Marine Life and Merfolk?

I was just wondering if there were going to be any marine animals in the ocean or lakes in the world. There could be sharks to hunt and make soup and armor from, dolphins as possible pets, and even a aquatic titans such as the loch ness monster. If it isn’t to much coding, there could also be an NPC merfolk race with manatees as cows. This is my first time here, so I hope this is a worthwhile suggestion.

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hey there @DrWhonow … welcome aboard! :smile:

we’ve had quite a few discussions on new creatures, but I cant seem to locate anything specific to marine life… once we have water (which is … down the road a bit), having something like this would certainly be welcomed! :smiley:

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Alright thanks! I feel it would grant another level of depth (see what I did there?) to the game once it comes out. Especially if you settle near an ocean and create a port city

Yeah, I’d love to see plenty of marine life in Stonehearth. There’s more to the seas than just “catch generic fish” and wave animations :stuck_out_tongue: .

One question though…

Can we forcibly breed them to harvest their kids’ bones for town wealth?

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That’s a bit barbaric, considering they’re quite possibly sentient. Though they could breed other marine life who’s resources could be gained through trade

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I like your suggestion, @DrWhonow. Incidentally, I don’t know if you’re into Magic the Gathering at all, but if you are, have you ever seen this rant on merfolk? Hilarious.

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Oh man, this video was great, thanks for showing me it!

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Ethics should not be a restriction to how our settlements make a profit.

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Well, I guess if a player wants to they should be allowed, though it would probably require the complete enslavement of a kingdom.

Well, if we could trap the merfolk with shallow water and gates then the only way to attack would be for them to enter the very trap that killed their friends.

The whole mermaid-farming incident in Dwarf Fortress was actually one where the developer of DF was so horrified he promptly nerfed the value of mermaid bones to discourage players from doing it. Stonehearth being a game not unlike DF, I couldn’t help but link to it :slight_smile: .

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I would say it should not be a restriction to how the game is developed. It’s up to the player to decide how they want to restrict themselves and what ethics they want to maintain. And I do like the idea that these sorts of decisions matter (beneath the surface, preferably).

I had not heard of that… why was it so horrifying? What happened exactly? I could look it up myself but I’m lazy, and it’s more fun to hear from someone directly :3

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I’m in the business of trading merfolk scales for goblin slaves… that’s just how my village roles.

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The act of enslaving merfolk could work as a prompt for the lord of the sea, possibly a giant leviathan to attack your town or less happiness due to amoral actions in your city. Just a thought though

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Leviathan or Kraken or Hydra or Jörmungandr :slight_smile:

Let’s just add all of them and have them all be possible in that scenario! Go dev team!

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Just gonna go quote Cracked.com on this one:

It’s not particularly unreasonable that certain creatures have unusually valuable body parts. For instance, dragons are basically walking piles of valuable spell components and magical organs that couldn’t possibly function if physics weren’t drunk off its ass. What is somewhat unexpected is that mermaids were once just as valuable. Their bones, for whatever reason, used to be just as pricy as those of the much more dangerous fire-breathing superlizards, although recent marked fluctuations (and/or a sudden acquisition of morals) seem to have changed this. Naturally, while the value was still high, several entrepreneurs decided to overcome the primary difficulty in obtaining their precious, precious skeletal systems, which was that mermaids are generally underwater and dwarves are famed for their skill at drowning. Numerous designs were tested, with the ideal being a system whereby several mermaids and a single merman would be catapulted from the ocean floor into a room (where they would be forever chained and forced to breed) and their freshly-born offspring flushed into the butcher’s shop for easy harvests, although ultimately no perfect design was found. It is suspected that the sudden flood of mermaid bone into the market drove the price down, and this combined with Elven activists decreased the incentive for further research.

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How would you defend against that though? Should there be giant sea gates or dykes or even warships?

Magical Sushi. Seems reasonable to me.

Or possibly fin fans

Yeah, I can’t stand games where you choose a good/evil side.

What about Cthulhu?