Animal farming

[Bennytheowl]

So does anyone know if animal farming is gonna be added to the game? If not I suggest that prehaps they add a few stray cows and chickesn wandering around that you can take back to your base and breed. pretty straight forwards, i was also thinking that worm breeding could be good. Theres been a post about worm breeding in the past so I won't go into it but it would really add to the game and make it so farming isn't just about growing crops.

[Lucius_5]

Awesome idea. : )

[Realmkeeper]

Have you ever tried breeding cows? (let's just say, it certainly not something the average Joe could manage!)

Ever tried breeding chickens, even? (It's not as simple as 'chicken lays egg, egg hatches')

 

Any kind of animal breeding outside their natural environment is a lot more complex than one might think. Some things, like worms, are relatively easy in captivity, because their natural breeding environment is reliant on very few factors - most children can understand that worms need moist nutritious dirt/soil, and this can be obtained through composting.

Other animals like (domesticated) cats are easily bred in an environment not unlike our own - as long as there's warm, dry shelter and a readily available food source, kittens will thrive.

 

Now, I may have misunderstood your intent, but breeding farm animals is in another league to breeding house pets - there's a reason they are out on the farms, and not cooped up in the city.

[Bennytheowl]

Have you ever tried breeding cows? (let's just say, it certainly not something the average Joe could manage!)

Ever tried breeding chickens, even? (It's not as simple as 'chicken lays egg, egg hatches')

 

Any kind of animal breeding outside their natural environment is a lot more complex than one might think. Some things, like worms, are relatively easy in captivity, because their natural breeding environment is reliant on very few factors - most children can understand that worms need moist nutritious dirt/soil, and this can be obtained through composting.

Other animals like (domesticated) cats are easily bred in an environment not unlike our own - as long as there's warm, dry shelter and a readily available food source, kittens will thrive.

 

Now, I may have misunderstood your intent, but breeding farm animals is in another league to breeding house pets - there's a reason they are out on the farms, and not cooped up in the city.

 

Ever tried building a fort out of broken up door planks? I joke I joke. You could pick the "Farmer" trait and this give you a  bonus. Plus cows wandering around rural fields aren't exactly far away from where they probably spent all of their lives. But we have to remember that sometimes you just have to let logic go in a video game. the average joe probably couldnt do most of the things that happen in PZ. 

 

 

EDIT: Could be a requirement that they must be breeded out in the country side. there are plenty of areas near the city that have big enough spaces for cows and chickens, also this isn't the same town as in the real world, there are no noises from traffic because all of that is now gone thanks to the zombies. Besides the solid ground there really isn't much of a difference.

[Realmkeeper]

 

Have you ever tried breeding cows? (let's just say, it certainly not something the average Joe could manage!)

Ever tried breeding chickens, even? (It's not as simple as 'chicken lays egg, egg hatches')

 

Any kind of animal breeding outside their natural environment is a lot more complex than one might think. Some things, like worms, are relatively easy in captivity, because their natural breeding environment is reliant on very few factors - most children can understand that worms need moist nutritious dirt/soil, and this can be obtained through composting.

Other animals like (domesticated) cats are easily bred in an environment not unlike our own - as long as there's warm, dry shelter and a readily available food source, kittens will thrive.

 

Now, I may have misunderstood your intent, but breeding farm animals is in another league to breeding house pets - there's a reason they are out on the farms, and not cooped up in the city.

 

Ever tried building a fort out of broken up door planks? I joke I joke. You could pick the "Farmer" trait and this give you a  bonus. Plus cows wandering around rural fields aren't exactly far away from where they probably spent all of their lives. But we have to remember that sometimes you just have to let logic go in a video game. the average joe probably couldnt do most of the things that happen in PZ. 

 

That's more like it!

A farming trait (for animals as opposed to plants) would be a nice way of providing a legitimate background knowledge of such things. Though cows wandering in fields aint gonna make calves... I don't know how common bulls are in Kentucky, but where I live it's mostly dairy farms - not every farmer needs a bull grazing (and causing havok) on his farm constantly.

 

Disclaimer: I'm not even a farmer, I'm at the other end of the food process - and even as a butcher I could tell you that you'd need a lot more than a handbook and a paddock to successfully breed cows, pigs, sheep, or chickens! In these post-apocalyptic days without the internet, and without experts and consultants to guide you through the process at least once, you'd be struggling to get a partially realistic (so, game level realism) breeding farm working without dumbing it right down to Animal + Animal = Baby Animal (which is possible, but my experience with PZ so far makes me think that would be too simplistic for a semi-realistic survival game)

 

I dunno though, there's probably no unneccessary complexities with worm, fish, and pet breeding. Although even fish breeding is a little more than chucking fish in a tank/pond and letting them mingle.

[Bennytheowl]

 

 

Have you ever tried breeding cows? (let's just say, it certainly not something the average Joe could manage!)

Ever tried breeding chickens, even? (It's not as simple as 'chicken lays egg, egg hatches')

 

Any kind of animal breeding outside their natural environment is a lot more complex than one might think. Some things, like worms, are relatively easy in captivity, because their natural breeding environment is reliant on very few factors - most children can understand that worms need moist nutritious dirt/soil, and this can be obtained through composting.

Other animals like (domesticated) cats are easily bred in an environment not unlike our own - as long as there's warm, dry shelter and a readily available food source, kittens will thrive.

 

Now, I may have misunderstood your intent, but breeding farm animals is in another league to breeding house pets - there's a reason they are out on the farms, and not cooped up in the city.

 

Ever tried building a fort out of broken up door planks? I joke I joke. You could pick the "Farmer" trait and this give you a  bonus. Plus cows wandering around rural fields aren't exactly far away from where they probably spent all of their lives. But we have to remember that sometimes you just have to let logic go in a video game. the average joe probably couldnt do most of the things that happen in PZ. 

 

That's more like it!

A farming trait (for animals as opposed to plants) would be a nice way of providing a legitimate background knowledge of such things. Though cows wandering in fields aint gonna make calves... I don't know how common bulls are in Kentucky, but where I live it's mostly dairy farms - not every farmer needs a bull grazing (and causing havok) on his farm constantly.

 

Disclaimer: I'm not even a farmer, I'm at the other end of the food process - and even as a butcher I could tell you that you'd need a lot more than a handbook and a paddock to successfully breed cows, pigs, sheep, or chickens! In these post-apocalyptic days without the internet, and without experts and consultants to guide you through the process at least once, you'd be struggling to get a partially realistic (so, game level realism) breeding farm working without dumbing it right down to Animal + Animal = Baby Animal (which is possible, but my experience with PZ so far makes me think that would be too simplistic for a semi-realistic survival game)

 

I dunno though, there's probably no unneccessary complexities with worm, fish, and pet breeding. Although even fish breeding is a little more than chucking fish in a tank/pond and letting them mingle.

 

 

Of course who says it has to be just cows and chickens? could be rats, guinea pigs from the pet store, frogs, bees...anything really. Theres always SOMEONE with the knowledge to do these things and who says that it can't be your character? This would be really good for mutliplayer or when NPCs are added because not only is it (to the best of my knowledge) not a one man job but it would mean that everyone won't just pick the police officer and construction worker jobs.

[jefferyharrell]

I think the gameplay problem with breeding cows is less about the implausibility of it and more about the time required. Cows gestate for just about as long as people do, a bit over nine months, and many games don't last that long to begin with. Then once the calf is born it takes about another 4-6 months to be suitable for slaughter for meat, or 18 months to two years to reach breeding age. Breeding cows would be a very late-game thing, if it were in the game at all.

 

Now pigs on the other hand…

[Kajin]

Cows would likely be almost impossible to breed given the lack of available bulls. I've seen dozens of cows in my life but have never seen a single bull. Goats would be a better bet, I imagine. You'd likely have a better chance of finding a male if you wanted to do breeding. Plus, they're a lot smaller and easier to care for than cows. Less space and food requirements. Not as much gains as a cow in terms of milk and meat, but still definitely easier.

 

Pigs might be hard to take care of but the meat gains would be ENORMOUS if you could get your hands on some. With an average yield of about 180 pounds of meat, you could keep a single person fed for a couple months off a single pig. Pigs reach slaughter age every three months and a sow can give birth to a fair number of piglets, so you'd be set for meat. A decent farm for fruits and vegetables and some goats for milk? You have everything you need, food-wise.

 

But enough bragging on the wonders of animal ranching. Onto the difficulty! I don't see any reason why Male + Female = Baby would be impossible, but I can see the possibility for any number of complications. Males would fight each other for breeding rights and possibly kill each other. They could accidentally hurt the female or the female could hurt the male if they find their prospective mate unsatisfactory. Males might hurt the babies during birth or afterwards. There could be complications during birth that might kill the babies or the mother or both, resulting in a whole lot of wasted time and effort. You'd obviously have to deal with all sorts of problems when raising animals.

[jefferyharrell]

With an average yield of about 180 pounds of meat, you could keep a single person fed for a couple months off a single pig.

 

Though that does raise some questions about how to keep large cuts of meat fit to eat over longish spans of time. I know that it's possible in principle to cure meats in various ways, and at the very least I'd like it if there were an in-game recipe for making jerky, but beyond that I'm ignorant. Maybe it's as simple as keeping the butchered animals whole and just periodically cutting off the spoiled parts to get to the still-good-to-eat insides.

[Kajin]

I'd love to be able to smoke meat and put it in a cool, dry root cellar for long term storage. And if we get milk making animals of some kind we definitely need a way to process it, whether it be churning it into butter, processing it into cheese or concentrating it into a condensed or powdered storage tolerant form.

 

That said, none of this is currently possible

[Bennytheowl]

That said, none of this is currently possible

 

A man can dream though.....a man can dream.

[Realmkeeper]

 

That said, none of this is currently possible

 

A man can mod though.....a man can mod.

 

Fixed that for ya 

[Bennytheowl]

 

 

That said, none of this is currently possible

 

A man can mod though.....a man can mod.

 

Fixed that for ya 

 

 

It's just not the same. If it ain't official then I can't enjoy it...

 

 

really bugs me when people say "oh you can just mod it in it's aight" because I really can't enjoy something unless I know that it's in the default game.

[jefferyharrell]

 

 

That said, none of this is currently possible

 

A man can mod though.....a man can mod.

 

Fixed that for ya 

 

I'm under the possibly mistaken impression that the game is evolving too quickly for mods to be a fruitful pursuit right now. Maybe I'm wrong.