I had a few ideas for monsters that I think would be interesting. Forgive me if some of these ideas area already being considered, but hopefully some of them will be new. When I first started playing Starbound the game felt a bit spooky. But soon you realize that most monsters are dumb and just blindly charge at you. I think the feel of the game would benefit from adding a few more spooky behaviors. Camouflage It would be cool if a few monsters had really good camouflage. When peaceful, they might transition in and out of camouflage casually. But when spotted, they run a bit out of sight and activate their camouflage. When player moves next to them they might ambush attack, or if very timid, just stay in camouflage. It would be interesting if your Flashlight (and other devices?) exposed the camouflage monster with a sort of flourescent effect. This could be an upgrade for your Flashlight. I think shooting blindly shouldn't expose them because that's too easy. It should be as if the monster merged with the background layer. However, maybe special abilities such as shockwave or the scatter bomb should expose them. Of course, adding this mechanic has the benefit of being an ability the player might get. http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/camouflage-armor.6901/ But if the player has it, some monster should have abilities to sniff out the player. And if light exposes camouflage, then light monsters should reveal the player to all monsters when they get close enough. After thinking about this, I think there could be 3 levels of camouflage in the game eventually: Visual: Purely visual camouflage, like a monster with grass and flowers on its head. They just stay still to attempt to hide but blend into the environment naturally without any special mechanic. They are always vulnerable and can be hit with any weapon. Background active camouflage: Completely blend with whatever is around them, more like an octopus. Slight shimmer or special devices could be used to expose them, which lets them be attacked. Phase out of reality: Something more like invisibility or warping into another dimension. Only special tools specifically for exposing these monsters will work. Run & Stalk Some monsters should be a little more intelligent, when they're spotted or in a compromised position, they should run out of sight to a dark place and preferably up to a ledge where they can pounce down onto the player. They should never just run at the player without trying to find terrain advantage. They might also try to circle around behind the player. (I realize this may be a difficult one to program) Extinguish lights Some monsters could have the ability to turn-off torches and other lights as well as eat flares. EDIT: Turning your torches and lights back on would be annoying, so maybe they should flicker back to life after the monster is dead. Also, these monsters could make your flashlight and other carried lights flicker a bit. Cut your grappling hook Some flying monsters could cut your grappling device. Grab you Some monsters could grab you and hold you in place dealing damage over time until you kill them. Stronger holds might be stationary monsters, like a venus fly trap. Also, this could be a grapple mechanic, like those creatures in Halflife that pull you up to the ceiling with their tongue. This could also be a cool mechanic if the monsters are in liquid and grapple you to pull you under water or into poison. Pack forming Monsters that are afraid alone and run away, but gather together in a pack and then attack together. Maybe they would use some of the stalking behavior.
As you stated, some of these ideas would definitely be a challenge to program, but adding these into the pool for random gen monsters would totally add something this game really needed. Monsters that are genuinely threatening other than just by having better stats. The orbides are already an excellent example for something like the camoflauge, and the nutmidges already act sort of like a pack, so all of these would definitely be possible
Nice effort in the post, but some of the features is already existent as some monster already capable of blending in their environment, stalking you, keeping distance, absorbing light, and purely meant to fuel your nightmare.
