(SW) Concerns Regarding Water Beefalo

[jozzbloche]

With the introduction of the new Water Beefalo mob into the new Shipwrecked DLC, I've developed a series of concerns regarding their rudimentary design. Of course, Shipwrecked is still relatively new and is sure to be tweaked and improved in the coming months, but I find myself uncertain on whether or not these particular issues will be addressed in the nearest approaching update. The wikia pages concerning these facets have not been particularly helpful in mollifying these anxieties. 

  With Water Beefalo, I've determined from recurring patterns over several concurrent runs that Water Beefalo are randomly thrust into periods of what appear to be the equivalent of a vanilla Beefalo's "mating season". However, the differences I've noticed, are that there are no visual or audio cues as to when they are in these periods, aside from the animation in which they rear up and kick the air with their forelegs. Unlike their land relatives, Water Beefalo (Which I will now refer to as Oxen for the sake of added clarity and convenience) do not exhibit the same red-tinted tail-ends that indicate a period of "heat". In addition, their periods of heat are not localized to any particular season, an issue which was addressed in Reign of Giants when Beefalo mating seasons were allocated to the Spring season only. These issues make manure gathering a capricious activity, easily catching a necessity-driven player off-guard and-assuming they possess the luck to avoid death-postpones their intended decision to establish or perpetuate food farms on-base. This difficulty is multiplied when factoring in an incredibly expansive ocean generation, the naturally rapid loss rate of the hunger statistic, and certain circumstantial issues depending on health and defense (manure-gathering does not appear to be an activity warranting much defensive or offensive preparation). 

  There is another, though less pressing concern I maintain with the Oxen. One is the apparent lack of offspring produced from their supposed "mating periods". The acquisition of horns to provide a Horned Helmet or Dripple Pipes is not a habit worth taking, lest you wish to permanently deplete your world's supply of Oxen for a temporary means of providing rain (or snow) or feasible defense. The apparent lack of breeding makes horns finite, a trait not associated with Beefalo Horns, which can be acquired repeatedly through breeding. The lack of breeding also poses potential, albeit minor threats to Oxen populations through threats propagated by other mobs, like the Hounds. 

  Hopefully the problems I've addressed are noticed by Klei developers, Oxen could use more depth to their behavioral mechanics, so as to make them just as balanced and manageable as their Beefalo counterparts are.

 

 

[AnonymousKoala]

Mating Season appearently only happens on land. As in, they'll only be hostile if encountered on land during mating season. Heard so quite a couple of times.

And they do breed, but there's no baby. So it spawns an adult instead. 

[PhelsarusBeel]

1 hour ago, AnonymousKoala said:

Mating Season appearently only happens on land. As in, they'll only be hostile if encountered on land during mating season. Heard so quite a couple of times.

And they ded, but there's no baby.awns an adult instead. 

Fun fact they are actually hostile in the water. Just not to the player. Had that a couple of times where Water Beefalos suddenly started attacking Packim but ignored be. 

[FreyaMaluk]

1 hour ago, Mr.P said:

Fun fact they are actually hostile in the water. Just not to the player. Had that a couple of times where Water Beefalos suddenly started attacking Packim but ignored be. 

They always consider Packim an enemy, on land and in the water.

[voyager156]

12 hours ago, jozzbloche said:

Unlike their land relatives, Water Beefalo (Which I will now refer to as Oxen for the sake of added clarity and convenience) do not exhibit the same red-tinted tail-ends...

These issues make manure gathering a capricious activity, easily catching a necessity-driven player off-guard...

Well, I would say, that the safest method is to always expect when approaching them - an potential attack (then they will not catch you off-guard).

As people mentioned above, they reproduce (but strangely) there is no baby versions...

Of course, I also think that Klei should fix/ add things you mentioned in your post.

[AnonymousKoala]

4 hours ago, FreyaMaluk said:

They always consider Packim an enemy, on land and in the water.

Because they're smart.

Talking as a past webber main(right now enjoying maxwell more), since Packim aggroes on Webber as fire packim, we know he's a jerk that deserves to die. Seriously though, he's a coffee maker/fertilizer, why would you even have him not at a single spot?

[jozzbloche]

On 4/25/2016 at 1:49 AM, AnonymousKoala said:

Mating Season appearently only happens on land. As in, they'll only be hostile if encountered on land during mating season. Heard so quite a couple of times.

And they do breed, but there's no baby. So it spawns an adult instead. 

This would seem to make sense, though most of the herd populations in my runs have stagnated indefinitely, though this observation may be a result of a lapse in judgement. Meanwhile, the wikia pages remain excruciatingly scarce on the subject of Oxen, particularly in regards to their breeding mechanisms (if any), so there's no telling what the truth is here unless concrete evidence is put into play.

Also, the lack of baby Oxen visuals is inconvenient, leading us to calculate herd growth through counting numbers, which is tedious and inefficient. Plus, they'd be really cute to add into the game. I'm sure Klei won't let us down there.

[AnonymousKoala]

4 hours ago, jozzbloche said:

This would seem to make sense, though most of the herd populations in my runs have stagnated indefinitely, though this observation may be a result of a lapse in judgement. Meanwhile, the wikia pages remain excruciatingly scarce on the subject of Oxen, particularly in regards to their breeding mechanisms (if any), so there's no telling what the truth is here unless concrete evidence is put into play.

Also, the lack of baby Oxen visuals is inconvenient, leading us to calculate herd growth through counting numbers, which is tedious and inefficient. Plus, they'd be really cute to add into the game. I'm sure Klei won't let us down there.

Wiki is...not reliable about many SW things.

Trust the players, or the dataminers, not the wiki. 

And no more content, aka, no baby beefs. Just another cherry on the topping of the letdown that SW was/is

[jozzbloche]

They're not adding updates to SW? Where was this confirmed?

[oCrapaCreeper]

3 hours ago, jozzbloche said:

They're not adding updates to SW? Where was this confirmed?

By updates, they meant new content.

I'm disappointed though that there hasn't been a bugfix update in a long time.

[AnonymousKoala]

14 hours ago, jozzbloche said:

They're not adding updates to SW? Where was this confirmed?

No more content, confirmed when it released.

The tiny amount of content you have is the tiny amount you get. SW had so much potential...*sigh*

[DeputyDeath]

11 hours ago, AnonymousKoala said:

No more content, confirmed when it released.

The tiny amount of content you have is the tiny amount you get. SW had so much potential...*sigh*

I wouldn't say tiny. But I do agree that it has a lot of potential to be a far better game than it currently is.

The main problem is probably that what they changed were enormous aspects of the game (world generation, boats, poison, flooding) and that limits the number of small additions they can make, like new items and creatures. On the other hand, RoG just added a 'few' things onto the base game, so could focus on just the small additions.

The result? RoG feels bigger than Shipwrecked, even if in reality you're getting about the same in terms of new contact with either.

[AnonymousKoala]

10 hours ago, DeputyDeath said:

I wouldn't say tiny. But I do agree that it has a lot of potential to be a far better game than it currently is.

The main problem is probably that what they changed were enormous aspects of the game (world generation, boats, poison, flooding) and that limits the number of small additions they can make, like new items and creatures. On the other hand, RoG just added a 'few' things onto the base game, so could focus on just the small additions.

The result? RoG feels bigger than Shipwrecked, even if in reality you're getting about the same in terms of new contact with either.

SW is double than RoG but tries to work like Vanilla, as its own world.

It obviously fails. 

[DeputyDeath]

7 hours ago, AnonymousKoala said:

SW is double than RoG but tries to work like Vanilla, as its own world.

It obviously fails. 

Eh...

I disagree because I much prefer Shipwrecked to RoG; which is saying something, because I love the RoG. The fact that the challenge in Shipwrecked has nothing to do with food means that the world can still be challenging past your first Winter, which is an area that RoG fell down on.

It doesn't fail at being its own world. It has enough unique features and mechanics available to make it interesting. I'd like Shipwrecked to be bigger, in the same way that I'd like RoG to be bigger. 

[AnonymousKoala]

Just now, DeputyDeath said:

Eh...

I disagree because I much prefer Shipwrecked to RoG; which is saying something, because I love the RoG. The fact that the challenge in Shipwrecked has nothing to do with food means that the world can still be challenging past your first Winter, which is an area that RoG fell down on.

It doesn't fail at being its own world. It has enough unique features and mechanics available to make it interesting. I'd like Shipwrecked to be bigger, in the same way that I'd like RoG to be bigger. 

That's what I meant. It fails in being big enough. Because at least IMO, new world means it can be compared to vanilla. If you compare Vanilla to SW...You know which one has more content.

[DeputyDeath]

4 hours ago, AnonymousKoala said:

That's what I meant. It fails in being big enough. Because at least IMO, new world means it can be compared to vanilla. If you compare Vanilla to SW...You know which one has more content.

Ah, okay. I see what you mean.

[Klarum]

Never had Oxen aggressive towards me in any season, multiple characters. They are always aggressive towards Baggims though. 

They reproduce really slowly which makes hunting for the horn a no no. To me they are just poop machines and nothing else. 

Although in one they did kill the Sealnado for me

[Maslak]

On 25.04.2016 at 2:06 AM, jozzbloche said:

In addition, their periods of heat are not localized to any particular season, an issue which was addressed in Reign of Giants when Beefalo mating seasons were allocated to the Spring season only.

 

That's not true.

[wesdawg100]

On 5/9/2016 at 9:39 AM, Maslak said:

That's not true.

yep, i have had beefalo attack me in all seasons

[Lysh]

I was just playing SW and every time I sail by these guys, they attack Abigail and she dies (again). Vanilla/RoG beefalo don't care about Abby unless they're in heat. I really wish Klei/Capy would revisit SW and work on the water beefalo a little. They seem aggressive most of the time and a baby would be very cute. It'd be nice if they had the red butts to indicate their moods, too. 

[AnonymousKoala]

17 hours ago, Lysh said:

I was just playing SW and every time I sail by these guys, they attack Abigail and she dies (again). Vanilla/RoG beefalo don't care about Abby unless they're in heat. I really wish Klei/Capy would revisit SW and work on the water beefalo a little. They seem aggressive most of the time and a baby would be very cute. It'd be nice if they had the red butts to indicate their moods, too. 

they move their tails angrily when in heat.

they breed but become adults straight up.

if you're not a boat and near them they will attack, including hopping from boat to boat