I just saw reference to the former predator/prey system on SotW in the cbox. I just wondered...any chance we might be able to have it back?

I've been realizing for a while that the packs don't seem to hunt very often, until realistically, they'd all have starved to death. I thought maybe having other animals "wander in" might make things interesting and get some more hunting action going?

(I don't remember a Skah hunt since just after Fal took alphaship)

Hmm, it might be good, because it helps in organizing pack hunts, but I dunno. Sometimes it is kind of a hindrance, but also more realistic. I know that sometimes the people don't make their wolves' hunts be unsuccessful or pack hunts likewise.

Isa'fea have a pack hunt right now, but I do kinda think it would be good. Geez actually I remember when the prey was on here X.x -feels old-

~Jess

I remember Aiyana bringing down a deer for the Din'dea once.

Once.

Anywhup, I think what happens is that everybody gets so busy with plots that it doesn't feel like there's time for a pack hunt. It would be fun though, I've never been part of one. :ph43r:

Beowulf is new, but I would love to join in on a pack hunt. Maby some other predators could enter the wolf territories and threaten the food supply. That would cause some enthusiasm in the way of getting food.

When predator/prey was introduced, it was really, really good for a little while and added an element of extra realism to SotW. For those of us who like an intelligent roleplay it gives you something to think about, when things don't quite go to plan for your wolves!

The problem came with maintaining the prey accounts. :P Somebody's gotta do it! And a lot of people couldn't be arsed after a while, last time (I held a couple of prey accounts, I know I did; I remember making the signatures for them and I know I let out a long and despairing groan when yet another pack applied for yet another hunt :ph43r: ). xD They can't be blamed. Who realllllllllllly wants the responsibility of roleplaying a deer who cops it all the time? The problem is, so much weight rests on the prey player's back. An entire roleplay, often with the whole pack of wolves, rests on their shoulders. The other problem is that when the prey has to make a decision, there could well be arguments of the 'my wolf's really strong and fast, your deer wouldn't escape' variety!

There was a predator system too. That went a bit funny. It was nice to have the extra dangers of mountain lions and whatnot wandering around, so not all wolves were purely injured by each other, but if I recall, they tended to gang up a little bit on packlands. I also seem to remember that some people found it excessively creepy that their wolves were the only animals who could talk, and some other people thought that there was now too much attention being paid to other animals on SotW than wolves.

So yeah... my advice is, if you want the predator/prey system - don't organise it the way we did it back in the mists of time. :P

Here's an example of how the prey and predators used to be (both in Din'dea, sorry. I like Din'dea!)
A wild boar: click (I just realised, embarrassingly, that I played the boar in this. I gave it away in the second page of the roleplay. Ho hum. Short, stupid posts. How embarrassing! Besides that, we even had the wolves running off to deal with a human once; you can see them realise that the human is in their territory at the end of that roleplay I linked to. Having a human about was even stranger, because in the one roleplay he was in - if memory serves - he didn't talk either!)
Annnnnd a wolverine: Click

Yes, we all did much shorter posts back then. You'll have to ignore that. :ph43r:

Poor Tlon got beaten up by that damned wolverine ;-;

*Cough* .. Anyway, yes, predator/prey worked for a short while but, in the end, it seems easier for someone in the pack just to be nominated to play the animal for that RP. We no longer have any prey mods and it is a BIG annoying thing to have a ton of prey accounts. It's also hard to keep track fo them, to be totally honest and remember who plays which animal.

However, I think, if enough people wanted predator/prey back we could organise it. But we'd need someone to be a prey mod again. We'dhave to make a poll or something but personally, I'd advise against bringing the scary old system back..

Anotehr point is that the prey/pred. topics often covered up other topics. With the large boost in activity recentley (WEHAY!)we already have overlapping topics and them being covered up by a random pred. or prey post would be irritating. To me anyway x.x

Ah well, just a few thoughts there.

~Katie

Hmm, now that I see the downfalls, perhaps the best thing to do would either be totally scratch my idea, or arrange it a lot differently.

Perhaps having only one prey account and one predator account to cover their respective animals? And only allowing a hunt thread in a thread where there are no other current topics?

Or, instead of having a predator/prey system, maybe just require that a pack has to hunt every so often, or else the pack begins to suffer from hunger.

See, realistically, the Skah would be emaciated if not dead by now. I'm not sure the Amarth would be far off. I know the Isa'fea is currently hunting and I'm not sure about the Din'dea (I know they're not currently hunting).

See, nothing against all the plots, it does make things interesting. BUT realistically, wolves would be hunting for food. They would be needing to eat. Otherwise, wolves out in the wild would be dead.

Not trying to be argumentitive or a pain here, but I wonder if perhaps something can be done to make sure hunting goes on, for the sake of realism? Even if it's just to say packs either should be RPing a hunt or they better be RPing the consequences of not eating?

Quite a lot of wolves, even the pack ones, catch smaller prey like rabbits and fish and such, but I do see your point. It would be realistic for probably all of the packs (bar the Isa at the moment) to be wiped out but I think poetic liscense on realism applied where wolves can talk and a season passes in a month XD But, as I said. If enough people want it, we can have it.

~Katie

I think there should be some rule or somthing stating that a pack has to hunt about every week or so. I mean, that would corrospond to about once every month or so, right? That or roleplay starving wolves...It's just an idea, but hey, why not put it out there?

To be honest, I left a site because of hunting issues. It's the same thing over and over again. Realistic or not, you get down right bored with it. Once every six months is ok with me but more than that and I go crazy. Yes they are realistic but if you think about it, it would get boring and tedious. Having to wait for EVERYONE to post the kill then EVERYONE eating. It kinda sucks.

Obviously I'm against it but its up to everyone I guess. I know I'd still stick to once or twice a year just because I really don't like them. I just assume they had hunts of their own between threads. But that's just me.

~Niccy

Ayashe here, again. =)

I personally think that... once a week for a hunt is too much, because with a whole pack involved, it might take more than a week for everyone to take part in the kill and eat and all that, as Niccy said, and therefore hunts should by the potential new rule start to overlap, and... oh, I don't know. I'm generally of the opinion that people can do whatever they want, so I myself wouldn't force people to hunt if they didn't want to. SotW has always been advertised as a realistic wolf rp and adding a touch of extra factors to that is nice, but if you were really talking realism, you'd just have wolves eating, sleeping, urinating and bonking all the time, sooo... :lol:

Oh yes. I think the realism is more in the "you can't be bright purple and fly" aspect than the mimicking reality bit. ;) It takes a lot of time to organize that many wolves. Maybe hunts should be for if the pack is getting inactive? It gives everyone something to do even if there's no plot going.

Oh, and if you wanna see a too-many-wolves trainwreck, go look at "Back to Square One" :wacko:

Maybe hunts would work if we left them to the hunters, and then people could bring chars in to eat? Thatway you don't have the whole pack out of comission/LTing at once.

I remember when there was prey *feels old and mighty* The thing I hated about hunt topics was that they bogged down really fast with loads of wolves, many of which would post rapidly and then completely stop half-way through the topic. Arguing over who killed the food ensued too... Remember those age-long dragging pack-meets? It was like those, but worse, since everyone had to (as mentioned before) strike and eat and such. Maybe small pack hunts, like no more than five or something, might be an ideal suggestion however. The old way was not too fun to RP in.

As for the prey, I would say that their animal got the last word in who struck where, just to prevent any fighting. After all, the critter is destined to die anyways, and its more fun if you thwart your pursuers as you go down ^^ AS for predators, who knows?

Okay, well I don't think that when there is a pack hunt, that the entire pack should go, unless the pack is UBER little. Get the Chief Hunter/Huntress or if there isn't one the Hunter that the Alpha thinks is the best, together with the Alpha to organize a hunt and choose wolves, run them by the Alpha to make sure that they can use them and then go. They howl when it was over if it was a success or not, and that is that.

As for there being actual accounts...I don't like the idea of random prey accounts, but maybe...MAYBE predator accounts, just so long as they aren't lurking around ALL of the time. *shrugs* The predator thing could be interesting. But overall, I don't think that prey accounts should be made.

~Jess