When I hear Africa, I always think of lions, hyenas, elephants, baboons, rhinos, etc... Because that's what Africa mostly is, a vast dry bush with some really dangerous and some not so dangerous animals.

I just think it would feel weird playing in such an open world like FarCry2 without an element of a pack of lions stalking you a few meters away. Or running into an angry elephant or rhino which is ready to chase you down and crash your brains.

Just imagine that, running into an elephant, he spots and starts charging you, destroying everything in his way. You unload a clip into him but it's no use for his thick skin and mass so you run for your life. You hop in a jeep and drive off but he catchs up right next to you. Slams the side of the jeep, flipping it sideways and sending you flying from the driver seat. You unload your last clip and he finally gives in to the multiple hits. Still breathing you finish him with a few close shots to the brain.

Now how about stealing a trained elephant and go smashing through an enemy camp. Or luring a pack of lions into an enemy camp with the scent of dead meat. Or just seeing wildlife play out for itself from a distance, like a cheetah hunting bunch of gazelles.

Africa also offers other little dangers like poison spiders and snakes. So you would need to watch your step. And if you camp in one spot too long one might come along and bite you. Once biten you would have a few minutes to find a special bush in order to heal yourself.

Now I'm not saying animals should everywhere cause in reality they hide and run away before you even see them. But it would be nice to see some animal action once in a while, in some of the more remote areas.

Farcry2 is already really pushing realism so why not push it even more with an element of dangerous animals lurking around the bush?
Come on UbiSoft, you guys can do it, I know you can.

You understand what a massive undertaking it would be to create and implement a functional and realistic ecosystem all the way up to carnivore level, yeah? It would be ridiculously cool for sure, but I'd wager that if the developer decided to tackle this challenge, the game would either be postponed for several years, or the actual combat focus would suffer greatly.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. had some sweet predator AI that interacted well with prey, NPCs, and the Player (as anyone who has been run down by a dog pack will attest)
That aspect of the gameplay added a real immersion into the world, and helped the environment feel alive, and breathing, and deadly.

I really hope the Devs will find time to implement something of this nature.

i understand that adding predators would mean another element that would have to react to everything that is already there and everything already there would have to react to different predators, which could take some time to code so it works properly, still it would be totally awsome, so would being able to make any kind of larger animal flee from you in a direction you want them to, eg straight towards a vilage smashing everything they get near, but wether or not its implimented wont be a deciding factor in wether or not i get the game =)

I think this will be one of the most sought after mods. I hope there is a talented mod team up to the challenge.

Well I'll be in the army when the game is released, and won't have any time to mod, but when im done with the army, (about 2-3 months after the current release date) I'd be more then happy to give my all, to add the big 5 and anything els we want, to the african savanah/jungle.
i have a few years experience with modelling, and i can do a little texture work too, no animation (though im going to try to learn at some point soon) or coding (which i have no plans of learning) though. let me know if any one els, is interested.

I don't see why the Developers wouldn't even have thought of animals in the first place. It'd be fun to have this implanted into the game. This will be like African safari hunting with your high-powered sniper rifle.

You track a herd of gazelle drinking out of a water hole. Then the sound of your rifle echoes throughout the savanna. You drop one of 'em as the rest bounce away. Then you can continue onto your mission.

quote:

Originally posted by BuddyFlashheart:
You understand what a massive undertaking it would be to create and implement a functional and realistic ecosystem all the way up to carnivore level, yeah? It would be ridiculously cool for sure, but I'd wager that if the developer decided to tackle this challenge, the game would either be postponed for several years, or the actual combat focus would suffer greatly.

Why not? Crysis just pulled it off! Birds, fish, chickens, crabs, turtles, frogs and a ton of AI humans. Okay, so the the animals don't go about the land eating one another and that is just fine with me. So if Crytek can do it, I expect to see a bunch of animals in FC2! And if UBI can't, then so be it and the modders will tackle the job. So stop making excuses for UBI! This is all about getting our moneys worth; don't forget that UBI has track record of releasing games that need lots of work and patches to keep their fans happy. Does SH4 ring a bell?

The animal range will be better than Crysis's. Notice they have only gone for very small animals. The biggest being a tortoise it seems. Compare these little birds, crustaceans and reptiles to large four-legged mammals that can move very quickly. That's when things start to get hard to program and make look right. And Ubi is doing this with gazelles, water buffalos, etc.

Oh and joshua, that scenario you described will be possible in the game. There are gazelles that go to waterholes and scatter when disturbed. They have definitely already thought about animals, it's just they've settled for herbivores, and maybe a crocodile if you're lucky.

Somewhere I read that UBI wasn't going to put in any endangered animals into the game because they didn't want people out "sport hunting" in their game--big babies! I guess what they are saying is that killing people are more important than killing animals, and for some odd reason I couldn't agree with them more only if it were true in REAL LIFE; however, this is a game so I want to go hunt some real big game just like those sick *******s do for real that pay alot of money just so they can hang a picture on a wall showing that they bagged a RINO.

There's herds of elephants in some of the FC2 screenshots, but they are way in the background. Don't know if the screens were from gameplay or cutscenes.

FarCry2 Elephants

OU812LP
dont talk twoddle
if what you report is correct and what others are on about predators stalking etc

im srry to disapoint the animals are few and far between so being stalked is out of the question unless man suddenly became top prey. somthing which the indiginous people rarley get eaten by and have a hard time finding in the wild ,your thinking of game reserves serving the tourist trade


the only hope is for a rubber dingy section were the chance of being attacked by a hippo would be your best bet
or stumbling on a herd of cape buffallo
no offence but the countrys fkg vast

there only there to add ambiance to the game
so not realy the first thing the developers are going for.i mean implementing a seperate ai system etc will knock em back again in release time .just like crysis its a bit of a look at that aint it cool moment

i too would like it to be stalker but the plain fact is it ISNT and nore should it try as most game,s fail the mark when they add too much(stalker sufferd this because a lot had to be cut out check out the mod tht re-enable driving ,sleeping and dreaming)
its better to add it on after.like the shark mod on fc, but they could implement it later when and if they feel it adds to the game/perks the title up and is FULLY working properly with no drawbacks it would be a bonus

want an animal killing games try
http://www.terragame.com/downloadable/hunt/index_1_sort2.html

stalker and the upcoming turok installment also and some others i cant remember at this time

Here is an older preview article as well as the wonderful 'excrement' one you have probably all read. But, it states again that carnivores will not be part of the game due to the problem of ecosystem balancing.

I agree. Spend the efforts on the game, have some animals hanging around for ambiance, and let a mod come out after. If they try too much stuff, then the game will be weak in other places.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/815/815883p2.html
http://www.gamesradar.com/us/pc/game/previews/article.j...20071120105822656003

STALKER was an insanly ambitious and despite its flaws awesome game.
(and lives forever thru its awesome mods)

I would never expect an UBIsoft intern dev team to get a mandate for such a crazy property. they wanna give you new stuff, better developed features, but such ambitious experimentations you won't find here. they got a deadline to make.

Dunno if I'm totally right about this, but I'm quite sure I heard some dev who said that there would not be a single "bad animal", just the nice one who eats grass (which we've already seen in the demo they've released). They said something about that they would have to make a totally new AI to make this work, but as I said, I'm not sure. It sounds quite right though.

Could some Dev or site admin please give us a proper answer to this question?

quote:

Originally posted by Vals_Evil_Twin:
There's herds of elephants in some of the FC2 screenshots, but they are way in the background. Don't know if the screens were from gameplay or cutscenes.

FarCry2 Elephants

That was concept art only.

quote:

Originally posted by Theman550:
Dunno if I'm totally right about this, but I'm quite sure I heard some dev who said that there would not be a single "bad animal", just the nice one who eats grass (which we've already seen in the demo they've released). They said something about that they would have to make a totally new AI to make this work, but as I said, I'm not sure. It sounds quite right though.

Could some Dev or site admin please give us a proper answer to this question?

There will only be herbivores in the game. If carnivores were included, we would need to ensure balancing so that the carnivores don't eat all the herbivores, and we chose to concentrate the efforts in other places.

Then have vegetarian lions and hyenas eating grass . Just kidding, we can live without them. Elephants and rhinos would be sweet, but apparently you can't have endangered animals in the game either .

I don't know if giraffes are endangered (I don't think so) so it would be cool to see them, but they could cause clipping issues with trees and the like. I just hope there are some mildly exotic animals.

I think the lack of carnivores will probably be one spot of contention and complaint once it launches. There is always some complaint out there no matter how great it looks.

But, I would rather have them focus on the gameplay and this amazing engine. Let the modders take care of the animals.

The occasional half eaten carcass might help give the feeling of carnivores being present and watching even if they aren't in the game. If it was easy to see a carnivore they'd starve, so the fact that you don't see them won't kill the atmosphere too much.