I’m looking to you guys to do our jobs for us again! We’re working on creatures at the moment, and we’ve got some fantastic designs, but I would like even more ideas that fit in with the sandbox nature of our game.
By this I mean things that force the player to use interesting tactics to defeat a creature, or things that creatures do that can be used by players for interesting effect. Generally something that will allow our creatures to be part of the game sandbox, rather than just background fluff or target practice.
I’ve seen the couple of recent creature threads, and those are great, but any more ideas would be gratefully received.
I came up with a silly idea (seriously, its silly.)
You know how in mario you have to jump on the head of monsters to kill them?
If there was a creature in Boundless that you actually had to jump on top to kill it that would be kinda… interesting.
Maybe the only vulnerable spot is on its head or something
Edit:
Oh, and maybe have a creature that lifts blocks from the ground and throws them at you?
Of course, they can’t take blocks from inside beacons.
How’s about a creature that burrows it’s way to prey? Would be cool if you then have the possibility to find one of its tunnels and then try to get it underground. Or it flees through burrowing when on low health
I really want a creature that have an ability like Reinhardt from Overwatch
would deal massive dmg if you hit a wall, so positioning would be absolute key.
I already mentioned how a boulder creature which would tire itself out by rolling would be awesome.
A humanoid ish creature which would split into 3 of the same image, two are fake and one are real, if you kill a fake one it explodes dealing massive dmg.
i will mention more when i get to it, i was actually considering to make a thread bout it.
How about a creature which have 1 hp and can only be killed by melee hit, it would sit in an open place where it can be seen, the catch however is that in an 8 x 8 square around it 20 bombs would be place randomly (imagine the potato mines from plants vs zombies) ofc making some way you can figure out which it is, an idea could be a minesweeper like idea
it could either have 6 different pitches of noises, each one would determine how many bombs was around the player, or it could have a sort of counter on its head like zer0 from borderlands.
It would be nice if creatures responded to weather effects, like lightning - it would be a fluff element though. For example lightning strikes near a flock of animals, they get upset and disoriented and therefore an easy prey. Bit of a random element since one can’t depend on lightning hit the ground when you are hunting.
Same to plants, which could shine/open at night, but also react to rain. If it rains a plant could grow in size or open its leaves.
Final idea - a creature which harvests goods/items/ ressources. Not as a slave pet, but rather for its own needs like nurturing little ones. If we had trees with fruits some day, there could be a flying creature which gets attracted by the fruits - the more fruit yielding trees you plant, the higher the chance of attracting animals of a specific kind.
What about multiple creatures, which hunt as a swarm (flying) or as a kind of herd. In order to hunt them, you would need to go with other players or trap them in a tunnel, so they can only attack you with one or creatures at the same time. Maybe they might also only follow you, when you are alone and run when they see, that there are many players, like wolves or something like that.
For the drakoid creature you guys are already worked on, it’d be kinda cool if it had a ranged attack that turned the blocks that are one deep within X radius into lava source blocks. The environment would get more difficult and more dangerous the longer you didn’t kill it. But then I suspect we’d just see lava everywhere so there’d need to be a mechanism to remove the lava after a set time or revert the blocks I think.
Edit: Likewise, doing this with a quicksand sort of block would be interesting too.
What about a plant that holds out something of value to the player (Ore,fruit,weapon,something pretty,etc…)
This plat ways for a player to come up to it and then traps it in a plant trap thing.
A worm that digs through the ground could also add quite a thrill to mining tours (just imagine mining peacefully and suddenly a worm pops out of the wall directly in your face )
There could be small ones that leave 1x1 holes behind and rare big ones that leave a 2x2 hole behind so you can actually follow its trace.
Hmm…thinking of meaningful ways to incorporate creatures into players actions or the environment into tactics of fighting creatures is hard…
I’m sure this would be hard to incorporate, but I’m imagining a sort of bird/pufferfish mix. The creature has scales or something else on it’s back that act like mini-solar panels, taking in energy and enabling it to puff up. By puffing up, the creature can fly. Players who kill the creature could obtain the scales, use them to craft a “solar panel” type slab or something that could then be used to power machinery. You could transform “solar” into general light levels in order to dictate the creature’s behavior if it gets stuck under a cliff or something, which would also give underground builds a way of being powered.
This would require a change to the current damage system, but having a subterranean creature that can cause fake “cave-ins” would be interesting too. In other words, if there’s a layer of rock, dirt, gleam, whatever at least X distance above the player’s head, a certain amount of that resource could “fall” (be generated in and fall), causing smashing damage. Tactics would require the player to try to find an area with an open area above them in order to fight off the creature. Getting caught in corners or small tunnels would reduce chance of survival or at least hinder escape as you’d have to dig your way out.
I’ll keep thinking of ideas while I work, this is challenging…
You’d still have to somehow hide the creature underneath or make it invisible or something, otherwise it wouldn’t require tactics. If I see an oort stone being held by a plant, I’m going to know it’s the enemy you’re describing. If I just see an oort stone vein and hit it, but then it vanishes and a long vine comes out of the earth covered in sharp spines and tries to flail at me in order to knock me off an underground cliff into a lava put, I’d be in trouble.
Edit: A nice way to fight a creature like the one described would be to have to dig around all of X or Y rare ores in order to figure out if the creature is hiding underneath. Maybe once you find the “root” of the creature, it’d have a weakspot making it easy to defeat.
Imagine some kind of bird (a big one), which lives in higher regions and tries to grab the player and let him fall on the ground. Players could fight it with their bows or grappling hooks, which can also be used to save themselfs, if they fell. The birds could drop feathers, which are used to build a glider or stronger arrows.
A creature that is invisible unless seen through your peripheral vision. (The very edge of the screen.) You have to essentially gauge where it is, then turn to fight it blindly. It could drop some material used with some form of invisibility effect.
Given the nature of the game, I have a few concepts for gemstone-like creatures as well:
An incredibly enormous, translucent, ruby cube that spawns extremely rarely. It floats around slowly, mid-high in the sky. If you begin to observe the creature, (actually looking at it with the mouse reticle) it immediately becomes aware of the individual observing it and will turn its attention to the observer. The creature is always passive and impervious to damage, with only one exception. If four Oortians observe the cube simultaneously, the cube will position itself above the observers and begin a complex transformation process as it begins to open. Once the cube begins that process, it becomes vulnerable, and the four Oortians who had been observing the creature must begin killing it, either by grappling up to it and meleeing it, or using projectile weapons. If the Oortians fail to kill the creature before it finishes opening, a blast will shoot out from it, immediately killing the observers. If the Oortians end up successfully ending the life of the ruby cube, it will explode and drop certain specific crystal items/materials only obtainable from this boss. (Yeah, this would be some form of boss mob.)
Large mounds of blue, hovering Crystal in varying patterns/shapes. Within each crystal is what appears to be a spinning energy of unknown form. Three or four spawn at once, and they always stay within a certain vicinity of each other. These creatures are always hostile. Beams of energy are transmitted at high speed between their energy cores at certain intervals, and the crystals will rush toward the player, attempting to trap the player within the beams. If the player gets caught within the beam, something very punishing happens. (I was thinking either they teleport the player to their own home, which would be extremely annoying during an expedition, and sufficient reason to be careful around these creatures and not get trapped within a beam. OR… the beams will do a certain amount of damage as a normal monster would, but be tough to avoid. This detail could be figured out.) Players, in order to fight these creatures, would have to shoot projectiles into their energy cores so they explode. Each creature would drop specific Crystal items/materials only obtainable by these creatures.
Large, emerald, crystalline, jellyfish-like creatures, able to generate electrical charge through piezoelectric action of its tentacles. These creatures float as well, and are passive. They only spawn in randomly generated emerald fields across the worlds, in which they are tending to. Attempting to kill these creatures or steal the crystals from their fields will anger them, and they will all attack at once by flailing their tentacles in an attempt to electrocute the player. The player will need a specific, “lightning rod” item held in his hand when the creatures attack with their tentacles, and will need to switch out and attack with their other weapons between the flailing. The lightning rod will keep the player from being damaged by the electricity. Once the creatures are killed, they will drop specific Crystal items/materials only obtainable by these creatures, and possibly some items or materials in line with electricity.
Medium-sized, grounded, purple, crystalline mounds. These creatures will ordinarily look like nothing but a mound of crystal in the ground. Attempting to attack or mine the mound will do nothing. However, within a certain radius of the creature, if you turn your back on it, so it is no longer on your screen, it will pull out of the ground and follow you. Blind, it follows you by smell, and can sense if you are looking at it. If it gets close enough, it will tackle you, do a fair amount of damage, and send you flying. If you look back to it, it will be back to partially stuck in the ground, and impervious to damage. In order to fight this creature, you will need to either have someone else run up and attack it while it is chasing you, or you will need to dig a hole in the ground between you and it, and then turn your back. It will fall in the hole, and flail on its back until you kill it. Killing this creature will yield specific Crystal items/materials only obtainable by these creatures.
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