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[sphr]

This is actually an idea that suddenly struck me...

(background, can skip) Since a while back, I've been getting my hands and mouse dirty on creating my own graphic tiles.  I wanted to take it easy, so after the dwarves are done, I customized animals only when they appear in my current game.  And after I put in the new tiles, I zoomed in to the animals to take a screenshot.  Since then, found myself getting excited just wondering what the next type of animal that will wander into my region will be.  Even found myself checking the unit list periodically to see if the hunters are hunting and if there are any new wildlife (there is very little hunting game in my region, so basically, the hunter idles a lot after all hunt-able animals are hunted)

(the seed of the idea) Quite often, the hunters kill the animals before I had a chance to see them (usually, I'll save the game, go out and draw new tiles, then pop in the game again to "photograph" the animals).  So I have been thinking of forgoing hunting totally.  It leads to the idea of building a wildlife conservatory... perhaps a very large safari-type closed-off surface region safe from invaders where new animals can be tricked into entering and not allowed to leave.

(the important part) But I have a few questions that will determine the feasibility of this:

1) How and when does new animals enter the region?  Is it periodic or is there some wildlife population threshold and the game only generates new wildlife if the current wildlife population is low enough?

2) Do different wildlife interacts?  More specifically, will they attack each other and die if they encounter each other?  (have to think about whether to make special arrangements for predators)

3) Do wildlife breeds as per tame animals/pets?

If anybody knows the answer or have any relevant observations please share them with me?  Thanks in advance.

[ December 27, 2007: Message edited by: sphr ]

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Kylaer]

Wild animals do not attack other wild animals. You'd think wolves would eat deer, but they do not; they ignore each other. Wild animals also do not breed; you never see young animals except those produced by your tamed pets.

[ December 27, 2007: Message edited by: Kylaer ]

[Bullion]

quote:Originally posted by Kylaer:
<STRONG>Wild animals do not attack other wild animals. You'd think wolves would eat deer, but they do not; they ignore each other. Wild animals also do not breed; you never see young animals except those produced by your tamed pets.

[ December 27, 2007: Message edited by: Kylaer ]</STRONG>

i've had hippos giving birth to calves.

[Torak]

quote:Originally posted by Bullion:
<STRONG>

i've had hippos giving birth to calves.</STRONG>

Animals are rarely on the map long enough to have children, either way.

[Nite/m4re]

Hippos on my fortress also gave birth.... But that's because they are stranded. Trapped they while they are swimming...

[sphr]

quote:Originally posted by Nite/m4re:
<STRONG>Hippos on my fortress also gave birth.... But that's because they are stranded. Trapped they while they are swimming...</STRONG>

Yes... that's the coarse idea of a wildlife "conservatory"... strand the animals.  Think I will try things out after I think of how to "fence" off a large area on my current map.  Quite troublesome as it is composed of many small plateus.

[Paul]

New animals don't seem to enter the map until the others are gone. However, if you trap them in cages and then release them I think this gets around that.

As for wild animals breeding, they definitely do. I had a female rhesus macaque get flung into a dried up murky pool by an axedwarf and it has been giving birth every year. Theres an army of macaque children growing down in that little pit. Eventually I'll send a marksdwarf over to gun them down.

The funny thing is, that rhesus macaque mother is missing both arms, a leg, an eye, and has serious brain and spine damage. It sits there unconscious most of the time, fading in and out of consciousness while still regularly giving birth to triplets.

[Kylaer]

Ah. Guess I never left an animal trapped on the map long enough to breed, then, because I've never seen a young wild animal.

[sphr]

hmm... I just hit another problem that would need more input from informed players.  The "(dwarf) cancels (job) interrupted by (animal)" problem.  

Anybody knows what exactly is the range and effect?
*direct distance ignoring wall? or trafficable distance?  
*z-level behavior, e.g. will 2 layers of solid stone blocks the influence?
*Containable by walls/rock/obstacles, locked doors, channels or anything?

Kinda hard to build a large safari if the dwarves gets interrupted by each and every of animals...

[dreiche2]

I *think* the interruption works per line of sight, which would mean you can get arbitrary close as long as the dwarf doesn't see the animal (e.g. if it's around a corner).

[Helmaroc]

The idea is too elf-like for me.
Here's dwarven thinking at it's best:
Animal = Food
Animal watching = not eating animal = big no no

[Draco18s]

quote:Originally posted by Paul:
<STRONG>The funny thing is, that rhesus macaque mother is missing both arms, a leg, an eye, and has serious brain and spine damage. It sits there unconscious most of the time, fading in and out of consciousness</STRONG>

And some Male rhesus macaque still thinks she's cute enough to send his spores her way.

Or maybe he just takes advatage of her.

[sphr]

quote:Originally posted by Helmaroc:
<STRONG>The idea is too elf-like for me.
Here's dwarven thinking at it's best:
Animal = Food
Animal watching = not eating animal = big no no</STRONG>

"Conservatory" to me just means making sure animal types don't die out.  It has no conflict with them being food.  In fact, you can see it as ensuring a wide selection of meat.  Basically the "not eating" here can just mean "not eating the last mating pair".

[frostedfire]

quote:Originally posted by sphr:
<STRONG>

"Conservatory" to me just means making sure animal types don't die out.  It has no conflict with them being food.  In fact, you can see it as ensuring a wide selection of meat.  Basically the "not eating" here can just mean "not eating the last mating pair".</STRONG>

It'll be like Jurrasic Park!  Hmm, might get an image sketched up over the next week.  Stay tuned.