I just threw my keyboard at the wall

[VouLT]

I love your mod but I do also love the Animal tab mod, any way to use them together?

Tried almost everything and it is not possible to do it in a clean way. The only way possible would be for my mod to include the entire of Animal Tab mod. And I'm very reluctant to do it for maintenance reasons AND assuming Fluffy (Animal Tab author) allows me.

[Vincent]

Animals are useless in every case, if you think you need hauler animals because you don't have enough hauling pawn you should have done better recruitment in the first place. on top of eating non stop, the time spent to train animals will be better used for hauling. I even kill the first animal you get in crashlanded at the first occasion possible (party or mariage...)

[sadpickle]

Animals are useless in every case, if you think you need hauler animals because you don't have enough hauling pawn you should have done better recruitment in the first place. on top of eating non stop, the time spent to train animals will be better used for hauling. I even kill the first animal you get in crashlanded at the first occasion possible (party or mariage...)

Eh I would say hauling animals are almost vital depending on how bad the RNG gimps you with backstories. I also like to keep chickens (for eggs, very useful on huge maps were hunting is very time consuming) and muffalos (milk, wool and meat shield champs), which will subsist off hay happily at little cost to the colony.

Quick or tanky carnivores like wolves, big cats, the forum-favorite bears, and even elephants all make excellent pain trains when you field them in numbers. When your handlers are brawlers they become beastmasters and can lay waste to raids in moments. Even if you don't train them up they can be useful with zoning.

That being said, without a lot of micro or savescumming, you will lose trainers if you're recruiting large amounts of wild animals. Best to get a breeding pair and keep them out of harms way. Unless you're playing a long game they'll probably provide babies for the lifetime of the colony.

[cmitc1]

Animals are useless in every case, if you think you need hauler animals because you don't have enough hauling pawn you should have done better recruitment in the first place. on top of eating non stop, the time spent to train animals will be better used for hauling. I even kill the first animal you get in crashlanded at the first occasion possible (party or mariage...)

agreed.

almost all animals are useless, they are not worth the time or space.

[sadpickle]

Animals are useless in every case, if you think you need hauler animals because you don't have enough hauling pawn you should have done better recruitment in the first place. on top of eating non stop, the time spent to train animals will be better used for hauling. I even kill the first animal you get in crashlanded at the first occasion possible (party or mariage...)

agreed.

almost all animals are useless, they are not worth the time or space.

You guys are just not using animals to their potential. Hauling animals are optional, if you have excellent workflow and some haulers. But there are massive benefits to livestock. Turn hay into eggs, meat, milk, wool, leather... just tons of valuable stuff from something completely worthless.

[Trylobyte]

Animals are a consistent source of frustration for me.  On one hand, I love having animals.  On the other hand, I can't justify a good reason for it.  They get in the way in combat without mods, they eat my crops without careful zoning, and they track dirt everywhere if allowed inside, causing a lot of mood debuffs unless I keep someone assigned to cleaning detail.  I tend to keep some on hand for hauling duties because I try to justify keeping pets, but that's about all the use I have for them that isn't eating them.  And in forest maps at least, they take too much time and too much space to breed when I can just go out and shoot two dozen deer on a whim.

Except bears.  Bears are just awesome and I will never turn them down.

[Vincent]

Animals are useless in every case, if you think you need hauler animals because you don't have enough hauling pawn you should have done better recruitment in the first place. on top of eating non stop, the time spent to train animals will be better used for hauling. I even kill the first animal you get in crashlanded at the first occasion possible (party or mariage...)

agreed.

almost all animals are useless, they are not worth the time or space.

You guys are just not using animals to their potential. Hauling animals are optional, if you have excellent workflow and some haulers. But there are massive benefits to livestock. Turn hay into eggs, meat, milk, wool, leather... just tons of valuable stuff from something completely worthless.

Livestock is useful on extreme map but what's the point on normal maps ? Eggs = Milk = Meat, and you just have to get 2 meter out of your base to kill an animal

[sadpickle]

Animals are useless in every case, if you think you need hauler animals because you don't have enough hauling pawn you should have done better recruitment in the first place. on top of eating non stop, the time spent to train animals will be better used for hauling. I even kill the first animal you get in crashlanded at the first occasion possible (party or mariage...)

agreed.

almost all animals are useless, they are not worth the time or space.

You guys are just not using animals to their potential. Hauling animals are optional, if you have excellent workflow and some haulers. But there are massive benefits to livestock. Turn hay into eggs, meat, milk, wool, leather... just tons of valuable stuff from something completely worthless.

Livestock is useful on extreme map but what's the point on normal maps ? Eggs = Milk = Meat, and you just have to get 2 meter out of your base to kill an animal

It's compressed meat you don't have to manually tag, send a pawn outside the base, risk them getting predated or stampeded by a pissed herd to get. On huge maps, after the first winter, all the animals are on the edge of the map, which means an enormous walk if you like to start building near the center. On huge mountain maps it can take a pawn practically all day to hunt one animal, depending on obstructions.

Also, animal wool is better than anything else for insulation, and is a fairly valuable material on it's own. Again, zero risk involved.

Of course they're totally optional, you don't have to raise them at all, you can totally ignore that aspect of the game. But for me the advantages far outweigh the burdens. The greatest burden is probably CPU cycles.

[Vincent]

It's compressed meat you don't have to manually tag, send a pawn outside the base, risk them getting predated or stampeded by a pissed herd to get. On huge maps, after the first winter, all the animals are on the edge of the map, which means an enormous walk if you like to start building near the center. On huge mountain maps it can take a pawn practically all day to hunt one animal, depending on obstructions.

Also, animal wool is better than anything else for insulation, and is a fairly valuable material on it's own. Again, zero risk involved.

Of course they're totally optional, you don't have to raise them at all, you can totally ignore that aspect of the game. But for me the advantages far outweigh the burdens. The greatest burden is probably CPU cycles.

I heard that milking/shearing animals have a chance to make them bond. I never had the case but you need to consider it.

[DirectorBright]

It's compressed meat you don't have to manually tag, send a pawn outside the base, risk them getting predated or stampeded by a pissed herd to get. On huge maps, after the first winter, all the animals are on the edge of the map, which means an enormous walk if you like to start building near the center. On huge mountain maps it can take a pawn practically all day to hunt one animal, depending on obstructions.

Also, animal wool is better than anything else for insulation, and is a fairly valuable material on it's own. Again, zero risk involved.

Of course they're totally optional, you don't have to raise them at all, you can totally ignore that aspect of the game. But for me the advantages far outweigh the burdens. The greatest burden is probably CPU cycles.

I heard that milking/shearing animals have a chance to make them bond. I never had the case but you need to consider it.

Never happened to me either. A female muffalo is a good thing to have if you have the food, the wool is fantastic for cold winters and the milk lets you make decent food. Also it can solo people in melee.

[DirectorBright]

God damnit Catherine 'Cat' Lavoie.
Level 18 builder, mother dies. Neurotic, so she breaks and eats ALL THE WAKE-UP. She then proceeds to do nothing but go berserk, constantly, because no wake up is somehow worse than having your fucking mother die.
This goes on for a while, then some guy gets his kidney shot out and gets infected. She immediately falls in love with him and he dies because he only has one kidney literally the next day.
THEN, she goes on MORE berserk rages, until she decides to shoot up some go-juice and despite the chemical high instantly go berserk AGAIN, beating two people unconscious before dying because what is pain.
Fucking christ...

[Bozobub]

THIS is why my colonies don't tolerate abuse of sales stock ^^'.  They won't stay off the smack, they're a delicious roast.  And fashionable boots.  Oo, maybe a duster!

So far, it's been slow enough that I've been able to counter all the negative moods from doing so, as well.

[Thyme]

Might be a bit late for the original topic, but animal pathfinding works differently than pawn pathfinding.
When I send a colonist to haggle with a caravan, his destination is updated every few seconds according to the movements of the trader. Animals don't have that when they follow their drafted master. The just go to the spot where the master is/was, when he got drafted. Next it will go where the master is right now (again no updating). And so on.

Other than that I don't see bigger problems with the mechanics. They're part of the game and need to be dealt with, the same way as raiders. *except for that manual un-/assigning of masters

PS: To all the people who say animals don't pay off, how do you make Parkas without the -20% workspeed penalty? My Alpaca Dusters are stronger than cloth parkas and also work in the other temperature direction!