Predators should feel like creatures, not just videogame enemies

Right now, predators feel like they exist only to attack the player. That hurts immersion because they come across more like traditional videogame enemies than actual creatures that are part of a living ecosystem. In real life, animals attack for reasons like hunger, territorial behavior, fear, or self-defense. In the game, however, predators attack the player almost all the time simply because the player exists nearby.

Since players also can’t meaningfully fight back, interactions with hostile creatures become very one-dimensional: you just avoid them. That creates tension and a few good jumpscares during early encounters, but after a while the system starts to feel repetitive and predictable. And YES, this also applies to LEVIATHANS.

I think the game would benefit a lot from deeper predator AI and more dynamic creature behavior. Instead of always prioritizing the player, creatures could have their own routines and goals: hunting other prey, resting, defending territory, migrating, scavenging, or simply interacting with the environment. That would make the world feel much more alive and believable.

It would also create more interesting gameplay opportunities. Players could observe and learn creature behavior to safely navigate dangerous areas. Sometimes a predator might be distracted, sleeping, feeding, or uninterested, allowing the player to coexist with it instead of every encounter turning into an instant chase sequence.

A reputation or taming-like system could also be really interesting. For example, consistently feeding a creature could make it less hostile or more tolerant of the player’s presence. On the other hand, attacking creatures could make them more aggressive, territorial, or even fearful. Systems like this would make interactions with wildlife feel more emergent and memorable instead of scripted and repetitive.

( Rainword IA behaviour is a good reference of what this could be )

I LOVE the fact that they interact with one another and I actually have seen several predators that would normally have gone after me go after a giant crab instead. I’ve also seen a smaller predator go after a normal fish. I’ve never seen predators duke it out between themselves over their hunting grounds or home territory and I feel like if you’re going to prevent us from killing anything you need to give us an entertaining alternative. I would even be cool with them pursuing you far out of their own normal territory, FORCING you to risk your neck finding a larger predator to eat them if you wanted to lose them permanently, but the constant attacks on my inert structures and tadpole, and the relentless way they come after me and only me the vast majority of the time is a bit much. They’ve even knocked my tadpole out of the docked state multiple times.

The best examples of good AI are the hammerhead and the Cerathecan with how they interact with other fauna. Also, I like how the halfmoons like to move in schools. More like this!

I feel like the aggressive creatures are way more aggressive than the first game. Like the small to medium creatures that come after you are relentless. It’s not just if you’re close, they are coming from pretty far away.

Having predators in the wider area of the perfect spot for a base is frustrating indeed. Taming them might be too much, but the above idea to “befriend” them is pretty cool. Adding bait/food with similar behaviour to the flares (throw, divert attention), could lead to those predators at least accept/ignore you within their territory.

at least just make the animation them bleed and runaway when you hit the blade axe of multitool or vehicle lol. That’s is a simple physics to make world immersive. Animation, not HP.

The creature interactions that are in the game right now have been awesome to see. More of this sort of thing!

yeah, but that should be better encapsuled into dedicated quests to lead players through it that don’t want to do all the observations on their own. Also it should include interactions with specific equipment including dedicated gear unlock via such quests. Such gear would possibly allow to tame certain creatures.
Here’s the detailed suggestion https://subnautica2.nolt.io/8257

I mostly agree! I just want to point out that some predators already attack other creatures. Specifically the Marrowbreach attacking the Nibbler Mangos. I believe I have also seen a Foureyes go for Halfmoons.
But I would love an expansion of their AI just like you mentioned!

Yeah, buit then those marrowbreaches dont eat the fish.

The prey fish just .. happily swim away unhurt.

Thats a seperate complaint thou, cause it really takes away from the ecology.

I’m probably gonna have to make this a separate suggestion, but it’s somewhat connected.
I’d love to be able to make creature disguises, but because of the canonical nature of player deaths, my favorite deterrent idea is flavored suits. SD cards with games for the Nintendo Switch have this infamous bitter coating on them to prevent small children from eating them, and it tastes absolutely horrible, so it works. I want something like that for a suit for the player, so if a predator bites or eats the player, they will learn that the player tastes really bad, and avoid the player for a while! Maybe it only lasts half an hour or ten minutes per entity, but that would be precious time for areas that are otherwise hard to explore.
Of course we would not want the player to be universally safe, so let’s assume that some predators actually love the bitter flavor, forcing the player to try a differently flavored suit. Various predators could like and hate a variety of flavors to balance this.
It could also be a set of biomods instead, where you go and scan the flavor of something that the predators dislike in order to be able to taste or smell like that. Stinky is as good as bad taste, but I think bad taste is differently fun, even though it doesn’t provide the same opportunity for an “Uh Oh, Stinky” achievement.
I can’t think of many other predator mitigation tools, aside from something like the coral neurotoxin that clownfish rely on to hide behind, but that’s a bit aggressive, and not as funnily interactive. I like the idea of teaching the beasts that I don’t taste good and maybe give them a tummy ache. That’s very nature.

Edit: I made it a post, since it’s kinda different from your idea, here: https://subnautica2.nolt.io/10679