Talk:Animals

Animal attack rates

Until now I haven't been looking out to see how often certain animals attack, but it would be interesting to record it on the animals page. So far:

• Elephants: have attacked once an hour when on the same square as me (35 minutes past the hour according to the game report from the server)
• Tigers: have attacked me twice an hour when on the same square (5 minutes past and 35 minutes past according to the game)

Though I'm pretty sure there were times when they attacked less often. Perhaps there's some randomness. Some tigers are pussycats.

Anyone else have reports? If so, add here and transfer to the animal page when it looks helpful --The Wary Marsh 09:05, 4 April 2006 (BST)

Yes, the Damage column is worse than useless without the Number of Attacks and the Percentage Chance to Hit listed. If an animal causes 4 damage per hit but only attacks once per half hour at 10%, the animal is fairly harmless, whereas an animal with 3 attacks per half hour at 50% would be lethal.

• In 22 half hour increments (at :05 and :35), an alligator missed me 4 times, hit once 17 times, and hit twice 1 time (two attacks for 3 damage with the same timestamp). This is extremely consistent with 2x 45% 3dmg.
• In 35 half hour increments (at :05 and :35), an elephant missed me 14 times and hit once 21 times. This is extremely consistent with 1x 60% 4dmg.

I'm going to say that all animals perform their attack routine once per half hour (at :05 and :35). Their combat routine is very similar to characters, with a percentage chance to hit that is a multiple of 5% and a weapon damage of 1 to 4.

Alligators, tigers, and possibly other animals, are known to have a multiple attack routine -- that means that they can surely hit you for twice the listed damage in less than a minute. The other possibility I can think of is that I was attacked by two of the same creature type, one of which then wandered off or was killed. (Next time it happens I'll screenshot the timestamps.) Imho that's important information that needs to be listed on the wiki, and further researched. --Tycho44 09:31, 24 May 2006 (BST)

I can help with a boar and large stag. I was recently killed by what appears to be one of each.

• In 35 half hour increments (beginning at 00:35 and ending at 18:05), a large stag missed me 13 times, hit me 22 times, and did not appear to hit more than once at any given time. 1 x 62.9% 2 dmg. (for the sake of simplicity rounded down to 60%).
• In 22 half hour increments (beginning at 07:05 and 17:35), a wild boar missed me 10 times, hit me 12 times, and did not appear to hit more than once at any given time. 1 x 54.5% 2 dmg. (for the sake of simplicity rounded up to 55%). --Lint 10:12, 24 May 2006 (BST)

Incidentally, since the game doesn't show misses, only hits, and I forgot to check the time when I previously logged off, my attack rates are overestimates -- I should be counting the series of misses that may or may not have occurred before the first hit. (Other misses are sandwiched in between hits and are correctly tallied.) Instead of a random sample of families with boys and girls, take the same random sample, but in each family remove all the young girls until you get to a boy -- the resulting sample is no longer 50/50. (Although for family sizes 35-40 the errors are small.) --Tycho44 11:50, 24 May 2006 (BST)

Easter Bunny

Anyone see one of these? I just killed one I found. It didn't give my anything interesting...--Jackel 03:24, 16 April 2006 (BST)

• Sorry, no chocolate eggs for killing the Easter Bunny. Just plenty of XP for the kill (if I did my calculations right). It's unlikely you'll see one with max hp unless someone's feeling kind. --Simon 05:02, 16 April 2006 (BST)
  • (Does that mean that the Easter Bunnies were implemented with 50 "max" hit points (to bolster their XP bonus award) even tho they only had 30 HP?) --Tycho44 11:53, 24 May 2006 (BST)

I just got one, only had 3 hp and didn't attack once it was dead... since Easter was yesterday, was it maybe a straggler? Tibbalt 11:55, 17 April 2006 (BST)

Differing HP Limits?

I first encountered alligators in the inland swamps, and these had 15HP max. Now i'm over in the swamp on the easternmost peninsula, and alligators here have 25HP max (i've encoutered 4 or 5, each with 25HP). Did all the alligators get a boost in HP limit, or are these alligators super-special-flushed-down-toilet-mutant specimens that get a higher HP limit? This is a rather large swamp, makes sense that it would have bigger alligators. If it is only alligators here that have a higher HP limit, are there any other locations where certain animals have higher HP limits? Also, if it is location based, the chart should reflect this. --Frisco 19:23, 13 May 2006 (BST)

I think that all of the alligators have been upgraded to 25HP. --Tycho44 09:32, 24 May 2006 (BST)

Do animals move like predators?

While waiting for a fellow native to talk to me one day, on successive page refreshes (at approximately equal time intervals) I saw an elephant appear 2N 1W of me, then 1N, then 1W, then 1S, moving south in a zig-zag but not joining us on our square. I suspect that the direction of an animal's movement is unaffected by human presence on surrounding squares, and that aggressive animals (such as elephants) will only attack if the square they move to happens to be occupied by someone; in short, I'm guessing that aggression translates into unprovoked attacks, not predatory movement. This accords with common sense, too; given the number of animals on the island and Simon's awareness of server load, I wouldn't expect him to have coded complicated animal movement rules when simple ones suffice. Of course, it may be that tigers (and boars) hunt while elephants apparently do not. More tests will tell. — Elembis 08:08, 21 May 2006 (BST)

I just refreshed the map to see that a monkey is on my square; I didn't see it approach. This suggests that passive animals do not try to avoid humans, which sort of suggests that aggressive ones don't hunt them. — Elembis 12:24, 21 May 2006 (BST)

Uncommon Animals?

After traveling through the Durham peninsula for several days, I've only come across a few animals per day, spending considerably more AP trying to find them than actually fighting them. Is this common? Do some areas have more animals than others? --LouisB3 20:34, 24 May 2006 (BST)