I accidentally created an animal lure

[Honeycone]

It was the end of Septober and the outside temperature reached -10C (below freezing). I accidentally left the door to my animal barn to "Hold open". After spending a bunch of time looking over my caravan, I returned to my settlement only to find my settlement crawling with animals, all of them eating the kibble that was stored in the barn.

I had roughly 20-30 animals wandering around my settlement, most of them rats, squirrels and hares but some larger animals as well. This was mostly a nuisance, since rats, squirrels and hares don't give much meat when butchered.

However, it got me thinking. Instead of running around the map to hunt creatures, perhaps you could create a large building and place some kibble in it. Animals will come to eat it if there is no other food available (winter), and when enough animals are there you run in with your colonists and lock the door behind you. This gathers all animals and drastically shortens hunting time.

Anybody thought about this before me?

[Kittenpox]

That's a pretty solid plan, tbh.
My current playthrough is on a Desert biome, so I've been turning raiders into Kibble - but meat has been unreliable because so few animals have been spawning (like, multiple consecutive seasons with no wildlife), and so retaining carnivores has been more hassle than its worth.

This just might be a viable method to repopulate the area; especially if food availability is part of what defines how many animals are present.

Thankyou for the idea! :-)

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Honeycone:

It was the end of Septober and the outside temperature reached -10C (below freezing). I accidentally left the door to my animal barn to "Hold open". After spending a bunch of time looking over my caravan, I returned to my settlement only to find my settlement crawling with animals, all of them eating the kibble that was stored in the barn.

Did you take all of your colonists on the caravan?

However, it got me thinking. Instead of running around the map to hunt creatures, perhaps you could create a large building and place some kibble in it. Animals will come to eat it if there is no other food available (winter), and when enough animals are there you run in with your colonists and lock the door behind you. This gathers all animals and drastically shortens hunting time.

Anybody thought about this before me?

Leaving food out is the only way to use a "lure" kind of system, AFAIK. But, I would have thought that many animals would have migrated off the screen during Winter/temps, depending on biome/conditions/etc.

Was there any snow on the ground and was it greater than "light dusting?" I know that Grazing was changed so that animals could not graze through heavier snow cover types. (Which annoyed me so much I had to add a mod to my very short modlist in order to allow for it for certain animal types.) The point being that if they were still on the map, one assumes it's because they could still graze in those conditions. I don't know how the mechanic works with other game mechanics, like migrations/grazing, nor if it accurately takes that new change into account on the base map screen.

Sadly, though - https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/b3fcyi/rare_tip_for_luring_animals/

So, yeah, someone has already thunked of that. :) But, that's fine - Everything's already been written, but that doesn't mean new stories can't be good.

Easier remote/auto/mechanical hunting issues and ideas have generally focused on the problem with automation/triggers. There's no way to set up complex trap arrangements in Rimworld since there is no way to create an automatic "switch" to operate a kill/trap method other than the standard single-tile deadfall/spike trap/IED. Those only have standard incidental trigger rates for non-hostile animals.

[Honeycone]

Nah just a few colonists, but I wasn't paying much attention to my main base. And there was just a light dusting of snow. It was just at the beginning of winter, so most animals were still in the map.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Honeycone:

Nah just a few colonists, but I wasn't paying much attention to my main base. And there was just a light dusting of snow. It was just at the beginning of winter, so most animals were still in the map.

Ah, gotcha - So it hadn't yet reached conditions sufficient to push them off the map. What was the biome? Had there been any big fires or fallout events recently that reduced tall grass/bushes/etc?

"Hunting" is A Big Deal ™ in terms of game mechanics and activity. Tynan has obviously put some effort into preventing easy "trapping" methods in vanilla. The objective is, after all, to train up Hunters to Hunt and that doing that presents a "Risk." (Risk/Reward) It's also a significant opportunity to train Shooters. Another activity is "Farming" and while animal husbandry has always been somewhat problematic, it's an option. IOW - "Getting Meat" is a mechanic the game doesn't want you to be able to easily dodge. :)

[Honeycone]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Ah, gotcha - So it hadn't yet reached conditions sufficient to push them off the map. What was the biome? Had there been any big fires or fallout events recently that reduced tall grass/bushes/etc?

Boreal forest, no big fires or fallout events.

[neock]

need to add some turrets in that room with a switch, then get those turrets to attack the animals. you made a kill chamber lol

[LIMP BISQUICK]

Yerp, was introduced in 1.0 I believe. It's been awhile since I've done it but at the time you could just leave however many doors open from your freezer and they'll come trailing in. If it was never patched out/adjusted then you really wouldn't need a separate building for luring.

[Snazzy]

I figured that out as well! I tend to make one outside the gates and just let the animals all come to me, cuts down on hunting time/accidents.