Hiya all!
This week we’ve been working on adding threat behaviours and animations to all the creatures we have. Get too close in proximity and the creatures are likely to react to you!
As each creature in Boundless can have different characteristics and personality, this behaviour changes slightly per creature type… but I’ll go through them all individually below in more detail. 
Wildstock
Ok let’s start here. So the Wildstock is generally reactive and turns aggressive on provocation. In a herd not all of them will react with aggressive behaviour so only a portion of them get annoyed when you get too close. (The others don’t bat an eyelid! 
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Here in this anim, the threat behaviour of the Wildstock is shown by stamping and scraping his hooves before he’s triggered into the charge attack.
Spitter
The Spitters are a lot more aggressive by nature in general - how many of you have been blasted out of nowhere by a projectile??
Get too close and he’ll clearly warn you by rolling and shaking his tail like a rattlesnake. When we have a sound effect pass you should be able to hear that you’ve come across a bad tempered Spitter before he starts firing.
Road Runner
Ah the Roadrunner… well he’s just not aggressive at all! That’s not to say we can’t exhibit a reaction on proximity on the basis of his very cowardly personality.
Instead, get too close and some road runner’s get very nervous indeed. Like most panicking birds, it’s not going to take much in this state to make a bolt for it at any time!
Like the Wildstock perhaps not every bird has the same amount of this bad reaction - perhaps some will simply flee and others may quake in their boots for longer.
Hopper
We’re now onto one of our grumpiest residents. The Hopper exhibits his threat display by shaking like a porcupine and swaying from side to side. He’s in a pretty bad mood to start with and getting increasingly volatile by you being in his personal space.
Cuttletrunk
The Cuttletrunk is a very dangerous creature and like the Spitter, gives fair warning on the pending attack!
Hunter
The Hunter will not warn you when he’s stalking you like prey… that would give the game away right??
Instead, if you find the Hunter whilst they are in a passive state (in the air patrolling and ethereally flying around) and trespass in their personal space… they can be aware of your presence.
Playing the threat animation here indicates a certain intelligence above the other creatures. The Hunter is aware you are here… it’s just choosing not to attack you (just yet). Perhaps he’s a decoy and another is stalking you from behind…???
In any case, attack him at your peril. 
Ground Basher
Finally the Ground Basher, which is generally at the other end of the intelligence spectrum is very straight forward when displaying that he’s ramping up the agressivity!
Thumping his chest - this guy’s ready for battle. (This is the old mesh and texture btw)
So that’s it!
It’s been a bit of a milestone week for a number of reasons as I’ve been wrapping up the anims for version 1.0 so I can go on maternity leave with piece of mind. 
I’ll still be around and will of course be back before you all know it. I’ve absolutely loved doing the animations of 
and look forward to seeing more of the trailer animations make it into the game.
You’ll find in the weeks to come that the first person tools all have had a camera and animation pass - implementation is getting done as we speak. The creature’s above all have a fully animated set to put into the game and are due to be rolled out as each feature comes to pass. We’re also working on implementing bombs and throwing animations for the playable character… so watch this space!
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