40d Talk:Pet

Population control

Is there a reliable way to remove pets? On some of my fortresses, I wind up with 100+ pets and actually see a framerate hit because of it. I don't really care if their owners get an unhappy thought, they'll straighten out when they drink their masterwork beer. Ripheus 21:06, 3 March 2008 (EST)

Non pet-passable door + death room might work. (A drawbridge would probably work nicely). Get the dorf to walk into the room (build something in there or draft them and station them there), wait for the pet, set door as tightly closed, get the dorf to leave the room, drop bridge. +Kitten tallow biscuits+. --Wabbiteh 06:21, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

Death rooms are mandatory in fortresses requiring high fps. Best if you station them near main corridor with few backup corridors. It may be possible to trap pets by just door settings alone. Animals don't know that tightly-closed doors count as forbidden for them and will not include them in pathfinding calculations (they see free corridor, not closed door). They will stand before tightly closed door and won't find a better way. Forbidden doors count as obstacle and will be bypassed if possible. This may be used to create automatic death rooms (if they are controlled by pressure plates you may need absolutely no dwarven intervention). Also, you can't butcher cats killed by anything other than butcher, so no +Kitten Tallow Biscuit+ for you. --Someone-else 17:35, 9 May 2008 (EDT)

Worked and worked well, thank you sir. I prefer the spike trap, personally. Ripheus 22:55, 24 March 2008 (EDT)

Controlling movement & pathing attempts

I've been looking for a way to lock pets up and keep them from crowding my screen and putting themselves in danger (a river full of Carp, Sturgeon, Longnose Gar AND Sea Lampreys is as deadly to careless pets as careless dwarves). Tightly-closed doors are largely ineffective, as the pets sit in front of them ready to spring out the moment a dwarf opens one (for example, to lock up another pet). I also suspect the constant pathing errors they generate thinking they can get through on their own (as Someone-else mentioned above) impact performance, though thankfully I don't have enough pets to be sure (yet). I've been working on a way to lock pets away such that they'll sit quietly not attempting to escape as soon as the opportunity presents itself, and it's proving a fairly complex task, since I'm trying to do this WITHOUT killing them. I'm wondering:

1) if info on how to do this, or for that matter detailed info on how to build a pet death-room, should be included in the article and

2) if anyone else has some insight on how the non-lethal method can/should be pulled off.

Once I get a workable system I'll post the info here, and can do a writeup on the article if people think it would be useful to have a "pet control" section. Kirig Stonebeard 15:21, 10 March 2009 (EDT)

The only way to interrupt a healthy creatures' pathfinding algorithm is to block all access from its current location. No ramps, doors, floodgates, bridges can lead to it on the same z-level. Surround it with walls or channels. Sadly, the only means of getting the animal out of this pit seems to be to drop it down a retractable bridge, connected to its own lever somewhere.

  SIDE

  ___pp___        <-- Room, channel floor, pit designation over channel (dump animals here)
  __|,,|__        <-- Room, channel floor, retractable bridge covering the channel, walled-off (dumped animals collect here)
  ________        <-- Room (animals released into here)

'_' are floors
'|' are built walls
',' are bridges
'p' means Pit/Pond designation

FJH 00:59, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Cost of ownership

On the z-animals menu, at least once the economy starts, non-cat pets have a price listed next to them. Is it possible to buy pets off owners? If so, how? (If not, why the monetary value?) --Squirrelloid 02:22, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

If you mark stray pet as available it'll have price too. It's the price at which a dwarf can buy a pet, whether it's owned by other dwarf or is stray. That's what I think.--Dorten 03:22, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

I suspect this is the cost to the dwarf's own budget, maybe a one-time fee, maybe a periodic "rent" on the pet for its care (food, squeaky toys, etc.) Either way, the only purpose is to determine whether the dwarf can afford the pet and, if he can, to slightly reduce his ability to afford other things as a result of ownership. The price is only really relevant to strays, as you can't buy a pet that's already owned. Kirig Stonebeard 15:21, 10 March 2009 (EDT)

Pets in combat

Will a pet attack enemies attacking its owner? How does pets work for protection? Can a tame mule or whatever actually be any good in a fight?--Dwaref 22:33, 28 June 2008 (EDT)

Firstly, I've never seen a horse attack anything. Some pets such as Dogs can indeed attack enemies, but they aren't that good at stopping Goblins or anything stronger. They're good at getting rid of pests though. --AlexFili 04:02, 24 July 2008 (EDT)

I've seen a horse attack and stun goblins, but only in self defence (counterattacks, I assume). I believe that the horse was a pet, probably of a woodcutter, as it was wandering around outside my fort at the time. Led those gobbos a merry chase, it did. --Raumkraut 08:13, 24 July 2008 (EDT)

I'm hoping they do! I bought a tame black bear off some shady elves, and I'm hoping it'll get adopted soon; prefeably by a military dwarf, or at least one that spends a decent amount of time outside of Rissenpaddle's halls. Can't wait to see the look on those goblin's faces! --Eddie 07:14, 26 July 2008 (EDT)

My current fort's first goblin ambush was put down by two stray (untrained) dogs, a stray wardog, and a stray horse FOAL. They were hanging out in a meeting hall near my trapped entrance hallway and charged right in as soon as the gobbos entered (not waiting for them to trip more than a single cage trap, to my chagrin). I groaned but one dog killed 2 of the invaders without getting a scratch, and the other sustained only a couple minor injuries taking down a 3rd. I'm not sure how much the foal helped as he didn't end up getting a name/kill, but he was certainly involved, and had the bloody hooves to prove it. I'm pretty sure the wardog helped significantly but just didn't happen to land a killing blow.

In any case, the answer's YES, animals will fight if presented with the enemy, and they can be very effective even untrained. They didn't pursue the 2 goblins that fled, interestingly (I was still happy to order double alpo/oats all around for valor, though *grin*) Kirig Stonebeard 15:21, 10 March 2009 (EDT)

Dogs will fight any hostiles that come near. Other animals will counter-attack, but will otherwise avoid combat. I've even tested this in adventurer mode, horses will run away from me, but if I swing at them, they have a mean counter. The passive "other animals" listed above, unfortunately, includes all tamed animals except dogs. So sadly, a tame bear/elephant/wolf/gorilla/etc. is essentially livestock. --Smartmo 02:24, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Named and owned pet in cage

If you assign a kitten to a cage, it is possible for it to adopt a dwarf before it is put in the cage; I found a pet in my cat cage. --Bombcar 03:08, 19 October 2008 (EDT)

Yep, it is quite possible. I've had it happen on a few occasions (much to my annoyance). --Toloran 15:09, 2 November 2008 (EST)

If it happens to you, just make sure to leave the cat in the cage. All the normal rules still apply (can't butcher, death causes unhappy thought, etc.) and once it's out it won't be possible to re-cage. It's possible because the cat claiming an owner doesn't interrupt the "cage animal" task, but you can't assign it to be caged AFTER the adoption takes place. Kirig Stonebeard 15:21, 10 March 2009 (EDT)

Pet Training

Can you train pet dogs? In my fortress I had loads of dogs, but it is my first fort so I made all of them available and now they're pets. --Stinhad Limarezum 07:44, 21 October 2008 (EDT)

You can only train strays. Though assigned war/hunting dogs seem to act like pets in terms of making their owner happy and such. Don't worry about them being assigned, there will be puppies soon enough. HeWhoIsPale 08:32, 21 October 2008 (EDT)

Non-preferred pets

Do dwarfs take pets that aren't the creature they like for their [prefstring]? I have black bears, cougars, wolves, deer, and marmots, but non of my dwarves are claiming them as pets. They only seem to like cows, horses, and cats. HeWhoIsPale 08:32, 21 October 2008 (EDT)

I've had the same problem, I think they only take prefstring pets :/ --Xonara 21:00, 18 January 2009 (EST)

Generally its prefstring, although common pets may be less bound by that. Also, cats adopt dwarves (not vice-versa), so whether the dwarf likes cats or not is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is whether the cat likes the dwarf - there are dwarves that cats will *not* adopt. Presumably this is based on personality somehow. --Squirrelloid 21:58, 18 January 2009 (EST)

According to Cat a dwarf "liking cats" IS relevant. The cats choose the owners but apparently are more likely to choose dwarves who have the cat prefstring. Kirig Stonebeard 15:21, 10 March 2009 (EDT)

With this said, I'm going to change the Dragon Prefstring to the same as cats. :3--CrazyMcfobo 17:10, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Are animals monogamous?

I've got 1 rooster and 3 chickens right now (playing as human, and with a mod) and am wondering whether or not animals, by default, are monogamous. As in, my rooster can only knock up one of those chickens at a time, not like they get married like dwarves and refuse to touch another one, even if the chicken dies. I'm just wondering if I might be able to keep a dozen chickens happy with one rooster or not. Shardok 22:45, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

• One male is sufficient to impregnate any number of females. A typical meat industry will have a male chained up in one area and numerous females chained up in another area. --Quietust 18:21, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Immigrating with pets

Immigrants often arrive with one or more pet animals (limited to dogs, cats, cows, horses, mules, or donkeys) Should maybe changed to reflect immigrants in modded games arriving with modded animals (needs to be verified) probably it is anything in the raws that has [PET] and [COMMON_DOMESTIC].