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[Neonivek]

When I said so I was thinking of a group of 100.

Though Elephants are a LOT easier to take care of in DF then they are in real life.

[Fieari]

Toady, if it comes down to it, I'd prefer that when you're adjusting numbers of objects for game balance purpose, that you keep things proportional.  You could always make dwarves require a certain amount of food per meal, after all... and make kittens provide a tiny bit, with elephants an all those multiple chucks able to provide more towards that meal.

It's not like it's at ALL difficult to feed your dwarves at the moment. Increasing their monthly intake requirement wouldn't be a problem for the game. In fact, it might be just what we need.

[smjjames]

When I said so I was thinking of a group of 100.

Though Elephants are a LOT easier to take care of in DF then they are in real life.

Plus taking into account that dwarves eat about twice a season (I think), yea you could go indefinetly on a good sized herd of cattle once you get a pop boom going.

[Untelligent]

Toady, if it comes down to it, I'd prefer that when you're adjusting numbers of objects for game balance purpose, that you keep things proportional.  You could always make dwarves require a certain amount of food per meal, after all... and make kittens provide a tiny bit, with elephants an all those multiple chucks able to provide more towards that meal.

It's not like it's at ALL difficult to feed your dwarves at the moment. Increasing their monthly intake requirement wouldn't be a problem for the game. In fact, it might be just what we need.

Looks like it already IS proportional. I'm fairly certain the numbers on that screenshot aren't meant to imply that the late elephant has ten lungs.

[Willfor]

When I said so I was thinking of a group of 100.

Though Elephants are a LOT easier to take care of in DF then they are in real life.

At the moment, yes, they are. But when the new sizes are taken into consideration, and the fact that elephants are not only going to... dwarf the dwarves, they are going to use their size in attack calculations, it's going to be more difficult to take one down. I imagine just the thick skin, and lots of fatty tissue is going to make killing them a challenge in itself.

Until your hunter starts firing his machine gun crossbow anyway...

[Aqizzar]

Real Pygmies have been hunting elephants since the damn of time, and they're not called pygmies for nothing.

Personally, I think every part of Dwarf Fortress' world resources are so out of whack that "game balance" shouldn't even be an issue until God-knows-when down the road if ever at all.  Make the elephants and their organs any size the mechanics consider realistic.  We as players are very adept at finding "game balance" on our own.

[Warlord255]

Real Pygmies have been hunting elephants since the damn of time, and they're not called pygmies for nothing.

Personally, I think every part of Dwarf Fortress' world resources are so out of whack that "game balance" shouldn't even be an issue until God-knows-when down the road if ever at all.  Make the elephants and their organs any size the mechanics consider realistic.  We as players are very adept at finding "game balance" on our own.

I disagree; there should be some semblance of non-artificial balance (which is to say, balance that doesn't have to be enforced by player discipline) before the final version, as a large part of this extended alpha is for it to be playable.

[Aqizzar]

Hey, it's playable now.  There's strategies that work, and strategies that don't.  And to be perfectly honest, as much as I love the ethos of building a civilization on the industrial scale slaughter of cats, I think hunting elephants for food makes a lot more sense.  There's a reason we eat get food from where we get it and not other sources.

[Duke 2.0]

 If only Africa created an elephant breeding and slaughter industry.

 Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea...

 Gimmie a million dollars to start it up and I'll pay you back in 20 years plus interest.

[G-Flex]

Anyhow as for reasons, well the main one now is a huge influx of butchered items. Add in that cooking can only multiply food (I think) and boom, one Elephant feeds your fortress for a year.

FYI, cooking never multiplies food. The amount that goes in is the amount that comes out.

[Cles]

I'm just glad I'll never have to see any -Elephant prostate biscuits-

If only Africa created an elephant breeding and slaughter industry.

 Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea...

 Gimmie a million dollars to start it up and I'll pay you back in 20 years plus interest.

That happens in a game called Postal 2.
In the expansion, you get hired to...err...harvest them for cooking. With a scythe.

[garfield751]

cooking make food easier to store

[Footkerchief]

Personally, I think every part of Dwarf Fortress' world resources are so out of whack that "game balance" shouldn't even be an issue until God-knows-when down the road if ever at all.  Make the elephants and their organs any size the mechanics consider realistic.  We as players are very adept at finding "game balance" on our own.

Agreed.  Real balance will come when eating, cooking, nutrition, etc. finally get a non-placeholder implementation, and when the process of butchering gets as much attention as the potential results.  For now, balancing food is mostly a waste of time.

FYI, cooking never multiplies food. The amount that goes in is the amount that comes out.

He probably had that in mind because of the brew -> cook trick that can multiply 2 plump helmets into 10 biscuits or something.  I think.  But yeah, it wouldn't work for butchery products.  Not that cooking isn't hilariously broken anyway.

[Duke 2.0]

 Seriously, I'm going to cure starvation in Africa by harnessing the power of their natural resources: Elephants. I just need to find a way to pen then, feed them and breed them in large numbers. Should be trivial.

 I'm going through with this.

[Mipe]

Except, you know, elephants are kinda endangered species thanks to poachers, who rob them of ivory and leave 'em rotting. It is sad when ivory is worth more than all the meat an elephant produces.