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[Footman04]

With the new changes to animal mechanics, I believe that factory farming could become a possibility on a larger scale than ever before used.
This implies the controlled and industrialized reproduction of the animals to a rate in which a sustainable birth rate can be matched with a steady output.

How do we make this happen?

[PopeRichardCorey]

With the new changes to animal mechanics, I believe that factory farming could become a possibility on a larger scale than ever before used.
This implies the controlled and industrialized reproduction of the animals to a rate in which a sustainable birth rate can be matched with a steady output.

How do we make this happen?

I think to really put it into practice, we need Hay first.  it's just not Factory enough when they're Free-range.

But other factors, I think we need multiple breeding pairs; I've heard that offspring are reluctant to Spore each other.  I'm currently working on a Sheep farm...  with, so far, a single ram.  very useful.

[Ravenkana]

I think, with poultry at least, this is feasible with the current release. Birds breed like cats and offer eggs as well as flesh for the fortress.

[Girlinhat]

The only real problem is that animals don't auto-pen.  So you have to manually place each hatchling into the pin.  When a clutch of eggs is 15+ that means every clutch must be pinned, or else chickensplosion.

[Dutchling]

With the new changes to animal mechanics, I believe that factory farming could become a possibility on a larger scale than ever before used.
This implies the controlled and industrialized reproduction of the animals to a rate in which a sustainable birth rate can be matched with a steady output.

How do we make this happen?

I think to really put it into practice, we need Hay first.  it's just not Factory enough when they're Free-range.

But other factors, I think we need multiple breeding pairs; I've heard that offspring are reluctant to Spore each other.  I'm currently working on a Sheep farm...  with, so far, a single ram.  very useful.

offspring will ''spore'' each other just fine, I have embarked with 2 Giant Rats and I'm 4 generations further and they're still happily sporing each other

[Girlinhat]

Dwarves will not spore each other, but I think all other animals, even other sentients who are retained on your map, aren't granted family trees and thus they can spore whomever they please.

[Lamphare]

minor uncertainty caused by FB or parties could jeopardise the whole production, otherwise i alway implement a steady food industry, and rely on the output for exportation.

[Girlinhat]

Parties... the eternally awkward and lengthy bane of any dwarven civilization...

[PopeRichardCorey]

Well, if offspring will spore each other, the next major step is to filter out weak breeding stock; if you have anything less than "gigantic", you'll want to slaughter them before they breed.  My rumours are +high quality+ in this thread, but I've heard that for some reason most animals aren't turning up small.

Does anyone know what effect Muscle size has on butchering, milking, etc.?  I know that there was some research on that way back when, but it doesn't seem to have been recorded on the Wiki.

[Seriyu]

If you really want to avoid parties, meeting zones set by the actual zone designations, as opposed to a furniture "zone", will never have parties thrown at them.

[EveryZig]

What determines whether (and how long it takes for) eggs to hatch? I have tried modding in egg laying magma crab pets for fun and have a breeding pair, but the eggs (still in the egg box) never seem to hatch.

[Thundercraft]

Does anyone know what effect Muscle size has on butchering, milking, etc.?  I know that there was some research on that way back when, but it doesn't seem to have been recorded on the Wiki.

Does "Muscle size" actually have a token in the raws? I looked on DF2010:Creature token, but could not find such a token. Perhaps you are referring to the Strength Attribute?

Alters the damage done in melee, increases muscle mass (thicker muscle layer also resists damage more), and increases how much a creature can carry.

I was under the impression that what actually affects the quantity of products from butchering is the body size. (See DF2010 Talk:Butcher.) But due to the limited genetics simulation, there can be a great deal of variation in butchering the same creature. Just look at the DF2010:Creature token page and do a text search for "BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER". This can be defined to specify a range of randomness for a species' height, broadness, and length.

Even a comparatively small range seems to allow for a surprising degree of variation. There are stories of unusually large dogs in DF that can be butchered for more meat than unusually small donkeys. And on this discussion on cat meat, some were complaining that they only got a skull, with absolutely no meat or fat, while the wiki (originally) said that butchering cats is supposed to give 6 or 7 meat/fat. There's that much variation.

...the next major step is to filter out weak breeding stock; if you have anything less than "gigantic", you'll want to slaughter them before they breed.

The problem with filtering out weak breading stock is that this would need to be done every time, for each new Fortress. But this can be a long term project involving considerable effort. And the starting animals for use in breeding have random attributes.

Yes, one could breed some very strong, very large animals that yield a lot of butcher products every time. And one could breed war and/or hunting animals that are unusually big and strong. But, wouldn't it be preferable if we could continue our line of carefully bred animals on our next embark, taking them with us when we strike the earth someplace else?

What I'd like to see is a "Successive Embark", or the option to continue the existence of a Fortress after the player tires of it or reaches a certain FPS death/breakpoint. What I mean is that instead of abandoning the Fortress or intentionally killing it off in a blaze of glory, the player can instead choose to select from among their current dwarves and resources to build a new embark party to strike the earth elsewhere, leaving the old Fortress more or less intact. I'd like to eventually be able to play a generated world from year 0 to year 500+ through successive fortress embarks and successive adventure embarks.

This could be a lot more interesting because the player could choose to bring along their prized breed of super-sized llamas, war-grizzly bears and/or hunter-giant lions to continue breeding them on their next site. Hopefully, they'd even be able to bring along a couple of such super animals as companions in Adventure Mode.

[PopeRichardCorey]

Does anyone know what effect Muscle size has on butchering, milking, etc.?  I know that there was some research on that way back when, but it doesn't seem to have been recorded on the Wiki.

Does "Muscle size" actually have a token in the raws? I looked on DF2010:Creature token, but could not find such a token. Perhaps you are referring to the Strength Attribute?

Alters the damage done in melee, increases muscle mass (thicker muscle layer also resists damage more), and increases how much a creature can carry.

That might be what is indicated by muscle size; I meant the animal aspect which leads to "She is enormous But Very Weak" and "He is gigantic with huge muscles" (that last one might not be a direct quote, but there's something like it.)

I was under the impression that what actually affects the quantity of products from butchering is the body size. (See DF2010 Talk:Butcher.) But due to the limited genetics simulation, there can be a great deal of variation in butchering the same creature.

But does that also account for volume of milk produced?  Is Milk static? 

...the next major step is to filter out weak breeding stock; if you have anything less than "gigantic", you'll want to slaughter them before they breed.

The problem with filtering out weak breading stock is that this would need to be done every time, for each new Fortress.

I'm not sure what the problem with that is; assigning professions is something that needs to be done every time, for each new Fortress, and what we're currently discussing is basically just turning your fortress into an even more functional abbatoir Ranch than before.

What I'd like to see is a "Successive Embark", or the option to continue the existence of a Fortress after the player tires of it or reaches a certain FPS death/breakpoint. What I mean is that instead of abandoning the Fortress or intentionally killing it off in a blaze of glory, the player can instead choose to select from among their current dwarves and resources to build a new embark party to strike the earth elsewhere, leaving the old Fortress more or less intact. I'd like to eventually be able to play a generated world from year 0 to year 500+ through successive fortress embarks and successive adventure embarks.

And I will close by saying that this is a really, really good idea, and I actually kind of subconsciously assumed that Toady was building towards that ultimately; one of the few major discernible goals that the game itself suggests is becoming the Mountainhomes, and there's a lot that could be done from there out.

[Thundercraft]

I was under the impression that what actually affects the quantity of products from butchering is the body size. (See DF2010 Talk:Butcher.) But due to the limited genetics simulation, there can be a great deal of variation in butchering the same creature.

But does that also account for volume of milk produced?  Is Milk static?

The answer to this question seems to have been answered by NW_Kohaku in the Making more diverse genetics thread:

...keep in mind that milk production is also independent of creature size - goats produce just as much milk as cows, in spite of eating less than a tenth as much grass.

By "also" he was referring to how both the rate of grass consumption by grazers and milk production is independent of creature size. Instead of being influenced by genetics (with some variation in breeds) or creature body size, they are both defined by absolute values with tokens in the creature's raws. And sometimes these values defy common sense.

PS: Another thought about the Successive Embarks suggestion: It would be cool if our fortress was the last of all dwarfkind and, through repeated embarks and founding of more and more successful mountain homes, we managed to get our dwarves flourishing again or even manage dominate the map after a few centuries. That'd make the first such fortress the stuff of legends that all descendants would portray in engravings, works of art, stories, etc.

[Girlinhat]

That's because many of these values are placeholders, simply hashed in to prove the concept works without worrying much about balance.  You can very easily add a 0 to the goat's milking speed, thus making it consume 1/10th the grass, and produce milk 1/10th as quickly.