So… today, in my newest Cataclysm game, I ran into an interesting issue. See, my world has been suddenly overrun by brown chicks. I assume that the water fowl are breeding, which is neat, but the issue is that these things have gotten EVERYWHERE.
They’re in the way. And if you move in their direction without realizing they’re there, you suddenly lash out in an attempt to murder poor defenseless ducklings. Furthermore, the fact that I can’t go down into a basement because a brown chick is camped out on the staircase is kind of absurd. Sort of makes sense when it’s a zombie. Makes decidedly less sense when it’s a quarter pound ball of fluff.
To that end, I’d love a system where one can just… gently nudge non-aggressive creatures out of the way, maybe working with strength so you aren’t just shoving cows across town or separating an enormous albino penguin from it’s flock… If they’re on the stairs… you’re bigger and stronger, just kick them off the stairs and to the next tile, or heck, even share a space with them. A chick probably doesn’t even come up to my knee. – though I suspect that might be asking for too much.
Chicks tend to flood the towns and cities after a few weeks, presumably because all those “rotten” bird eggs kept in fridges ended up hatching. I guess pre-Cataclysm humanity was on a real bad balut kick!
I’m not a fan of the “you can go down, there’s a [x] in the way” mechanic, since there’s not many ways to actually force things on a different Z-level away or onto your level. Best you can do is make some noise and wait patiently.
The egg producers(not literally the chickens), have an egg checker to make certain no chicks go out into the markets. At least they do in USA. The consumer often gets unsettled by seeing a dead chick or a fetus in their frying pan.
So maybe something should be done with the eggs found in houses to prevent them from hatching… My best guess without looking at the code would be to have the eggs in houses be entirely different objects than the bird eggs you can find by foraging.
It would also be useful to be able to lure animals using food just making any animal with the ability to eat items path to those items could surve as a way to lure them. so you just place down some bird food and al of the chicks just stand in whereever you placed the bird food.
Two different egg type seems reasonable to counter the odd immersion break. Good ideas guys.
While tinkering with eggs. Maybe programming a predator/prey system tag. Assuming we don’t already have one. Dogs/cats/wolves= eat eggs in the wild in nests. Easy food. Kinda strange seeing a pack of animals pooping enmasse without doing anything(unless this changed too).