Topic

about those pigs....

In this test, two streets in Alakol were flooded with pigs.  This has happened before, during alpha testing, with pig farms and fountains, and was the source of much hilarity (and meat!) until the devs stepped in to remove pigs from overcrowded streets and then implemented the idea of sad animals in overcrowded conditions. I guess they somehow move themselves to the next street over, but if a pig cannot get off a rock then I'm not sure how they are ever going to walk over to a street sign.

I'm not sure why devs changed the game to not allow massive amounts of pigs on a street (unless it's about performance, which is a good thing) but I do think the current dealio needs some tweaking since it's rather a downer to come upon a street with 100 pigs that are freaking out.


I can only capture a pig from a given street once in a lifetime? Huh?

In attempting to help the sad pigs by moving them, I bought some pig bait and captured a pig.  I knew I couldn't right then capture another pig, so I waited until the next game day to do so.  I couldn't.  I asked in Global and was told that you can only capture a pig from a given street once.  Um, why?  Now that we have 100s of sad pigs, this is not helpful.


Do sad pigs really have the ability to walk to the next street over?

If so... it doesn't seem to work.  The pigs in Alakol were on a rock ledge which they could not get off of.  So, do they then just die eventually if they get sad enough? How does this work?

You can heal a sad pig?  

When I came back to the pig laden street, they were all happy again and I was told that people fed them and petted them back to happiness.  Yet on a 3rd visit, they got sad again and I could not pet or feed any of them (menu items grayed out).  So, how does this work?

If pigs don't like to be overcrowded, why not just prevent them from being dropped off on a crowded street rather than go through all this sadness sorrow stuff?

I mean, one or two pigs acting drunk and leaning against each other being sad is very funny to stumble across and easily rectified by removing one of them.  Cool - witty and amusing.

But finding 100 pigs all depressed and suicidal is kinda sucky, especially since it's not clear what needs to happen to make them happy again.


Can we not have achievements foster downer behavior?

The idea of someone just sitting there creating 100 pigs that will just get sad to 'finish a quest' is annoying.  There is no such quest, but there is an achievement for bringing 100 pigs to life (more or less) so I predict a future in which more players, eager to get all the achievements, drop 100 pigs on every street.  How about not awarding the achievement if it was accomplished by doing something negative in the world, like overcrowding.

For example, you've been dropping 5 or 6 pigs on different streets throughout your life and then you reach 100 and you get an award.  Yay, go you.

But someone else just makes 100 pigs on one street, causing overcrowding and sad sad piggies.  Sorry! No achievement for you!  Instead, you die.  Sad.

Is this about performance or something else?

If the sadness trip was implemented for performance, then surely having 100 sad pigs on multiple adjoining streets is not really any different in flash than having just 100 pigs on a street who are not sad, right?  So, what is the point again?

How about some sort of floating limit instead?  Say up to 15 pigs can be dropped on a street, then some can get sad and wander off, but a hard limit if the street has 15-20 pigs on it and - sorry - no one can drop anymore pigs on that street, period.  The pig just won't leave your bag.  Or it does and goes up in a poof of smoke and you die for causing overcrowding, too.

Or let us be able to remove more than 1 pig from a given street to compensate for us now having sad pigs.

Pig bait fails sometime?

So, even on a street where I can capture a pig, sometimes the bait just fails but also gets used.  Why?  If the pig doesn't want the bait, then how about the bait not being used, plz?  I have all AK skillz, so it's not about a lack of ability - the pig just refuses to be tied up while eating the bait.  That's not fun.  In fact, it makes want to say, 'screw you, pig, get sad, go ahead and jump then why don't you'.

Actually, maybe that would be the more amusing and simplest solution.  If there are 100 pigs on a street and they all get sad, at least give us an animation where they all mass jump off the nearest cliff and kill themselves, flinging up mounds of meat as their parting hurrah. ;-)

Thanks for the listen!

Posted 19 months ago by zeeberk Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I'd type more, but I can't stop laughing.
    Posted 19 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Zee, as one of the original pork fountaineers, I know you are really close to this issue.  

    I ran across a group today whose ostensible purpose is to flood the community gardens with butterflies, and while I have no judgement to offer about the cool or uncoolness of this, I have to note that, well, there it is.  

    Mass pig suicides reminds me of Lemming Cliff, an old thread (in Ideas, I think), but I think this would be, UH, controversial.  Getting back to another old thread, maybe overcrowded pigs should evolve wings, turn into a gaggle of pigasus, and fly away.

    pigasuses? pigasusi?
    Posted 19 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • not to take away from what you are saying (which i mostly agree with)  the worst part of the one pig capture per street per lifetime to me is it applies even in YOUR OWN HOUSE!  I completely feel that animals should have an "owner" that should always retain complete control even if the devs do decide to keep the one capture per street per lifetime rule

    I understand the fact that people could possibly grief by stealing all the pigs in the world, but there has got to be a better way to implement a protection against that then.  (perhaps one capture per street per day?)
    Posted 19 months ago by IxÆoN Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I nominate Zee as our first Pied Pigger.
    Posted 19 months ago by Lelu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Pied pigger of Pigasus, that's me!
    Posted 19 months ago by zeeberk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • From what I've noticed you can capture pigs from the same area multiple times but you have to wait. I'm not sure if it's after a game day, or after a real day, or after you've captured a pig in another area of the game...

    Anyway, once we have more users and the game is opened up, I think we may actually have a shortage of the bacon bits.
    Posted 19 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 for bacon bits--new salad recipes!
    +1 for cliff jumping parting hurrahs!
    +1 for skies darkened by huge flocks of pigasi!
    Posted 19 months ago by Merek Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Too long!!

    Some answers:
    • It's about performance, but in both the "client slows down" and "this street is such a mess I can't do anything" senses.
    • You can drop them even if it is crowded because that seems more interesting and "realistic" than simply preventing the drop.
    • The bait-capture failure rate was designed to keep it a bit expensive (with the chance of failure counting as part of the "cost")
    Posted 18 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Too short!!! :-D

    If it's about performance or messiness, then how is 100 ~sad~ pigs on a street any better than just 100 pigs on a street?

    Can you at least tweak the punishment so that the street can be cleared of said sad pigs a little better than happens now, please?

    It is necessary to reward the creation of sad pigs with an achievement?

    (shorter - better?)
    Posted 18 months ago by zeeberk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • why is it you can drop lots of pig but only pick up one on a street ever? The lack of piggies is rarely a problem, but porcine overcrowding is becoming kinda regular. 

    Maybe there is an opportunity for a skill  - like animal control? Once a week, once a month, you can help clear out a street of sad animals? 
    Posted 18 months ago by Wren Bramble Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd love to see a skill where someone could remove things you've brought into your house.  Like butterflies and chickens, in addition to piggies. 

    I know I can ask the devs to do it, but it seems like such a poor use of their time.

    And the limit on capturing a piggy needs to be tweaked.  "lifetime" is way too long.
    Posted 18 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • How hilarious to start a business as an animal extractor, the most arduous and arcane branch of Animal skillz.  Only these intrepid Glitches have access to the complex and delicate trapping machinery that corrects imbalances from an excess of piggery (or poultry, or lepidopablabbity...etc etc)

    They would probably also have to take an oath of silence to never say where the trapped animals are taken.  An oath taken in a quasi-mystical initiation ceremony that includes a lot of splanking.   Everyone would wear masks, and the toga gowns or the kilts...

    wait, what were we talking about again?
    Posted 18 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ... if only pigs had wings!

    What if a 'lifetime' lasted until you died and went to hell?

    (And why does my iPhone think i want to say "went to he'll"?)
    Posted 18 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love the pigasus idea! When there are too many piggies in a street let them wander about moaning for a bit (till the end of that game day?) then the excess can rise up majestically into the skies... who wouldn't love that? 
    Posted 18 months ago by Momo McGlitch Subscriber! | Permalink