Husbandry Update?

[dzzydzzy]

The recent refresh to Tallbirds and some of the other posts on the forum have inspired me to think up an idea for more animal breeding in DST. Below are a list of animals in DST that have potential for breeding/raising rancher-style.

-Beefalo (already have the in-game mechanics to do so)

-Volt goats (would be great to have a more reliable/peaceful way of collecting their milk. Also important to note: they are already attracted to salt licks)

-Koalaphants (also already attracted to salt licks) also an awesome idea would be to make them mountable with the same Beefalo taming mechanics. 

-Ewecus (would be nice to shave for steel wool/ domesticate)

-Vargs (just added to list because they're another hunt animal)/Varglings/Hounds

-Rabbits making a hutch similar to the recipe for bee boxes could be cool. Although this is complicated by the fact we already have a machine that makes rabbits (Prestihatitator makes a rabbit for every prototyped item.) We also already have Bunny hutches which are the Bunnymen house structure. So we have that to consider)

-Gobblers (berry farms exist that put bait in a fenced-in center area to the bushes.) 

-Bees (we have this in bee box form for renewable honey!)

-Catcoons 

-Pengulls 

-Tallbirds (we now have a way of renewing their nests)

-Snurtle/Slurtles (what if we had a way of building their mounds? and had an easier way of farming their loot?)

-Frogs? not really a ranching type animal

-Moleworms?

-Grass Geckos we already kinda have farms like these and they're almost like a proof of concept for this whole ranching idea, keeping livestock that 

-Grass Gators I actually think this would be awesome to be able to finally interact with these creatures. Currently, even when I go to a waterlogged biome, theyre too far away to be bothered with. Being able to bring them back to base  somehow and keep them in the shallow waters would be pretty cool.

-Glommer???? what if one could breed two Glommers together? just a thought

These are all the animals I can think of in DST. lmk if you think of any else. My point is although we have ways of producing a collection of some of the animals on this list, none of them (aside from Beefalo and Tallbirds) involve a feeding/keeping/breeding way of raising more nor collecting their resources. We of course would need a complete Update dedicated to introducing a new mechanic system in order to properly work out the risk/rewards balancing of something this intricate. But I think ranching could be the next RWYSesque update that would ultimately add spice to roleplaying, rethink how you get food, and make DST more colorful. With something like this I think the old way of breeding things like volt goats might be done away with, as leaving them off screen to perform mitosis has always seemed non intuitive and odd to me. Maybe they should have could also have an in-heat season like beefalo in order to passively multiply the population. 

What are other people's ideas to make this a more fleshed out idea?

[RichNCrispy]

Being able to breed and milk volt goats would be great. I know they eventually repopulate if left alone for long enough

[BezKa]

Won't ranching animals be just farming in a different jacket? It'd have to be very interestingly made to be distinct enough i think.

[RichNCrispy]

Maybe something having to do with feeding them different things to enhance certain traits as long as they’re happy. I don’t know if that’s too Oxygen Not Included.

[Lokena]

You can teleport Grass Gators. They won't try to go home. I have one at the base, it drops twigs.

[Evelo]

You can multiply moleworms by bonking one in the head and putting it in a bundling wrap. Unwrap and it will make a new home.
Repeat infinite times for infinite moleworms. Once you have enough you can use a shovel to dig up their homes, they will make a new one for flint, nitre, rock, gold.

[flamboyant wolf]

I would love that

Ranching is my favorite part of ONI, and it probably could be implemented in dst quite well too. 

speaking of ONI's ranching mechanics, critter variations could also be pretty fun, even if a bit too far, perhaps. like, imagine: a blossoming gecko, grass gecko variation, that drops petals instead of grass, and provides a small sanity aura. useful? maybe not, but it sure would be adorable. although I do see how all that would be quite out of place in don't starve. still, doesn't hurt to dream, right? 

[dzzydzzy]

4 hours ago, skile said:

I would love that

Ranching is my favorite part of ONI, and it probably could be implemented in dst quite well too. 

speaking of ONI's ranching mechanics, critter variations could also be pretty fun, even if a bit too far, perhaps. like, imagine: a blossoming gecko, grass gecko variation, that drops petals instead of grass, and provides a small sanity aura. useful? maybe not, but it sure would be adorable. although I do see how all that would be quite out of place in don't starve. still, doesn't hurt to dream, right? 

Wow opening up a whole world of hybrid crossbreeding. I have no idea if that's possible for a game like DST but perhaps that's a cool angle that makes it distinct from farming crops. very cool idea. Imagine crossbreeding summer and winter Koalaphants for a "shiny"; it would add a whole new trophy collecting sector to the game which I'd love.