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[baldamundo]

People always used to say that crocodiles were the best thing to farm in vanilla because of their huge egg numbers, as well as turkeys for how quickly they grow. Are they still some of the best candidates in Masterwork?

What about out of the orc domestic animals? Squigs obviously breed super quick, but I presume don't give much when butchered. Also their multi-caste thing makes autobutcher a bit more awkward.

How about the optional randomised procedurally generated creatures that Masterwork adds? Are their brood-size, maturation times, etc randomised as well? Are any of them particularly good for farming?

How about the Deeper Dwarven Domestication mod? The cave turtles seem to have pretty large clutch sizes, but think they take a while to grow.


Getting leather and bones is more important to me than meat or eggs, seeing as how easy food is to come by in DF. Also worth considering whether something gives leather, shell, scale or horn, given e.g. you can't use scale to make lamellar.

[smakemupagus]

For orcs: 

I usually get one or the other of the birds.  Ravens lay many more eggs and are cheaper, but condor are much bigger and can vermin hunt.  Or regular-hunt, if you want to mess around with falconry, although they die to giant animals or invaders really easily.  If no condors, then you probably want some squigs for vermin terriers if nothing else.

For leather/bones/meat/hoofs/totems, i've been going with aurochs recently since they are fairly cheap (this may change) & much bigger than boar/wolves, but on the other hand aurochs do have to graze and mature slower. 

War animals:  sabrecats are bigger & better; but i usually end up with a pack of wolves instead because they're cheap enough to embark or buy several early on and they grow up fast.

[TanaNari]

For dwarves... plump helmet men really are a powerful resource, especially early on. Thanks to certain bugs, alcohol made from plump helmet tissue comes out at 100+ units in a single barrel. If you allow it in cooking, you can make meal units of well over a thousand. Trade, or just feed your whole fortress for a few months on one cooking job. Whatever you like.

Bearded Cavernkeets are pretty good for offering more than just eggs. I don't see them as all that useful, but they're a cloth source and don't graze. And of course you need a few leatherwings, if only to keep the vermin population down. Every other animal's fairly lackluster. You'll get more bang by settling in a savage biome and setting out some traps. Giant animals are almost always superior in every way to normal sized animals.

Especially if leather tweaks are enabled.

[jimboo]

Especially if leather tweaks are enabled.

A key point, that: under Mods in the GUI, More Leather.  Otherwise, one mouse/one elephant/one leather.  But leatherwings are very cheap and can be sheared seasonally (with tallow for tanning, otherwise the shearings just rot); after the first year, if breeding there will be plenty of pups to either sacrifice or allow to mature for butchering.  They’re a cheap source of early leather for cloaks and armor.  Egglayers were nerfed back in ☼Masterwork☼ a long time ago when Omletville was just too easy but seem to have made a comeback since Reborn.  Turkeys are also cheap and much larger than the other birds, typically laying 10 – 13 eggs per clutch.  A couple of hens = a lot of poults and soon, a lot of tallow for the leather tanning and hardening.  Tuskoxen are not cheap but an excellent early defense when pastured in a perimeter.  Moleweasels are common for vermin control but really, traps do work just as well.  After the first dwarven caravan comes with the Wish List, tunnel tarantulas make for a very easy silk farm compared to the standard setup with spiders.  Craigstooth boars are a compromise; cheaper than tuskoxen, faster breeders, can be trained as war animals and military companions, shear for ivory but aren’t nearly as good in a fight as the (untrainable) tuskoxen.  Still, meat and tallow.  Shell and chiten aren't particularly important anymore since the leather types were dumbed down.

If one of your embark 7 is a key dwarf, it might be worth the trouble and expense to take one pet of their favorite whatever. 

Oh, and you asked about crocodiles: nah, pretty much useless.  High pet value.  Still useless. 

[Fairin]

open the caverns leave the door open to the barracks. free meat and  training at the same time! =D

or put a cage trap or 3 there.. meat comes to you!

[Gwolfski]

In Soviet Masterwork, meat hunts You!

[dirkdragonslayer]

What creatures to farm depends on your race. undoubtedly the best for kobolds I would say  is Helmet Snakes. those things produce venom to coat your weapons and lay tons of eggs, and I mean literal tons. Those things lay 30+ eggs, and when they hatch they grow up immediately, and the ones who grow up go straight to the nest boxes. I got to a point where they were reproducing faster than I could butcher or put the snakes in cages, where I had a fort of 30 kobolds and 98 helmet snakes, along with 150 helmet snakes clogging up the list of the dead, and that was only after the first year or two of nest boxes. The only downside is the FPS death if you do not manage it well, or the massive amounts of skulls you will find suddenly clogging up your refuse pile, because I do not know what to do with all those skulls. I know you can turn them into totems, but can I decorate using skulls?