Husbandry (made simple)

[Medio]

Assign fauna specific mating season periods (like growing seasons) and a "territory" value.

If:
Two animals of the same species are in range of one another's "territory" values within the specified mating season,
Then:
They produce one (or an amount dependent on a set RNG value for each species) offspring.

If:
The conditions are not met,
Then:
Nothing happens.

If:
The conditions are met, but either of the pair have already mated this year,
Then:
Nothing happens.

If:
The conditions are met, but either of the two animals were "born" this year,
Then:
Nothing happens.

Example:
Boar have a "territory" value set to 6, and a mating season of April. If two boar cross paths within 6 tiles apart during the month of April, they will produce another boar. Their offspring cannot mate this year, nor can the mates, until next April.

If in the future you want to make it more complex, you can add an RNG role for frustration and going mad that is connected to mated season. For instance, if an animal does not mate within 5 years, it goes mad. Than you can remove the "animal goes mad" events from the storyteller and make it more natural to the environment. People could then even go as far as inducing animals into violent behavior by exploiting the mechanics and using them as weapons. It would be interesting.

[Johnny Masters]

Reminds me of Beasts and Bumpkins cow mating, and it worked fine. I think it fits the somewhat abstract nature of this game, so +1 for this. Introduce fences and a way to make animals to follow a pawn/ make a pawn guide an animal and Voilà, full husbandry.

[Medio]

mmm yes.. fences. Make "mad" animal torpedo shoots...

or just lamely corralling animals for meat.

[Monkfish]

1+ for simple ideas.

I would add though that the animals meeting in the wild should have a percentage chance to mate (the way you wrote it suggests it would be every time) otherwise the map would soon be full of animals.

Expounding on Johnny's suggestion of fences, they could be used in conjunction with a "husbandry" zone to create areas where caught animals could be kept and bred. The current Growing skill could be renamed to "Farming" and include tending to the animals. They would need to be fed, meaning that there's a requirement for growing fodder. Animals in the husbandry zone that are well fed would have a much higher chance of breeding than those out in the wild. Wild animals could caught by hunters using lassos and dragged to the husbandry zone.

Farming, done.

[Medio]

In regard to animals overrunning the map.... The Purge!

...but yeah percentage chance might be better.. or predation or intraspecies violence! 50% chance to mate 50% chance to fight to the death (that's like reality anyway lol).

[Johnny Masters]

I would add though that the animals meeting in the wild should have a percentage chance to mate (the way you wrote it suggests it would be every time) otherwise the map would soon be full of animals.

As Medio pointed out, purge would be neat! I mean, predation, predation would be neat. Muffaloes and deer could be kept in check by a predator animal and the predator could be kept in check by either:
a) They overpopulate by killing all available prey and starving to death in which would actually mean they would turn on your colonists for food, which you either become food or kill them, fixing the problem 
b) their group splits after a certain number is reached and the split gets out of the map to find food and avoid fighting with their species.

I'm not sure on breeding capabilities of wild animals, but usually they produce a lot of offspring each year and only a few survives to adulthood, so i don't think always breeding would be a problem (see group splitting above), specially if a lot of the cubs end up dying to predators (including you), but i don't see a problem with breeding have a % either.

Expounding on Johnny's suggestion of fences, they could be used in conjunction with a "husbandry" zone to create areas where caught animals could be kept and bred. The current Growing skill could be renamed to "Farming" and include tending to the animals. They would need to be fed, meaning that there's a requirement for growing fodder. Animals in the husbandry zone that are well fed would have a much higher chance of breeding than those out in the wild. Wild animals could caught by hunters using lassos and dragged to the husbandry zone.

Wait wait! Its really more simple than that. There's no need for a zone! Really, check it out Beast and bumpkins, pretty old and dated, but the husbandry system, while simple, worked rather fine fine, although we'd need a more complete system (in bb you only take milk, not meat).

Then you could either: Let them grow in the wild or fence them in, in which case they could either eat grass (needing a large enough grass area) or available raw food. Or you could feed them with hooper of some kind, in which cause you'd need fodder growing indeed.

[Medio]

From a devs point of view its starting to get a bit complicated to implement. I wanted to try and keep it simple so it could be something that wouldnt take too much time to code.

So I would like it if what is in my first post was implemented, just to have the ability to do so. Then as time goes on all these other things could be added in.

That said, I don't like the whole "farming zone" idea. I think without it there is more freedom for creativity, if the animals just behaved in a certain way based on the if/then statements you could create what would be a farming zone anyway from the mechanics, and that I feel is much more rewarding than just following along a predetermined code. It's kind of like buying the color green versus only having blue and yellow and figuring out you can mix it to make green. Growing zones are explainable because you cultivate the land to do that. For animals though I just don't see it. You can't really tell a cow, "this is where you mate and make babies," it just does so if you give it the right conditions. Kind of like working with game mechanics for an expected response.

Another example of what I mean is like creating airlocks. You work with the game mechanics for a desired outcome, there isn't just a door called an airlock that does it for you.

[TrashMan]

I would chance it so there is a chance they will mate, and there is a chance they will fight (if of same sex, territorial), and chance that nothing happens.

[Medio]

Probably for the best. Then again, I wouldn't mind alpha testing a game where the chance isn't there to see what would happen.

[Regret]

+1 from me, especially when you include predation.

[Argon]

This is a great Idea. +1

-Argon

[kingtyris]

+1. I'd like to see predation. One thing I liked about Age of Empires was the chance that a lone villager might get attacked by wolves.

A worthwhile husbandry system might take some effort and time to implement, but honestly I wouldn't mind an entire update devoted to doing it properly.

[SSS]

Why isn't animal diseases a thing, anyway? It could be interesting and would combo with this idea well.