Streamlining my rimworld "farmville"

[keylocke]

so dudes, i finally got the time to sink days on that sweet new a12 and it's pet system.

anyways, to get to the point. i think there needs to be a distinction between "pets" and "livestock", this is to lessen the micromanagement of produce from "livestock" animals, such as chickens, muffalos, alpaca, etc.. compared to the haul-and-defend centered "pets" such as dogs, wargs, boars, etc..

what i mean by this is that, "livestock" areas can be given special parameters like in games like gnomoria where players can just set maximum male/female population of an animal and the game will auto-butcher the oldest "extras" of that specie.

this would prevent animal overpopulation, while ensuring that you'll have a steady supply of animal products. without having to micromanage it. (ie : i often have to manually check the population of my livestock and then kill the oldest ones, while preserving a good ratio of male-female, depending on the species. this is too much hassle compared to farming and hunting)

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as for the "pets" always following their master around when drafted. i think there should be an option to turn that off, while preserving that master/pet connection. (pets paired to an owner should try to sleep in the same room as the owner, if their area restrictions allow it.)

anyways, overpopulation doesn't seem to be a problem for these creatures since these guys are best employed as "shock troops" for that good old surprise-muthafrakkar-say-hello-to-my-zergling-horde ambush tactics.

but i usually keep at least 2 pairs of couples (a few years apart in age) for that baby factory going. and i also keep at least one tribal faction hostile to provide me with their delicious human meats for my warg army.

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seriously, i haven't built a single turret in a12. the whole friggin map is now my killzone. 

[Daman453]

Look at my title, i like the idea of a animal army, where as soon as a raid comes a whole group of animals can attack before they even get settled.

[keylocke]

yea, an army of elephants and rhinos can probably do that. haha.

[Spectre]

Excellent suggestions especially the 'butcher after a certain amount' and the master/pet relationship. I've essentially stopped having the master/pet system in my games because poor Doggy Ruffson always inevitably gets caught in cross fire. I think having animals in 'squads' perhaps and being led by an 'animal master' so they can be quickly drafted and used in combat may be a solution. Perhaps the animal master can also only control certain amounts of creatures based on his handling skill.

[Regret]

Excellent suggestions especially the 'butcher after a certain amount' and the master/pet relationship. I've essentially stopped having the master/pet system in my games because poor Doggy Ruffson always inevitably gets caught in cross fire. I think having animals in 'squads' perhaps and being led by an 'animal master' so they can be quickly drafted and used in combat may be a solution. Perhaps the animal master can also only control certain amounts of creatures based on his handling skill.

Butcher after a certain amount would be very useful.

You can already assign all your animals to one master.
You just need to position her wisely and 'let loose the dogs of war' at the right time.
Maybe make a melee specialist the animal master so he doesn't shoot his puppies? Or a pacifist, their primary weapon is furry after all.
The rest is just keeping track of your troops, which you should be doing anyway in this game.
You may have noticed friendly fire is common, keep that in mind when releasing your attack capibaras.

[thetj]

anyways, overpopulation doesn't seem to be a problem for these creatures since these guys are best employed as "shock troops" for that good old surprise-muthafrakkar-say-hello-to-my-zergling-horde ambush tactics.
...
seriously, i haven't built a single turret in a12. the whole friggin map is now my killzone. 

Exactly...I basically let farm animals reproduce freely and then use them as cannon fodder against all enemies, including centipedes and scythers. And then I get to feed the meat to wargs...It's the circle of life!!

[skullywag]

Theres a mod for a better animal tab ui it helps immensly but yea this process needs some love.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=15964.msg169177#msg169177