Topic

Predators

At the moment there is no brake on the number of pigs, butterflies and chickens we hatch from eggs in a street or backyard but what if the game had natural predators for these and other domesticated animals? We could have foxes for chickens, frogs for butterflies and wolves for pigs. These would be rare in a balanced environment but where numbers increased then the chance of a wolf, fox or frog passing through a street devouring lifestock would also increase.

To offset this we could also have a few objects to help. Whistles, tin-cans and sticks to chase the wolves and foxes, jars to catch the frogs. These would form part of an animal husbandry skill.

Posted 23 months ago by bluto Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Instead of predators, how about after so much nibbling, milking or squeezing the animal just dies, leaving a sort of special item for the last to touch? Also, to prevent over population there could be a limit set (unknown to players) once that population is reached the animals get sick unless we bring the population under control. Items gathered from these animials would be "sick" ie Mad Pig or some such. Though these conditional items could make be used to make other. Like a bad Ham sammwich which could give you gas that has an effect like spinach?
    Posted 23 months ago by Stinky Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 for Stinky's idea. Although "die" sounds a little depressing; what if depleted animals just disappeared in a puff of multicolored smoke?
    Posted 23 months ago by RobotGymnast Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Or a pile of bones or feathers?
    Posted 23 months ago by bluto Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sounds interesting, though this brings to mind a few scenarios:
    * Can I deliver a hog-tied piggy to be a wolf's dinner. Will the wolf give me something nice in return?
    * If I enter a street overpopulated with piggies, should I introduce a wolf so balance can be restored?
    * Can I pet wolves, foxes and frogs, and will it reciprocate the action with an item?
    Posted 23 months ago by roderick ordonez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i thought the idea of nibbling piggies was that they liked it, not that it eventually killed them.

    if piggy flooded streets are a problem, pretty easy to put a cap on the total number of pigs allowed per street. try to drop or hatch an additional pig, get a warning like "there are too many pigs in this area. keep the "Free Range" Free, man."

    also, the Rook already has similar effects to what is described here. the Rook comes through areas and puts sicknesses on animals and trees which you need to "revive". presumably they die if you don't revive them, so it seems as if the idea of animal and tree population control is already being addressed on some level through the mechanism of the Rook, which is a kind of predator.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I noticed that capturing a hog and throwing it into a shrine gets me a LOT of favor!. Overpopulation solved :P
    Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • No...way...You can get favor that way? Next game I'm culling the herds....
    Posted 18 months ago by Freeman Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I saw someone on global chat recommend not throwing critters into shrines... I don't remember if there's a mood/energy hit, but they said that the critter disappears and you get a lecture. (Haven't tested this myself, since I can't catch critters yet...)
    Posted 18 months ago by Jennyanydots Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I got 100 favor by throwing a hog tied pig it into a shrine. Maybe some giants like it and others dont?
    Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I once donated a pig, no bad effect, no lecture. Unfortunately you can only capture a pig once from each location - ever. 
    +1 for the predator idea.
    Posted 18 months ago by Momo McGlitch Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Heathermomo

    The limitation has been lifted.  You can now capture a pig again after a cool-down period. 
    Posted 18 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink