Critter behaviour VS Beefalo behaviour - Let's update this !

[ADM]

Hi everyone, we're getting closer to the festive period of the year, with Winter's Feast coming on our favourite game and we've noticed from the previous announcement that this year, we're going to have some nice food to cook for our friends at the menu... and fishing a ton of Festive Lights from the oasis.

 

The magic of sharing, wrapping gifts and preparing a feast to all the starvers reunited playing the carol... it's beautiful...

But - but - but ! There's someone in the team that will have to eat (or starve in a endless suffering) Rot or a Monster Lasagna at best, and he'd better be happy about it. These guys :

 

Your critter is following you cause it doesn't have anything better to do, it beg for a treat but you've already installed a client mod to fix it, you look at it and there's a big Scrappy aside of its name, if you see Rot on ground it goes right in its mouth. And this my friend is the resume of a Critter's life.

The last one is shiny too

No. I don't ask for individual perks for every Critters, if it happen that's cool, but I don't feel like they should all have something. The Mothling is a special one cause it asked you to explore way more than the others, while the Broodlings are just to me a compensation for the death of your Lavae (which are actually nice with Bundle Wraps), not a reward. There's also many topics for each of them with perks idea, so I'm not talking about this...

 

 Sorry for the long introduction, here's the actual post !

 

So... What I'd like is to make Critter something more than a dumper eating the stuff you don't want. Give them a Dragon Pie, a Monster Meat, or a Guardian's Horn () and your Critter will have the same reaction : "Nom-nom-nom, it's gone, see you tomorrow."

 

This shouldn't be a big deal to make them an actual intelligent creature, capable of understanding if you give them something good or absolute garbage.

 

And the best thing to showcase you how better they could be, I'd be using for comparison a Tamed Beefalo :

 

• Eating bad food :
  • Beefalo : They will show you they're unhappy to eat something dangerous like Cactus, but even if it's not impacting they're taming, you will feel bad about it, if you don't, you're a monster.
  • Critters : Actually eat a stack of Red Cap like a boss.
  • Problem : Unlike players or Beefalos, Critters doesn't have hunger component but are "perishable", it is fully restored when feed, whatever what.

Spoiler

Let's switch to a real hunger system !

I'm fine with the begging stuff when they're hungry but the hunger restoration have to be accorded to the food given. This way, if they have a default or a reduced hunger-rate, Critters who eat nicely could be happy for more than a day.

 

I'd also like that critters have a special diet depending if the original mob. There's no sense of giving a moth a big chunk of meat and seeds to a hound...

(Keep in mind that Wurt have bring a new component "foodaffinity" that allow some food and foodtype to restore more than usual)

 

• Waiting for you :
  • Beefalo : You can force a Beefalo to wait in a pen and Salt Licks, allowing you to do other stuff and he's still happy cause : s a l t
  • Critters : Will follow you whatever what, only way is to abandon them to the Rock Den.
  • Problem : Critters can be very bothering a some moment, I have a pretty sick example in the spoiler bellow.

Spoiler

I've crashed a boat once cause I've pet the damn Mothling instead of retracting the mast ! ! !

The solution sounds very simple to me, we can have special interaction with the Critters at some places, like, abandoning them at the Rock Den but it's not the point here ! I suggest a new building, like a Doghouse, to allow players to leave their Critter at home.

 

• Traits :
  • Beefalo : A Beefalo can have 3 very distinct traits that change its appearance and stats, players are responsible of the Beefalo traits.
  • Critters : There is actually 4 traits for critters, mind your own business and the Critter's trait will toggle between Scrappy and Crafty. No Impact. It is just looking at you doing stuff, with cute animations sometime.
  • Problem : Nobody is about to get the Well-Fed or Playful traits cause it's messing with your time for no reason, and I actually think those two traits are a nice challenge enough to players who want to take care of a Critter to make it rewarding.

Spoiler

Let's not turn Critters in a big debuff for players, okay ? Just a nice thing.

The most obvious thing to me is the Well-Fed trait, Beefalos have a very similar thing with the Pudgy appearance who gives a tiny sanity aura, it's a little insignificant but it makes sense.

The others traits should follow the same logic.

 

• Riding :
  • Nah I'm just kidding.

 

That's all for now, folks.

I believe Critters need a little refresh on the previous points, don't you think that'd be a nice thing or don't you have additional ideas ?

I've always been surprised how Beefalos are complex, they even react to your emotes, while Critters are as now an additional skin slots to some, I'd like we give them some love they deserve...

[minespatch]

I'd be totally for a critters update. Let's see if the devs take note of the complaints about critters over the years.

[Yuuko]

14 minutes ago, ADM said:

The Mothling is a special one cause it asked you to explore way more than the others, while the Broodlings are just to me a compensation for the death of your Lavae (which are actually nice with Bundle Wraps), not a reward.

Um - no.  The Broodling is a pet, it is a reward.  I only go through the work of hatching the egg to ice staff the thing so I can get the pet that I no longer have to worry about.  If the larvae pet didn't require any upkeep I'd keep that instead, but I'm not risking it burning things because I don't micromanage it properly.

And based on that logic - I think I'd rather not get another micromanage - minimal payoff system.  We already got that with beefalo domestication.

The only thing I'd like to add to them is a follow/stay command so they can be left somewhere out of the way for a bit.  They're fine as pure decorations for me.

PS: The Mothling isn't that challenging to get.  By the time I would normally get a pet I could get any pet without much issue (unless I'm unlucky on the dfly drops / hunts for ewicus hunts)

[Mike23Ua]

These things are annoying at best and they do absolutely nothing.. sure I TOTALLY want to get almost eaten by two waves of hounds just to get 4 Hound Teeth & 4 Monster Meat to throw in a cockpot and make 1 Monster Lasagna, only to get a Vargling that follows me around begging for food all the time, real dogs can carry stuff in a back satchel- Rescue dogs do it all the time, they can assist in Hunts.. it’s just simply not worth the time and effort into crafting a critter.

here I’ll provide another Example- I TOTALLY want to risk being murdered by a town full of cursed Were-Pigs on a full moon to snag the Gloomers flower And summon Glommer only to murder him and use his wings and guts to craft a Glom Glom pet- Which again does absolutely nothing but follow you around begging for food.

it seems like a good majority of the content in this game is only in the game to serve no real actual purpose-I for example would like to adopt a KittyKit which just like a Catcoon (or a real life cat) would be excellent at catching birds and rats for me.

-shrugs- maybe they will look at critters and rework them someday... they reworked characters,so why not?

[minespatch]

7 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

they reworked characters,so why not?

For Oxygen Not Included, they did a "Meep's Mandatory recreation" update, so maybe a pet update shouldn't be so out of view or that much to ask for.

[Mrklli]

8 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

These things are annoying at best and they do absolutely nothing.. sure I TOTALLY want to get almost eaten by two waves of hounds just to get 4 Hound Teeth & 4 Monster Meat to throw in a cockpot and make 1 Monster Lasagna, only to get a Vargling that follows me around begging for food all the time, real dogs can carry stuff in a back satchel- Rescue dogs do it all the time, they can assist in Hunts.. it’s just simply not worth the time and effort into crafting a critter.

here I’ll provide another Example- I TOTALLY want to risk being murdered by a town full of cursed Were-Pigs on a full moon to snag the Gloomers flower And summon Glommer only to murder him and use his wings and guts to craft a Glom Glom pet- Which again does absolutely nothing but follow you around begging for food.

it seems like a good majority of the content in this game is only in the game to serve no real actual purpose-I for example would like to adopt a KittyKit which just like a Catcoon (or a real life cat) would be excellent at catching birds and rats for me.

-shrugs- maybe they will look at critters and rework them someday... they reworked characters,so why not?

I get your point but I want to correct a few things. The critters you're talking about are not that expensive to get. For a Vargling you'll need 4 teeth and a lasagna, yes, but you only need 2 monster meats to make that dish and you should be able to get the meats very easily from one hound attack or some spider traps. Alternatively you could use 2 durians, which also counts as a monster ingredient, or a combination of monster meat and durian. Usually hound teeth have an awful habit to stockpile over some time, so getting them should be no problem. You could even pick tumbleweeds to get the teeth you need. It takes some time but there's no fighting required and tumbleweeds are nice anyway because you have a chance to get much better loot from them too. For a Glomglom you only need one taffy, which is 3 honey and a twig, and one Glommer's Goop. There is absolutely no need to kill Glommer. You still have to risk getting murdered by a village of werepigs if you have an unlucky worldgen, but you'll do that anyway if you want to get sanity regen from Glommer. Critters are not an item you should get as soon as possible, they're not a priority. If you just focus on survivng day after day, you'll notice at some point that the resources for the cheapest critters will just come to you without any additional work. There might even be a day you're so loaded with goods you can no longer use everything you get for stuff you actually need and you'll have to get creative on how you can get rid of unwanted loot. Still, there's no need for you to like critters or ever get one if you don't want to. I just want to say that the price is a problem only if you try to "rush" critters before you've built a stable camp and dealt with more urgent basic survival stuff. Imo critters are supposed to be used as a way to show that the person who has them is able to allocate some resources for keeping a pet whose only purpose is to look cute and they'll survive just fine anyway. They're like noisy endtables that follow you and get on your way more often.

[Gourmand]

I just want the option  to leave them at base or have them sit. I don't want them following me 24/7.

[CaptainChaotica]

Rot?  Nah, not for MY pets.  I do feed them inappropriate-for-their-species food (such as plants to a carnivore) but not BAD food. Basically if it's rotten, poisonous or spiky, nope.  My very first pet ever's first meal was (COOKED) cactus, however.  

...although at Winter's Feast, I love to feed my critters fruitcake.  Because SOMEbody's gotta eat it!  And they don't mind, so why not?  

...Notorious

[Kur0u]

How about each critter gives your character a small buff?

Each critter would give a passive 3% bonus to their corresponding buff, 7-10% when their hunger is above 75%.
Kittykit - Speed bonus. (Just because cats, Idk)
Vargling - Extra damage. (Well, dogs are there to hunt you so...)
Ewelet - Damage reduction. (Iron wool)
Broodling - Fire resistance, maybe take longer to get cold/hot? (Fire spawn from hell Dragonfly)
Glomglom - Sanity restoration (Much fluffiness, creepy eyes, arthropod legs, but mainly fluffiness)
Giblet - More hunger gained from food (Gobble, gobble)
Mothling - Provides light. (The worst of them all, or is it?)
Spycing up those pvp servers I never joined because why in the heavens would I anyway.

That alone gives a good reason to have pets in the first place, and the increased bonus is reason enough to keep it fed at all times. ALSO MAKE THEM STAY A LITTLE FURTHER AWAY FROM YOUR CHARACTER BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS ANNOYINGLY TOO CLOSE FROM YOU.

[Dunk Mujunk]

20 minutes ago, Kuro_kira said:

ALSO MAKE THEM STAY A LITTLE FURTHER AWAY FROM YOUR CHARACTER BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS ANNOYINGLY TOO CLOSE FROM YOU.

This. So much this.

[Lammarr]

Kittykit should become an bloodthirsty Eldritch Abomination when not fed monster lasagna in a span of 3 days.

It would be pretty fair and balanced,like all things should be.

[CaptainChaotica]

What, you're saying all cats aren't ALREADY bloodthirsty (fluffy adorable little) Eldritch Abominations?

(also if your kittykit craves lasagna, we should be able to name it "Garfield". ;))

...Notorious

[minespatch]

11 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

also if your kittykit craves lasagna, we should be able to name it "Garfield". ;))