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[TomTheHand]

I'm playing a Dwarf Fortress mode game right now where there are absolutely no wild animals on my map and never have been.  It's been about three years now without a single animal; how am I supposed to kill off excess population with hunting jobs?  

Also, all of my games have been extremely light on monsters.  I've only ever seen two giant moles and one naked mole dog, over the course of quite a few games.

Anyone else ever have a map with no animals?  Is it a bug?

[Toady One]

Does the map have an extreme temperature?

[TomTheHand]

I don't think so.  I tried to go for the easiest, most mild map possible, and I wanted something elephant-free.  I'm thinking it's Cold.  I'm pretty sure it was Woodland, with Moderate underbrush, and Calm.  Is there a way I can view the map's characteristics again to be sure?

I'd be happy to e-mail you my game if you want it.

[puke]

i saw something similar in a world generated with the last version of the game ( 0.22.121.23b ).  a "warm" map in a heavily forested region had no animals at all.  i didnt take that map very far because no animals showed up.

abandoning and starting in another "warm" region on the same world, I have a 8 year fortress that has in its entire history encountered exactly ONE frogman and exactly ONE batman.  the batman i can understand, because I dont chasm refuse, but the river dwellers usually come to my forts in force at least every other year.  usually more.

I have seen firemen about once a year, though.

edit: am i the only one that goes looking for maps with elephants and / or gorillias on them?  megafauna gives the best meat and bones...

[ January 08, 2007: Message edited by: puke ]

[TomTheHand]

quote:Originally posted by TomTheHand:
<STRONG>I don't think so.  I tried to go for the easiest, most mild map possible, and I wanted something elephant-free.  I'm thinking it's Cold.  I'm pretty sure it was Woodland, with Moderate underbrush, and Calm.  Is there a way I can view the map's characteristics again to be sure?

I'd be happy to e-mail you my game if you want it.</STRONG>

Sorry, after posting this I thought of a way to see the map's climate: backup the game, abandon the fortress, and then go to reclaim it.

It's a Temperate Freshwater Marsh, Temperate/Woodland/Moderate/Calm.

[HaunterV]

my first map had no animals on it either aside from the cats n dogs that came along. the  same  for my second fort.

[Toady One]

Marshes and swamps will often be left with nothing -- the only wetland animals that are currently defined are alligators and crocodiles, and they don't like the cold.  Temperate might be too much for them, since they don't have [HOMEOTHERM:#].  I don't remember if there is a big cat that can live in the marshes, but if there is, it won't necessarily be rolled up for each marsh.

[Abyssal Squid]

I think most of the large animals in temperate swamps and marshes are birds (think herons, ducks, and geese), along with snapping turtles, muskrats, beavers, and of course fish.  The game doesn't handle birds very well right now, what with them having leather but no feathers, but I started modding in some large birds a few months back before I found out that they weren't being added.  I just now realized that I forgot the [OBJECT:CREATURE] tag, so I'm going to start on this little project again.

By the way, is there any way to restrict creatures to habitats within a biome, or plants to certain biomes?  It would be neat to have kingfishers flying down the river while geese graze on the edge of the lake.

[Toady One]

Not yet.  The plants one is the most unseemly omission I think.  There was some minor hiccup that made me bypass it and I haven't gotten back to it.

[Fieari]

Toady, have you considered that even if you don't want to open source the source code, that you could outsource the data files for creatures and plants and such to the community?

[puke]

or at least put out a request for submissions that could be pruned and balanced.  have some of the grunt work done by rabid fanboys.

[Pesty13480]

quote:Originally posted by Toady One:
<STRONG>Not yet.  The plants one is the most unseemly omission I think.  There was some minor hiccup that made me bypass it and I haven't gotten back to it.</STRONG>

Speaking about not having random animals outside the fort on marsh/swamps, there appears to be no civilizations within the chasm either - I'm about ten years into my fort, have chasmed thousands of things, and I have not seen an antman, ratman or batman.

The odd troll, giant rat and trog will climb out of the chasm in anger, but none of the 'civilized' species. Is that an oversight, intended, or am I just extremely lucky?

[Toady One]

It usually picks 4 or 5 types of critters to live in the chasms for an entire mountain range, so that mountain range doesn't have any.

People can create and add mods as they like.  I'm not included submissions in the main distribution.  I'm not going out of my way to add extra fixed content because I'm going to tinker with randomizing things later on.

[Emiteal]

My current map has no animals on it, and I love it to pieces. Lets me chop wood and gather plants without fear. I basically just go and designate the entirety of the map once a year and let the dwarves handle the rest. (Thick forest and vegetation.) I don't have to bother with farming at all, which is great, because I'm not very good at it, and I get tons and tons of wood.  

So far as I'm concerned, nothing wrong with maps lacking animals! It's great for creating a culture of vegetarians.

[slMagnvox]

Heh, completely on the other end of the spectrum, I started another new fort on a Tropical (Temperate?) Grassland, scarce trees, sparse vegitation and Sinister.  I had avoided Sinister maps cause I want live animals not skeletons, but this one was much much better than expected!  Outdoors I've seen lots of gazelles, hippos, harpies, warthogs and ogres.  I am still waiting on what the cave river and chasm have to offer, looking forward to a troll or three.  I prepared for the journey with three miners all skilled in wrestling and no woodcutter.  The miners make a pretty fearsome hunting party.  A quick hunt with soldiers is my new favorite tactic.  Everyone loves taking joy in slaughter, right?  Heheh.