Request for improving the animals

[MidasTouch-MT]

Motivation

The animals provide an ambience to Terasology, when the animals don't provide that it defeats the purpose of them being there. If we were to improve the ambience that these animals provide with Terasology and the overall gameplay, there will be much improvement on how we interact with it. Improving these animals, means improving the entire immersive experience of the game.

• I feel frustrated when the animals don't fit into the Voxel theme.
• I'm about to uninstall Terasology when the community feels unheard.
• I feel disappointed when I see animals that conflict with the entire gameplay.

Proposal

We should improve the animals for the game! The animals provide resources for the player, which should hold more significance than quickly harvesting them, and moving on. We need a consistent theme for the animals that matches and themes with the UI. Terasology has the most leading open-source voxel engine. If the UI and animals are more consistent, it's much easier to attract a large user base.

• I wish there were better constructed animals that were more appealing towards the user-end.
• It would be fun to have more friendly and robust interactions with the ambience.
• I would play for hours if the overall theme of the game was improved, starting with the animals, and shifting to the UI.

Alternatives

We need better UI! The UI is unarguably the most important part of a software, and the way it attracts users to the project. When the UI is difficult to navigate, many people wouldn't go through the pain of figuring out something untested. We should have a better install, loading screen, and menu interface. The title of the section shouldn't define what is contained inside of itself, it should be the contextual buttons to navigate the software.

• We could use more robust and intuitive UI that flows more with the graphical experience of the game.
• I thought about how the UI could be much better improved about changing the color scheme and alignment of each section.
• Moving the UI around won't be sufficient, because the overall theming of this genre needs to be improved in that manner.

Additional notes

[keturn]

I think the current animal models have their fans, but Terasology's extensible module system will allow for enough animals for everyone.

I think the Asset System Tutorial will be helpful to you here, in particular:

• Add New Creature
• Deltas and Overrides

The animals you're currently seeing are defined in the Wild Animals module. I think you should be able to create a new module that depends on that one and overrides their skeletonMesh assets with your new ones to match your desired art style.

[jdrueckert]

Hi @MidasTouch-MT Thanks a lot for the request :+1: I hear and share your concerns, both in terms of animals and UI. For the sake of this GitHub issue, let's stick with the animals first:

Can you elaborate a bit and give some specific examples on what you mean with

1. "the ambience that these animals provide" do you have some examples for what exactly are you missing / would wish for?
2. "a consistent theme for the animals" in your imagination, how could such a theme look like?
3. "better constructed animals" do you have some examples for animals that you would consider "better constructed"?
4. "more friendly and robust interactions with the ambience" do you have some examples for interactions that you would consider "more robust"?

[MidasTouch-MT]

Hey @jdrueckert,

1. The ambience these animals provide are a major experience in the game play, because they provide a more live experience, versus just a bunch of blocks and crafting. If they aren't up to adequate standards, I feel the main focus of them is absent. Hence, I provide the following recommendations:

• Better texturing, such as the coloring or the color patterns
• Better shape, they should have a more live shape, that illustrates the body parts more (ex: sheep aren't round)
• Better placement, they should be in areas that fit with the theme (screenshot above: they shouldn't be in the desert)
• Better interactions, such as interacting with the player, or among other animals (hunting, or interacting when a player is nearby)
• Better sounds, such as more realistic sounds or communications with players or other animals (making sounds, or "body language")

In Voxel worlds, I wouldn't have much examples that are complete rip-offs of Minecraft (not saying that Terasology is), but we need something that screams Terasology, and expertly designed animals. I'm not saying we need anything like this: But I'm saying that we need an in the middle blend of Terasology, and realistic animals. More robust examples would be a better interface for crafting, menus, or just the general startup of Terasology, The download buttons don't need to be that small, and the icons should explain what the section is without explaining. Like a play button would look much better versus the download button. The changelog does not need to be open every time I open Terasology, such as appearing when there is a detected change (with JavaScript).

[jdrueckert]

@MidasTouch-MT

• Better texturing, such as the coloring or the color patterns
• Better shape, they should have a more live shape, that illustrates the body parts more (ex: sheep aren't round)

For these, the idea behind Terasology is modularity. Players should be able to choose the style of animals they want to have in their game. Contributors can add different, e.g. more high-res or differently shaped/colored, models that can then be included by players. For the models we have, we deliberately decided to go with Quaternius' Cute Monsters Pack because we have worked with him in the past and it's a consistent set of models for various animals in the same style and with animations (that admittedly are not well-used yet).

• Better placement, they should be in areas that fit with the theme (screenshot above: they shouldn't be in the desert)

Good point indeed, there is planned work in the area of spawning logic that will allow spawning entities such as animals based on biome, time of day, and other factors/triggers. @casals would be the point of contact if you want to help progress with this effort.

• Better interactions, such as interacting with the player, or among other animals (hunting, or interacting when a player is nearby)

Also a good point. There was a GSoC project last year that implemented a mechanism to shear sheep in JoshariasSurvival so you can get wool without killing them. Theoretically they can also be lured, but that's a bit buggy after a recent AI-logic change (but being investigated). The deer for instance are also configured to flee if hit, which is one example for "interaction". There also is a student project currently going on, aiming to implement more realistic AI behaviors.

• Better sounds, such as more realistic sounds or communications with players or other animals (making sounds, or "body language")

Sheep and deer should have rather realistic sounds already that are played when you hit them, but we're always happy about more sounds. Body language is very dependent on the model IMO, but as mentioned above, admittedly, the animations of the models are not integrated/utilized that well yet, so yes, definitely something that can be improved upon.