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[MiniMacker]

I've got a quick question about many of the gigantic animals around my embarks.

In their descriptions, they are regarded as gigantic animals capable of defending themselves. The elephants with their tusks, hippoes that are deadly and aggressive when disturbed.

I tried sending my little militia captain to take on a massive herd of elephants. He was armed with simple clothes and a copper short sword. I was expecting him to get critically injured, but the elephants didn't even attempt to defend themselves, they ran and ran. Even when they got cornered, they just ran past Urist McMilitia, allowing him to happily slash their legs and body.


After that laughably easy task, I got curious and sent him into a herd of nearby hippoes, bathing in the stream. Same story, they ran. Urist McElephantDundee managed to kill a hippo before the rest ran off over the stream to the other side and just sat there, afraid to go anywhere.


What is this. I don't even.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Is there a better tag I can use than [PRONE_TO_RAGE:1]? It has the unpleasant side-effect of making them run after my dwarves that just happen to pass them 15 tiles away.

[frodo0800]

male elephants during certain times in the year are extremely prone to get enraged,this is what creates that videos in india of an elephant entering in the middle of a marriage and killing everybody

[MiniMacker]

Mmhm, I'm not saying they should be the frantic killing machines of old, but I want them to at least fight back if they're facing a three foot man with a pointy stick.

[Jelle]

Have to agree, I have been hunting elepehants on m y latest embark and they are total pushovers. I've never played an embark with elephants in the olden  times of boatmurdered style elephant rampage, and while it sounds like it was excessive I'd at least expect them to defend themselves when provoked.
Let me take a look and see if anything can be done about this, naturally you don't want them attacking things in sight, only attack things that pose a threat.

[Jelle]

Right so the problem is they always flee when faced with combat. What if elephants had both [BENIGN] and [LIKES_FIGHTING]?
Would that make them not actively seek out combat, but when faced with something that would make them flee they'd attack?

[MonkeyHead]

Or possibly run at everything before deciding they didnt fancy it and instead run away?

[MiniMacker]

I thought [BENIGN] didn't actually do anything towards their aggressiveness, only their chance to appear in less savage embarks?

[noodle0117]

Toady should implement a [STAND_GROUND] tag.

[MonkeyHead]

I have a lot of Rhino's on my current embark. Now, my RL experience of these beasts is they are exceptionally dumb - as in trying to mate with a 4x4 style dumb. Should we have a [STUPID_ANIMAL] tag so they blunder into stuff, kind of an accidental building destroyer that would innocently wander into traps, and ignore dorfs unless "interested" by them for fighting or entertainment? We could even have a polar opposite [CURIOUS_ANIMAL] that would regognise and not step on traps, and like to investigate your structures and mildly harrass dorfs for food/drink.

[frodo0800]

giant eagles are cowards too,one of my embarks,where i fisrt encountered them, i've thought "o shit run to the hills"
but my novice hunter went there and bang! just one bolt in one of the wings and it was dead.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Well, duh, how easy is it to fly if your wings don't work?

[MiniMacker]

Well, maybe this gigantic monstrosity of an eagle was supposed to swoop down and eat the dwarf for lunch, then still have room enough for some snacks at the trade depot.

There's not anything dangerous at all in the Untamed Wilds. The only thing I can think of are badgers, but they appear everywhere.

[Agent_Irons]

giant eagles are cowards too,one of my embarks,where i fisrt encountered them, i've thought "o shit run to the hills"
but my novice hunter went there and bang! just one bolt in one of the wings and it was dead.

This is probably a lucky shot. Flying creatures are pretty vulnerable to being shot in the flying apparati, because plunging to earth generally offends.

[Greiger]

I think [LIKES_FIGHTING] may make them more aggressive, but I haven't done any actual testing with that tag in a few major releases.  It seems to make civ races more aggressive at any rate. And my peasants and only my peasants (wild animals technically have the peasant job) will often attack invaders they see instead of fleeing, leading me to believe it may still make wild animals more aggressive.

They also appear to become more aggressive when chased into a deadend while underground.  But that may just be due to the cramped conditions.  They only seem to fight back if cornered, and it seems that all they need is a single unoccupied tile that can be pathed through for them to not consider themselves cornered, and the way fleeing pathing appears to work, they probably only check for it once every 30 or so ticks too.  Making cornering them in the wilderness very difficult.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Well, maybe this gigantic monstrosity of an eagle was supposed to swoop down and eat the dwarf for lunch, then still have room enough for some snacks at the trade depot.

Once again, it's hard to fly of your wings have been SHOT OUT BY AN ALCOHOLIC MIDGET.