Olfactory creature deterrant

I agree that the number of harmful creatures puts big limits on the choice of good building sites. As a new twist on the notion of a creature deterrant that can be attached to the base - an olfactory deterrant would make sense. It could be unlocked by a scan of a territorial predator like a marrowbreach - a threat to most creatures smaller than a leviathan but not an issue for those small enough to be beneath its notice. A base-attached structure could be fueled by bioblocks as organic feedstock. (This would also provide a good alternative use for bioblocks than as a creative way for eating crab poo.) Personal ‘deterrant’ is probably already well-covered with the camouflage adaptation.

I like this idea, but have you tried building next to them anyway to establish dominance?

Because the bases don’t take damage as of yet, I’ve actually found it way easier to build bases in areas there are predators but I need mats, since you can use it as a way to block line of sight or quickly escape.

That being said some kind of system could be pretty cool, whether light, heat, or smell based, but honestly an outright deterent seems kinda game breaky? Not to mention Predatory animals tend to be very territorial so something smell based would likely have an opposing reaction in reality unless you used some kind of plant based sent the predator dislikes, but since it’s all coral and no plants that might not be viable?

A system that is set up to launch projectiles for predators to chase would be interesting. Would probably need to have pretty strict capacity limitations to stop it being game breaking but it would mimic that territorial response while keeping them out of your vicinity for long enough to do what you gotta do.

Regarding instant deterrent: I have indeed been considering that issue some. The problem I have with predators or other nuissances near a base I want to build (bulletheads are a total pain) is repeated harrassment during coming and going and maintenance. I agree it wouldn’t be good to just plop a scarecrow anywhere you wanted and not have to worry about predators ever. The answer I came up with was that if the effect built up over time, and/or was proportional to the size of the structure it was attached to, that could make it useful for permanent bases but not as easy to abuse by just spamming them. Chemical/olfactory deterrent sounds to me like something that could work with the build-up-over-time dynamic.

The link to territorial predatory animals is that for the most part, if a predator comes across a territory marked by another, it’ll stay out of the territory - they mostly respect each others’ territories and don’t seek out fights. Though that does bring up an interesting potential dynamic that could be worked into the time effects: initial response to an olfactory intruder could be increased agression and hostility until the new territory is established (rivalry response). That would have the gameplay benefit of making it even less useful for quick/transient responses to predator woes.

Implementation: repulsion radius increases over time to a maximum but agression increases with the animal’s proximity to the source. At first, the targets aren’t repelled and so only the agression effects are seen. With time, the animals keep more distance but will still be a bit more agressive the closer they are. Ultimately territorial boundaries are established and the animals are held at bay far enough that they aren’t provoked by proximity to the source and show normal/baseline reactions.

Another effect on gameplay from this implementation would be that it would still in general be easiest to build away from the nuissance animals because then you would have less of the initial proximity-based hostility to contend with, but if you were determined to make it work you could have a base to, say, take in the nice views near the needler territory and not be constantly pummelled when you go out to work your cultivation farms.