Ecology, foodwebs and animal/plant interactions

[Regret]

This game has great potential for greater ecological interaction, already grass seeds are popping up everywhere, plants spawn, and grow and animals migrate. Please make the plants and animals interact more. Expanding on this theme could give a very interesting and immersive game.
(Source for general concepts.)
I think I have seen animals eat from my food stores, but I'm not entirely sure. Does this happen? If so: awesome, make it happen more often.

I Like the Alpha-Beavers event, they have a clear effect on the environment. I would like to see more events like that.
- Wolves that feed on herbivores like deer and muffalo, who avoid humans and other predators but will fight if attacked. They will leave the area if they run out of deer to eat but while leaving would attack humans. What? they are hungry and wolves deserve to eat too!
- Bears that feed on berries, who ignore humans but will fight if attacked. They could wander into your town, especially if your picked berries are not behind doors.
- Wolverines that are attracted to and eat dead bodies (both animal and human) and meat lying around. Very negative responses to seeing some animal eat a friend would be realistic. Wolverines are known to be very aggressive so that could create some interesting stories. Honey-badgers are a good alternative. Or Hyenas.
- Bees and honey that visit flowers and of course: research-able beekeeping gear to prevent injury while harvesting honey. Bears would be attracted to this causing further trouble.
- Seed eaters like mice or ants (in-game that would be anthills). Do the squirrels eat the grass seeds? I'm going to start a game ignoring my humans just to look at the animal/plant interactions.
- Ents, or similar sentient trees that are indistinguishable from regular trees when standing still. Don't let them move a lot, just enough to make players distrustful of trees. If someone tries to cut them down they get REALLY angry.
- A tribe of gorillas that decide to make their home near you, make them act like besieging pirates except they don't build mortars or sandbags but instead build nests.
- Nocturnal animals, for example hermit crabs (that would be a hilarious and terrifying infestation!) or some cat-like animal that hunts squirrels and mice, I like ocelots.
- Speaking of nocturnal animals I like: Sloths! Harmless, slow moving, surprisingly low meat content. I know, they won't really add much interactivity but I just like sloths.

What do you think?

[CodyRex123]

Alright, Yes, if animals get to your food storage, they will eat it, THEY will eat all of your food as long as there is 2 of them.... Which is always fun...

[Regret]

Alright, Yes, if animals get to your food storage, they will eat it, THEY will eat all of your food as long as there is 2 of them.... Which is always fun...

Thanks, I love those little details in games!
I know animals starve if kept in a small enclosure, this could be a cool way to feed them without the need to introduce new mechanics. That way animals can be kept in a small area, and even split the herd with some quick and smart wall building. Then use hunting to slaughter the singled out animals. The only thing missing are harvesting them (milking/shearing) and a way to capture them that does not require building and destroying wall after wall.

[CodyRex123]

Yea, have a stockpile set to critical priority in the room of animals and you could have pets, though i don't think you can have baby animals yet..
So the herd thing isn't gonna work for long.

[Barley]

Needs Skunks. Can inflict scratch/bite wounds like squirrels, but also has a short-range attack that gives colonists food poisoning and a day-long nerf to social skills! >

Also it's corpse yields inedible meat, but the fur can be turned into fancy clothing with similar (but smaller) stat bonuses as devilstrand. (Referencing Furfarms with that one)

[b0rsuk]

Are there plans for more realistic animal behavior ?

It bothers me greatly that animals in this simulation game act lobotomized. I have some ideas how to improve the situation:

* make most animals stay away from humans. In particular, they should avoid man-made constructions. I once locked a squirrel in a bedroom. It had plenty of time to flee, it just didn't care. And the walls have been constructed around it.
* hunting should be about stalking animals, not DPS. Once you shoot an animal - and miss - the animal QUICKLY runs away a fair distance. To compensate, HP of most animals would be greatly reduced. Other animals would be startled by gunfire.
* If you implement the above idea, it will be possible to add traps. As it is, they would be pointless.
* certain animals should be attracted to your farms, and eat your crops
* stronger, more confident animals like bears would try to break into your food stockpiles. If you leave food lying outside, rats and other pests will arrive.

[Regret]

Are there plans for more realistic animal behavior ?

It bothers me greatly that animals in this simulation game act lobotomized. I have some ideas how to improve the situation:

* make most animals stay away from humans. In particular, they should avoid man-made constructions. I once locked a squirrel in a bedroom. It had plenty of time to flee, it just didn't care. And the walls have been constructed around it.
* hunting should be about stalking animals, not DPS. Once you shoot an animal - and miss - the animal QUICKLY runs away a fair distance. To compensate, HP of most animals would be greatly reduced. Other animals would be startled by gunfire.
* If you implement the above idea, it will be possible to add traps. As it is, they would be pointless.
* certain animals should be attracted to your farms, and eat your crops
* stronger, more confident animals like bears would try to break into your food stockpiles. If you leave food lying outside, rats and other pests will arrive.

those are some good ideas!

Yea, have a stockpile set to critical priority in the room of animals and you could have pets, though i don't think you can have baby animals yet..
So the herd thing isn't gonna work for long.

It's fun roleplaying though.

[Vagabond]

Regret,

Some recent posts you might be interested in:

Animal Husbandry:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=9646.0

and

Animals:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=8560.0

As for me. I personally agree with all of it. Some sort of kennel mechanics for trainable companions/mounts/combat pets. Animal Husbandry. Animals that react to their environment (to colonist, to food, to other animals, ect.).

Cheers,
Michael

[Regret]

Regret,

Some recent posts you might be interested in:

Animal Husbandry:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=9646.0

and

Animals:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=8560.0

As for me. I personally agree with all of it. Some sort of kennel mechanics for trainable companions/mounts/combat pets. Animal Husbandry. Animals that react to their environment (to colonist, to food, to other animals, ect.).

Cheers,
Michael

Thanks I had already found those threads but I was glad for your links because there were some interesting new responses.
I think simply adding carnivores could be fascinating. Foodwebs get fascinatingly random when complexity rises. Even a 4 species 2 layer foodweb can express in a chaotic way.