future of open water

[4sheetzngeegles]

The thought was prompted from an @Riamus quote

"faatal had made and tested a raft, but had said that unless they do something
to make water dangerous, it isn't likely to be added.  He would like to do that,
but it is a low priority".

I can see 4 main antagonists in regard to open water rafting, the first is piranha,
which could be multiple levels of scaled down shark, but to emulate, pirahna have a
faster repeat attack, and can use the leap attack of land creatures, to jump at the
passenger or passengers. They would spawn from biome onlywater or underwater. Their
primary target would be the raft, as land vehicles are the Vultures'.

The second is watersnakes, that can climb aboard or attack near the shores.

The third is the zombie spider, jumps on board or can tip the raft.

The fourth are the vultures. Birds eat fish and snakes so that would be an alternate
habitat from the desert.

Hypothetically, it would make water transit potentially as or more hazardous than a few
land biomes. because of speed or lack of it. durability of materials to create the raft,
and limited external weight that incurs a buoyancy, and speed limitation like the backpack
penalty.

There is also a secondary antagonist. A basic zombie, they can swim now, water is murky, so
can't see them come up to flip the boat.

Melee would be prompted or you may be met on the far shore by a scout horde.

A good thing is that most of the components are already in game.

The magic 8-ball, sees that motorized armored vehicle requests would soon follow, for addition
to vanilla, and modders.

Either way it adds open water as a playable area of the game. In the future.

 

[Riamus]

Making water more interesting would certainly be a great addition.  Right now, there isn't much reason to play a map that is just islands because travel across water is a pain.  If you have a raft to get you across and water has dangers, it would be much more interesting to play such a map.  I know faatal would like to do something like this, but we'll see if they ever have time to put into doing it.

Your ideas are good, though they try to keep the animal enemies similar to what you'd see in Arizona, where the game takes place.  Piranha aren't native to Arizona, so I doubt they'd add those.  Though, I suppose pacu fish are similar and could potentially be dangerous, so they could do that.  Snakes fit the best, and there are plenty of spiders that are venomous, though they aren't really a water hazard, but could be treated that way.  They can always do a mutation of an animal as well, so could make things like scorpions or gila monsters into water enemies if they wanted.  I'd love alligators or crocodiles, but those also aren't native to Arizona, so I don't expect them to be considered.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

I guess I used the wrong term, I didn't mean islands, my rivers are approx 200 plus meters in areas, with out

bridges and on average 60 plus meters deep. But I do understand the keeping constant to indigenous life.

I said shark, learning from doing multiple scaled sizes for my vultures, eagle vulture is larger, crow vulture

is smaller and faster. I was thinking instead of adding a ton of new models create one, that can be scaled.

and just add an entity. to keep it simple.

 

[zztong]

Interesting thread. I've been searching, but haven't found a natural water predator for Arizona. I'd think a zombie pulling you under would be a possible challenge, but we don't have grappling zombies. Vultures might provide a reason to go under water, which is a neat challenge. I would probably be okay with a swimming zombie, though walking along the bottom seems more zombie-like, maybe, not really sure I guess.

 

[Riamus]

Interesting thread. I've been searching, but haven't found a natural water predator for Arizona. I'd think a zombie pulling you under would be a possible challenge, but we don't have grappling zombies. Vultures might provide a reason to go under water, which is a neat challenge. I would probably be okay with a swimming zombie, though walking along the bottom seems more zombie-like, maybe, not really sure I guess.

There are snakes in Arizona that can be in water, so that's a possible option.  They'd need better animation and speed than the current ones, of course.  And the pacu fish is at least related to a piranha like I mentioned, though I'm not sure that it attacks the same way even though it can do so.  But if you consider things to be mutated, you can take any native wildlife and make it deadly even if it normally isn't. 

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

I'm open to thoughts. For the swimming zombies I was thinking about the animations, they swim underwater but would either

jump on the raft when on the surface, attack the raft from below, so it would be attack, sink a bit, attack, come to surface jump.

The snakes, would be more dangerous if you are in the water. Just trying to visualize how to make it a constant and inclusive

threat. If there are 3 zombie clones, one is break block, one is break block or jump, and one is jump. these are just thoughts.

Vultures, I feel the more people hate an entity,  the better its doing its job. Right now If I"m in the water, I will often hear a ploop'

because they will dive in the water. Like they are fishing. It's kind of disconcerting to hear that sound, when you can't see where

it came from.

If there were any additional animation, i could think of is to add a knock back to players, to make the raft seem unstable.

I wish there were a panic and or clumsy mode, that can cause dropping the weapon in hand, but only under circumstances that

would justify it.

@Riamus Did you think I meant arachnids? Because I meant the guy on all fours that spring boards when you are a certain distance

away. 

 

[Riamus]

@Riamus Did you think I meant arachnids? Because I meant the guy on all fours that spring boards when you are a certain distance

away. 

I did.  I don't think the spider zombie is the best option for a water hazard.  I mean, if you were close to shore and they could make the jump, sure... but for an actual hazard, it's better for some kind of animal enemies, I think.  Even regular zombies, though a possible enemy in the water since they can swim/walk in water already, aren't the best option.  They can be a danger, but I think they should be just a side effect of zombies seeing you from shore and coming out towards you, which would only be a danger to you if you were heading into that same shore.  If you're leaving that shore or moving parallel to it, they wouldn't likely catch up to you.  But water based animals/enemies make a lot more sense for the main threat, I think.

If they were willing to add enemies that aren't native to Arizona, I'd love to see sharks and alligators or crocodiles as they are very distinct and would feel dangerous.  Piranha could also be added then as well, though they aren't going to be as interesting to see even if they could be deadly.  Sharks and alligators or crocodiles can be visible when you aren't in the water, but piranha aren't unless they are churning the water with a kill.  Water snakes are also usually visible on the surface, so are also a good option.  They could make actual spiders have the ability to walk on water.  Some bugs do, after all.  It might not be all that realistic, but it would work.  And vultures or other flying enemies are of course also a possible danger.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

Yeah, you mean water striders. That could work, but often you have posted that they don't want to add more

models. Personally I would use it , as a mod if it were not a part of the main game. In the end its whether or

not it's found by tfp to be in line with completion. Because so much effort was needed to get water to render

indigenous life was not included. Now maybe they may see it as a plausible addition. Telric had a mod i need

to open my a19 to revisit it.

 

[Riamus]

Yeah, you mean water striders. That could work, but often you have posted that they don't want to add more

models. Personally I would use it , as a mod if it were not a part of the main game. In the end its whether or

not it's found by tfp to be in line with completion. Because so much effort was needed to get water to render

indigenous life was not included. Now maybe they may see it as a plausible addition. Telric had a mod i need

to open my a19 to revisit it.

Yeah, they normally aren't wanting more things, but when faatal commented on wanting to do water stuff, he seemed to be talking about new enemies at the same time.  But that was not a "dream" of his and wasn't any guarantee it would ever happen.