DINODRIFTERS Dev Diary #20: Tracking, Calling and Maps

Hello and welcome to another DINODRIFTERS dev diary!

Animals in DINODRIFTERS have degrees of intelligence. Some simply spawn when certain conditions are met and exist only for a short while. Most through, are persistent. They have brains which they use to judge what they should do, where to move and what to do when they get there. They are adaptive and capable of being tracked.

This is the whole map of the Yixian Formation. However, this will not be completely visible at first during normal play.

In both Story and Dinosaur Modes, you can track animals by either smelling or tagging them. This does the same thing - it allows you to see where the target is on the map, should they be within a certain range. Smell can be captured via feces, but most commonly, it is captured via a direct contact with the target.

This way, you will not lose a special animal you want to eat/capture in the 900-square map, unless they're dead.

If the animal is dead for whatever reason, then the scent will fade and disappear.

In the natural world, this happens often, so do not wait too long to track down your quarry!

Smell is shown as a circle around the animal's location on the minimap and full map.

To force a conflict with an animal once you've tracked them, you can use the call feature. When you call, you get their attention. Whether or not they attack is dependent on their nature, your threat level and both party's health. If you see a Tyrannosaurus and call it - it almost certainly will forget whatever it was doing and make a meal out of you! However, a gentle Diplodocus will either run away or more than likely, ignore you. It depends on the situation.

Don't carelessly mess with mothering animals, though. They will often fight to the death to protect their young.

More specifics on how much of the map visible at certain times will come at a later point (after gameplay balancing is underway), so stay tuned.


Next diary, I will talk about the maps in DINODRIFTERS and give an overview of them.

Until next time!