alternate idea to domestic animal.

[LZPanzer]

while looking at the various crop types and how most of them are inedible/useless. i thought how do we make these things worth planting.

my idea is make the attract/ repel different wild animals

like you muffolo burger? plant a field of dandilions and watch them slowly congregate just out side your colony's walls.

hate boomrats blowing up you solar array plant roses and the thorns will keep them away
 

[StorymasterQ]

Yes I would like a muffalo burger please.

This sounds like a neat idea.

[TimMartland]

Sounds cool! I like the idea of muffalo congregating around a certain plant type. You could plant huge bramble/thorn fields to slow down attackers and dissuade animals, and even genetically engineer toxic thorns and poisoned berries.

[Tynan]

This is actually a really interesting idea.

[LZPanzer]

yay tynan responded.

to go into more depth as to how i think the idea should be implemented i suggest the fallowing conditions

make it so a herd can only pass through a certain sized hole in a player created wall,(when attracting animals). 
reason: balancing, makes it so a player cannot have a defensive wall with 1 square opening for raiders and also have a herd in  the players "safe zone".

make it so a herd paths directly to the player created field, while only path finding around natural obstructions, mountains ,ancient ruins, trees/cacti, but do not path around player created walls/ fortifications
reason: makes it difficult but not impossible for a player to get a heard into their "safe zone". to get a heard into a "safe zone" it should be like leaving a trail of bread crumbs.

make it so a herd move slowly, as in to make it across the  currently largest map it (300x300) should take around 7 in game solar cycles, while also making it so the herd moves faster if no food is available. ie the heard moves faster over a dessert than over a plantable plane with edible food for the herd.
reason: if a new herd shows up on map it shouldn't immediately head toward the players base at top speed. Also the variable herd move speed prevents the herd from starving to death if it crosses inhospitable terrain

make it so that when an animal goes psychotic it is not stopped by repellant plant but instead tries to find a way around it or another access point. ie if your base has one entrance and the animals target is on the other side of a repellent plant it tries to go around the plants. if ther is no path around the plant (doors should not count as obstacles, they are psychotic they bust doors down as they do now) it ignores the repellent plant entirely and paths through the plants like normal.

reason: pest control mechanic that does not abuse the mechanic. say you want to protect your potatos from a squirrel for the squirrel to get to your potatos you can set a maze so he has to go all throughout your base to get to the potato.

reason 2: opens the possibilty to have different kinds of psyco breaks for animal, ie kamikaze boomrats that blow up solar arrays muffalos that eat half you farm sqirrels that chew on your power cables

[keylocke]

my colony of boomrat hugging hippies approves of this.

is there a way to plant weed? er.. for the muffalos to graze on, i mean. hahaha.