Mods / Wilderlands Ethology

Tags: #Creatures
Author: Thalius
Side: Both
Created: Jan 18th at 5:04 AM
Last modified: Mar 3rd at 5:34 AM
Downloads: 4464
Follow Unfollow 134


A WIP, Wilderlands Ethology is being developed for use on a Wilderlands community server. It adds a number of creatures, many of which are aquatic in nature. In addition, it tweaks the behavior of various entities to create more challenging behaviors to spice up hunting.

**Other modules in the Wilderlands series: Wilderlands Tweaks, Wilderlands Rustbound, Wilderlands Forests, Wilderlands Deposit Scarcity, Wilderlands Block Adjustments, Wilderlands Waymarkers, and Wilderlands Panning Overhaul

Some examples of altered behavior include:

  • Sheep, deer, and goats have a wider fleeing range.
  • Wild pigs are more hostile. They also drop more fat.
  • Wolves have a wider seeking range, and will also spawn in snow.

A few new entities have been added but need some polishing:

  • A mountain goat that prefers snowy terrain.
  • A new sheep variant that also prefers snowy terrain.
  • A bearded "dragon"- (large lizard that lives just underground).
  • A large number of fish have been added, along with fresh and saltwater stingrays, jelly fish, and eels.

New entities are working and with proper behaviors, for the most part. I have some specific uses in mind in the future for a few of these, but am releasing them now for use on a new server to launch soon.

Special thanks to Hieronymus and ZigTheHedge for permission to use and altar a few assets of theirs for use in this project!

 

Planned Features:

  • Bait blocks to lure nearby fish to a specfic area.
  • Ability to catch fish with a net, and then place them on ground for harvesting.
  • Possibly bait blocks for some other types of game animals.
  • Fish basket container for holding fish, until they can be carried to shore for cleaning.
  • Once fish basket containers are a thing, I want to add additional sea life to provide a mechanic for island living, depending on fish for protein. Spear fishing/diving should be a thing, with appropriate risks. Going to need a bit of help with the code side of things to make fish baskets and transporting fish to a solid surface for cleaning a thing.

Note: Please keep in mind when considering this mod that my mod projects are intended to create immersive challenges in the game, and are not designed to make things easier or simpler. Often quite the opposite.

 

**Other modules in the Wilderlands series: Wilderlands Tweaks, Wilderlands Rustbound, Wilderlands Forests, Wilderlands Deposit Scarcity, Wilderlands Block Adjustments, and Wilderlands Panning Overhaul

**If you have issues or content related questions or suggestions, please post them to the Wilderlands modules thread in Discord, here: Wilderlands Modules

Or if you are interested in keeping up more closely with the Wilderlands, feel free to join our Discord community: The Wilderlands Discord

 

Spoiler!

Changelog:

  • Dev2 release fixes some inconsistancies with domain names.
  • Dev3 fixed domain name/texture error.
  • Dev 4 addressed issue that had some fish as well as freshwater stingrays spawning inside reeds on dry land.
  • Dev 5 slightly increased spawn rates of various Ethology entities.
  • Dev6 Found issue that was causing low to no fish spawning behavior. Should be fixed, but rates might be a bit high.
  • Dev 7 Fish entities now drop meat on death, until I can get some help figuring out how to make them able to be picked up in something like a fish basket container, and carried to shore for cleaning.

 

Version For Game version Downloads Release date Changelog Download 1-click mod install*
v1.0.0-dev.9 1436 Mar 3rd at 5:34 AM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.9.zip 1-click install
v1.0.0-dev.8 14 Mar 3rd at 5:02 AM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.8.zip 1-click install
v1.0.0-dev.7 1051 Feb 6th at 1:01 AM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.7.zip 1-click install
v1.0.0-dev.6 511 Feb 2nd at 12:10 AM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.6.zip 1-click install
v1.0.0-dev.5 551 Jan 24th at 2:20 PM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.5.zip 1-click install
v1.0.0-dev.4 247 Jan 22nd at 2:59 PM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.4.zip 1-click install
v1.0.0-dev.3 419 Jan 18th at 5:13 PM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.3.zip 1-click install
v1.0.0-dev.2 103 Jan 18th at 1:42 PM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.2.zip 1-click install
v1.0.0-dev.1 132 Jan 18th at 5:06 AM Show Wilderlands Ethology_1.0.0-dev.1.zip 1-click install

47 Comments (oldest first | newest first)

💬 crumps, 3 days ago

Love that this got biomes support recently. I mentioned in one of Crabb's threads on discord but wanted to comment here for others to know:

If you happen to install this series and Fauna of the stone age caninae this mod TURNS DEFAULT WOLVES BACK ON

For me, this is a HUGE plus. I loved the behavior of the default wolves and not having them make a lot of areas quite a lot safer because the FOTSA wolves are not as common, and not as aggressive.

I hope this behavior remains, unsure what exactly caused it or if biomes or FOTSA will cut it off but for now wanted to mention for others that if you play with FOTSA and this, default wolves will be back. Personally, huge plus. Love the additions.

💬 crumps, May 6th at 11:57 PM

Following, Excited to add once there's biomes support! I've been having issues with there being no fish in any of my water and i'm unsure which mod is causing it so perhaps this will fix it.

💬 Thalius , Apr 16th at 4:55 AM

Rogan519 As far as being compatible? I don't see an issue. If you are talking about how well they are balanced if run together? I'm not sure. I did not design this module with PS in mind, as we don't use PS on our community server. I don't see why there would be a problem though. With both mods running, you'd simply have fish you could see swimming around that you could try to kill/harvest, then you'd have other fish that you caught on PS fishing gear.

(Also, there seems to be a persistant issue with fish not fleeing the player. I am struggling to figure out what the issue is, but I've not had a lot of time to give to look into it. Ethology is next on my radar to get updated, so I should be taking a good look in the next few days and have a fix out in the next update. It might be a bit till that update is ready. I have a number of new and larger fish to add into the mix, and I need to work Biomes compatibility into it. Hopefully the larger fish will also be compatible with Butchering. Lots of ideas to work over. )

💬 Thalius , Apr 16th at 4:55 AM

Rogan519 As far as being compatible? I don't see an issue. If you are talking about how well they are balanced if run together? I'm not sure. I did not design this module with PS in mind, as we don't use PS on our community server. I don't see why there would be a problem though. With both mods running, you'd simply have fish you could see swimming around that you could try to kill/harvest, then you'd have other fish that you caught on PS fishing gear.

(Also, there seems to be a persistant issue with fish not fleeing the player. I am struggling to figure out what the issue is, but I've not had a lot of time to give to look into it. Ethology is next on my radar to get updated, so I should be taking a good look in the next few days and have a fix out in the next update. It might be a bit till that update is ready. I have a number of new and larger fish to add into the mix, and I need to work Biomes compatibility into it. Hopefully the larger fish will also be compatible with Butchering. Lots of ideas to work over. )

💬 Rogan519, Apr 16th at 2:09 AM

How compatible is this with Primitive Survival? I'm ok if the fish from here won't show up in the traps from PS but I'm worried about things not really flowing well between the two mods...

💬 merryclefairy, Mar 30th at 1:19 AM

yay!! i'm so excited!! sorry for the question, i haven't played in a while and was thinking about picking the game back up with some new mods and it wasn't quite clear to me bc i hadn't played with the biomes mods before <3 please take your time but i am excited! 

💬 Hydromancerx, Mar 29th at 5:55 PM

Huzzah! I cannot wait!

💬 Thalius , Mar 29th at 1:41 PM

LeoSpades, merryclefairy, Hydromancerx, Biomes support is planned, and should be coming soon-ish. I've been quite busy with some real life stuff, but intend to take up the next Ethology update this week. It should be a significant one, so it will take some time, but Biomes compat will be worked into it with the next release.

💬 LeoSpades, Mar 29th at 1:44 AM

Ah, that explains why I see no fish... this mod doesn't work with Biomes. Darn

💬 merryclefairy, Mar 24th at 6:28 PM

ooh, are these mods not compatibile with the biomes + reigions/fauna and flora mods? 

💬 cateatsglue, Mar 17th at 10:13 AM

are the wolves features implemented? can't really tell in game and don't see jsons in .zip

💬 LemonJamTart, Mar 7th at 4:48 AM

will the bearded dragons be tameable? would be pretty cool to have a funny little lizard companion :)

💬 Thalius , Mar 3rd at 1:43 PM

Probably at some point, yes. I have more I want to add, but can't give it the attention it needs for at least a few more weeks.

💬 Hydromancerx, Mar 3rd at 6:22 AM

Thalius

Will you be adding Biome mod support?

💬 Thalius , Feb 27th at 1:15 PM

Abysscuit

I'm glad you are enjoying them! I probably won't enable the caimans. The game's current ai does not allow for making them work right, for one thing. For the other, it seems that the devs have gators in the works themselves, meaning there will be no need for mine. I assume they are working on AI to make them act right, and theirs will go live once they have it ready.

Ethology might end up focusing on adding aquatic entities and tweaking the behavior of land critters, unless there is a specific area in the game that I feel is missing something.

One thing I want to add that requires some new AI is seals far to the north as a good source for meat and specifically animal fats. They'd need the same sort of AI gators need, to account for an animal that can live both on land and on sea, so once the devs get gators added, and assuming their AI works like I think it should, seals might be able to be added.

💬 Abysscuit, Feb 27th at 4:42 AM

When in creative I noticed 2 caiman models that couldn't be spawned in. I was just curious if you were going to add them at some point or if they were scrapped. I love your mods and thank you for making them.

💬 Thalius , Feb 4th at 5:39 AM

TestTub3 Thanks for the report. The fleeing is an issue that I've not worked out yet. They should flee, but the AI is not kicking in. Not sure what is up. I'll be looking at that again soon.

As for fish floating being an issue, I'd not thought of that. I usually kill mine in shallow water where crouching is not an issue. I'll look into what I can do about that.

💬 TestTub3, Feb 4th at 4:55 AM

Issue I noticed with the fish, when killed they do not float to the bottom of the water and thus can't be harvested correctly becuase crouching will make you sink. Also fish do not seem to be afraid of the player

💬 Thalius , Feb 2nd at 4:11 AM

Fishing spears? Not sure. Doubtful, unless they work like any other spear.

💬 Abysscuit, Feb 2nd at 3:12 AM

Do the fishing spears from Primitive Survival work for the fish in this mod?

💬 Thalius , Feb 2nd at 12:18 AM

I was able to address the issue with fish not spawning correctly. I'm still not sure what the problem was. I was seeing only catfish spawning in low rates in testing, so I carved catfish out of the fish entity JSON into it's own entity file and voilà, the other fish variants started spawning.

Adjusted spawn rates higher, but maybe too high. Figured I'd make sure they showed up, and work downward from there if they are too much. Also made some other adjustments to some behaviors that probably won't be noticeable, since fish have not been spawning right to begin with.

Community feedback on this very welcomed!

 

💬 Thalius , Feb 1st at 6:35 PM

For anyone keeping an eye on this today, waiting for an update-
I'm working on it. Also seeing the spawn issue related to fish, and I'm not sure what is going on.

In testing I've cranked spawn chance up to 0.9, which should have them everywhere. I'm seeing a lot of stingrays and jellyfish, but only catfish. Which is weird. All the fish entities share the same "spawnInsideBlock" codes and other spawn parameters. They should be everywhere. It's like the game does not want to load variants of the "fish" entity, only catfish.

💬 JimBian, Jan 31st at 6:15 PM

Can confirm, haven't seen much change in the lakes around me, likely need to go find new chunks for them to appear I suppose?
Thalius

💬 Jonvelez, Jan 31st at 3:40 AM

Yes, the crabs were the only thing spawning around us. 

💬 Thalius , Jan 30th at 4:56 AM

Jonvelez Are you running Primitive Survival? Crabs are not mine.

I'll look at spawn rates. I'm hearing several reports of few or no fish spawning. Not sure why. My spawn rates are not that low. I almost always find them in at least the oceans pretty early on.

💬 Jonvelez, Jan 30th at 3:39 AM

Thalius So, after 16 hours in this world, in multiplayer. The only creatures we have seen are crabs. Which promptly killed a low health player. 

💬 Thalius , Jan 29th at 12:27 PM

TestTub3 If you loaded Ethology to an existing world, what you are seeing is the "game:salmon" entity being removed from world chunks where they had previously loaded.

I disabled the game's version of salmon and added my own with new shape and texture, as well as spawn parameters that put them in colder waters. The warning messages you are seeing will stop once all of the game's version of salmon are removed.

💬 TestTub3, Jan 29th at 7:12 AM

For some reason when near a large body of water the server console floods with this same warning over and over again;


[Warn] Couldn't load entity class Vintagestory.GameContent.EntityFish saved type code game:salmon - its Type is null! Will remove from chunk, sorry!

💬 Thalius , Jan 26th at 11:47 AM

Jonvelez Thanks for the report. I've been wondering how they were spawning. Especially in multiplayer where rates get ticked up a bit.

The mod is still in "dev" mode. I'm intent on making sure they don't over-spawn, so rates might still be too low to be enjoyable. Mostly concerned about oceans. That's a lot of water for things to over-spawn in and cause entity population issues.

I'll be making some spawn rate adjustments soon.

💬 Jonvelez, Jan 26th at 9:27 AM

Fish do not seem to be spawning. When fish are spawned in creative, they disappear after a short time.

I'll do more mulitplayer testing and see if fish ever spawn.

 

💬 Thalius , Jan 25th at 1:21 AM

Many of the aquatic animals in this mod and more are available in similar form in another mod series by Hieronymus. If you are looking for fish only, I direct you to those mods. Other mods also have stingrays and jellyfish without the other ai tweaks and additional critters I've added.

Hieronymus was gracious enough to allow me to use some of the shape assets which I selected from some of those modules for this project for my server. I tweaked them a bit, altered their textures, and made a few of my own along with giving them my own behaviors, but the shape assets for a lot of the fish originated with Hieronymus' work. I'd rather not launch an aquatic critters only mod and compete with them.

💬 stinkstank, Jan 25th at 12:33 AM

Could you please create a version that  just adds the aquatic animals?

💬 Thalius , Jan 23rd at 8:26 PM

Mod I.D.?: wethology

💬 JimBian, Jan 23rd at 8:24 PM

What's the correct ID for server command install on this? Tried wilderlandsethology and wilderlands_ethology? @thalius 

💬 Thalius , Jan 23rd at 3:10 PM

Nothing with Ethology is worldgen related. It only adds a some new entities and tweaks some vanilla creature ai behavior. Removing the mod from a server will simply result in any added Ethology entites being removed from the server when it is restarted. You'll get some notices in the log files about existing Ethology entites being removed from world chunks, but nothing after that.

💬 JimBian, Jan 23rd at 3:04 PM

Thalius

I'll give it a shot on my little private dedicated with some friends today and get back to you, nothing here should be worldgen correct?

💬 Thalius , Jan 23rd at 3:34 AM

I could really use some feedback on how well fish are spawning, especially on multiplayer servers.

💬 Thalius , Jan 19th at 6:07 PM

Papi69 How long has the world been up? They spawn on runtime only, so it may take a bit for them to start appearing in a new world.

I can adjust the spawn rate higher if needed, but don't want the world overrun with fish clogging up the seas or large lakes and hogging the entity spawn cap to themselves. I kept the spawn rate low for now, waiting for feedback.

💬 Papi69, Jan 19th at 6:05 PM

With new v.1.20 I don't see any of animals or fish spawning by themself

 

💬 Thalius , Jan 18th at 5:16 PM

osari Thanks for letting me know. Forgot to update domain name fix in the entity shape files.

Issue should be resovled in dev3 release.

💬 osari, Jan 18th at 3:24 PM

Freshwater stingrays seem to have lost their texture in the domain name fix. There may be others caught in the change, but I haven't seen them yet!

💬 Thalius , Jan 18th at 1:44 PM

Fixed. ;)

💬 itinerare, Jan 18th at 1:42 PM

No worries, happens to the best of us!

💬 Thalius , Jan 18th at 1:02 PM

@itinerare Thanks for the head's up. I meant to look back over all that before I uploaded it. The mod went through several name changes in my dev folder. Apparently I missed that. Just got back from a vacation and forgot to review it. Will fix.

💬 itinerare, Jan 18th at 12:45 PM

Oh, glad to see this mod/concept up and active again, and looking forward to future development!

As a heads-up, your use of your mod ID is inconsistent-- the modinfo has "wethology", but the folder that houses its files is just "ethology"; iirc, it's best for those to match one way or another. Additionally, the bear patches have "nethology" as the domain for the added fish, which I think will result in issues regardless.

💬 Karkinos, Jan 18th at 9:32 AM

sea life, thanks! 

💬 nedwobsamoht, Jan 18th at 7:35 AM

Ooh, your mods look good. Making VS harder and more immersive. I like it.

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