Animal field size has different effect

Summary:
The number of animals per Animal Pasture varies strange with the areal size. Many smaller patches are more effective than one big field with the same size.

Fieldsize | Sheeps / Rabits/Poyo (xs/yr) | total size in voxel
10x10     | 2s/ 2r                       | 100voxel
20x20     | 2s / 4r                      | 400voxel
30x30     | 4s / 9r                      | 900voxel
40x40     | 8s / 16r                     | 1600voxel
50x50     | 12s / 25r                    | 2500voxel
25x21     | 3s / 5r                      | 525voxel
39x19     | 4s / 7r                      | 741voxel
20x40     | 4s / 8r                      | 800voxel

So if I build 4 10x10 fields, instead of one 20x20 field I increase the amount of possible animals per field from:
2s / 4r -> 8s / 8r

The same list again with the same field size in 10x10 fields (the most effective field size)

Fieldsize | amount 10x10Fields | Sheeps / Rabits/Poyo (xs/yr)
20x20     | 4                  | 8s/8r
30x30     | 9                  | 18s/18r
40x40     | 16                 | 32s/32r
50x50     | 25                 | 50s/50r

The final formula for animals should be depend on the field size and should scale correctly with a bigger field.
As eg. xSheeps = fieldsize / 50
or yRabids = fieldsize / 25

At the end it developer choice. But it is strange that smaller patches are more effective than one bigger with the same size.

Steps to reproduce:
train a sheepherd and play with different animal farm sizes

Notes:
Gameplay balance related.

Version Number and Mods in use:
0.14.0 development (2840) x64build
no mods in use

2 Likes

Not that it would make a huge difference, but keep in mind more field sizes also carries more work for the shepherd to feed the animals, plus it requires more animal feed,

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well good to know at least how the formula is right now. Was wondering how big to make the field to get a decent number of animals :slightly_smiling:

Sure, but if the point is to get as many animals as possible in the most efficient area, these factors are pretty moot. You would have the same issue with the same number of animals if you used large areas, they would just take up the entire map to equal it.

2 Likes

I was trying to find out how big an area needed to be to get a certain number of animals. When you start out with the trapper knife, you get a sheppert pretty quicly. But usally the feed production is not yet high enough. I’m just happy to be able to select the size to get a specific number of animals. Before i always had to guess and redo the area to change it

Linear scaling of space needed would be nice. The non-linear scale breaks all expectations of how this kind of limit ought to scale.

An alternative way of solving this bug would be to make animals pick up some crowdedness value from how many other animals are around them, and then use that to make wool grow back slower, eggs not be produced as quickly, etc. So if you just want meat, by all means, make the most compact, crowded factory farm possible. But if you want anything else, it may be more efficient in the long run to spread out your pens.

This gives a nice choice, but it’s probably more work than just fixing the formula.

1 Like

You can see the actual formula on the wiki. Shepherd - Official Stonehearth Wiki
It’s about 208-209 voxels for a sheep and 100 for a rabbit or poyo. It will also be rounded, so a field with a size of 460 will still allow 5 rabbits/poyos. The problem is that even the smallest field (10x10=100) will contain at least 2 animals of any kind, while by the regular formula it would only contain 1 rabbit/poyo and not even 1 sheep.

2 Likes