Print

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

[Sappho]

I'm trying to keep my war dogs near the entrance, and in another area my peahens penned up with a peacock for reproduction, but they are all just beating the crap out of each other. Is there any way to stop them from doing this? It's ruining my factory farm, that's for sure.

[Mister Always]

Jesus, isn't this common knowledge by now?

If your animals are kept in a pasture that's too small, they'll get annoyed by the lack of room and beat the shit out of each other.

Here's a good set up for a bird farm:

XXXXXXXXX
XPXPXPXPX
XDXDXDXDX
XPXPXPXPX
XDXDXDXDX
XPPPPPPPPX
XXXXDXXXX

Where X is a wall, P is a pasture with a nest box in it, and D is a door. Keep the female peahens in the 1x1 pastures (1 peahen per pasture) and keep the male peahen(s) in the row of 1x1 pastures at the bottom. Keep the doors locked so your dorfs don't steal the eggs. When the peachicks hatch, stuff them all in a cage. Yes, all of them. It'll fit, don't worry. When the peachicks in the cage grow up, slaughter them for delicious peahen meat.

If you just want an egg industry, the set up is the same, except without the part about the males.

PROBLEM FUCKIN' SOLVED.

[ASCIt]

Pin them in a larger area. If the pasture's too small, there simply isn't enough room and they get pissed. They'll attack your dwarves, too, if they get to close.

[Sappho]

I just started playing after several years of absence, so everything is very different. So no, I haven't figured it out yet, hence the coming to the forums to ask the polite and helpful denizens for advice instead of wasting hours trying to figure it out myself.

I thought that there had to be a peacock in the same room as the peahens in order to fertilize the eggs. (Going based on what I read in the wiki - I could have misread I suppose.) So how close do the males need to be in order to fertilize (apparently with spores that can pass through stone walls)? Basically I had planned out some 1x1 rooms, each containing a nest box, and making an egg factory that way, but then I realized I needed males too so I put one in each room. It'll be much easier if they don't need to be in the room together!

So why are the dogs fighting each other? They're not in a pasture at all. Each is chained separately (though close together of course).

[Quietust]

So why are the dogs fighting each other? They're not in a pasture at all. Each is chained separately (though close together of course).

The pasture has nothing to do with the fighting - the overcrowding is the sole cause.

[krisslanza]

Eggs will be fertilized through any distance. Even if there are dozens of layers of stone in the way. The urge to reproduce is very high in egg-layers it seems. Not sure why dogs are fighting, I don't recall ever seeing those kind of animals fighting, just ones with the GRAZER stuff.

[Sphalerite]

The male can be anywhere at all on the map, even sealed inside a airtight cell at the bottom of the magma sea, and he'll still be able to fertilize the females.  You only need the male if you actually want to breed more peafowl however - female birds will lay eggs even with no male present, the eggs will just never hatch.

As for your dogs, are you sure it's the dogs chained up at the entrance that are fighting?  Chained dogs can still fight each other if chained in adjacent tiles, but if you have loose dogs milling around your meeting area they may fight each other too.

[Sappho]

Wow, that simplifies things. Okay, few more questions. First, does there need to be a separate peacock for each peahen, or can one male fertilize all the females? And secondly, does it still work if they are caged, or do the males need to be outside of cages?

The dogs are chained next to each other to stop intruders (kobolds). There are only five dogs in the fortress and they're all chained. I checked the combat logs and they are definitely fighting each other.

Somehow, though, I found some dog blood spilled on the floor next to my well, along with fly ichor and golden salve extract... What is happening at that well? I'm very curious now.

[khearn]

One peacock will service all your peahens. In my current fort, one of the immigrants had a pet peacock, so he wanders around following his dwarf and the peahens stay locked in their coop. Any new peacocks get slaughtered as soon as they're adults.

If the dogs are chained next to each other, as in each each chain is next to the next chain, then they're closer than they need to be. Put a couple of spaces between each chain so the dogs can't reach each other. They'll still spot the kobolds. Wait, you have kobolds??? I haven't seen them since 31.<something> came out and they all started starving to death during worldgen.

The blood, ichor, etc that you're finding near your well is stuff that got on some dwarf and got washed off when he cleaned himself at the well. The dwarf walked through it somewhere in your fortress and it stuck to him. Then he went to the well for a bath and it got left there. Normal and harmless, until you get forgotten beast blood that carries a nasty syndrome.

[Mister Always]

Make sure to get peacocks with lots of muscle, if you're in it for the meat.

[Sappho]

ARGH Vista's DEP just caused DF to crash for the third time today, and it won't let me disable DEP for this program (though it gives me no reason why). Vista, I want to put you in a very special room all for yourself with a very special heating system hooked up to a very special lever which you will feel a sudden urge to pull almost as soon as you move in.

But that's cool about the animals. I approve. Once I go back and redo everything I did since my last save (thanks again, Vista!) I'll have one peacock roaming around in a lovely sculpture garden while in the back room, my peahens slave away over nest boxes to provide meat for the hungry dorfs.

[Lormax]

Vista sucks, upgrade to 7

[acetech09]

Vista sucks, upgrade to 7

I'd say go the other way...

Be a dorf and dig deeper, instead of being an elf and building up to the surface with nice-looking buildings.

[Sappho]

I wanted to downgrade to XP as soon as I got the computer (3 years ago), but apparently the hardware in this one is Vista-specific and won't work with XP. And I don't have the money to buy anything new right now, having just lost my job and not yet found a new one, and moving into a new apartment that I suddenly can't afford anymore.

But yeah, Vista sucks big time.

[hjd_uk]

As mentioned above its pure overcrowding, ive had numerous reports of Pets fighting as they pass each other in busy 1-tile wide cooridoors.