Deer/Elk AI should ignore shallow water and run through it, espceially in mires

[Tsambo]

Hello and happy new year! Coming back on one of my favorite games after a couple of years off and immediately had a lightbulb moment!!

I was trying to hunt these days and i was experiencing complete failure, as it should be. The harder this game is the better, that's what survival is!

But then suddenly, after all these years of hunting in this game, something clicked in my head. The animal AI can't differentiate shallow from deep water (or can it these days? in my recent experiences, it still can't), so i took full advantage of it. I stopped hunting except if i could force them to run in mires... And sure enough i had so many kills, so many poor deer and elk going breathless running in circles trapped between single tiles of shallow water, while i was running straight through them. It was comical. So many hundrends of kilos of meat that i didn't have enough time to cook before it goes stale, felt like cheating!

And here comes the suggestion. Obviously animals in real life can perceive when the water is shallow enough so that they can run through it to get away from a predator. So why not in the game too? My suggestion is that big animal AI should just ignore shallow water and ice on shallow water and just run through it to get away from you. Especially those 1 tile water tiles in mires!

This little exploit of their AI i am describing is such a big contrast with the otherwise amazing hunting simulator this game is, that's why i felt like making a post. I tried to very quickly search the forum, but i didn't find any similar suggestion.

[PALU]

Elk are good swimmers in real life, so it wouldn't be off if they just ran out into water and swam away.

Running through shallow water should definitely be a thing (at a speed and fatigue cost), but doing so when the ice breaks is probably a very bad idea. Not only do you (the animal) get cold, but also cut by the ice, the progress would be very slow (unless the ice is thin enough to offer little resistance to the legs ), and it would be very strenuous.

[Tsambo]

but also cut by the ice,

Great idea in general. You shouldn't be able to run literally for hours behind prey without some minor scratches or bruises! Although completely miniscule on their own, they would add up in the long term if you overdo it day in and day out. I know that muscle strain and pain from overdoing it is allready in the planned additions for the future and i can't wait!!