Petting animals before they eat - why?

[Zerahn]

If an animal eating grass outside sets their friendship to 255, why does the wiki stress that you need to pet the animal before it eats grass outside? Isn't that just negating the Mood boost from the petting?

[Vroomi]

It could have been written not-so-well giving it that implication.

I always pet my animals before just out of habit, but I don't think there'll be any problems if you don't.

[Zerahn]

But it specifically states that it's easier to do this if you close them in for the night after they all go back inside. That way you can pet them in the morning before they all rush out.

[[GER]MCNick12]

its to prevent a bug that maybe is fixed..... idk

[NotThatHarkness]

Originally posted by Zerahn:

If an animal eating grass outside sets their friendship to 255, why does the wiki stress that you need to pet the animal before it eats grass outside? Isn't that just negating the Mood boost from the petting?

Because 255 is the maximum level (AFAIK) for mood and if you pet the animal at max level the mood would roll over to 0 + whatever small amount petting adds, making for an unhappy animal. That's what I understand what the bug was. Petting also increases relationship with the animal (heart level, which is different from mood). And you want to increase heart level. So following that advice would get you the relationship benefit from petting without killing mood. AFAIK it was fixed in the last major patch so you can disregard that advice.

Details of the bugs, if you are interested:

http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/psa-major-animal-bugs-issues.126444/

See the last post on that thread for why people think these bugs have been fixed. It appears the wiki hasn't been updated.

[Zerahn]

Thank you, Trey. An overflow bug made the most sense but the wiki didn't mention it being a workaround for anything. I also didn't want to mention it and have it affect any answers.

[Pixel Peeper]

I'm pretty sure that even if that particular bug was fixed, the whole system is still completely messed up.

My animals pretty much always gave me gold and iridium quality large milk at some point, but now they nearly always give me silver and no-quality small milks. And I haven't changed a thing.

The only reason to have most of these animals would be to complete the bundles, anyway. Cows and goats and sheep are a major hassle to take care of and they give pretty much nothing valuable. My two pigs give me multiple times as much gold per day as all those other animals while I'm doing other things on the farm.

I'm definitely not going to take this bovinefeces again. My future playthroughs are going to involve a single cow and a single goat and they will be sold as soon as I get the large milk from them.

[Storm]

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

My future playthroughs are going to involve a single cow and a single goat and they will be sold as soon as I get the large milk from them.

Unfortunately, you still need them if you want to do several cooking recipes.

[NotThatHarkness]

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

I'm pretty sure that even if that particular bug was fixed, the whole system is still completely messed up.

My animals pretty much always gave me gold and iridium quality large milk at some point, but now they nearly always give me silver and no-quality small milks. And I haven't changed a thing.

I started a new game after the patch dropped and my cows are eventually giving me gold and iridium large milks pretty regularly. It's a bit more variable than when the Animal Happiness mod (mentioned in the thread I linked too). A month or so after the cows start producing milk I don't get any small milks. No-quality large milks occasionally, more so in the winter.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by Storm77777:

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

My future playthroughs are going to involve a single cow and a single goat and they will be sold as soon as I get the large milk from them.

Unfortunately, you still need them if you want to do several cooking recipes.

That's fine, I'm likely not going to go for completionist stuff again anytime soon. I barely ever touched cooking anyway, it's nowhere near necessary and again it's probably more hassle than it's worth.

Really, I don't understand why you couldn't just purchase eggs and milk from Marnie. She does make a living selling animal products, after all.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by TreyNutz:

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

I'm pretty sure that even if that particular bug was fixed, the whole system is still completely messed up.

My animals pretty much always gave me gold and iridium quality large milk at some point, but now they nearly always give me silver and no-quality small milks. And I haven't changed a thing.

I started a new game after the patch dropped and my cows are eventually giving me gold and iridium large milks pretty regularly. It's a bit more variable than when the Animal Happiness mod (mentioned in the thread I linked too). A month or so after the cows start producing milk I don't get any small milks. No-quality large milks occasionally, more so in the winter.

I honestly have no idea how it works. I was getting iridium-quality large milk so often I didn't even bother turning it into cheese, now I'm lucky to get a large milk at all and then it's always going to be low-quality. I pet all my animals daily, they always have food, they always have access to a large field of grass whenever it's not raining or winter, there are heaters in the buildings...

In the meantime, my two pigs once produced 11,250g worth of truffles in a single day.

Bah.