Dogs

[KuikenTest]

The ability to find wild dogs on grass lands and tame them by giving them bones and meat. Once tamed he/she could help you search for animals, help you fight and you could breed them. You could craft it a collar that gives him/her a name and the ability to find your dog everywhere on the map... for so far my idea, feel free to add more

[TrooPeRZz]

I think that idea is a good one which should be put into the game. Lets see what Jorb and Loftar has to say though...

[DatOneGuy]

Here's my idea on dogs, it's slightly crafted after realism, slightly after just making a system for them a little nicer.


Proposed systems for Dogs:

Add a new wild animal "Feral wolf",(I believe wolves are already in?), they would attack you similar to boars, and be slightly stronger, they can be tamed to become 'Dogs'.

Taming: A taming slider could work out, where it would range from -50(Full Tame) to +50(Full Feral), the tamer it is the more apt it is to obey you, however it will be weaker (Full tame taking about 2 dogs to take out a fox), full feral would be more apt to disobedience and attacking you however will be much stronger (Perhaps full taming being able to take out a boar with 1~2 dogs?). They don't attack other humans unless they are fully tame (or feral, haven't figured out which would make more sense, since tame dogs wouldn't usually attack humans, however a feral dog wouldn't listen to you..)

Housekeeping: A trough could be used, but since most dogs/wolves in the wild (and back then) used to just eat meat, feeding them meat in a 'dog bowl' or something would probably work best. Perhaps having different meats affect their temperment or stats (Bear meat makes them stronger, Deer might make them faster, etc). Having them eat any food that fell to the ground would also work (don't drop food around).

Running away: They should have a 'dog house' house, or simply a fenced in enclosure for now, and they roam around your town unless summoned by their owner in which case they have to be within a certain distance, or perhaps it can be 'clickable' to do so.

Hunting would be tricky as it would require a new subset of skills under Combat for setting your companion's maneuvers, perhaps one for attacking that works similar to bloodlust, one for defending that works nice for tanks, and one for running away (Perhaps just telling them to go home; Whether via fast travel or via pathfinding).

I think it would be an excellent idea, and if minks were brought in it would work somewhat for them too although they wouldn't be good enough to fight, ferrets were used for hunting (spotting prey) and domesticated way before dogs were, minks are related to ferrets and while not typically used for such things it was more or less based on location and happen-stance than actual selection.

[Blxz]

I dunno about a half feral dog not obeying you. once a dog has its master they don't disobey unless its a challenge generally. Its a pack animal. You need to think out that system a bit more.

[DatOneGuy]

I dunno about a half feral dog not obeying you. once a dog has its master they don't disobey unless its a challenge generally. Its a pack animal. You need to think out that system a bit more.

Wolves are dogs.

Have you ever owned a dog that was not bred purely? In countries where they aren't sure if dogs are fully tame they dunk their heads in water to test if they're feral or not, a 'wolf' will suck water, a 'dog' will gulp water.

The reason? If you take a wolf into battle they have a save-their-ass instinct which is natural, they will flight, they will hurt you if it means getting out, if they don't want to do something particular or are scared they will HURT you to get away if need be. A dog is fully tame and under your control.

With that said however, there is a lot of genetics involved with it, it took about 1,000 years to fully domesticate dogs, generations upon generations, upon generations. You can't go out in the wild, find a wolf and just 'tame' it, you can't even simply tame it's child unless completely seperated from the parent. It learns things from it's parent and tends to follow this natural instinct that is passed down, a lot more than it cares for you.

Any domesticated animal has taken a long time to be domesticated. For example, we have somewhat tame foxes, but they're never fully domesticated, we haven't had interest in taming them long enough, so foxes have only started being domesticated about 200 years ago whic is why you will notice a higher chance of foxes actually hurting owners, being aggresive, and attempting to escape or do whatever it takes for a meal.

As I said genetics plays a role in it which is also why you will notice it in some specific breeds of dogs more than others as well, such as pit bulls (yeah I know, go on and call me some kind of bias, but it's true), jack russel terriers, dalmations, and a few others. They are prone to aggression, wil easily take to fighting, and ocne they've fought, they've got it in them.

Why do you think hunting dogs are only used to fetch animals? Why do you think dogs bred for fighting are kept caged and are never let loose near their master or others?

Domestication is actually a very complicated system, I dumbed it down a lot because it's simpler and fits a game better that way.

[ThirdEmperor]

No, just no. If taming worked like you suggested, any dog worth shit in a fight would stop following you every other step, and you'd have to kill it and tame a new one every fight because it attacked you. It's a good idea, but it would be unbelievably annoying in theory.

A better way to work the whole tameness thing would be this: Dogs have three "stages" of tameness the first stage is wolf, this means the dog will attack you and cannot be leashed, in order to tame it you must have full combat advantage and have depleted it's defense bar to less than 25%, at this point you may use quell the beast to tame it, converting it into a wild dog.

Wild Dogs will still attack you but will stop if you retreat, if leashed they may be put in a cage or assigned to guard your claim, they can also be leashed if by using quell the beast if you have 4 or more IP, which stops them from attacking and makes them follow you. If a wild dog is unleashed near a enemy it will attack and attempt to kill it before attacking you, at which point you must releash it. You can convert a wild dog into a dog by feeding it 10 cuts of meat.

Dogs are weaker than wolves or wild dogs, but will never attack you and follows you without a leash, if given the "attack" command near a enemy it will attack it then return to following you.

However, whenever a dog or wild dog is damaged in combat it has a cumulative 1% chance if reverting one" stage", a dog turns into a wild dog, a wild dog becomes a wolf.

[Blxz]

Dog meat is absolutely delicious. I was visiting a korean friend of mine in korea (funny that). His family took me out and was putting on the whole show and taking care of me. I tried half a dozen different dishes but one was truly spectacular. Turns out it was a poor little doggie. I vote that dogmeat in game must taste good to reflect the real world!!! [/offtopicpsychobabel]

[Riou1231]

Dog meat is absolutely delicious. I was visiting a korean friend of mine in korea (funny that). His family took me out and was putting on the whole show and taking care of me. I tried half a dozen different dishes but one was truly spectacular. Turns out it was a poor little doggie. I vote that dogmeat in game must taste good to reflect the real world!!! [/offtopicpsychobabel]

Here in the Philippines it's actually illegal to butcher dogs, but many people still do it as a business trading dogs to be butchered in trucks to buyers.

[DatOneGuy]

No, just no. If taming worked like you suggested, any dog worth shit in a fight would stop following you every other step, and you'd have to kill it and tame a new one every fight because it attacked you. It's a good idea, but it would be unbelievably annoying in theory.

A better way to work the whole tameness thing would be this: Dogs have three "stages" of tameness the first stage is wolf, this means the dog will attack you and cannot be leashed, in order to tame it you must have full combat advantage and have depleted it's defense bar to less than 25%, at this point you may use quell the beast to tame it, converting it into a wild dog.

Wild Dogs will still attack you but will stop if you retreat, if leashed they may be put in a cage or assigned to guard your claim, they can also be leashed if by using quell the beast if you have 4 or more IP, which stops them from attacking and makes them follow you. If a wild dog is unleashed near a enemy it will attack and attempt to kill it before attacking you, at which point you must releash it. You can convert a wild dog into a dog by feeding it 10 cuts of meat.

Dogs are weaker than wolves or wild dogs, but will never attack you and follows you without a leash, if given the "attack" command near a enemy it will attack it then return to following you.

However, whenever a dog or wild dog is damaged in combat it has a cumulative 1% chance if reverting one" stage", a dog turns into a wild dog, a wild dog becomes a wolf.

It wouldn't be every step obviously, it would be under circumstances, for example if you let him get very hungry, or you have him fight and he's losing. Even then the chance shouldn't be super high, it should be something like .5%. The idea is to discourage feral wolves, versus tame dogs.

Sure dogs could be put in 'just like that', but if any suggestions of helping them fight you or others pop up, that system is too easy to abuse, you need something to go along with it to either weaken them significantally to be used on other players versus as just guarding or hunting, or not have them help in combat at all.

I'd be happy with a dog that could simply howl to alert you of people outside of the village approaching (and you could station him in a dog house wherever), and who would chase off smaller animals that come around and eat them (chickens, rabbits, perhaps foxes).

The rest of the idea seems good and all that, but it's too easy to make them a dog, and dogs don't revert to wild dogs so easily unlesss they're fully tame.

Your system works nicely if dog breeding isn't going to be part of it, however if it is, for sake of some realism, simplicity, while adding some bonuses, it would work better somewhat like cows having an "Info" box, and having certain stats be affected by birth and how their parents were (realistically it's all quality since they're just to be eaten, but heh).

I figure if minks are going to make it in with mink breeding, we already breed chickens, cows, and sheep, why not dogs?

All this talk of butchering dogs is making me sad.

[Blxz]

All this talk of butchering dogs is making me sad.

Sad, but strangely hungry.