How many animals should a colony have?

[KalkiKrosah]

I already know that everyone's answer will largely be influenced by the "context" of their living situation so I'll set it up the situation like so:

It's not a year long growing season you're living in, the grow season is 30/30. The animals can graze the open terrain in the growing season but will need to be fed off of the colony's food stores throughout the rest of the year. The colony has somewhere between 5-10 colonists at any given time. Only 1-3 of those colonists are tamers and only 1-3 are growers and 1-3 are hunters.

What animals would you try to keep in the colony and how many would you try to maintain? Common animals to consider being Huskies, Muffalo, Llamas, Turtles, Boars, Bears and Boomalopes. Or any other animal you prefer to have (I often tame panthers and cougars) what is the amount you shoot for to have in a standard colony?

[Dr. Uncredible]

Yeah very dependent on your food-situation, but I personally keep a small number of llamas/muffalos (carrying and wool) and a small number of large dogs (hauling) and maybe 1 "useless" animal for fun.

I start with a breeding pair of each, let them multiply until it decide they´re affecting my food situation or getting under my feet too much and then sell some off until they´re at a good level, making sure to have a youngish, healthy couple of each.

Occationally animal bonding complicates thing, but that´s my general attitude to this.

[Morkonan]

Muffalos - Nothing comes close in terms of what they bring to the table. (Milk, fur, pack animal, grazer)

Huskies or Labradors - Outstanding additions, 0 Wildness so no Filth generation, wonderful to have the Hauling help. But, only worth adding when the colony can afford to feed them Meals.

Chickens - ONLY if the player closely watches their breeding and does not get tempted to let it get out of control. Eggs are outstanding for meals. (But, bringing in chickens to one's animal herd is like adding the Plague. One misstep and the colony turns into nothing more than a very unstable Chicken Ranch.)

It all depends on the biome, of course. Some animals won't be found in certain biomes, but there's usually one that can fill their role. Alpacas give good fur and can be decent pack animals. Dromedaries give milk and fur, too. Turkeys and even turtles lay eggs, etc... What I think players can benefit from the most are animals that produce or provide the most without having to be slaughtered. Milk and fur, pack animal, egg layer, hauler... If most of those needs are covered, then that's the best one can hope for. All of them being covered is very powerful, provided they don't consume all of one's gameplay.

For "numbers" all I can say is that things can start to get a bit "Animal Husbandry Focused" after one reaches a certain point. (Probably 15-20 in vanilla, depending on the types.) That can be tremendously helped if most are "Grazers" and one is in a biome with a decent growing season. Decent Hay production is basically mandatory at that point, no matter the biome. (Depending on the animals, they can just about clean the map of grass after awhile.)

PS - Animal Husbandry in Rimworld is very tempting, but is also kind of dangerous. It's very easy to watch all that work end up consuming the entire colony's efforts to keep it going. Moderation is key and players running around with Pokemon balls will end up watching their colony collapse...

[KalkiKrosah]

Not to derail the thread at all, but in case anyone is reading this to learn the game, its common knowledge that Thrumbos are not worth the cost to feed and Alphabeavers are a plague that should be exterminated immediately. I have recently found an exception to this rule: Living in a swamp.

Tropical Swamps, Temperate Swamps and Cold Bogs are biomes where the plant growth is out of control. Thrumbos and Alphabeavers can be utilized as biological lawnmowers to help "tame the land" by zoning them to a small area and letting them do their work. Which can free up your planters to tend the crops as opposed to lumberjacking trees. In this unique circumstance Thrumbos can live in the colony sustainably and Alphabeavers become more of a boon than a plague. Outside of this Thrumbos and Alphabeavers are better off in meals and fashionable clothing.

[KalkiKrosah]

From my experience, if I have dogs I never allow them to outnumber my colonists. 10 colonists means 10 dogs, 6 colonists means 6 dogs. The only exception is when I am down to my last colonist. Then I allow 2 dogs to stay in the colony.

Muffalo I usually don't breed. I tame the female muffalo who are both young and uninjured and try to keep a 1:3 ratio. 1 Muffalo for every 3 colonists. I'm not really a big caravan style player so I never see a point in having more than that.

Its been a long time since I raised any turtles (I play Tundra and Boreal Forest almost exclusively) but I would probably raise turtles so that I have about a 1:1 ratio. I don't recall them eating much and they do make for nice defenders.

I had one chicken farm and they nearly doubled my colonists in population in less than a year. So I just necked them all and was done with it. They are one of the smallest animals so they often need a decent sized area to be fenced in for them to feed. I just felt that the space was better used as something else. I would probably say 5 egg laying chickens is a good amount.

Boomalopes I generally keep 3-4. That's usually enough to power up some generators or stockpile in launchpods. And you can always sacrifice one or two for a raid. Boomrats are better for defense since they are harder to shoot and give a more centralized burn. Boomalopes don't eat much for an animal their size though so you could hold more, I just recommend not doing so because fire reasons.

Bears are great. Not only are they some of the best fighter/chaser animals but they can haul too! The downside is obviously feeding them. In the growing season they can typically hunt for themselves when they are out hauling (I zone my bears to be outdoors, save for the barn) and in the winter I let them eat the dead bodies of those who oppose me. Sometimes I build a corpse freezer attached to the barn just for the bears. It helps sustaining a larger bear population easier. I would recommend a 1:4 ratio, 1 bear for every 4 colonists.

I've been using boars a whole lot less ever since their nerf where they can no longer haul. They are more of a corpse disposal at this point, and I still prefer bears over boars for that. Back when I did use boars I used to let my boar population explode to where I had 2 boars for every 1 colonist. Now bears and dogs share that role in the colony. Nowadays I wouldn't raise the boar population any higher than the colonist population. They aren't really worth it in my experience. Dogs and Bears are just better.

Lastly are Llamas. I just refer to them as the poor man's muffalo. I'll usually keep 1-2 in a colony for when I want to do a small trade caravan run. Their fur is inferior to the muffalo, their milk is inferior to the muffalo, the muffalo is actually easier to train (go figure), and the muffalo can haul more and take more hits. The only thing the Llama has over the Muffalo is food consumption. Which is why I only go out of my way to field Llamas on desert maps. Otherwise its capped at 2 for small caravan jobs.

[Tardus Coegi]

I use a Housekeeper Cat mod. typically do a max of 3 cats total. They can haul and clean dirt on the ground. Great lil buggers. Best mod ever, frees my colonists from cleaning cause they clean so dahm well.

[Holce]

Chicken are easy to control(or any animals that lay eggs).

You need a zone named "nest" with critical setting for fertilized eggs. Allow fertilized eggs in meal but reduce the range for ingredient (To not reach the "nest"). Add a chest in the kitchen that allows fertilized eggs (less that critical).

Now if you need chickens then allow fertilized eggs in the "nest". You don't want them anymore disallow fertilized eggs in the "nest". Some eggs layed down out of base may spawn some chickens but it is easily manageable.

[M.K.]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

What animals would you try to keep in the colony and how many would you try to maintain?

Muffalo are worth it, for their cargo capacity in caravans.


Aside from that................nope.
*all* animals have a huge maintenance burden, and marginal to microscopic benefit.

[Holce]

Originally posted by M.K.:

*all* animals have a huge maintenance burden, and marginal to microscopic benefit.

I not agree with that.

You can have 10-20 haulers for the cost of 2-3 tamers. They can do a lot of works.
They can give milk, eggs, wool and can be used for caravan.
Muffalo are very good except for hauling (and eggs of course).

You can slay them for meet. But it is only worth it, if they can graze most of the time.

You can use them for fighting. Boars are good for that. They reproduce quickly are good fighter for their food requirement and you gain a lot of meets for each death. The leather can be used to train your paws. Any failed cloth is not a concern, you need to get rid of all that leather anyway. The cloth can be traded or offered.

[Sugar Show]

Only big animals with good battle stats and never let the number of "big animals" double the number of colonists.

[Azunai]

don't think a colony really needs animals at all to be functional, but i found muffaloes, hauling dogs (husky or labrador) and cows pretty useful overall. i think cows yield more milk than muffaloes (?) but muffaloes also yield wool and can act as beast of burden for caravans, so they are more versatile.

i had a couple of cows join for free in my latest game and they happened to be a cow and a bull, so i went with that. they are all right. after a few years i had about half a dozen cows (only kept the females and slaughtered the male offspring) and a fairly steady supply of milk. i guess with enough cows you can permanently make fine meals without resorting to hunting at all. you'll have to feed them of course, so you don't really *gain* added nutrition value, but the added mood benefit of fine (or even lavish) meals may be worth it.

[Preechr]

Every colony should probably have 4-5 Tyrannosaurus Rex. Very useful on so many levels. While they aren't very reliable as egg layers, if you do choose to breed them for slaughter their hide is very tough, though I think your colony is best served with them hauling, hunting and being trained to ride into battle. They are also very handy on caravans as they can serve as a pack animal that can be ridden and most ambushes aren't much of a concern.

[martindirt]

Originally posted by Preechr:

Every colony should probably have 4-5 Tyrannosaurus Rex. Very useful on so many levels. While they aren't very reliable as egg layers, if you do choose to breed them for slaughter their hide is very tough, though I think your colony is best served with them hauling, hunting and being trained to ride into battle. They are also very handy on caravans as they can serve as a pack animal that can be ridden and most ambushes aren't much of a concern.

We including mods?
Well... Anything mixed with mechanoid nanites.

Or gigantelopes. Best caravan animals.

Or any pokemon from the O21 project.

More monstergirs extended? Any of those. (They can do different jobs.) Dragonoids are awesome fighters.

Hmm... Sheeps. Haulers + produce milk.

Fluffins. Exotic sheeps, can eat corpses.

[Kittenpox]

Early game, I'd have a dog or two. If other animals join that's fine, but they are more likely to be turned into meals.

Later in the game, when I'm facing stronger enemies (possibly ones with rocket launchers) then having some cannon fodder is much more useful - and by then I have the means to support a menagerie.

I tend to restart my playthrough(s) relatively often though, so I rarely face rocket launcher -wielding raiders.

[Morkonan]

Just an added note: It sneaks up on ya.

I have a playthrough with about 15 colonists. There are 18 beds for "Guests" using Hospitality Mod, so I'm basically running a hotel. It has a fairly large population of tamed animals, too.

I counted up all my animals and I have about 40... Hauling dogs, Muffalo, alpacas and some specials, like a Bear and a Megasloth.

After some figurin', the alpacas need to go and I need to cull my dog population.

I trained alpacas, first, because I couldn't get any muffalo at that time. And, I sort of just liked the variety of fur/animals. I was very happy to get some Retrievers and train them up, but I've somewhat ignored the stress their population could put on things. (Meals) The Muffalo population is fine considering the added benefit of Milk.

In short - I find it predictable that once I have successfully tamed a few animals and have set up things so I can make keeping them fed and making use of them very easy, I tend to forget about my animal population meeting "the reality of practicality."

It's time to slaughter some dogs and alpacas... :( (IF I can sell them off before I order such, I will. But, if nobody will buy them in a couple of days, once I make some additional Freezer room for the meat, they're going over the Rainbow Bridge.)

This is probably similar to the experience of many players who end up with overly large animal populations - Setting and forgetting. It's so very easy to do.

[Kittenpox]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Just an added note: It sneaks up on ya.

I have a playthrough with about 15 colonists. There are 18 beds for "Guests" using Hospitality Mod, so I'm basically running a hotel. It has a fairly large population of tamed animals, too.

I counted up all my animals and I have about 40... Hauling dogs, Muffalo, alpacas and some specials, like a Bear and a Megasloth.

After some figurin', the alpacas need to go and I need to cull my dog population.

I trained alpacas, first, because I couldn't get any muffalo at that time. And, I sort of just liked the variety of fur/animals. I was very happy to get some Retrievers and train them up, but I've somewhat ignored the stress their population could put on things. (Meals) The Muffalo population is fine considering the added benefit of Milk.

In short - I find it predictable that once I have successfully tamed a few animals and have set up things so I can make keeping them fed and making use of them very easy, I tend to forget about my animal population meeting "the reality of practicality."

It's time to slaughter some dogs and alpacas... :( (IF I can sell them off before I order such, I will. But, if nobody will buy them in a couple of days, once I make some additional Freezer room for the meat, they're going over the Rainbow Bridge.)

This is probably similar to the experience of many players who end up with overly large animal populations - Setting and forgetting. It's so very easy to do.

Chickens... Those things can become like locusts if you wall-in your base (to keep out predators) but forget about them.