Note: Partcline is currently reworking Ai and according to the excel, considering additional features. So these might be redundant or contradictory to what is planned, but at the same time if it gets noticed this might be the best time for these suggestions.
Sharks/Sea creature revamp
Problem: slow, repetitive fights with no variety, simply point and click as they swim back and forth and occasionally, through your ship.
Solution: New Attacks:
Each current creature (not lurker) should have a few basic attacks to make (surface) fights more interesting.
Considering these would make creatures move about more, as balancing they should have a certain period between attacks, and after more significant attacks would be more sluggish for a few seconds when they resurface to allow for counter attacking.
Moves:
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Ram:
Summary
Starting further away and accelerating straight to your ship, dealing lower damage than a bite but with higher stun (see other suggestion. if not, is just a faster but weaker bite variant). After, shark recoils back and dives down to reappear further out and dazed.
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Dive:
Summary
Shark leaps high into air in direction of boat from far out (to telegraph), before swimming underwater to bite the hull vertically (think jaws poster). Can be avoided by raising sails and moving if shark/boss is slow. A deckhand can shout “Captain, it’s attacking from below us!” or something similar for warning. This has the potential to be annoying (as you struggle to hit it underwater from boat), so would need a significant cooldown period to prevent spamming.
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Wave:
Summary
Megalodon or larger will rush partway to boat and stop halfway to twist and create a wave with their tail that will deal low DMG but can knock you from attachments or even the boat, and disable deckhand/crew functions briefly while they get back to their station (small anim for this). Easy dodge with t leap, but have to be aware of it. Wave won’t drag you like sea waves do, just throw you quickly a short distance (if you land in water, creature wont try to target you for a reasonable time period unless you damage it by yourself). Larger creature = larger wave
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Bite:
Summary
same as current in-game. (starts same as ram/wave, but with mouth wide open, constant velocity). This will still be the most common attack, followed by Ram.
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Leap:
Summary
Like dive but starts noticeably closer (short dive before leap), the shark leaps onto a random point on the lower deck and thrashes around, dealing low dmg consistently to crew in an aoe not much larger than creature size . After a while it will slide back off, or if you meet a damage threshold you can repel it quicker. High enough damage can knock a shark back before it even lands. Also should be infrequent to prevent bosses from wiping the crew by spamming it (maybe buff enchant cd to compensate, or use supplies to heal crew?). Can be avoided by moving out of the way, the shark isnt guaranteed to land on the boat.
Obulus:
no leap attack cause its too clunky and slow, but can occasionally go invisible except for lure light, on cd after meeting a damage threshold or after a period of time it just reappears. Can also rarely create mirages of itself, which disappear after one hit (here guns/attachments will be better than cannons)
Attack Rates:
Some rough numbers for which move a shark will use each attack (if one is on cd or not applicable, just rerolls), Bite is 37%, Ram 27%, Wave 16%, Dive 10%, Leap 10%. Cooldowns also follow this list but inverted eg bite has no cd, leap is longest.
Underwater:
Less room for options, but i dont like how they just swim straight at you constantly. I think they should be less maneuverable so you have the chance to dodge sideways, take a bit longer before turning around to attack again, and ocassionally slow down before charging at you w/ a stronger bite. Small change, but could go along way since it sucks fighting them underwater.
