Print

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

[Sithlordz]

Hi, just got back into DF after a long hiatus.  Do wild animals on a site eventually replenish themselves, and if so, on what timescale? I just have a page of deceased hoary marmots and nothing else, would quite like to try and catch a breeding pair of something.  Also, on the subject of breeding pairs, what's the best technique for catching wild animals? Lure dangerous ones into cage traps with a sacrificial dwarf?

[Jude]

New animals respawn from time to time, but I've heard that if you hunt enough, eventually they'll stop respawning. Never seen it happen myself though, or heard it as more than a rumor, so I don't know.

And I'm pretty sure even if it is true now, it won't be in the new release.

[Hyndis]

There is currently a finite number of animals. Once you kill all the animals on the map no more will migrate on to the map. Same goes with fish. There is a finite number of fish on your map, and once they're gone they're gone.

You can demonstrate this very easily by embarking on a 2x2 space. Set your dwarves to speed:1. Have them all be hunters and preferably embark with some cheap copper weapons, or enough copper bars to forge some swords or axes.

There will be a hilariously gory bloodbath for about a year or so, and then the entire animal population will be dead and no more animals will migrate to your fortress.



This should be fixed next release. Off-map populations will breed and increase whereas currently it is just a static number that can be depleted.

[JamPet]

To catch some wild animals for breeding stock scatter a few lines or clusters of cage traps around the map in places you've seen herds of animals migrating around.  You can also build walls or channels to funnel animals into your traps and use your military to chase them into trap zones, but I find that this is actually pretty tricky, so I usually just set my traps and forget about them.

One dangerous thing to note is that dwarves will sometimes run out to retrieve traps or reload them when ambushes or sieges are around, watch out.

[Arrkhal]

Same goes with fish. There is a finite number of fish on your map, and once they're gone they're gone.

Large fish, that is.  Small fish are vermin, which get replenished seasonally.

[Particleman]

One dangerous thing to note is that dwarves will sometimes run out to retrieve traps or reload them when ambushes or sieges are around, watch out.

That's why you forbid all your traps as soon as they're finished and only claim them when it's safe.

Same goes with fish. There is a finite number of fish on your map, and once they're gone they're gone.

Large fish, that is.  Small fish are vermin, which get replenished seasonally.

Could you define "large fish" and "small fish" please?

[jayseesee]

Large fish = carp, gar, anything that shows up on (u)nits list.  These can't be fished.

Small fish = cod, perch, turtle.  Vermin that doesn't show up on units list, but can be fished.

[happydog23]

There is currently a finite number of animals. Once you kill all the animals on the map no more will migrate on to the map. Same goes with fish. There is a finite number of fish on your map, and once they're gone they're gone.

You can demonstrate this very easily by embarking on a 2x2 space. Set your dwarves to speed:1. Have them all be hunters and preferably embark with some cheap copper weapons, or enough copper bars to forge some swords or axes.

There will be a hilariously gory bloodbath for about a year or so, and then the entire animal population will be dead and no more animals will migrate to your fortress.



This should be fixed next release. Off-map populations will breed and increase whereas currently it is just a static number that can be depleted.

I think this is wrong... Martin's experience with Morul showed that after I think between 30 and 50 years, even animals hunted to extinction will come back.  The general consensus was that the ability for them to come back has always been there.... Just very few fortresses run 50+ years.

[Hyndis]

There is currently a finite number of animals. Once you kill all the animals on the map no more will migrate on to the map. Same goes with fish. There is a finite number of fish on your map, and once they're gone they're gone.

You can demonstrate this very easily by embarking on a 2x2 space. Set your dwarves to speed:1. Have them all be hunters and preferably embark with some cheap copper weapons, or enough copper bars to forge some swords or axes.

There will be a hilariously gory bloodbath for about a year or so, and then the entire animal population will be dead and no more animals will migrate to your fortress.



This should be fixed next release. Off-map populations will breed and increase whereas currently it is just a static number that can be depleted.

I think this is wrong... Martin's experience with Morul showed that after I think between 30 and 50 years, even animals hunted to extinction will come back.  The general consensus was that the ability for them to come back has always been there.... Just very few fortresses run 50+ years.

I had a fortress running for about 45 years. The local fish and wildlife was depleted within the first year or so and after that every season I would get a message that no fish were found in any of the ponds/rivers.

So after about 45 years of game time, nothing.

[happydog23]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There is currently a finite number of animals. Once you kill all the animals on the map no more will migrate on to the map. Same goes with fish. There is a finite number of fish on your map, and once they're gone they're gone.

You can demonstrate this very easily by embarking on a 2x2 space. Set your dwarves to speed:1. Have them all be hunters and preferably embark with some cheap copper weapons, or enough copper bars to forge some swords or axes.

There will be a hilariously gory bloodbath for about a year or so, and then the entire animal population will be dead and no more animals will migrate to your fortress.



This should be fixed next release. Off-map populations will breed and increase whereas currently it is just a static number that can be depleted.

I think this is wrong... Martin's experience with Morul showed that after I think between 30 and 50 years, even animals hunted to extinction will come back.  The general consensus was that the ability for them to come back has always been there.... Just very few fortresses run 50+ years.

I had a fortress running for about 45 years. The local fish and wildlife was depleted within the first year or so and after that every season I would get a message that no fish were found in any of the ponds/rivers.

So after about 45 years of game time, nothing.

Interesting.  I think that Martin did fishing slow enough that he never ran out of fish.  (At least I'm pretty sure it was one of the last skills he did before the military.)   At any rate, I don't remember him mentioning fish running out/coming back, but did hunt the local wildlife to extinction and then had I think horses... come wandering back on the map one year. 

[Hyndis]

It only takes a single fisherdwarf to deplete the location population. A full time fisherdwarf can haul a massive amount of fish in a very short time.

Its easy to test this though.

Embark on a 2x2 map with dwarves at speed:1, and enable hunting and fishing along with the usual farming and plant gathering so they don't starve. Turn off invasions. Grow some surface crops like strawberries or something, make a 1x1 meeting zone, let them drink water from the river.

That'll keep your dwarves alive, if unhappy.

Then just let them go berserk hunting and fishing. With a speed:1 tag in the raws they will do this at lightning speed. The entire edge of the map should be splattered red with the carcasses of dead animals, and there should be huge piles of rotting turtles everywhere.

Within a very short period of time they will completely deplete the map, and so far as I can tell, the population will never return.