do something about animals

[Wilmer Bordonado]

If you want to do something about the animals, then hunt!

Problem is just not "hunting". Problem is just population of animals.
Graphically, let's say there's 40 bears in the site where we are.
The my character uses his ONLY one attack per day he has.
He's lucky and he kills the annoying bear.
But tomorrow, when he will wake up, there wouldn't be 39 bears, but 50.
So the hunting and attacking stuff never ends!

Wilmer B.

Ps. Apart from that, character wouldn't be attacked from the same animal type more than once per day, and it's just happening.

[Frits]

Yeah i know, that's bizarre. In my location it was the other way round and the bearpopulation dwindled from over 40 to 11 in a day. That's from when i was outside, it's probably changed again now. But anyway, i see other chars hunt maybe once or twice a year.

[Nakranoth]

You're forgetting about the migration of the animals... that's what's causing the wierd up and down spikes in population...
If you keep hunting, you'll eventually reduce you, and the surrounding locations enough to minimize the problem.

[Frits]

Well these changes from migration are sometimes massive from one day to the next which strikes me as bizarre.

Another problem on Burgeo is the lack of characters, not to mention the lack of actively hunting, surviving characters, i guess i could say the animals (so far) are the victors.

[Nakranoth]

Yes, but then, that's really the people there's fault... it's a fronteer and will remain sparsely populated until the people trying to live there hunt the animals down to safer numbers.

[Wilmer Bordonado]

You're forgetting about the migration of the animals...

I do not believe in the migration stuff. It sounds too weird for me.
How's that migration controlled and how is it related to the animal borning sytem?

Wilmer B.

[Nakranoth]

Ever popped open the huntin menu when on the roads? Animals walk around quite a bit. The specifics of how exactly animals decide to go when and where they go is beyond me, but because they do, when animals show up in town from the road, it creates an illusion that quite a few were born.

[Jos Elkink]

What do you mean, you don't believe in it?

The migration is fairly random, really. Just a fixed probability for each animal type to go walking away and then a check whether the destination location is one where this type of animal can actually be. Someday we'll implement something more fancy, but that's all only in research stage right now.

So yes, fluctuations are definitely largely due to migrations.

[Frits]

Does migration occur 8 times a day, or even more frequently? Why so many times?
I should add it looks good on the roads, there's often a few animals around to choose from, about five on average but more than that on Burgeo. It doesnt look right in locations with the real large populations, i get to see 50, 40, 40, 10, 20, 60, 40 bears on subsequent days. These are always animals with good natural armor cos they are hard to kill, never pigeons!

[Chris Johnson]

All animal activity including migration is processed 4 times a day

Migration is also controlled by damage ,the most damaged of a type never migrates - other damaged ones are less likely to migrate. All hunting attacks are directed at the most damaged.
Animal overcrowding also controls migration , if there are too many animals of all types within a location then the chance of migration is doubled - Overcrowding levels are different for different types of animals (Its actually proportional to the 1/reproduction rate) - An area can hold more rabbits than elephants before overcrowding migration is triggered.

Typically about 2/3rds of all animals are travelling at any one time.

[Jos Elkink]

I didn't know it was inversely proportional to the reproduction rate ... Interesting.

[Frits]

Animal overcrowding also controls migration , if there are too many animals of all types within a location then the chance of migration is doubled.

Right! Interesting, now i see that's what's causing the numerous large fluctuations. On Burgeo i mean, due to the lack of chars there are lots of animals in áll locations, so if the location i'm in (my viewpoint) has 4 roads there are 5 locations that could get overcrowded with several animaltypes. So ie location 1 sends bears and location 2 sends elephants. After two hours location 3 has too many rhino's and also rabbits and location 4 too many horses. So each time migration is triggered. After a couple of days the animals reach their destination, now not only location 5 gets overcrowded for some types but all locations receive the migrating bears and all the other animals i mentioned, then they multiply as well... two hours pass and it starts all over again.
Suggestions: Instead of migrating they could also die.
Especially the ones with natural armor should have lower populationcaps.
The game has been running for quite some time so you get to see patterns emerge, on Treefeatherisland you're likely to find lots of desert tortoises, on Cantrisland you'll find the boars remaining and these islands are largely hunted out. And on K-island you have the large populations of buffalo.

[Nosajimiki]

don't kill my dessert tourtises, they are the only animals left alive in some places to hunt ... and boars are fun on Cantr isle, it's the only dangerious thing we have left.

actually I do think kill off caps are needed, and i dont think there are so many tourtises or boars anywhere on the main lands that they'll be endangered b/c of it anyway.

[Jos Elkink]

I think the most likely next thing to be implemented in this regard is animals who attack other animals. That would be a step forward, right?

[T-shirt]

I don't think so. I think reproduction values should change and animals should be capped. In crowded places pigeon reproduction should increase.
Turtles should have a low reproduction rate. Animals that are tough to kill should not replenish themselves quickly.
I think it'll be hard to get the best figures to keep the animal population challenging and healthy. A population cap for animals would be best to keep them controlled a little. 80 desert tortoises in one place is a bit over the top. A maximum of 5 to 20 should be fine. Even with the best weapons and skills a medium sized settlement cannot kill a tortoise within a day.