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Hello dear dev team / community,
I would like to expose my idea of adding a small amount of fauna to tarkov and explain why it would be a wonderful addition while also contributing of gameplay improvements. I already made a post on the english forum but i am kinda sure it will be lost in the daily amount of other suggestions so im posting this here aswell. I know it could sound like a weird idea, fauna has not exactly been very popular in that kind of game, however i think it feels just right to think about adding it. I can tell you 100% sure the first (decent) military/survival fps game really considering it in a clever way could step up before all other runners, that's my objective opinion. Now Let me explain you why.
- First of all, all my following ideas should not be hard to implement. The ratio work/benefits on this would be quite amazing. I am aware Tarkov team is doing the best to add content, to fix bugs, and sadly to fight cheaters and i know the last thing they want is a big additional chapter of work. I worked a little in video games in the past and made around hundred+ mods in 8 different games. I know a bit about code, models, textures and AI and i am confident this should not spend much of their ressources. Simple models/textures, simple spawns, simple reactions, simple routes, simple animations for animals (running, walking, idle, die, crouch), may most of them are already available on most workshops or at least have existing content to be inspired by.
- Secondly, it will surely adds a big chunk of realism and therefore a quicker immersion. When you play a game with such big maps, involving abandoned sites, nature, trees, and then it feels too empty somehow, it's simply because beside players your subconscious notices there is no other lifeforms moving around. And that's a big downside, a constant reminder of "Hey see ? this is just a video game" which prevent you to fully immerge in its universe.
- Third and most important, fauna can play a big part in the PVP gameplay. My idea of a fauna addition is not about creating a players-versus-animals content. It's more like how local fauna can step in player-versus-player gameplay. A light fauna presence around will add moderately rare signals that you will need to decode or use at your avantage like if you were a real huntsman. These will either misguide you or your enemies, or even ultimatly force you to act on animals. But let's see a concrete exemple of how can animals improve the game :
About the map "woods". After lot of month passing by since last reset, economy allow everyone to bring top grade gear anywhere. Fun part of this game, gear might give you more chance to be victorious but you can still be beaten by anyone with low grade gear if you make mistakes. But sadly it's not that true for "Woods" map, if you are (now) not top geared in this one, your survival chances will be incredibly low, and if you think you have better chances at night you are dead wrong : it became one of the best map to bring your thermal gear making a nightmare for low levels trying to pull out the simple missions in here.
Now imagin a simple animal protagonist effectively misleading a soldier here and there who could have spotted you instead of loosing his attention on that wild signal. It could have been either simple frictions or sounds animals could make while going accross vegetation or ground alike players already make. Animals would randomly send these signals around because they are "living" their lives, reacting to players. They also can just be additional heating sources for thermals, which is somekind of the little nerf we would want for these ! Now here are some of the fun yet still realistic situations i could think about, but keep in mind there could be hundred of these verious situations and i surely can't paint them all.
some natural fauna behaviour could give you clue about player presence. For exemple : If you were staring in your scope, birds suddenly taking their fly could mean either a player presence near the ground, or a gunshot nearby.
A player shooting at some animals by mistake could be revealed by other nearby players. Good to punish nervous snipers.
A deer walking from area would probably mean no player coming from that area. But a deer running in panick from that area surely means that a player activity is not far from that area.
In some case, even a simple rat could save your life and take the guilt for you if the timing is good !
In some other case, an animal sound could narrow your attention, mislead you to panick or ultimately make some bad moves.
With the same attention to animal behaviour realism, crickets sounds at night shouldn't be a "general background" and needs to be modified as inconstant sound sources. With the same mechanics as seen previously, depending of players or scavs relative positions crickets could cover your moving sounds, or cover the ones of your enemies coming for you. It would add very interesting timing and windows to take action. Finding the "right cricket" as an ally could even be a first step for your next attack aswell as a cricket shutting up could mean someone is nearby making a move against you.
Keep in mind the amount of living animais on each map will have to be very clever. Surely far from making it a common event, but just a very few to create enough doubt in player's heads when these background events happens. These players might have to think further about their intentions to avoid critical mistakes. Among a map like Woods for instance, i would say 1 deer, 2 rabbit, 1 raccoon or 1 pheasant for the whole 45 min windows (not counting crickets or birds) all protagonists roaming around the map creating sounds depending of its movements, can be killed, not replaced and can also simply reach a depop. I don't think adding a benefit for hunting these animals for instance to gather animal ressources could help the gameplay perks they bring, quite the opposite they would become a silly addtional hunt objectives imo.
Now let's sum up animals, their behaviour and their possible integration in Return from Tarkov universe.
- Crows : MAPS/locations = Woods / Customs / Shoreline / Reserve / Interchange. Open air locations only, night and day. Behaviour = appear around dead human corpses (pmc/scavs/quest) if no human passage occurs nearby within 4-5 min. They randomly croak while around the corpse, they fly if a human comes by.
- Raccoons : MAPS/locations = Woods / Customs / Shoreline / Reserve / Interchange. Outside, near human constructions. Behaviour = roaming between garbage / trash / metal dumps spots. Can make loud friction sounds in contact with vegetation and create some cloth/pastic friction around trash when stopping. Is not scared easily.
- Pigeons : MAPS/locations = ALL Maps outside or open air. Usually in groups on dirt roads, steel beam, trees. Behaviour = Appear only in calm areas when no moving activity for a while. Suddenly take their fly when approached or if a gunshot happen around them.
- Rabbits : MAPS/locations = Woods / Shoreline. Outside only, among forest, grass and high grass. Behaviour = Avoid roads when roaming, stays in grass or forest. Easily frightened, run in the opposite direction of what scarred it (human activity or gunshots). Make light friction sounds with vegetation when passing through it. Good senses at night.
- Foxes : MAPS/locations = Woods / Shoreline / Customs / Reserve (around helicopter). Outsides and open air. Behaviour = Roaming through all kind of grounds, quick walking speed. Avoid contact with human if one movements is too harsh. Shout and run very fast if someone run at it. Make medium friction sounds with vegetation when passing through it. Run in random curved directions if scarred.
- Pheasants : MAPS/locations = Woods / Shoreline / Customs. Outsides only, mainly forest and plains. Behaviour = Roaming around, easily scared, walking and running speed is really moderate. Make medium friction sounds with vegetation when passing through it. Poor senses at night. Run in the opposite way of the danger.
- Rats : MAPS/locations = ALL Maps insides or open air. Usually loves human constructions / urban areas to loot food. Can be litterally anywhere even inside interchange shops. Behaviour = irregular dry sounds, sometimes metal object fall noise around trash (a can ?), scarred, squeeking, and disapear if any human surprise it. Disapear after too much human activity.
- Deers : MAPS/locations = Woods / Shoreline. Outside only. Behaviour : flee any human presence on sight, flee from gunshot aswell, good senses at night. Running speed is high. Make big friction sounds with vegetation when passing through it. Easily scarred, run in the opposite way of the danger.
- Crickets : MAPS/locations = All Maps, any open air only at night or dawn. 3 or more groups of crickets spread on the map randomly taking their turn to sing depending of the map timer clock, goal is to shuffle the sounds and prevent player from getting used to the locations. A cricket might go silent if approached too close by a human. Sing again if no harsh movement around even if a player lay close. Sing really loud when you are close, enough to prevent you to hear someone moving nearby. Could be 100% invisible to prevent a 3D model and texture, should not be a big deal unless devs want the possibility to kill it.
And i think im finished for now, i know this post has a great chance to be forgotten in the big pile of suggestions, but i mainly had positive feedback when i talk about it and i love so much this game i had to take a chance to describe what i had in mind in details since i think it would be a real game changer for player behaviours making the thinking/listening parts of this game even more complexe and the first fps to take that in consideration with a serious pov.
Cheers to the tarkov team, please don't give up on your game, it's already amazing. (and sorry for bad english, i am not a native speaker)
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