New Tricks for the Pack: Improving MP functionality

[SolitaryHowl]

Here's a thought that just popped into my head-- maybe you wouldn't need the whole pack to rally, but just the majority of players. It's really annoying when one person goes AFK and then you can't rally at all. It'd be nice if you just needed the majority-- you could still rally if you needed to in most cases that way...

I'm seconding this idea!

[ForeverEverest]

Here's a thought that just popped into my head-- maybe you wouldn't need the whole pack to rally, but just the majority of players. It's really annoying when one person goes AFK and then you can't rally at all. It'd be nice if you just needed the majority-- you could still rally if you needed to in most cases that way...

I'm seconding this idea!

I also really like the idea, it would make rallying so much easier. When I host hunting servers, I always like to rally as it makes hunting feel a little more fun. But when lots of players join, there are often players running off to different hunting grounds, going inactive or just ignoring my request, even when I tell them all they have to do to rally is play bow twice.

[xc92u3]

Here's a thought that just popped into my head-- maybe you wouldn't need the whole pack to rally, but just the majority of players. It's really annoying when one person goes AFK and then you can't rally at all. It'd be nice if you just needed the majority-- you could still rally if you needed to in most cases that way...

I'm seconding this idea!

I also really like the idea, it would make rallying so much easier. When I host hunting servers, I always like to rally as it makes hunting feel a little more fun. But when lots of players join, there are often players running off to different hunting grounds, going inactive or just ignoring my request, even when I tell them all they have to do to rally is play bow twice.

Yes, that would be better. Some people just howl too slowly or they play bow 1,000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times and I'm thinking DUDE, STOP.

[duskypack]

[posts moved to Ideas For New Episodes]

The alpha/omega dominance theory has been disproved: in short, wild wolf packs aren’t ranked (it was previously thought to be so because they studied captive, unrelated wolves in situations that very rarely happen in the wild instead of actual wild wolf packs).

From the Wolf Q&A:

A wolf pack is a cohesive family unit consisting of the adult parents and their offspring of the current year, and perhaps the previous year and sometimes two years or more. Wolf parents used to be incorrectly referred to as the "alpha male" and "alpha female", or the "alpha pair", but these terms have been replaced by the more appropriate "breeding male", "breeding female", and "breeding pair”, or simply "parents". The adult parents are usually unrelated, and other unrelated wolves may sometimes join the pack. The acceptance of other wolves into the pack is uncommon, but possible. See also: Wolf Pack Hierarchy for brief explanation and background, Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs for a more detailed and in-depth analysis, and "Alpha" Wolf? for video commentary by Dr. L. David Mech.

[SunofStormpack]

maybe one day in a future episode, add 2 packs in slough creek raise pups so that people can choose to join packs that don't have pups yet. also, in the main menu on raise pups servers add a description that states if they have pups or not to save time. possible also have a drop down menu on the server name to show the names of the players.

[paperpaws]

I would like to stress once again that this thread is for suggestions surrounding the improvements of the functionality, rather than gameplay, of multiplayer. Other ideas are, as always, free to go into Ideas For New Episodes. I'm going to try and split any gameplay suggestions from this post and move them there.

Thank you to duskypack for addressing the ranking issue. A more thorough explanation that also addresses the rare occasions where the term alpha is acceptable can be found here.

[SheWolf17]

4. Allow private games to have more than 8 characters- it's a private game, the host is probably prepared to handle the larger amount of people. Maybe make the max 30.

5. Allow permanent private and public servers- i.e. ones that stay up even after the host logs off. The host would have to select that as an option when making it and could take it down at any time.

Wowowow, extremely good ideas!

The servers would be better if they were active permanently, even with the absence of the host, containing more people (30 I would not find it good, but at least 13 or 15). The server could be excluded by the host at any time, otherwise it would be active.

One thing that would be good:
There could be a way for the host to give some permissions to the members present on the server. That is, the host trust member would have access to expel and warn inappropriate players, with some "role" on their wolf profile (Owner, Administrator, Moderator, etc.) and a "Welcome / Rules" system for new players!

Another super cool thing, they could make the puppies playable! This would attract players, with several phases (Pup, young, and adult!). The player would have to survive through various challenges, having to flee predators and stranger wolves...

This would not only be very interesting...It would be educational, especially for children!

[Invar]

Make the colour of a wolf's hover-text name settable by the player. Make that wolf's scent trail the same colour as its name.

[paperpaws]

Just noticed you can't use the chat whilst waiting for the respawn timer. Would be nice if you could; I tend to get interrupted mid-sentence.

[xenomothe]

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[Invar]

The compass in the game-window's frame, and show packmates on it.

'The Endless Forest' multi-player game/screensaver had this, with landmarks and other players indicated by little symbols in the frame, which got brighter or changed colour depending on how far away you were from them. It feels (at least to me) as if the compass takes up less screen-space, but really you can fit lots more stuff on it. And you don't have to turn your character around to see what's behind you on the compass.

Also you could use it to tell the player what direction a sound is coming from. It's pretty unwolfish not knowing.

It would also be great to be able to leave special scent marks that showed on your compass.

[HowlerOfTheWolves]

A different text box layout would be amazing, like smaller text size, but a way higher text count, that way it is not such a pain if you like to post a lot of text at once!

[Rustic]

Make the colour of a wolf's hover-text name settable by the player. Make that wolf's scent trail the same colour as its name.

I love this idea as a way to represent different scents, as in reality scents, even if different wolves is unique...however in terms of game functionality it could potentially get confusing if a player were to choose a scent color that already existed in the game (ex elk is pink)

[Noctis_]

The improvements you've already got in mind all sound fantastic and definitely things I'm looking forwards to (I'm sure every roleplayer will be infinitely grateful for the bios). I don't have too many ideas at the moment, but I'll be sure to come back and add them as they come to me.

Currently, hosts of games can kick players who are misbehaving or being a nuisance, but they are the only ones who can take action on such players. Maybe a voting feature can be added, where players in the game can vote to kick another player. If the voting receives a majority, the player in question would be kicked.

In Pack Vs. Pack games, keeping and defending territory will be a major focus. Players should be able to scent-mark their pack's territory as in Slough Creek, so that when any player uses scent view, these markers can be seen, and the player will be able to see who placed the marker and how long ago.

Players having their own unique scent colors in scent view has been suggested by several other people, but I don't this is necessary, considering individuals' scents are already distinguishable in scent view because of the accompanying text box. Additionally, there wouldn't be very many colors left to choose from, considering many are already in use by the various animal species.

[Invar]

Make the colour of a wolf's hover-text name settable by the player. Make that wolf's scent trail the same colour as its name.

I love this idea as a way to represent different scents, as in reality scents, even if different wolves is unique...however in terms of game functionality it could potentially get confusing if a player were to choose a scent color that already existed in the game (ex elk is pink)

Yeah. It's even more of a problem with more different kinds of non-wolf animals around. BUT your comment made me realize: wolf-scent clouds/motes/tracks could be colour+sparkle-effect or pulse-effect or summat.