Cantr II Discussion Forum

The Sociologist wrote:

The Sociologist wrote:

The Sociologist wrote:There has been a crash in the animal population in Akypor Forest South. We were used to 5-8 horses, essential for the food supply, and some turkeys. Suddenly, we got hawks as well. Had never seen them there before. Now, horses are down to 3 (rather unheard of), turkeys down to 1 and no more hawks. The situation seems highly unstable.

Given that the Akypor Xanth Commune's potato harvester is producing potatoes at a fixed rate which devalues all the time, and we can't hunt in AFS, even we will be obliged at some point to tell newspawns to get lost. Not good for growing the game since they have few places worthwhile to go in those parts.

Could this general pattern be looked at, please?

Update a day later: the turkey has now disappeared.

Later on the same day: total animal population now down to two horses.

Just a few hours later the horse population is down to 1 horse. The changed system is not working and the forests cannot be sustained at these levels.

Day later: There are now no animals whatsoever in AFS.

Please bear in mind that we did exactly what we were supposed to do in terms of a society simulator, namely build up a complex and sophisticated culture, sustaining a population far larger than should be there, and which relies on a complex mix of carefully husbanded animals, trade of steel, iron, wood, etc, for carrots or spinach, and the building of a second potato harvester in Akypor.

However, the potato harvester values aren't rising to keep pace with food consumption. Neither does it yet seem possible to lock in the food value by cooking potatoes, something I had suggested be implemented at the same time as this process. Finally, this week's new system has destroyed the local animal population entirely even though this effect was not encountered in other areas. Why? It would seem the system is somehow penalizing intensive but managed exploitation of the animal population above its breeding numbers.

Please note, that I support the idea of changing food values. All I ask is that cooking be introduced for potatoes (especially), and maybe carrots and spinach, as soon as possible, and that some effort, even if tedious, be made to update the harvester values to keep pace. Finally, why does the animal management system no longer preserve breeding herds? What then would be the point of maintaining breeding herds at all?

I count myself as one of a minority of strategy players remaining in the game. Many things programmed in the past while have been truly great from that perspective, ranging from radios to the idea of having resource scarcity in the first place, to the idea of placing higher value on prepared food. However, please be aware that the current implemention risks penalizing those towns whose superior levels of organization have up to now enabled them to take up further newspawns/new players still entering the game and give them a life worth living.

You see, the point is that New Xanth, ie AFS, is the product of strategy-playing, and therefore rather more sophisticated in how it exploits available resources. Indeed, it exploits them very intensively.

I am looking forward to an urgent clarification as to what is happening to breeding populations.

I know.. good thing im leaving there soon, otherwise i would have been pretty screwed with that charri

Must be a bug. I've noticed it elsewhere.

I hate this mother -CENSORED FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT- bug. It's screwing over like half my guys!!! WE WANT THE ANIMALS BACK!

Its not a bug, it was caused by one. There was a mess up and Jos could only fix it by deleting 1/3 of the animals in the process, hence this

Damnit! JOS! It's all your fault!

Coramon wrote:Damnit! JOS! It's all your fault!

The Sociologist wrote:However, the potato harvester values aren't rising to keep pace with food consumption. Neither does it yet seem possible to lock in the food value by cooking potatoes, something I had suggested be implemented at the same time as this process.

With eggs, milk and a mixing bowl you can make potato salad, eaten at 55g a day. It doesn't require a lot of eggs or milk so if you have a fair amount in storage you can use that until the animals are fixed.

I'm not fond of the animal situation either, it seems they are dissapearing and reappearing in smaller groups when/if they come back. I saw 39 snakes leave one town in one hour, it's kinda crazy.

Sociologist , as I said yesterday ProgD are actively looking into the situation concerning animal distributions and the impact of recent changes.

We have identified a bug in the new migration routines (there was always migration but these were changed to handle individual animals as opposed to herds/packs of animals) This essentiallly meant that migration routes where effectively one way - so in the case of AFS animals could leave for AFN but animals in AFN could only move between Akypor and AFN . Being in effect for approx.10 days , this has resulted in the population crash you witnessed in AFS . This is being fixed as we speak .

The fix will allow the travel to be two way or "up hill" . Over time the population distribution will rebalance itself as animals return to AFS.
All other areas have been effected by this but the AFS->AFN->AK single route displays ths problem more than a more circular network such as on K-Isle. We don't plan to move animals explicity in this case but allow the natural migration to repopulate areas. It will take a few days before numbers begin to repopulate (they physically have to travel the routes) but balance will be restored .

Another bug was fixed last week which accounted for a massive drop in animal numbers across all locations. We are having internal discussions on how to rectify this as well.

39 snakes! That must of hurt your ankles

Just my paranoia, maybe, but are animals moving more often now? The populations sure seem to fluctuate more...
(And no, I don't have a character in AFS, I'm just observing in general)

/Hellzon - currently out of snazzy signatures, will restock tomorrow

Thanks Chris, it kind of mucks up the town having no animals

Mafia Salad wrote:

The Sociologist wrote:However, the potato harvester values aren't rising to keep pace with food consumption. Neither does it yet seem possible to lock in the food value by cooking potatoes, something I had suggested be implemented at the same time as this process.

With eggs, milk and a mixing bowl you can make potato salad, eaten at 55g a day. It doesn't require a lot of eggs or milk so if you have a fair amount in storage you can use that until the animals are fixed.

Thanks for trying to be helpful, but there are no cows at all in the entire Akypor/Dory/Klojt area. I think you may get just a little milk from goats in the nearby mountains, but there is no way it would suffice even as a temporary measure in this case. The scale here is a whole order of magnitude different. Also, our turkeys didn't seem to breed much....when we had them, so we don't have much by way of eggs either.

I'm afraid our Xanth setup will need something a whole different order of magnitude than "Drojfian" potato salad. Mass production baked potatoes cooked in large ovens with four people helping would be more like it.

Chris Johnson wrote:Sociologist , as I said yesterday ProgD are actively looking into the situation concerning animal distributions and the impact of recent changes.

We have identified a bug in the new migration routines [...]

Chris, thanks for taking the time to provide such a detailed account. It was really very helpful and encouraging. I feel a lot happier.

deadboy wrote:I know.. good thing im leaving there soon, otherwise i would have been pretty screwed with that charri

Ah no, it would take more than this to bring down New Xanth, but I do now need to reconsider some decisions as to priorities. I suspect your charrie hasn't yet gained any real idea as to just what the Xanth Home represents.