Goblin Squad Member
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I'm curious if there are plans to implement a crafting system for breeding livestock, as I'd really like to be able to create a ranch?
It takes dedication and skill to breed the best livestock, and would certainly add to the economy of the game if you were able to raise the finest horses for speed, strength, or whatever. This doesn't mean that another specialist(i.e. horse trainer) wouldn't need to be involved in making your fine stallions into masterful war-horses, but the beast itself would be a "component", and the trainer would be the "crafter", to use the trade language of PFO, and the base materials would be the foals, calves, pasture, stables, and grains used to raise them. Same would go for exotic beasts, as it would take extensive knowledge and special facilities to be able to properly raise a pegasus, or gryphon, or what have you.
Profession: rancher or livestock breeder is probably as close as you're going to get.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The problem I see with creating highly specialized mounts is that they won't get used often unless they can be soulbound, and I'm not sure if that would fit in with the current lore.
If someone takes 3 months training up a war horse, they are going to want to heavy price for it, nobody is going to want to pay big for something that they could lose very easily. And if you can soulbind mounts, the market will explode when people master the craft, then diminish very quickly. It doesn't seem like a sustainable market.
I would rather see mount performance based on player training, and equipment they attach to the mount, with exceptions for mounts that are considered animal companions and are designed to be 'leveled', this would be balanced, because a animal companion in combat would take up some ability bar slots.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I do like the idea of breeding quality animals. The benefits of better horses and pets are obvious. Better cattle could produce more or higher quality food. Better mules could pull larger loads faster for trade.
I wouldn't exactly call it a priority, but it would be really cool to add on later.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I would see this more as a Settlement Facility that could be built and upgraded just like all the others. Then you'd need properly Skilled characters that were able to use the Facility to increase their Herd of a given type of Stock, from animals either bought elsewhere or captured in the wild. The Herd size would determine the required maintenance resources.
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Goblin Squad Member
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How large did you plan your ranch to be and how did you plan on defending it?
Pasture and stables sounds like they would take up quite a bit of room, which I expect would be in short supply in a single-server MMORPG.
Not knowing how much space a hex in game is(my ignorance if it has been defined already), I can't say. Real world, depending on the quality of pasture, a cow and calf requires ~3 acres where a horse/colt requires one and half to two per year. Specializing for a certain market(quality pack mules for instance)and small herds wouldn't necessarily call for vast amounts of land. As for protection, I would assume the same protection required for a mining site or cultivated land would require similar protection efforts. A few "cowboys" for a day, and a few for a night cycle would probably be sufficient for a small ranch, except against a dedicated raid.
The problem I see with creating highly specialized mounts is that they won't get used often unless they can be soulbound, and I'm not sure if that would fit in with the current lore.
If someone takes 3 months training up a war horse, they are going to want to heavy price for it, nobody is going to want to pay big for something that they could lose very easily. And if you can soulbind mounts, the market will explode when people master the craft, then diminish very quickly. It doesn't seem like a sustainable market.
I would rather see mount performance based on player training, and equipment they attach to the mount, with exceptions for mounts that are considered animal companions and are designed to be 'leveled', this would be balanced, because a animal companion in combat would take up some ability bar slots.
Going the PnP route, a war steed(being a steed trained to not bolt at the first hint of combat, nothing more) is an expensive outlay with no guarantee for the mounts survival. Definitely not a steed trained in special combat manoeuvrings, which as you prefaced, come from the rider. However, I'll take your argument as a mount as animal companion, with the base "crafted" mount able to learn use of X number of abilities, gear, etc. based on the quality of steed you have acquired from the ranch.
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Goblin Squad Member
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And yet, somebody's got to do it, especially if the NPCs 'farmers' aren't doing it!
Personally, I'm hoping that in the game, I'll either get to have my own Tavern, or a Farm.
Now, every man and his dog will want a Tavern, but a Farm ... ah.
Growing crops, raising livestock, even breeding, raising and training horses or even dogs for animal companions, as assistants for the NPC Guards or even just as pets for players, would be very appealing to me as something to do outside of combat, and also a nice little earner once it gets off the ground.
Not everyone is going to be able to compete at the bleeding edge of of progression, especially a gamer my age. So rather than eat an endless buffet of frustration and 'you're not good enough!' from the other players, take a secondary path and instead become a vital part of the crafting community, and go adventuring when I get bored playing Farmville : Swords and Sorcery Edition.
Farms on the outskirts of 'safe' Hexes even provide a welcome base of operations for Adventuring Players, assuming we're able to offer bed and board, either for players looking to brave the Wild Lands (unclaimed/uncivilized/hostile Hexes) or for players who are playing the Cultist/Spy angle and are trying to destabilize a Hex.
Who is going to look for the entrance to the secret base of the Heroes fighting the Bandit Faction in a pig-sty? Who would believe the treasure relieved from a Green Dragon in the nearby forest is being hidden in the hay-stacks in the farmer's barn?
Growing herbs would be great! Gothic had some really cool herbs ;)
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Goblin Squad Member
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I hope GW's vision and ours mesh, for a greatly expanded crafting system to include such things as raising livestock for food, transportation, and work; growing herbs for alchemy, potions, dyes, and poisons; cultivating orchards for food, brews, and lumber.
The possibilities are endless, but so are programming resources. I understand this. Consider this a wishlist.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I like the idea of animal breeding being a raw resource type action, and animal training being another step in the process done by someone with seperate skills.
Animal breeding facilities do not need to be to scale. I would personally have pastures and pens. Pastures for animals that graze, pens for animals that are fed. And maybe more special buildings later on like chicken coops, and aviaries.
You should be able to raise multiple types of animals in the same facility but they should have to be animals that can get along. So no raising pigs and bears in the same pen.
To cut down on server resources I would not have a physical representation of every animal in a pasture or pen. If you are raising horses and donkeys in a pasture set to produce mules, and you have 30 horses and 10 donkeys it might show 3 donkeys and 7 horses out grazing in the field. But through menu management you can see the full list of animals.
Beyond that I would give each animal different states and attributes, and you can choose to selectively breed animals based on their stats and attributes. For instance you could tell the building to breed horses based on speed and endurance, and not to breed any with certain deformities. Doing this would increase the chance of fast horses with good endurance, and decrease the chance of having horses born with deformities.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I like the idea of animal breeding being a raw resource type action, and animal training being another step in the process done by someone with seperate skills.
Animal breeding facilities do not need to be to scale. I would personally have pastures and pens. Pastures for animals that graze, pens for animals that are fed. And maybe more special buildings later on like chicken coops, and aviaries.
You should be able to raise multiple types of animals in the same facility but they should have to be animals that can get along. So no raising pigs and bears in the same pen.
To cut down on server resources I would not have a physical representation of every animal in a pasture or pen. If you are raising horses and donkeys in a pasture set to produce mules, and you have 30 horses and 10 donkeys it might show 3 donkeys and 7 horses out grazing in the field. But through menu management you can see the full list of animals.
Beyond that I would give each animal different states and attributes, and you can choose to selectively breed animals based on their stats and attributes. For instance you could tell the building to breed horses based on speed and endurance, and not to breed any with certain deformities. Doing this would increase the chance of fast horses with good endurance, and decrease the chance of having horses born with deformities.
That is very much along the lines of what I was proposing, but much more lucidly spelled out. Nice work, Andius!