Yeah, my general thought on “Priority” would go like this (weighted by distance, obviously):
1: Corn Feed in a Trough
2: Any other food in a Trough
3: Corn Feed on the ground (such as a stockpile or just randomly laying about)
4: Any other food on the ground
If they are unable to find any of these, they will go from Hungry to Starving. Once Starving, they will begin tearing up your farms to get food.
After a period of time, if they are still unable to get food (perhaps you have no farms, or not enough), they will simply die. Poof. Gone.
Well remember what Tuhalu mentioned about the animals that currently exist in the game being able to feed themselves? Well, as previously mentioned, I still think animals with lesser need should be able to eat grass and stuff, but feeding them instead would give them better production. So let me revise that list…
1: Corn Feed in a Trough
2: Any other food in a Trough
3: Corn Feed on the ground (such as a stockpile or just randomly laying about)
4: Any other food on the ground
5: Grass and insects.
Of course, just letting them eat grass for too long could kill the grass! Then, the whole “Crazy for corn” period could initiate. Just like that. So although feeding wouldn’t be necessary for lower-maintenance animals, it would be wise to feed them anyway for the production buff and to prevent the death of the grass. As for higher-maintenance animals, like mounts? (not horses!) You’re gonna need a rancher to feed them always.
I know however a trapper has a pet. I think it’s just natural that a shepherd has a herd dog at a certain level to help him capture cattle. Perhaps a baby mammoth could be given to the backers instead ? Doesn’t matter anyway, I believe there is a separate thread regarding this topic anyway.
Back to the animal food/needs.
I agree that this shouldn’t be some micromanagement thing. It should be part of the shepherd/rancher job to feed the animals when they are hungry just like a crop needs to be harvested by a farmer when fully grown.
I think this is a really solid idea for how to accomplish the task of feeding animals, Would this system give any benefits to animal production based on what kinds of food they’re eating? I could see some sort of morale boost (like with Hearthlings) when they are able to have Animal Feed instead of some random food type, just like how the morale score for food is based on having a variety of types. I just feel like there should be some benefits for micromanaging, if players want to focus on that, rather than making it only “set and forget”
Updated to the latest unstable build and playing several days in. I have 3 Poyos running around and a number of rabbits and all are starving. Stocks show 3 corn, 7 carrots and 42 wheat. Why are my animals starving? Please don’t say it needs a chef.
Yes it needs a chef, seriously! So is there some wilderness chef feeding them racoons, rabbits and squirrels in the wild we can’t see. Ok if that’s the way its going.
I also have a mass of animals starving in my town, but I have a chef (two now!) and the food is sitting on a pile well away from the poor animals. I cant even kill the things they are too starved it says. How do I get the shepherd to give the animals food?
I’m not really happy with the production chain for animal food, honestly. Even with pastures set up and a cook and a farmer the breeding rate is so frequent that most of my animals end up starving, and my cook spends more time cooking animal food than he does cooking human food. Either animals need to eat a lot less frequently or one batch of animal food needs to last a lot longer or something.
however a trapper has a pet. I think it’s just natural that a shepherd has a herd dog at a certain level to help him capture cattle. Perhaps a baby mammoth could be given to the backers instead ? Doesn’t matter anyway, I believe there is a separate thread regarding this topic anyway.