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[FallingWhale]

Basically, as it stands all animals act the same way. My idea is that in the raws a group of tags would cover how easy it would be to make the animal panic. There would be a group of subtags such as:

[PANIC_(1<)_(2<)]1 is low 1000 is huge. First is min, second is max.
[PANIC_WEIGHT_(number in range)_(weighting)] Smooth distribution if tag is missing, tags overlap.
[BOMBPROOF_%%]Portion that cannot panic.
[VIOLENT_FEAR_(1-3)_%%] the subject will attack allies for the duration of the panic, 1 will only attack things that get in the way, 2 will attack anything but won't necessarily continue until that thing is dead, 3 will kill anything in a panic.
[FAINT_%%] subject will loose consciousness when panic point is reached.
[LOCKUP_%%] subject will stay awake but will not move.
[FEARALL_%%] subject will run from anything until calmed.
[FEAR_FLAME_%%] subject will enter a panic state at the sight of fire.
*%% is commonness within species

Things like enemies, violence, wild animals, things falling, and the like would increase panic amount.

What it takes to induce panic would be visible as soon as you see the animal, relevant tags become visible the first time the animal panics.


Also, I'd like to take this time to suggest that some animals have a natural fear of other animals such as horses fear of camels and elephants and pigs.

[Corai]

"Natural fear"


"GO, WAR DOGS! DEFEND THE ANIMALS!"

"OH GOD, THE ANIMALS ARE SCARED OF THE DOGS, THERE KILLING EVERYTHING!"



I see problems, alot of problems. Unless natural fear excludes trained animals, and untrained animals ignore trained animals, then there will be problems.

[FallingWhale]

I see problems, alot of problems. Unless natural fear excludes trained animals, and untrained animals ignore trained animals, then there will be problems.

Horses don't have an irrational fear of dogs. Camels will panic friendly horses though.

[Graknorke]

I think that it being a problem is kind of the point? Without problems it would just be a big set of third-person legos with booze.

You shouldn't really be able to send out a herd of dogs, trained to be aggressive, through a herd of sheep or whatever without said herbivore being understandably scared. If they just ignored each other it would be suspending my disbelief to a rather large degree. It also ruins the mental imagery of a pack of murderous dogs charging through a field when there's some grazing animals just sat there calmly.

[Logic]

Maybe exposure to a certain animal will reduce the exposed creatures likelihood of panicking because of that species, and being trained will reduce panic chance?

[FallingWhale]

You shouldn't really be able to send out a herd of dogs, trained to be aggressive, through a herd of sheep or whatever without said herbivore being understandably scared. If they just ignored each other it would be suspending my disbelief to a rather large degree. It also ruins the mental imagery of a pack of murderous dogs charging through a field when there's some grazing animals just sat there calmly.

At that point I think it has more to do with what they're doing than just them being dogs.

[Aseaheru]

have it so that as the animals are in the same area they grow less afraid of THOSE animals. and also make it so that they can be afraid of there races blood.

[aka010101]

This is really sounding to me  like expanded animal training. Perhaps we could set different options for when you train an animal, like to for instance, acclimate them to being around another species, or to accept specific orders, like attack ones or hauling things. Then you could have different levels of training take different amounts of time. It'd also make a difference between a domestic animal and a trained one.

[IT 000]

I like the OP's post by itself. Except for the following

[BOMBPROOF_%%]

Can we get some details here? Are you referring to the possibility of explosives being added? Or will they literally explode when scared and this tag is the % chance of them not exploding. If this is the case my fortress defense will consist of a drawbridge that drops dozens of kittens on the enemies.

[FEAR_FLAME_%%] subject will enter a panic state at the sight of fire.

Erm... Pretty sure all species are afraid of an unpredictable searing hot flame raging towards them. This is due to natural selection. Lighting strikes a tree, fire starts, all species who don't run die horribly. I hardly doubt a creature would toss a coin on 'run or die'. But Certain creatures should have a NO_FEAR_TO_FIRE tag or something.

-----

This talk of trained animals getting scared by trained animals does not amuse me so much. I've been around horses most of my life, my family boards and raises them. They're scared by sudden movements and loud noises, they're more scared of the four legged barking ball of death charging at them rather than a dog itself. For example, my neighbor's pit bull can walk right up to the horses and sniff their legs without any panic. While my golden lab will crouch down, raise his tail and bark, scaring the horses out of their mind  (which happens quite often  ). So the way animals work, a horse wouldn't be scared of a dog unless the dog was fighting someone else nearby. This could change with herding dogs and such*. Though I can't remember if herding dogs are planned or not.

Spoiler: * Belongs in a new thread (click to show/hide)

Maybe you could make a dog scare the animals from one pasture to another during certain times of the month! Animal caretakers would do the same job, but dogs would make it go much faster. The benefits would be that you would be able to keep big grazers like yaks and water buffalos from starving to death because they eat faster than the grass grows.

That said, animals can develop a fear reaction to certain objects or other animals, if a dog does attack them. They will be scared if they see a dog. If an army of goblins whack it with a sword, they will be afraid of goblins and swords. In which case you need to acclimate it to the object/species.

[dizzyelk]

Add a [BLINDLY_RUNS] tag or some such, so when animals are fleshed out enough to allow herd mentality, you'd have to deal with stampedes. It'd be different than the proposed FEARALL, cause as I understand FEARALL, the animal will run from anything, whereas stampeding animals would require more reaction to get the herd to turn. Plus, you could hunt entire herds by causing them to stampede over a cliff.

[FallingWhale]

I thought bombproof was a common enough term; clearing that up.

There is a difference between avoiding an inferno and panicking at the sight of any sort of flame.

I don't know why everyone thinks that I meant that dogs should scare horses, horses don't have an instinctual fear of dogs and wouldn't be affected by that. It would be most noticeable in cavalry battles where the steed would disregard commands. This is how war elephants were fought (Yes, pigs scare elephants. Setting the pigs on fire just made the effect stronger and scared infantry too).
Friendlies would still have the natural panic, there would likely be some sort of acclimation.

[Niyazov]

author=FallingWhale link=topic=110681.msg3334853#msg3334853 date=1338516076
Also, I'd like to take this time to suggest that some animals have a natural fear of other animals such as horses fear of camels and elephants and pigs.

Are these really true? I can't find any primary sources that are less than 2000 years old or so.

[Bytyan]

Acclimation should only be effective against animals in a calm state, Perhaps an elephant might get used to pigs if intoduced young enough, but when the bacon hits the fan and the pigs are terrified, the elephants should join them. Similarly, a dwarf might overcome his fear of whales, but when they begins to fall from the sky he may be understandably concerned.

[FallingWhale]

Also, I'd like to take this time to suggest that some animals have a natural fear of other animals such as horses fear of camels and elephants and pigs.

Are these really true? I can't find any primary sources that are less than 2000 years old or so.

When the US tried to have camelry in the late 1800s they noticed very fast that they couldn't have horses with them(and camels are hate filled). Elephants' fear of pigs hasn't been tested recently, but the reports line up and it appears to be accurate.

[Niyazov]

Also, I'd like to take this time to suggest that some animals have a natural fear of other animals such as horses fear of camels and elephants and pigs.

Are these really true? I can't find any primary sources that are less than 2000 years old or so.

When the US tried to have camelry in the late 1800s they noticed very fast that they couldn't have horses with them(and camels are hate filled). Elephants' fear of pigs hasn't been tested recently, but the reports line up and it appears to be accurate.

Do you have a link?