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[Girlinhat]

So, I'm sure everyone who's tried eggs is aware that any wild animal will rush in and claim nest-boxes, which is hilariously frustrating.  Aside from that bug (and I think we all agree it's a bug) I'd like to see you able to assign nest-boxes to specific animals, or perhaps an animal species in general.  For instance, if I wanted to have my chickens lay eggs in the crappy wooden boxes outside, but have my prized captured dragon lay eggs in a masterful platinum nest atop her specially-constructed temple...  Right now, it looks like any animal will claim any nest, so distinctions aren't possible, but DF players are notorious for taking something and building whole temples around it, so this seems logical to me.

Also, some players are modding their civ (and other civs) to lay eggs, so perhaps it would be nice to assign a nest box to a specific person, like a room?  This would let that citizen use it, if they're egg-laying, or allow their pets to use the nest if they have any egg-laying pets.

[catoblepas]

Perhaps they can be assigned like cages? That might solve some problems.

[darkflagrance]

Or perhaps they should have claiming options like coffins:

l: any livestock can claim
a: any creature can claim
w: only wildlife can claim
c: only members of your civ can claim

[Sphalerite]

It would also help if wild creatures that want to lay eggs had the ability to make nests of their own, so they weren't desperately waiting for you to build one in order to reproduce.

[Girlinhat]

Perhaps they can be assigned like cages? That might solve some problems.

Rather like chains, since it's one per animal, but that's mostly what I had in mind.  Sphalerite's idea was good, but I feel it lacks the amount of control I wanted.  After all, his options would allow chickens to claim my cave dragon's nest because it's open to livestock.  Specifying the individual would also let the controlling civ be assigned the nest, so that a married couple could be given a nest for their use inside their shared bedroom.

[PTTG??]

I think that a Tame/wild switch and a selection of valid species should appear, but not specific animals. This should include the fortress race, if applicable. If there is a nest box in an owned room, assigned to the fortress race, that box will only be used by the owner or spouse of the owner of that room.

How's that?

[Girlinhat]

This is acceptable to me.  Making nests inherited via room designation (similar to how armor stands and chests are inherited into a room) would allow for the playing race to utilize it.  Species, or perhaps caste-specific options would be good too.  After all, some species may have more than one egg-laying caste.  An over-arching setting for "this type of caste" would also allow communal egg chambers, where the common-folk of the civilization could rent an egg-box fur the duration of the hatching, similar to how dormitories are rented for the duration of the sleep.

Come to think of it, I like the sound of that better!  Caste-selection option, tame/wild toggle, and room inheritance would work pretty well!

[ikkonoishi]

Err.. guys animals won't care who the nest-box is assigned to. Maybe you could have dwarves move the chickens to different boxes, but you can't just say you wild ducks can't use this box, and expect them to respect that.

The animals should just check line-of-sight before claiming. That would solve all the problems except for the elk bird starvation one which would be solved by hay being implemented or having nesting mothers bulk up before laying by eating double for a while.

Then you could lure wild birds into using the nest-boxes, and have the animal trainers feed them to tame them without caging.

[Girlinhat]

Wild animals or no, I think it's still important to control where your tame animals lay, or don't lay, eggs, especially when your player race lays eggs also.

[ikkonoishi]

Wild animals or no, I think it's still important to control where your tame animals lay, or don't lay, eggs, especially when your player race lays eggs also.

Hence me saying line of sight. If you put your ducks in a pasture, and put the nest boxes in that pasture the ducks will see them. Thus those would be the nest boxes the ducks would go to. If you wanted some other critter to have one of those boxes you could assign it like a cage, and a dwarf would handle it.

In any case we should just wait, and see what Toady came out with for .20 before commenting further.

[PTTG??]

Wild animals or no, I think it's still important to control where your tame animals lay, or don't lay, eggs, especially when your player race lays eggs also.

While wild animals using or not using a box couldn't be controlled by a policy, it makes sense that boxes could be left undisturbed for wild use or put in a specific place for tame animals to use, and that the subtle changes that would make a box suitable for wild or tame animals would be handled automatically by the dwarves when you change this setting.

[Xvareon]

Err.. guys animals won't care who the nest-box is assigned to. Maybe you could have dwarves move the chickens to different boxes, but you can't just say you wild ducks can't use this box, and expect them to respect that.

............

We can expect wild animals to respect it just fine, because we can lay a Pen/pasture zone (without a fence of any kind), have a Dwarf drag a cow to it and it will NEVER wander off, though they may get grumpy and violent if forced into a small area or starve without grass/fungus to eat.

We don't do it because it makes sense, we do it because we are Dwarves and all other races/sentient beings are subservient to us.  If we tell a cow to stay in a fenceless pasture until further notice, it'll do it.  If we tell an armed Goblin prisoner not to stab the guy hauling him to the incinerator, he'll do it.  If we tell a duck you can only lay eggs in this one box, it. will. do. it, because. WE. SAY.   

[Aniaas]

Well I'm not having the problem of wild animals nesting in my boxes. Probably because they don't get a chance, as Urist McBirdbrain's pet guineahen claims ALL of them. I have some general thoughts based on my observations:

1. There seems to be code preventing creatures claiming nesting boxes outside their pens, this is good, but it should work vice versa - animals should not be able to claim boxes in pens that they aren't assigned to. I had a problem with some turkey claiming boxes in my duck breeding ground.

2. There should be an "eject creature" option on the nest box, just for convenience.

3. Creatures should only be able to claim 1 nest box as home - claiming another should relinquish its hold on the first box.

4 This regards the whole hatching problem - what if there was a small hatchery building that you could set to recieve different types of eggs? For example - "I want 5 duck eggs placed in this hatchery box" would mean 5 eggs hatch and the rest are for lunch. Just a thought.