Creature Feature

Six burrows bring creature combat to Canyon Oasis. Crabs spread across the map's routes, crawl over moving neighbors, then circle and rush the player. Fight with Oasis's weapons; deaths free space for more creatures to emerge.

Can six burrows populate untouched Canyon Oasis with fighting creatures that navigate using the existing arena graph?

Work with the existing arena

Six burrows populate three elevations of Canyon Oasis without replacing its level. The experiment asks whether a shared arena graph can guide a reusable creature pool while leaving enough individual movement for the result to feel like a crowd.

What the first play test changed

Build 3 spreads creatures around waypoints and contracts that spread near narrow routes. Player-sized collision, nonblocking mound geometry and explicit emergence targets address crowding and snagging around the burrow mouths.

Crawl-over locomotion lets creatures cross moving neighbors and descend again, with incidental piles limited to three high. This is evaluated through measured movement rather than the presence of a piling state flag.

Evidence and limits

The thirteen checks include navigation and piling negative controls, crossings and descents, real rifle input, death and respawn, and the packed mod alone. The revised movement still awaits attended testing.

The current behavior pursues the host player. Remote clients and retail Jedi Knight remain unverified; burrow return, relocation and recycling without death are future work.

Back to Research

Shared routes, individual swarm movement. Build 3 responds to the owner's first play test: creatures spread around waypoints, contract near narrow routes, and crawl across moving backs in piles up to three crabs high. Collision matches the player's size. Nonblocking mound geometry and clear emergence targets prevent mound snagging.

An automatic creature arena. Six burrows start without an extra menu. Creature corpses clear, the 36-creature pool refills, and normal multiplayer respawning keeps the fight running. Burrow return and relocation are planned for later.

Thirteen checks pass, including navigation and piling negative controls, measured crossings and descents, real rifle input, death and respawn, and the packed mod alone. The revised movement awaits attended testing; remote clients and retail Jedi Knight remain unverified.

1. Put CFEATURE.GOB in mods and enable it by itself. Disable other arena/menu mods.
2. Host Jedi Training on Canyon Oasis / m10. A solo hosted game works. The creatures start automatically.
3. Use the normal weapons and pickups. After dying, wait for the death animation and press Space to respawn.

Host Jedi Training on Canyon Oasis / m10; the creatures start automatically

Fight with the map weapons and pickups

After the death animation, press Space to respawn

Up to 36 living creatures; six permanently open burrows on three elevations

Crabs spread around routes, circle and rush, and crawl over moving neighbors

Only Oasis is supported; creatures currently pursue the host player

Burrow return, recycling without death and relocation are reserved for a later version

Tested headlessly in OpenJKDF2; attended play and retail Jedi Knight remain unverified

Crab model and texture by Gnarly; animation and scripts by COG Factory generation 2

Creature recordings from ElevenLabs; mound rock texture reused from the crab cave

Canyon Oasis and stock game assets by LucasArts; no stock episode is included