Feature: Moa
OzPayn opened this issue · 2 comments
Spawning criteria - grassy terrain in all highfield, arctic, and magnetic biomes, spawns alone
Spawns in groups of 2-3 at nest structures
Behaviour type - neutral
Health pool and Damage types - very high health pool, weak to pierce, strong against slash and impact
Attacks - melee attacks, high damage
Description - Moas are highly intelligent giant birds, they spawn in packs around their nests and occasionally solo out in the wild. They are generally passive and friendly with players and other NPCs, but can be territorial around their nests and are very protective of their eggs. Wild moas cannot be tamed as they have not formed a strong bond with the player, instead the player must obtain a Moa egg and incubate it to raise a new baby Moa themselves, creating the strong bond between Moa and player that allows them to be tamed and mounted. If the player attempts to steal a Moa egg from a nest, the Moas of that nest will become hostile until the player leaves the nest area.
I’d like some way to be able to take moa eggs without the moas becoming hostile, maybe either by building trust with the Moas through some kind of interaction like feeding them or bringing them resources they need. Not sure yet.
Tamed Moa
Moas are one of the main progression systems for transport, traversing the Aether’s islands on land or via gliders is dangerous and slow, but with a flying mount you can soar through the skies high above the surface’s many hazards. To tame a moa you first have to find a moa egg, moas can be found rarely roaming the Aether’s islands, but their eggs can only be found in their nests. A moa nest will be guarded by a few wild moas, who may be distrustful of the player coming into their private space (potentially hostile if the player does the wrong thing, but I would like a way to get a moa nest to trust the player so they can obtain their eggs in a non-hostile way)
Once a player has obtained an egg from a moa nest they will need to incubate it via the incubator utility block, I think incubation should be kept relatively simple, akin to Aether 1, but I’d recommend we use a more unique or resource intensive method of fuelling the incubator. Once the egg is incubated a baby moa will spawn and begin to require aechor petals, if a baby moa is left hungry for too long it will become starving, starving doesn’t harm the moa so you can’t have a baby moa die of hunger but the amount of times you leave a baby moa in a starving state will negatively affect its starting stats. When a baby moa has been fed three times it will grow up into a tamed moa, the player can now craft and equip a moa saddle to it and begin using it as a flying mount. Moas have two states, a walking state and a gliding state. While walking, the moa operates very similarly to in Aether 1, it has a fast walking speed and can step up single blocks without jumping, can jump high, flap its wings to gain height, and has slow fall in mid-air. The player can, while mid-air, change into the gliding state, where the moa functions more like the elytra with physics based gliding. Moas have a limited amount of wing flaps, based on their core stats, these flaps can either be used to gain height during the walking state or gain speed during the gliding state, and are replenished over time when the Moa lands on solid ground, or slowly while hovering.
Training a moa is a key part of progression, moas have three stats they can train in, Speed, Stamina, and Strength. Speed determines their sprinting speed and their maximum gliding speed. Stamina determines the amount of times a Moa can do actions like sprint, flap their wings, or boost during gliding, all through a central stamina pool. Strength determines how much height a moa gains when flapping its wings or how much speed they gain when boosting during a glide, as well as determining their maximum health. Different feather shapes determine the stats a moa specialises in, giving them a small boost to that stat when they grow up and also gives them a higher maximum possible value for that stat. Wild moa eggs will always have one of the three basic feather shapes, which are strong in one stat but weak in another. Breeding moas of different feather shapes together can produce rare feather shapes that don’t have a weak stat, and breeding these rare feather shapes together can rarely produce a perfect moa which is strong in all three stats, allowing the player to train that Moa to max stats. You can train a moa in these three stats by riding the moa, the speed stat can be trained by sprinting on land or by boosting while gliding, the stamina stat can be trained by gliding while a moa’s stamina is run out, and the strength stat can be trained by flapping a moa’s wings to gain height.
