Topic

Visible Representation of Fully Harvested Animals

Currently in the game, there is almost no real visual representation showing which pig you have nibbled out, or which chicken still has squeezing left to be squeezed, or which butterfly has been milked out. This makes resource gathering, especially for players with high levels of Animal Kinship, tedious and more-difficult-than-it-should-be. The details and solutions are outlined below:

The Problems:
♪ Current mouseover icons are useless to a keyboard/gamepad player, as they never show up if you aren't using your pointer.
♪ Current mouseover icons prioritize the broken heart (Pet Me!) icon, even when the player has Animal Kinship VI and higher (where you no longer need to pet them first); making it useless for quick nibble runs if you skip petting an animal altogether!
♪ Animal Pens such as the ones found in the backyard of modern homes, allowing up to 20(!) pigs at once, cause them to stack on top of each other. Even with mouseover icons, it's extremely difficult to pick out which animal is still needing help; The icon does not show in the "alt-tab" object selector when pressing "Enter" in a crowd of critters.
♪ Many times, people will name every animal on a street the same exact name; this behavior makes it even harder to tell which critter needs to be harvested out of the ones you've already done!

The Solutions:

♪ Add a feature to allow the user to press a button (like "Q", maybe) to desaturate (make greyscale) all animals that no longer can be nibbled, squeezed, or milked. (be sure to take into account that higher levels of AK allow us to do these verbs twice, rather than just once!)
♪ Prioritize the nibble and milk icons over petting and massaging when the player has enough skill in Animal Kinship to do so. Make these icons show up in the "alt-tab" object selector when pressing "Enter" in a crowd.
♪ Make the "alt-tab" object selector also display fully harvested animals in greyscale in the list, so the user doesn''t have to try and memorize the names of the animals that they saw needed attention (especially in cases where all the animals have the same name).

I believe a change of this magnitude would make the game a lot less tedious, and more fun for players dealing in the animal arts.

Posted 11 months ago by Lorraine ♪ Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • +1!
    Posted 11 months ago by roderick ordonez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • what does all this +1 mean?
    Posted 11 months ago by AwesomeCardinal2000 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think it has to do with some forums having a feature where you can give +1 reputation/like/whatever points to a post that you like and agree with.

    Basically, he likes and supports what I said. That's basically what that means.
    Posted 11 months ago by Lorraine ♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would love something like this too as my animal pen has 30 (not 20) piggies in it.
    Posted 10 months ago by IrenicRhonda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • IrenicRhonda: I take it you have a 50k home, in order to hold 30 pigs in it? :o
    Posted 10 months ago by Lorraine ♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1
    Posted 10 months ago by Bashere Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I absolutely agree! I would love something like this.
    Posted 10 months ago by Abby Cadabra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with all of this, although I'm not sure what the "alt-tab" feature is. I thought alt-tab switched windows.
    Posted 10 months ago by dm Subscriber! | Permalink
  • When you 'enter' on a group of things, such as a butterfly, tree, and a pig, and the little boxes come up and you choose what to interact with. It's the same general idea as when you have multiple windows/games open and you 'alt-tab' through them.
    Posted 10 months ago by The Mighty Dino Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Oh, I see. Not literally "alt-tab" then, just alt-tab-esque UI behavior. Here I thought I had stumbled across a new keyboard shortcut. :)
    Posted 10 months ago by dm Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah that's why i put "alt-tab" in quotes, i wasn't sure what to call that selector box. LOL
    Posted 10 months ago by Lorraine ♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Really good idea and useful for all. Even if the just turned another color.
    Posted 10 months ago by Thursday Soleil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You don't have to approach the animal within blue-glow range to pet it or squeeze it - just click the icon. I can pet a pen of piggies and nibble them all without entering the pan and getting my feet mucky.  I don't have to know which piggy in the crowd belongs to the icon: I just click the busted heart or the chuletas! When no more piggies are showing icons, I'm done.

    It's especially useful when the piggies/chickens are on ledges. If you can see them, you can harvest them without climbing all over the danged ravines.
    Posted 10 months ago by Tsu Dho Nimh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • this is a good idea
    Posted 10 months ago by Machiavelli Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't like the grey scale thing... Sound so technological. Like the Terminator's heads up display.

    BUT if it was a special skill and item (like a special pair of googles), it would be fine. And not against a visual clue when you select a large group of animals which have been nibbled, etc. But not sure how that would work.

    I believe the order of actions in list is more there to benefit newer players than old. If you still need to pet before you nibble, it makes sense to have that first. And it would (in my mind) be confusing to change the order when you become more skilled.
    Posted 10 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1
    Posted 10 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1
    Posted 10 months ago by AwesomeCardinal2000 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Tsu Dho Nimh wrote: I don't have to know which piggy in the crowd belongs to the icon: I just click the busted heart or the chuletas! When no more piggies are showing icons, I'm done. 

    When you have a lot of piggies some piggies are behind other piggies. The heart and meat icons only show for those that are at the front. So this method does not work if you have quite few animals
    Posted 10 months ago by IrenicRhonda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • IrenicRhonda - As the animals move around, they change positions, and eventually you get all or most of them.

    I've never tried it in one of the pens jammed with 50 piggies, but if I had a house with that many piggies I would have feeders and collectors. It works well in the community pens and the places with many ledges.
    Posted 10 months ago by Tsu Dho Nimh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Tsu Dho Nimh wrote: if I had a house with that many piggies I would have feeders and collectors.

    Of course I use feeders and collectors. But if you nibble you get even more meat. The nibbled meat is in addition to the collected meat, not instead of. 

    PS to add: I also don't pet my piggies so your way is an extra click to pet per piggy. My piggies still love me, and they tell me they are happy regularly
    Posted 10 months ago by IrenicRhonda Subscriber! | Permalink