Mission Simpossible

[ViperBrains]

> Maybe have the tutorials set in the time of you playing as a 1-2 yo wolf in its birth pack, this would be good for practising how to communicate with stranger npcs who in future you'll meet and possibly form a bond with them. it'll be good for learning how to hunt and to track down herds and possible prey, ect ect. And at the end of the tutorial when a few months or so have passed, thats when you disperse away from the pack and into the wild by yourself. And to migrate over to AM to find a mate, you need to go to a star on the compass within the pack territory?

It's just a suggestion. I'm not great with ideas but..meh. I'm not too keen on the idea of having side missions. maybe make it so if they are added, you get an option to do them or not. In past I've played many games with side missions, after a while they get very repetitive and annoying. Same with the tutorial, it will get pretty boring after a while when you've mastered the game to the point you don't need it anymore.

[Kyoati]

Having the wolves interact with the campers/tourists of Yellowstone National Park. Would be interesting to see how becoming habituated to humans affects the wolves. I know there is a campground on Slough Creek and it would be interesting to educate people on the growing issues of habituating animals to human presence and see what the consequences of that are (relocation, having to find the way home, death, potential capture--in West Yellowstone in Montana there is a Wolf and Grizzly Bear Research Park or zoo where habituated bears and wolves are brought to after they become nuisance creatures). This adds more choice. Also the ability to bring down multiple types of prey (bison, elk, moose, deer etc... Maybe smaller prey too?). Maybe natural hazards like fires or flooding or snow? Oh! And pests/diseases that the wolves in Yellowstone face, like rabies and mange would be interesting to experience.

For a tutorial, having the player start as a young pup on the first hunting trip with the pack you originally disperse of is a great idea! You learn how to move, hunt, explore etc right off the bat and then either a time jump or you just leave your territory afterwards to launch the game.

[chickiefoo]

Minor collectibles! That you can find and add to a fictional inventory or Field Guide book, to further enrich people's knowledge of the flora and wildlife the wolves live with in Yellowstone. Tree leaves, berries, seeds or branches, mushrooms, flowers, insects, animal skulls. All hidden across the map. It'd give a much more passive reason to explore the whole of the maps in attempt to find them all.

I second this! It could be a personal "Scent Collection", your wolf exploring the world with its strongest sense. Each new scent logged away gains some experience points, and collecting all the scents gives you an award, either an achievement or unlockable within the game. The scents should be fairly faint though, harder to find, to encourage wide exploration of the map in search of them.

Several others have mentioned a flood, which given that the second part of the game takes place on a creek, could be a real danger to your pups (and I would think flash floods would happen more than fires?) Perhaps the flash flood could be brought on after a good downpour of rain, with ominous music signaling the danger. Then you and your mate would have to relocate the pups to higher ground to avoid them drowning, until the water retreats after a short time. This also could play a factor in choosing a den.

There was also a couple comments on securing a strong bond with your new mate through hunting and fending off scavengers. This could also extend to the pups as well, similar to the mission in Slough Creek where you attempt to keep your pups close to the den. When they get older in Tower Fall, the pack can have an overall bond that affects its strength. You and your pack could get a small strength bonus, less stranger wolves challenge you, territory becomes larger, etc. If the pack bond is low then the pack is negatively affected, less strength, more intruders, territory becomes smaller, etc. To raise the bond you can howl, emote frequently with your pack, hunt with your pack, defend your territory, defend kills, etc.

[MKaii]

Add four complete season like in wolf dos would make it more challenging tourism as they come in your territory each year and you have to steal food getting hunted by poachers for being a sheep hunter (great herd AI!) realistic births and mating maybe(depending on settings) second litters after the first is raised and traveling back and forth due to natural obsticales hunting BigFoot going into a town our a city and scavenging out garbages

[Noala]

This is more of a question of curiosity about an idea for achievements then an answer for side quests.
Why not add smaller animals that pose a challenge or threat?
It kinda bothers me a little that I never see any other smaller mammals aside from other canines such as coyotes and sometimes a fox.
Doesn’t yellow stone have skunks, badgers, porcupines, and bobcats? Why not have them roam the map occasionally as like a rare exp bonus if we find them.
Such as get sprayed by a skunk, puppy by a porcupine. Oooo and badgers are fiesty little things, why not have an achievement for getting ran off by an angry mama badger? Those little guys are like dynamite they pack a lot of attitude and fight.
Also squirrels? Chase a squirrel or chipmunk maybe for the fun of it?
Finally, otters in the water, I think it’d just be cool to find some otters maybe in tower fall, just because it’s something interesting and kinda cool if you happened to find them.
Finding these other creatures gives us reasons to explore and personally I enjoy hunting for the achievements with my friends to see who can find things first.

[roguemoon]

My first thought was something akin to boss battles. For example, in a certain section of the map there will be another predator or an extra strong prey animal. If you enter this area it will trigger the 'boss' to appear. Defeating it will earn you a load of EXP. I think something like a very large bear (perhaps based off Yellowstone's famous Scarface?) or a wise and experienced adult elk or moose- maybe with a fancy colouring like albino for extra pizzazz.

I love the scent collection idea also.

[SolitaryHowl]

I really like the scent collectathon idea. Yeah, its a little game-y and real wolves wouldn't do such a thing, but it is a good excuse for players to explore their surroundings and to learn to rely on their scent vision more often.

[Wolvencall]

Another one could be you have to dig your pup's from a collapsed den/ teach pups how to hunt/ fight. Mission to get to den in time to give birth. If you don't make it in time you'd have to individually bring newborn pups to the den from shallow dugout den. Also catching small prey/ mousing. Win at play fight with mate. Socialize with pups. Testing the ice on frozen rivers in the winter and making sure it's safe to cross. Chase the bison off of a cliff (if we get them later in the game) successfully keep a mule deer calf at low health and herd over/ carry for your pup's to attempt to take down. Run out another wolf pack. Get rid of the badger or coyotes at your potential den. Destroy a beaver dam to get a tasty beaver snack. I really like roguemoons idea as well! And 'boss battles' would be cool but it would be better if you could kill the mountain lion if you're in a pack. Another mission could be to track down the animal that killed your mate/pups

[xc92u3]

Haha, that video was funny. That's what we all do when I play with my grandparents: So... what can we do? I'm getting bored with killing elk. There's already a thousand dead ones all scattered throughout the map.
What if one of your pups gets lost? You must tell your mate to stay with pups, then go out and search (would a real wolf do that?) and may or may not find the pup, injured or not, hungry or not, or could be sick.
What if you haven't found a mate, so you're by yourself, and you challenge a pack of five? That's going to be a pretty quick fight.
(Are other wolves going to have pups? Can you go and try to steal one of theirs, in case they took yours, for revenge?)
Keep it up! Whoohoo!
I like Wolvencall's idea about the collapsed den, suppose there was an earthquake, or a bad rainstorm completely melted your den. And your timed. If you do not find all your pups when the time is over, they will die, and if you find them after the time has gone out, your wolf will automatically hang his/her head in despair.

[airbones]

I don't have many ideas myself, but a lot of the ones suggested so far seem really brilliant! One of my favorites is the small scent collectibles idea. Being able to wander around and uncover information about all the small details being put into the game is both a good way to learn more about Yellowstone as well as honor all the hard work being put into the accurate plants and scenery in-game.

A collapsed den/relocation quest would be cool as well, and destroying the coyote den. I'll be sure to check back if I think of any of my own ideas overnight.

[Nevara]

Some ideas:

-More time in winter, in between getting a mate and when you have to select a den. During this time you could be focused on surviving the "hardships of winter" (as stated from the game) and bonding with your mate. Some other missions within that could be focused on digging in the snow for dead animals, seeking shelter (without disturbing hibernating bears!), finding live prey at this time, etc
-Learning how to catch fish
-Maybe you are the one that goes over to bear, coyote, or mountain lion dens in attempts to eat/kill one of their pups/cubs... the object of this is to eat the baby animal without losing a certain amount of health (basically, the "defend your pups" mission, but the tables have turned!)
-Maybe you'll want to expand your territory (but maybe that will involve conquering areas from neighboring packs, or maybe there's a bear family nearby that you don't want lurking around)
-The whole searching for a new mate thing (after the first one dies, if that becomes a reality) could also be a secondary mission (but like all of these, is totally optional)
-Maybe you smell humans in the area (tourists, hunters? You don't know...) so your job is to keep you and your family silently hidden away near your den. Any desperate runs out to eat additional food could cause you to be noticed by the humans...
-Successfully steal a carcass from a bear or coyote

[FallieWolf]

- start a howl amongst both packs
- Follow an unknown scent to something human related or something wolves wouldn't generally recognize
- What if could find an eagle nest or feathers maybe bones left over from an owls dinner
- Maybe we can find a lone wolf and since usually avoid contact with packs it would run from us
- And what if when we go to the farm it switches between a cattle ranch and sheep farm

[AleuAleta]

I love the idea of collectibles (scents, trinkets, trophies, whatever - scents are a really cool idea) and I would be thrilled to see an extended winter period before the pups arrive, to bond with your mate (play fighting, working together to hunt, etc) and maybe some side missions about bonding with your pups?

If the scent system is going to be central to the game (and it sounds like it is) we could have side missions that are triggered by discovering unique scent markers on the map. Or, spinning off the boss battle idea, an encounter with a rabid wolf?

The destruction/invasion of the other predator's dens is also really cool, but I'm not sure how realistic it would be to have that be a thing during Slough Creek, considering how difficult it is to keep your pups together already. Personally, I'd like to see more territory-building in future episodes, but that's not really what you're asking (although it could be a side mission for future episodes...)

[Brinnadaze]

Minor collectibles! That you can find and add to a fictional inventory or Field Guide book, to further enrich people's knowledge of the flora and wildlife the wolves live with in Yellowstone. Tree leaves, berries, seeds or branches, mushrooms, flowers, insects, animal skulls. All hidden across the map. It'd give a much more passive reason to explore the whole of the maps in attempt to find them all.

I actually adore this idea! Personally, I would love exploring to find landmarks, flora and wildlife. It'd be cool if we, for example, hiked up Amethyst Mountain and stood on its peak to get a cute little cutscene that panned over the map (like in Guild Wars 2, with the vistas). Not sure -- just trying to get some ideas flowing...

[Sunset-Light]

I feel like this would be a good way for the "playing as a pup" thing to come in.