Animal husbandry

Main / Skills / Nature / 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

Method

• Both of the animals you wish to breed must be not hungry. One must be a male and the other one a female. Lead one of them with a rope (note that some animals must be tamed to be led) and move it close to the other one. Right-click on the animal you are not leading and select the "Breed" option.
• Grooming also gives animal husbandry skill gains. Activate a grooming brush and select groom while right-clicking on a groomable creature. You can groom animals once per hour.

Notes

• Animals must be of the same species.
• If breeding fails, you will receive a message that the male "shys away and interrupts the action".
• If breeding fails or is successful and you attempt to breed again, the male animal will show that he's "not in the mood" until 45 real life minutes pass.
• Females will not breed while they are pregnant. Once the female gives birth, the animal can breed again.
• 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 not a factor in breeding (calves or foals will not breed though).
• Breeding increases a player's soul depth.
• Pregnancy times varies from 5-11 wurm weeks, regardless of species.
• Animals can have a miscarriage.
• If too hungry or low on fat animals can die when giving birth.
• Breeding animals with characteristics such as Champion will provide a chance that the offspring will also have that characteristic. This chance is dramatically increased when breeding two characteristics of the same type together. (Two Champions for example.)
  • The same applies to Traits as well.
• Longer blood lines will support more traits. (For example: A 4th generation dog can have up to 6 or so traits where a 1st generation dog (the first offspring from wild dogs) usually only have 0-3 traits.)
• The name is determined at birth, the traits are determined at breeding (noticed on a server revert on 2011-03-01)

Traits

Bred animals have a chance of having traits.(Enhancement/Deformity). Animals can have multiple traits. Examining an animal will show traits, if one has the required skill level:

• 20 skill: "It will fight fiercely." (High fighting skill?)
• 21 skill: "It has fleeter movement than normal." (Minor speed boost)
• 22 skill: "It is a tough bugger." (Withstands more damage)
• 23 skill: "It has a strong body." (Improved body strength?)
• 24 skill: "It has lightning movement." (Randomly increases speed for a short duration)
• 25 skill: "It can carry more than average." (Less penalty to speed due to high load)
• 26 skill: "It has very strong leg muscles." (Less penalty to speed due to slope?)
• 27 skill: "It has keen senses." (Increased agro range or possibly harder to tame?)
• 28 skill: "It has malformed hindlegs." (Minor speed penalty)
• 29 skill: "The legs are of different length." (Major speed penalty)
• 30 skill: "It seems overly aggressive." (Goes into frenzy when attacked)
• 31 skill: "It looks very unmotivated." (Seldom uses speed boosts?)
• 32 skill: "It is unusually strong willed." (Randomly refuses to follow)
• 33 skill: "It has some illness." (Usually unridable. Penalty to body strength)
• 34 skill: "It looks constantly hungry." (Slows after traveling long distances. Will eat twice as much as a normal horse?)
• 39 skill: "It looks feeble and unhealthy." (Prone to disease)
• 40 skill: "It looks unusually strong and healthy." (Has a higher resistance to disease)

(All "?" are unconfirmed.)

Wether a newborn has a specific trait is determined by chance depending on the parents traits:

• Both parents have the trait: ~60%
• One parent has the trait: ~40%
• Neither parent has the trait: ~12%

(Those numbers were determined by Ago from the stats of about 200 horses) Note: The 12% chance for a trait to appear even if neither parent had it adds up to about 60% chance that two completly healthy horses have offspring with at least one of the 7 bad traits.

Inbreeding between siblings or with a parent does not seem to have any effect on traits. The number of odd breeding results was not much different from regular breeding.

Titles

• Drover at 50 skill
• Granger at 70 skill