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Author Topic: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic  (Read 1207 times)

Dorf3000

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War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« on: February 18, 2011, 04:50:40 pm »

It seems my previous habit of having the expedition leader be the animal trainer, and have him protected by a small army of unassigned war dogs, has to come to an end in the new version.  They now start to bite each other when they get too close together, and more annoyingly, they bite the trainer...

Now I have to get a fort through an entire year and hope I get lucky with the elf caravan to get my hands on a Giant Cheetah or Eagle or something, and see if they'll go so far as to kill their owner if they get stuck in a narrow corridor.  That would be kind of appalling awesome even for DF.
"Hey, Urist, check out this tame elephant I got from th-" *urk*  *trample*
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I had a tigerman get elected mayor and he promptly mandated 3 bowls of cereal.

Girlinhat

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2011, 04:59:14 pm »

They don't insta-tantrum, it takes some time locked in a small area to trigger.  Walking down a hallway or being in a 1x1 bedroom during sleep probably won't do anything bad, so long as the person is doing something at other times like hauling wood from the great outdoors or going to the super-large dining hall to eat.

Urist Da Vinci

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2011, 06:06:24 pm »

This sounds like an interesting way to generate an unfortunate accident for a noble.
I wonder if goblins will fight with each other if they are dropped into a 1x1 pit, or if this is an animal-only thing?


Things I don't support, but acknowledge existed for historical accuracy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_fighting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockfight

LilGunmanX

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2011, 07:01:09 pm »

Oh my god, animal proximity mechanic!? This is a FORT-ENDINGLY BAD IDEA. Fun a few times, sure, but overall I think not a good idea. In one of my old forts, which may or may not have been lost to the recycle bin and a desire to start new, I had walls... walls!... of chained elk bird in a sort of cattle-pen system, but without the divide between each animal. Then I also had a long 3-wide hallway completely lined with chained rutherers, who were my secondary line of defense from goblins and kobolds.

And I had way more draltha than any of these. Oh man, don't even get me started on those. I had a few of them on gold chains in my mayor's office too. Worse still, the amount of war dogs in my fort doubled this, and my tame GCS would usually hang around the dining hall before I finally chained it up. My fort was a bestiary/slaughterhouse, I constantly had 32 kitchen churning out roasts and 8 bonecrafters on arrow and craft duty, including all of the dead elephants my two or three hunters were bringing in.


So does this mean that every fort now needs to be built with much wider hallways? Or are we just doomed to have animals killing everything?
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xeivous

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2011, 07:12:35 pm »

So does this mean that every fort now needs to be built with much wider hallways? Or are we just doomed to have animals killing everything?
Both.
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Girlinhat

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2011, 07:46:24 pm »

Don't act like any 1 tile hallway is going to cause insta-tantrum.  We're talking more about the old habit of having a 1x1 pit and mass-dumping kittens in it.  That will be a problem, when they have no room to breath.  Regular fortress life will be fine.

Korva

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2011, 08:37:20 pm »

I noticed that the pets and war animals in my test fort don't seem to mind being stacked on each other when they try to path through a pet-safe door to follow their owner/trainer.

The chicks in my chicken pasture, though? Those little blighters started squabbling pretty much right out of the egg, even I had at least as many tiles as birds in that pasture. Given the sheer number of eggs you can get from even a single hen, birds will demand a lot of real estate to stay happy. As an animal-lover, I approve of this.  ;D
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darkflagrance

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2011, 08:38:19 pm »

Don't act like any 1 tile hallway is going to cause insta-tantrum.  We're talking more about the old habit of having a 1x1 pit and mass-dumping kittens in it.  That will be a problem, when they have no room to breath.  Regular fortress life will be fine.

It eliminates useless kittens that might have otherwise been eating your fps. What's not to like?
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Lagslayer

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2011, 08:43:50 pm »

Do cages still have infinite space?

Korva

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Re: War dogs and the new animal proximity mechanic
« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2011, 08:54:21 pm »

My cage full of 19 chicks and 9 puppies says yes.
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