I was thinking, and i wasn't sure if anyone else noticed/came up with this idea, but here it is. I noticed creatures are made up from a bunch of randomly generated parts. Tails, Faces/heads, Bodies, legs, arms, ECT. And the same for flying monsters too. What if, depending on the parts it generates with, dictates what abilities it has, how much HP and defense it has, and possibly what type(ill explain this part in a moment)of monster it is. I.E: Monsters that generate with a turtle shell could have nearly doubled HP, high defense, or the ability to hide in their shell to gain immunity to ranged attacks(except for the first shot if they havn't noticed you yet, if hostile). Or monsters with slug "feet" could "walk" up walls and on ceilings, but would be slow and unable to jump. What are your thoughts? And Secondly, to explain what i mean by monsters type, i had the idea that there would be three categories of monster: Carnivore(hostile), Omnivore(neutral), and Herbivore(friendly). Carnivores would be hostile towards players and other creatures about say, possibly 85% of the time, some having the chance to be "passive" aggressive(explained during omnivore description). Some smaller carnivores would hunt in packs, some would be afraid of bigger creatures, and maybe on the rare occasion a species or two would be too afraid of you. Omnivores would be the most "passive" aggressive, having some sort of timer built in randomly generated, ticking down until your presence finally aggravates the creature enough to cause it to attack you(would have to be very very close), and some of them wont ever attack you unless provoked, and they would attack other creatures on occasion. Herbivores would rarely ever be aggravated by your presence, and rarely ever defend themselves form attack, and would rather run away. However they would on rare occasion, fight back or actively engage "rival" species, if any. They would also be the easiest to tame of the three categories. Thoughts? And as a last little tidbit, just a little thought, the possibility of late tier monster part "manipulation", allowing you to take a monster and change that single entities parts to make your new pet look/perform how you want. :>
I love it, and that's about all I really have to contribute to this. I enjoy encountering the different creatures on planets, variation in their behavior would be amazing.
I was actually about to suggest something similar when I saw your post, but yours goes above and beyond mine. I definitely like this idea! At the moment, it's kinda painfully obvious that each monster is just a random amalgam of parts, moves, and behaviors, and they lack personality because of it. This would be a good way to keep the random "different fauna on every planet" thing going, while making each creature a bit more unique and interesting.
