So dogs have “tool uses” with a 2.5% chance to use a tool use when they move after five uses they become old.
Old dogs have five uses again before dying. This can be sad and because dogs are the only animals to die after being fed is also sad.
My suggestion is to make old dogs similar to bonsai trees. Bonsai trees after a set amount of time needs to be trimed but then they become another type of bonsai tree.
So if we add another step named “Hungry old *” then if they dont get fed before 5 tool uses they die. But if they are fed they revert back to “old *” this would make it more meaningful to raise dogs and more players would want them as pets.
Imagine a child being given a puppy they feed them and grow up together both living untill they are 60 years old. Thatd be such a heart warming story. Or inheriating the family dog thats survived for generations.
I know thats not realistic but this is a game where sheep never stop giving birth and cant die of old age.
And where a single woman gives birth repeatedly and is born from nothing.
So i dont think itd be to unusual for us to be able to feed dogs to extend their life times.
Also since pig meat is usefull now as food sources pigs are more comman in towns now. So it would be nice for the old use of pork to enhanced.
6 Likes
Me and ember bounced some ideas for dogs and heres what we thought of.
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Make it so that when someone feeds a puppy it imprints on them as their mother/owner so they will only follow that player.
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Make it possible to make them wait. Possibly with a comand button like the curse option. Or with an chew item. Tool handels would work but i was thinking a sheep bone or a rubber toy that would squeek.
The dog would hold the item in its mouth to show its waiting.
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If combined with the refeading old dogs mechanic above then when the dog becomes hungry it would follow anybody but after being fed it would only follow the new person who fed them.
This would make it easier to control the dogs making it less likely to get in usefull peoples way like the smiths.
Dogs would be funner to have as pets.
The old age mechanic might have to be reworked for waiting dogs though. Maybe make it so they age over time like crop and item decay instead somehow.
Also it might be better to make it so only one dog could follow a person if possible to prevent somone standing in the middle work areas with 20 dogs around them.
- Bonuse idea. All dogs have a chance of wounding non owners that try to take their toy.
4 Likes
Thanks for your ideas. I will let you in on a little secret: one of the new feature projects the team is working on is code named “Useful Dogs”. Dogs are a big thing IRL for many players, but the dogs currently in the game are not really useful other than to look at.
So we are working on changing this, by making the dogs “smarter”, able to take commands from their owners, etc.
This is a big feature in terms of development, because it requires that the game engine be extended with “intelligent” objects, for which there is absolutely no support currently. It also requires new user interfaces. It will take time (more than a few weeks), and there is a risk that we will have to decide to scrap it if it turns out that it’s not feasible. We are investing the effort to try at least.
So to be clear: no promises of release dates or specifics of the features (It will certainly not be done before summer vacations start), but somewhere in Sweden a developer has been working on and will continue to work on this topic.
7 Likes
Maybe you could train regular dogs to become guard dogs? Guard dogs could be ordered by their owner to bite a certain player (maybe through a chat command) and the bitten player would die if not treated for a certain amount of time. There would also be a cool down to prevent mass griefing (the owner of the guard dog would be slowed down like when you stab somebody with a knife) and the same would happen with the guard dog (and maybe the guard dog would have a bloody mouth until a certain amount of time passes to signify that it bit somebody).
Guard dog ownership would work similar to property fences.
Hmm i think medical dogs would be cool. They would have pouches hanging on their sides that contained wool pads, snake venom antidote, and a needle and thread.
If you used a knife on it it would aply the antidote. Would be usefull for groups but if you get hurt yourself the dog wpuldnt be able to do anything of course
It’d be interesting to see you take advantage of the neural engine in the latest iPhones and iPads. Artificial intelligence is the future! 
Yes, please this! I find it sad and kind of ridiculous how they last for such a short amount of time.
1 Like
Each real life minute is a year in-game, so it somewhat makes sense to me.
Like op said though, sheep live on and on, yet dogs still die. I feel like it would make dogs more worthwhile if they did have a longer lifespan.
1 Like