Natural History of Atys: Predators and prey

[lessingham]

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?

[katriell]

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

[jwenting]

kinchers hunt izam, so do zerx.

[murmadog]

Originally Posted by katriell

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

homins hunts them sometimes...

[philu]

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.

[sidusar]

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.

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.

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...

[gcaldani]

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.

[katriell]

Originally Posted by gcaldani

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.

Neat.

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

[chibiarc]

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

[sidusar]

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

Originally Posted by gcaldani

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

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