I've always thought animal transformation would remain patently useless until we had a working were-creature system. Does anyone remember that? About a year before CMS goes in, were-creatures are removed and we're told they'll be back with CMS, but not as races... as afflictions! Sounds fun, don't it?
Obviously it would be best to scale the scarcity of prey (which would then scale the scarcity of predators as a side effect) up the further you get from civilization. This same system could also be used to make a virtual "nomad band" area I'm betting, with wandering giant tribes or the like...
