Is there a reason why... (DOWNPOUR SPOILERS)

[Wolfofdoom3]

Miros vultures prioritize players so much? They nearly ignore everything else. I don't know if it's intended or not.

[CR_East]

In my experience, predators in Rain World seem to prefer catching slugcats as apposed to other creatures. Note that this behavior may be a result of my abnormally aggressive playstyle making lizards and such want to kill me more.

However, I've noticed that vultures seem to exhibit this behavior tenfold. Often when given the choice between a dead lizard, a basically free and easy meal, and a live slugcat 10 miles away, they chose the slugcat every time. Comparatively, only lizard that REALLY hate you will exhibit this kind of behavior.

I'm actually not sure if vultures have a dynamic player aggression value like most of the other creatures in this game. It would make sense since they act so linearly.

Anyways, the reason I'm mentioning this is because the Miros Vulture is basically a vulture with the head of a Miros, and probably borrows a lot of code from both of them.

So what do ya get when you cross a Vultures player centered aggression with the speed and razor beek of a Miros?

A huge pain in the @$$ that relentlessly chases you down at any opportunity.


Although I like to think that there is a lore reason for this (Pearl and Spearmaster Spoilers)
Have you ever heard of the concept of "Purposed Beings" in Rain World? I don't remember which pearl said this but it is said that the ancients used to make beings made to fulfill specific needs. Obviously the iterator were some, but there were lesser ones too. In particular, it mentions a slug that was meant to clean pipes, which kind of implies that those were the ancestors of the slugcat.

In the Spearmaster campain (If your paging through these out of curiosity you may want to stop now), Five Peebles shuts off all communications to his can after getting pissed off by Moon telling him to stop killing her. As mosquito man your job is to deliver a message to Five Pebbles the manual way. Notably this is the only time frame where the miros birds show up. The lore has somewhat established that oftentimes when direct communication isn't an option, a slugcat is sent out with a pearl in tow to play messenger.

So imagine your Five Pebbles. You know this is the typical method of communications in situations like this, so what do you do? Simple. Combine 2 creatures abundantly available to you, add a bit of hatred for slugcats and volah!~ No more Slugcats crawlin in your arrays!

However, I have seen Miros vultures attack other creatures before, particularly when they haven't seen you yet or dragging their newest victims to their nest.

If your struggling against them, my advice is to play near those crawly holes when in danger and to remember when they are patrolling and where. If you encounter them early on in a cycle, chances are they will be at the exact same place if you die. It may be wise to retreat and skip this cycle to get a different Miros Vulture spawn. Also, like Vultures and Miros they are def, which can be useful when they are distracted by other creatures.

Also, as Spearmaster, vultures in general are great sources of nutrition due to their bullet spongy nature. Miros Vultures are dangerous, but can be used similarly when needed. Just make sure to have an escape plan when they explode (also, why do they explode?????)

[Wolfofdoom3]

Not struggling much with them, it's more of a problem of immersion. Even spawning them in arena they choose to ignore everything and just fly away. They only fight back for a bit if a scav hits them.

Normal vultures don't really have a lot of centered attention from what I've noticed. Only sometimes, but it can happen to lizards too.

Also Miros birds show up for other slugcats too not just spearmaster.

[azureSW]

I have had them prioritize scavengers and lizards > slugcats, you might be making too much ruckus or movement near them. They have good vision and tend to focus on the first thing they see, plus you're more likely to be out in the open than other creatures (that managed to survive, anyways)

[Wolfofdoom3]

Originally posted by azureSW:

I have had them prioritize scavengers and lizards > slugcats, you might be making too much ruckus or movement near them. They have good vision and tend to focus on the first thing they see, plus you're more likely to be out in the open than other creatures (that managed to survive, anyways)

The vulture was literally looking at orange lizards pass its vision cone and ignoring them. I was on the left side of the room when I came in and it moved its head away from them towards me and started attacking me. What you're saying is completely different from what's happened to me.

[CR_East]

This post has inspired me to do some research. Apparently Miros vultures have different behaviors depending on if they are in a campaign or in an arena. Campaign Miros Vultures seem to act mostly as me and azure described, while Arena Miros Vultures act identically to how you described.

Actually, thats not the only thing I discovered. While testing I spawned in a Miros Vulture and a Lizard in eyeshot of each other and not only did the Miros Vulture do nothing to the lizard, the lizard did nothing in response to the Miros Vulture, despite running away in my campaign tests.

This behavior seems to be replicated in all of the creatures I tested (Which were not many admittedly). The only way I could get them to respond is by putting the Miros Vultures right up to them using the cursor. The creature could then see the Miros Vulture but not vice versa

If you ask me, I think we just discovered a bug.

[Wolfofdoom3]

Originally posted by CR_East:

This post has inspired me to do some research. Apparently Miros vultures have different behaviors depending on if they are in a campaign or in an arena. Campaign Miros Vultures seem to act mostly as me and azure described, while Arena Miros Vultures act identically to how you described.

Actually, thats not the only thing I discovered. While testing I spawned in a Miros Vulture and a Lizard in eyeshot of each other and not only did the Miros Vulture do nothing to the lizard, the lizard did nothing in response to the Miros Vulture, despite running away in my campaign tests.

This behavior seems to be replicated in all of the creatures I tested (Which were not many admittedly). The only way I could get them to respond is by putting the Miros Vultures right up to them using the cursor. The creature could then see the Miros Vulture but not vice versa

If you ask me, I think we just discovered a bug.

For me they don't attack lizards in the campaign either. I saw one grab a corpse once thou.

[CRAWSMOST]

this post has been so fun to read and informative, the information about the AI is incredible, in my case with rain world always vultures prioritize lizards, but it depends on the context. my experience however with miros vultures has been the opposite, they always go for me but the lizards still escape from them.

[Wolfofdoom3]

Nice Vee pic.

[fluffymonster]

Originally posted by CR_East:

In my experience, predators in Rain World seem to prefer catching slugcats as apposed to other creatures. Note that this behavior may be a result of my abnormally aggressive playstyle making lizards and such want to kill me more.

However, I've noticed that vultures seem to exhibit this behavior tenfold. Often when given the choice between a dead lizard, a basically free and easy meal, and a live slugcat 10 miles away, they chose the slugcat every time. Comparatively, only lizard that REALLY hate you will exhibit this kind of behavior.

I'm actually not sure if vultures have a dynamic player aggression value like most of the other creatures in this game. It would make sense since they act so linearly.

I wonder if player-aggression can impact how creatures treat you. I'm rather non-aggressive, but I will attack vultures if beneficial to me. They will still go for a dead centipede if I place one on the ground, though, and ignore me. I know that the reputation system does have an all component on top of lizards, scavs, squidcada, jetfish, etc.

[Dual Lances]

Since they're offspring of Miros Birds, they're sent to kill anything in a specific area. I think the reason they target you is because Miros Birds gave them a heads up telling them that they shouldn't underestimate slugcats. That's my only explanation. I don't know what else would cause it. Probably memories related to slugcats.

[Honkiewithaboomstick]

Originally posted by CR_East:

Also, as Spearmaster, vultures in general are great sources of nutrition due to their bullet spongy nature. Miros Vultures are dangerous, but can be used similarly when needed. Just make sure to have an escape plan when they explode (also, why do they explode?????)

Bro they don't JUST explode, they essentially can fire missiles out of their mouths, that's what that is.
Ive hunted and killed a few with the hp bar mod active (it'd be way hard on vanilla but still possible)

When threatened or hunting, rarely they will open their beak, point a laser at you, and make a noise (similar to a vulture grub) and not long after they make that noise they launch a bomb out of their mouth at whatever the laser is pointing at. (not sure if its a bomb it moves to fast to even register/ doesnt actually have a sprite when it moves but it explodes like a bomb)

I've also noticed they seem to have what I can only describe as "pseudo king miros vultures" that seem slightly bigger (?)and have MUCH more of a tendency to use the missiles and are generally more aggressive. Usually most only pull out the guided missile when threatened and being attacked; but Ive seen a few that EXCLUSIVELY use the missiles even just for regular hunting and they always seem to be larger and kinda scarier than the other Miros birds around them

[RCMidas]

I think the Miros Vultures lock onto whatever creature they first spotted upon entering the room, and because of their hyper-aggression will fixate on that to the exclusion of almost everything else for some time. There are certainly times when I enter a room and spot two or three of them going absolutely ham on spiders and lizards.

[Madisaurus]

miros vultures prioritise scaves and slugs over everything else