless of speed.

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

Well, that's why they are too busy running away from the predator to turn back and fight to help a friend. It's probably the more realistic behaviour, in general apart the fact they seems having no fear for the homins as for the predators.

There are also some weird exception about socialty... try to hunt a torbak in Knoll of Dissent with a close mektoub and enjoy seeing the mektoub add to help the carnivore against you! (this happens in some area of KoD) :p

Similar behaviour i remember in some other areas but can't recall now where.

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

That depends... there are herbivores known on earth that'll ward off predators by taking a group defensive stance.

Knoll of Dissent is knowns for it's weird random AoE effects, leading to things like herbies helping the carnivore that was trying to eat them against you and tribe guards fighting eachother. You can't trust anything to make sense there. :p

Re: Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey
 

thats what makes Ryzom so enjoyable and deep! I wouldn't mind seeing the kitins of the depths attack everything in their paths but it seems they have something particular about hurting homins... :)