Animal husbandry
Description
Animal husbandry allows for the production (breeding) of new creatures, sometimes with increased quality, without the need to wait for new spawns.
Characteristics gained
Soul / Soul depth
Grooming
Grooming is the main activity which gives animal husbandry skill.
- Activate a Grooming brush and select groom while right-clicking on a groomable creature. This can be done to each animal once per hour.
Shearing
Shearing is the other main activity which gives animal husbandry skill.
- Activate a Scissors and select shear while right-clicking on a sheep.
- Wool bundles drop to ground not inventory. Sheared wool weight seems to vary on age currently observed: Adolescent - 0.2kg / Young - 0.3kg / Aged - 0.4kg / Old - 0.5kg / Venerable - 0.6kg
Breeding
- Lead one animal with a rope (or any item should it be wearing a bridle) and approach the second.
- When they are close enough together right click on the second animal and select the "Breed" option.
Notes
- Neither animal should be hungry.
- Neither animal should be of same gender.
- Both animals should be of the same species.
- Some animals require taming before being led, this does not apply to the second animal.
- Males will only breed once every 45 real minutes regardless of outcome.
- Females will not breed while they are pregnant. Once the female gives birth, she will not be in mood for breeding for 24 real hours.
- Animals do not have to be "fat" to breed, only "no longer interested in food" (when trying to feed them). Grass eaters will typically be in this state after a minute or 2 on grass or crops.
- Age is a factor in breeding: calves or foals will not breed, neither will young/early adolescent animals.
- Pregnancy times varies from 5-11 wurm weeks, regardless of species.
- Examining the animal will show the remaining wurm weeks left until birth. eg. She will deliver in about 4
- Animals can have miscarriages which may kill the mother with no offspring spawned. Starving, off-deed, or on-deed below 15 ratio are known as the reasons for miscarriages.
- If too hungry or low on fat animals can die when giving birth.
- Breeding female animals with conditions such as Champion will provide a chance that the offspring will also have that characteristic. This chance is dramatically increased when breeding two animals with the same condition together. (Two Champions for example.)
- Breeding two animals with the same trait greatly increases the chance that the offspring will have the trait.
- The horse name is determined at birth, the traits are determined at breeding.
- The horse's color from birth is determined based on 1/3 by the mother, 1/3 by the father, and 1/3 by random.
Messages
- animal shys away and interrupts the action
- breeding has failed, the male will not breed again for 45 real minutes.
- animal is not in the mood
- the male will not breed again for 45 real minutes.
Traits
Bred animals have a chance of gaining traits, enhancements or deformities. Animals may have multiple traits, those can be seen in the table below. All traits are put into the gene pool when breeding and those of the parents will increase the chance of the offspring having the same. Should both parents have the same trait the likelihood of the offspring gaining that trait is even higher. Inbreeding adds a chance that bad traits will appear.
The breeder's Animal husbandry affects the minimum and maximum number of traits that will appear in a horse. The maximum number of traits you can breed into one animal is currently 8 at 80+ skill.
Animal husbandry is only partially on the Curve. The curved value (effective skill) allows you see traits at that level (not true for bred in captivity trait which requires 60 numerical to see even on epic). But the actual value (numerical) is used for computing the number of traits you can breed.
Examining an animal will show traits if one has the required skill level.
Inbreeding
Inbreeding occurs when an offspring is bred with either of its parents. It's typically unavoidable in small herds but after 3 generations the requirement to inbreed will be removed; it's advised to seek neighbours to begin a herd if one wishes to avoid inbreeding. There is a chance to add extra negative traits to animals bred with their parents, which won't count towards the regular trait limit. Some players have observed that deceased parents will not count towards the inbreeding check at the time of birth.
"I have often used it as a method of breeding, to kill the old parents when I had too many horses that had a parent in common. After the parents are dead, you can breed and get normal horses. Leave the parents alive and you get lots of bad traited animals." Source
Trait list
| Base Skill | Epic Curve | Trait name | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | Horse's color is considered a trait. | Does not count against the trait limit |
| 20 | 10.56 | It will fight fiercely. | Higher fighting skill 1 |
| 21 | 11.12 | It has fleeter movement than normal. | Minor speed boost |
| 22 | 11.68) | It is a tough bugger | Withstands more damage |
| 23 | 12.25) | It has a strong body | Bonus to maintaining top speed |
| 24 | 12.82 | It has lightning movement | Randomly increases speed for a short duration |
| 25 | 13.40 | It can carry more than average | Less penalty to speed due to high load |
| 26 | 13.98 | It has very strong leg muscles | Less penalty to speed due to slope |
| 27 | 14.56 | It has keen senses | Increased aggression range or possibly harder to tame 1 |
| 27 | 14.56 | Keen sense of loyalty | Stays tamed longer or possibly harder to tame 1 |
| 28 | 15.15 | It has malformed hindlegs | Minor speed penalty 2 |
| 29 | 15.74 | The legs are of different length | Major speed penalty 2 |
| 30 | 16.33 | It seems overly aggressive | Goes into frenzy when attacked 2 |
| 31 | 16.93 | It looks very unmotivated | Seldom uses speed boosts 1 2 |
| 32 | 17.54 | It is unusually strong willed | Will stop being led at random 2 |
| 33 | 18.15 | It has some illness | Body strength will slowly reduce over time eventually making the animal unrideable 2 3 |
| 34 | 18.76 | It looks constantly hungry | Becomes hungry twice as fast as normal 2 |
| 39 | 21.90 | It looks feeble and unhealthy | Prone to catching a disease 2 |
| 40 | 22.54 | It looks unusually strong and healthy | Has a higher resistance to disease |
| 41 | 23.19 | It has a certain spark in its eyes | Unknown - See talk page 1 |
| 83 | 58.77 | Bred in captivity | Informational |
- 1 Traits are either unknown or unconfirmed.
- 2 Traits may be removed by casting Genesis.
- 3 Genesis cast on animals with this trait will cause it to slowly regain strength up to its original level.
Caring
To prolong venerable animals from dying of old age they may be cared for. To care for an animal stand next to it and right click, select Care for. If you start caring for that animal this message will appear:
- You now care specially for Aged fat Tearbabe, to ensure longevity. You may care for x more creatures.
Notes
- Hostile creatures must be tamed first before they can be cared for.
- The total number of animals which may be cared for is limited by the animal husbandry skill of the player. If the player is unable to care for more animals this message will appear:
- You may not care for any more creatures right now. You are already caring for 1 creatures.
- 1 animal may be cared for plus 1 additional for every 10 skill in animal husbandry. So at 40 Animal husbandry skill a player can care for 5 animals.
- Non-premium players can only care for 1 animal.
- The chat command /stopcaring will stop the player from caring for all animals. This message will appear:
- You no longer care for the one creature you used to.
- To stop caring for a specific animal right click the animal and select 'care for'.
- A list of all the animals cared for may be listed by using the command /caringfor
Titles
- Drover at 50 skill
- Granger at 70 skill
- Rancher at 90 skill
