Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[teres_draconis]

I think I'd like to see dogs being trained as more than just war or hunters. I realise that in the real world, these would be vastly different breeds, but since there is only currently 1 breed of dog in DF, then maybe training can make up for the difference. After all, once trained, a dog is locked into its type.

I'm sure there's more, but the five I've come up with are ...

Sentry dogs (rather like a war dog, except assigned to a place or area instead of a person.)
Example: Doberman Pinchers (which are really actually quite nice if they're trained right!)

Rat dogs (train them to be vermin hunters. I don't even care if they're "indifferent" like cats.)
Example: Rat Terriers

Sled dogs (train them to pull loads or carry burdens, like horses and other burden beasts. Maybe let them work in tandem.)
Example: Huskies

Herding dogs (train them to keep children and tame animals in a safe place, or at least together. May double as a not-quite-war dog for children.)
Example: Collies

Rescue dogs (train them to seek out wounded or distressed people and bring them comfort)
 ---  This one would actually be better if they could be given inventory. Then they could bring things like food, drinks or first aid supplies to people in need. Or even just retask a person to come do it for them. ---
I'd be happy if it just worked that someone who, say, witnessed a death or was otherwise traumatized could be "comforted by a pet" other than their own, but I'd really like the rest, too. =)
Examples: Many breeds... can be seen in various hospitals. Best mental image goes to St. Benards, though.

Messenger dogs (train them to retask a person. They'd need to be really fast. You can make up for this by making them really weak on attack and defence.) One thing that really bugs me about this game is that the dwarves can't be told mid-task to do something else, unless you remove the thing they're working on. If they're a hunter, for instance, that doesn't work so well.

So? What do people think? I'll take any and all comments, including "But they did that already! How old is your version?!?"

[Derakon]

You can get sentry dogs by chaining them up. They can only protect a 5x5 area because of the length of the chain, though.

Sled dogs would presumably be implemented along with other draft animals.

I don't really see how herding dogs would work given that dwarven children are effectively just nobles that don't make demands and that occasionally do something useful.

Rescue dogs sounds like turning dogs into dwarves with the healthcare option turned on. Really what's needed is to improve healthcare; rescue dogs are neat flavor-wise but I think there are better ways to solve the problem they'd cover.

Though this does give me an idea: make kennels into "creature transformers". When you train a creature at a kennel, it gets turned into a different creature (or has a template applied to it). So for example, training war dogs would just give you a creature that's almost identical to normal dogs - it just does more damage. Training rescue dogs would turn normal dogs into creatures that are just like dogs except that they can carry stuff and have the healthcare labor turned on (this would obviously work better once labor selections are in the raws). And so on.

I don't really get how you'd use the messenger dog.

[Lazer Bomb]

The easy way to stop hunters is to disable hunting, recruit then unrecruit them. I don't think it makes them sad if they have crossbow skill.

[Rafal99]

Sled dogs (train them to pull loads or carry burdens, like horses and other burden beasts. Maybe let them work in tandem.)
Example: Huskies

I like that idea!
Imagine a caravan in a freezing area using sledges instead of wagons, each sledge with a pack of sled dogs!
I also like the idea of vermin-hunting dogs. They need to be less effective than cats, so the cats stay useful.

[Danaru]

Rescue dogs (train them to seek out wounded or distressed people and bring them comfort)
 ---  This one would actually be better if they could be given inventory. Then they could bring things like food, drinks or first aid supplies to people in need. Or even just retask a person to come do it for them. ---
I'd be happy if it just worked that someone who, say, witnessed a death or was otherwise traumatized could be "comforted by a pet" other than their own, but I'd really like the rest, too. =)
Examples: Many breeds... can be seen in various hospitals. Best mental image goes to St. Benards, though.

PLEASE IMPLEMENT THIS

[Neonivek]

Id personally would like a dog trained to send supplies to Troopers

[Impaler[WrG]]

I like the Rat, Sentry and Herding options, though the Sentry one might be folded into the current war dog options.  Sled dogs might be called 'Draft' as that can more logically be applied to all animals aka 'Draft Horses', 'Draft Mules', 'Draft Green Dragons'.

[Hectonkhyres]

I really am not sure how much I like the idea of canine fastfood delivery. However useful, it just seems like too much of a theme breaker for my liking. I would rather see a variant of the mining carts currently in popular discussion... the chuck wagon, or something along those lines.

But I rather like the idea of rat terriers and sled dogs. Nice thinking there.

[Warlord255]

Herding dogs for tame animals makes more sense than herding dogs for children, I'd absolutely go for it.

Rescue dogs could have healthcare as far as recovering the injured goes, and they could be faster than dwarves for that specific purpose.

The rest is a nice thought but not really necessary. I'm hoping eventually they'll allow other tamed animals to be trained as war animals (See: big cats).

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Tjis is for the ELVES!
Real Men (and Dwarves) use slave-powered/steam/magic/fire/rock wagon to transport things!
Animals is for Elves ONLY!

[Dwaref]

The easy way to stop hunters is to disable hunting, recruit then unrecruit them. I don't think it makes them sad if they have crossbow skill.

Yes that works, complete with the no unhappy 'draft' thought, but i disagree. The easy way is to make all half of all dwarves hunters, and the other half into butchers, tanners, haulers, arrowmakers and bowyers, and hunt everything into oblivion!

[Skizelo]

Someone's already made my "sentry dog? You mean war dog on a chain, right?" joke, but I guess it makes sense if you can set a patrol route (one larger than a 3x3 square). They'd be the cheap man's "loads of traps absolutely everywhere" in that they'd spring goblin ambushes at very little cost.
And messenger dogs strike me as a bit odd as you're the dwarfs intangible hive mind (collective unconsious, I guess). You shouldn't need lassie to run and tell someone to stop when you can just recruit and unrecruit him in an instant.
I like the rest though. Especially the St. Bernard dog.

[teres_draconis]

I hadn't considered the draft/undraft trick. Thanks!

And the "fast food delivery" thing could be only for dwarves who have reached the "starving" or "dehydrated" stage. I was also thinking the dwarf in question should be "seriously wounded" to activate the dog. They're the ones who can't go get the food themselves. If you want to make it more complicated (and I'm ok with that), maybe the dogs can only get items if it is given to them by a dwarf. So a rescue dog can't just go get food, it has to be /given/ food to take.

I'm honestly more concerned with the people who get so depressed they suicide. Is it telling that I have at least two a year? My dwarves really don't like me. A "rescue" animal who is trained to "comfort" anyone who's distressed would help me alot, I think. Or maybe I just hope.

Most of my suicide victems /have/ pets, they just refuse to be comforted by them. I can't figure out why, since just about everyone else gets "comforted by a pet recently" almost every time I look at them. That's actually one of my signs that I need to train someone else to take over their load, because they're likely to implode soon. Am I just a bad overlord?


Thanks for all the comments! I like the ideas!

[Derakon]

I think if you're having trouble keeping your dwarves happy, inventing new kinds of pets to help you isn't the right approach to take. Instead, you should be examining your dwarves' thoughts and seeing what's making them so upset, and then rectifying that. Such an approach will give you a better understanding of how dwarves work and, in the end, make you a more skilled player.

[Granite26]

Though this does give me an idea: make kennels into "creature transformers". When you train a creature at a kennel, it gets turned into a different creature (or has a template applied to it). So for example, training war dogs would just give you a creature that's almost identical to normal dogs - it just does more damage. Training rescue dogs would turn normal dogs into creatures that are just like dogs except that they can carry stuff and have the healthcare labor turned on (this would obviously work better once labor selections are in the raws). And so on.

I think this covers every possible suggestion.  Seriously, I love this idea.