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Animals in DST + Potential Character Idea


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I enjoy DST a lot, and my favourite features of the games are by far the animals. From Koelaphants, to Geckos, Catcoons, Beefalo, and my personal favourite Tallbirds, I adore DST's animal designs. I always make a point in every world to attempt to make a zoo or "befriend" as many animals as I can, herding and bringing them to my base. 

 

While many of the animals have subtle dual functions, either as a food source + drops or generating poop, protection, and in some cases other harvestable resources (Beef wool), very few animals actually have any true benefit when alive that justifies keeping them around, let alone keep them alive for extended periods of time. The Beefalo may be an exception with domestication, but many people never attempt to domesticate Beefalo due to the difficulty of maintaining them. Beefs do make traveling faster and are useful in battle, but by the time someone would consider domesticating a Beefalo, most of the map would already be explored and you would have decent armour and weapons most of the time. Most people I have known who domesticate Beefalos on a semi-regular basis do so from the mere pleasure of having an earned pet they can take care of and love, not to use as meat sheilds in battle (some use it for the speed boost exclusively but very few). 

I'm not sure if this is just my social group or if this is true for others, but it's extremely apparent to me and how I play that ranching or being friendly towards the beasts of the DST world is not really rewarded. You're rewarded for using or "exploiting" animals, for the lack of a better word, (taking gecko tails, shaving Beefalo in the winter, stealing penguin and Tallbirds eggs, using animals to kill enemies regardless of whether they die) but you do not get any significant reward for caring for animals, especially long term. Sure, Koelaphants give manure, but does 1-2 manure piles a day really beat out the benefits of a ton of meat and a trunk, especially when there are other, better sources of manure? Is spending meat to befriend a catcoon really worth that single bone shard it gives you as a gift?

 

The point is, there's two main ways to interact with animals effectively in DST: You kill them, or you leave them alone. For an animal lover like me, I think the game could benefit from a third option: ranching.

 

I think a new character who's main benefits revolve around animals may add additional ways to survive in DST. The main survival methods in DST currently is to kill everything in sight for meat and drops or leave everything alone and survive on berries. But what if a rancher was able to harness the natural beauty of these DST beasts? Instead of killing Koelaphants for meat and trunks immediately, a rancher is able to create the right conditions for Koelaphants to breed and create more over an extended period of time, creating more food? What if a rancher was able to milk Beefalo, giving people more reason to keep them around rather than slaughter the entire herd? What if ranchers were able to extend relationships with pigs and Catcoons they befriend without the need of food, giving some benefits to keeping them rather than simply farming them? 

 

I'm not much of a programmer and I'm not good at balancing skills, hence why I haven't come up with a character and stats, but I think animals have a lot of potential in DST. I want more things to do with animals rather than killing them, and I think that can be achieved without breaking the game. I am aware there are mods out there to have Koelaphants breed and to milk Beefalo and things, but they are mods and I don't feel rewarded with many of their mechanics, especially the Koelaphants mod since they breed automatically and with no assistance.  

 

To make sure I'm clear, I'm not bashing people who don't care about the animals and do want to kill them all. That is one way to play the game and it's easily the most effective way to interact with many of them. I simply want an alternative for those softies like me who want to be the animal tamer they've always wanted to be. 

 

What do you all think? 

 

Tl; Dr 

The best way to interact with animals is by killing them, so a new character could be implemented to give an alternative way to interacting with animals: ranching. This allows animal lovers and animal harvesters alike to do what they love. 

 

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Those are some interesting points you’re make. You’re right, you generally do benefit by exploiting the animals rather than actively caring for them. I shave beefalo all the time, but haven’t really messed around with taming one yet. 

While it’s not a perfect fix, Woodie does befriend animals for twice as long when feeding them, and there is a mod that lets you milk beefalo and make cheese with their milk, as well as one that lets you keep a small bird permanently small, so they don’t get big, angry, and kill-happy. I’m sure there are more pastural mods out there, I’d just have to look. I’ve actually been putting together a list of mods that makes the game more “Stardew Valley”ish, which based on your post, might be something you’d be interested in. I’ll probably put it up in a few days, and will be looking for suggestions from people to add to it :D

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Yeah. I do agree with most of what you said. There are modded solutions to these issues and Woodie is the closest to this kind of character there is in the game currently. But it's always nice to have the game support the play style you like without having to mod it all the time, you know? Some days I like modding the snozzle out of my game and some days I want to play the base game, not modifications at all. 

 

Right now as it stands, the game doesn't encourage the befriending mechanics thus far. Beefalo are hard to maintain, pigs and Catcoon friends aren't that useful unless you're fighting solo and don't know how to kite (me tho, for real) or farming something like spiders or pig skins. 

 

I've heard a lot about Stardew but haven't had the chance to play it yet (maybe one day), however, you must admit, the DST monsters are pretty cool and unique to DST. I do currently play with a lot of those mods (and I'll definitely be interested in seeing any others I've missed in your list if you ever decide to share it), but again, those mods don't usually encourage you to do those things besides your personal interest. Beefalo milk is cool to get because I like the idea of milking Beefalo, but it's not really practical from what I can tell. Same with a few of the others aside from the Koalefants babies mod, which is broken since 1 koalefant can spawn a herd of 20+ in a year and kill many seasonal bosses. That's not including any others you might spawn during that time. 

 

I do love these mods, but nothing currently in the base game really meshes very well with them, especially the characters. Woodie is definitely the closest, but his extended initial befriend timer isn't exactly the monster loving type of character that I think might add something new and fresh to the game. 

 

It is nice seeing other people's perspectives though, especially from someone who may know a little bit more about the game than I do. Again, I would love to see your list if you're willing to share! No rush though. 

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Yeah. Perhaps animals that are not normally able to to be domesticated could be domesticated with the new rancher character idea? Koalefants, tall birds, hounds, etc are not normally tamable, but perhaps a rancher character could after some time?

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7 hours ago, Zeklo said:

All I want is domesticable deer.

Let me ride them.

Let me stuff gems into their faces.

Serve under me.

YES YES YES! This! This!

When the first gemed/collared deers were dataminded before they were fully in, I thought we were gonna be able to domesticate them.

I want to... so badly...

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Exactly, TaffyMatt, I think that is reasonable for the game, especially if it required something from a different character, kinda like how certain food recipes require Warly, etc. So in order to make a Tallbird baby be friendly to you when it's grown, maybe it requires a specific item or food that only the rancher can make? 

 

And I agree with Poebus too. Most of the world is pretty empty so having more animals running around would be nice, especially in forests since there is nothing really there besides spiders.

 

And Kiwikenobi's idea with the milking volt goats is a nice idea too, especially if it's a certain character who can do it, since they are a valuable resource but are pretty rare. Or maybe if not milking then domesticating them to breed at the very least so you don't have to use the deconstruction and reconstruction staffs to continue to use those resources. 

 

And being able to ride reindeer would be pretty cool. Or at least interacting with them aside from killing them to get their horns would be nice. Even just patting their nose would be neat.

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On 20/10/2019 at 9:37 PM, McPainty said:

 

 

I would love something like this.

Whenever I make a base, I always have an animal pen right beside it. I love mechanics like taking care of small birds and Larvae eggs. I used to have a base with a Volt Goat pen (which did breed and were useful for meat) and another one with a No-eye Deer (they didn't breed).

Right now, I have a base with an Ewecus. It doesn't have much use, other than letting me collect poop when it sleeps.

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On 10/25/2019 at 1:25 AM, McPainty said:

Snip

I ended up putting up the mod list! I might add the Pickle It mod (just have to see how I like it first) and the realistic fire starting mod, but I think this is a good mix so far.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1896041736

Here are some pictures of my little homestead I have going with the mod list. Still need to add an animal pen though! I'd like to wrangle me some no-eyed-deer. I took the pictures at dusk to better show off the lights.

 

Capture7.thumb.JPG.ce77b304e36930cf9930dd1148b28ba2.JPGCapture6.thumb.JPG.2780b43d539bdf5f274dba7bcf25b606.JPGCapture9.thumb.JPG.a7fc0f4411361fb40a6807e89c074ecb.JPG

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11 hours ago, TheTraditionalGentleman said:

I ended up putting up the mod list! I might add the Pickle It mod (just have to see how I like it first) and the realistic fire starting mod, but I think this is a good mix so far.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1896041736

Here are some pictures of my little homestead I have going with the mod list. Still need to add an animal pen though! I'd like to wrangle me some no-eyed-deer. I took the pictures at dusk to better show off the lights.

 

Capture7.thumb.JPG.ce77b304e36930cf9930dd1148b28ba2.JPGCapture6.thumb.JPG.2780b43d539bdf5f274dba7bcf25b606.JPGCapture9.thumb.JPG.a7fc0f4411361fb40a6807e89c074ecb.JPG

OMG THAT HOUSE IS BEAUTIFUL WHAT MOD ARE U USING?

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6 minutes ago, TheKingofSquirrels said:

OMG THAT HOUSE IS BEAUTIFUL WHAT MOD ARE U USING?

Hamlet House Beta :)

It’s still being worked on, so the inside can’t be renovated yet, and other people can’t enter it yet (networking functions haven’t been implemented yet), but it’s a great mod so far. If you opt into the unstable version in the mod configuration, you can renovate the outside of the house. I think there are 6-8 different versions?

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