Bethesda has made a pretty big step when it comes to how they improved creatures AI from Oblivion to Skyrim. In Oblivion it always bugged me that the creatures would all be friends and hold hands as they all ganged up to kill you. It started in Fallout 3 where we finally saw creatures fighting each other but Skyrim is the first Elder Scrolls to Do this from my knowledge.

But I think this system is starting to become outdated just like the AI system from Oblivion. Yes Creatures will fight each other, and you may see a random encounter of two sabrecats hunting a mammoth. But It still doesnt feel like an ecosystem yet. Here are some things that Bethesda needs to start with when trying to build an Ecosystem in my Opinion.

Establish Territories/Environments For all Creatures

- Herbivores should be given certain areas to roam that makes sense. Places where they eat and sleep should be thought of when placing these animals in the worldspace. Yes there will be some herbivores that roam everywhere but it has to make sense why they are there

-Predators Needs Territories, like literal Areas that they roam. I think they should even have animations for marking territories so a random encounter could be the player viewing this behavior. In skyrim there was a woman in the town next to the throat of the world saying that bears clawed trees and destroy them. They do this to mark territories, but we never really see it in skyrim. Territories are important because some animals will fight their own breed for it. So the possibility of a pack of wolves attacking and killing a lone wolf in their territory should be in future titles. This goes for all predators.

Animal Behaviors more Pronounced

- What I mean by this is that certain animals shouldnt just be running around with no purpose. Take rabbits for example, They should actively be looking for food and the player should be able to witness them searching for and eating the food.

-Predators NEED to stalk or actively hunt their prey. For example if a Sabrecat is hunting you or something it should truly hunt you by keeping its distance and trying to avoid being seen sticking low to the ground slowly creeping up to you and then explode with amazing speed and force.

-Animals should also behave according to their schedule like sleeping at night, or nocturnal animals needs to be looking for food at night.

Day/Night Cycle should Play a major part in what you see

- Some Animals should be exclusively seen at night and not during day. If Bethesda really wants to get deep they can give animals dynamic AI where as they add specific locations for a creature to sleep. For example, bats could be sleeping in a cave on the ceiling and the player can see them sleeping, and at night they fly out of the cave searching for food. Of course this would require their engine to render interior locations into the exterior world for some instances like this. The point is every creature has a shelter or creates shelter and have animations to compliment this. When they wake you will see them go about their day.

Connective Animations A.K.A. Animations that allow creatures to interact with things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eNdSSa1dek

- Notice how the Shark actually bites the player instead of just lunging at the player to damage the player. The shark interacts with the player. Im not saying to entirely get rid of the current attack animation system but I am saying do it where it makes sense. If a Sabrecat swipes his claws at you then you wouldnt need a connective animation sequence, but if the Sabrecat pounces on you then yes there should be a connective animation that brings the player to the ground.

-Connective animations should also be present when predators are hunting its prey. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWghjL9qZ5w&feature=my_liked_videos&list=LL2Y5sDy1zoS9w7WjSV2Yv8A of how a leopard from Far Cry 3 brings down what looks like a deer, Skip to 1:16 in the video, I'll drop a comment so you can click to see.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv0wjS3nvso and see how great Connective animations can be, the video is a trailer from a game called Primal Carnage.

Creatures that Age

-Now Im not saying Bethesda needs to make it so that creatures literally age as time goes by, although that might be awesome. I do think we should see all kinds of Ages for Creatures. From Babies of that Creature, to a young version, to half mature, to a fully mature advlt version of the animal.

- This enables the player to see things like babies of creatures being born. Parents of the Babies can be fiercely aggressive by guarding their nest or den. To discourage players from killing babies the animal should get buffs for being in a parental rage.

- We can even see Juvenile males of certain creatures challenging the Alpha males in a fight to the death while the other creatures stand around and roar.

Immersion

- To better immerse us inside this "Living Breathing World" I think there should be some things to spice the game up.

- I dont know if even the Next Gen consoles can pull this off but would be cool. Creatures being able to actually devour its prey down to the carcass and the visuals actually show it. So for each bite a proper portion of the food disappears. So if wolves hunted and killed a deer and they start eat it we should see the carcass go from meat to bone in a realistic manner. This can add a whole new level of immersion and could be used to scare the player in certain instances.

-This one might be silly, but animals do get rid of waste too. So animal droppings Should be added. You might be saying to yourself thats gross and doesn't add to the game but it actually does. Farmers can use manure to fertilize the ground. It can be used similar to the gore bags in fallout 3 where it might hold something valuable in it but is nasty to dig in. Some droppings from certain animals could be ingredients for alchemy. And it adds to the immersion even more that these animals are living here and are not just enemies for me to fight.

Underwater Habitat needs to stop being Neglected

-Underwater Environments are actually pieces of space to play around in and I feel that in every TES the Underwater Areas like lakes, oceans, etc are not being used to its full potential.

- Mudcrabs and Slaughterfish are the only creatures that I've actually seen underwater in Any TES game. But the Underwater World can be very Diverse and vast when it comes to an Ecosystem. Things like coral reefs can be a melting pot for a large array of sea creatures.

-The same rules that apply on Land should apply underwater, its a fish eat fish world down there.

-Not to Mention a fully fleshed out underwater ecosystem can open up new mini games for the player and quest. A lot of untouched potential down there in the water.

Conclusion

Jeez I feel like I'm back in High School writing an essay lol. But As you can see, there is a huge amount of room for improvement in the creature AI department. And I believe pretty soon Bethesda will have the firepower to make most of this stuff happen in their future projects!

Would be cool but it would extend the amount of time between games to give the amount of detail described. Which I would be okay with.

There actually several type of fish in skyrim
-Salmon
-Abacean Longfin
-Cyrodillic spadetail
-Histcarp
-River Betty
-Silverside Perch

not to mention other aquatic creatures such as clams, and nordic barnacle clusters

Holy crap that's a lot of detail. I don't even think the next gen consol would be able to handle that and the rest of a game.

Yes but they are very unrealistic and feed on nothing, don't lay eggs (caviar anyone?), or have anything really above them on the natural food chain, as most fish do.

I think it could be done but it would push some limits definitely

Not really... there are ways to script this.

World of Warcraft did something similar with animals and such (mostly in Wrath of the Lich King). They had rams head-butting for dominance, bears fishing for river trout (and catching them!), wolves hunting and killing rabbits that spawned nearby, ect...

Incidentally, they do have some animal life that is purely nocturnal. The Insect life seems to adhere to a strict timetable.

Thats true I forgot about this, Bethesda did take a step in the right direction from their previous games. But there needs to be more predators underwater there are a ton of options for Bethesda like Alligators, Big predatory fish, sharks, or even brand new original cool creatures.

I like the ideas, but they wouldn't be on my top priority list. I'd be more geared toward character development, AI, and animations than anything else. With the second generation systems though I'm sure this will all come naturally.

Another thing to note is they do have some random events scripted in that spawn. I stumbled upon 2 sabrecats on the road guarding a fresh goat kill, for example...