Cattle Starving?

[Wardaddy™]

My cattle are starving but I have grain? Facts say if you have no straw they will eat grain and I have a surplus of it.

Bug ooorrr?

[SteelBlood]

It's due to the horrible AI. It is literally because your people are not feeding them quick enough. Despite all the space in stables for food, they only drop 1-3 in at a time which gets used up quick (10 animals per stable). And the animals that didn't get to eat lose health until the next person that feeds them, leading to starvation. Lower workload will help, but only real fix is an update to the AI.

[Wardaddy™]

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

It's due to the horrible AI. It is literally because your people are not feeding them quick enough. Despite all the space in stables for food, they only drop 1-3 in at a time which gets used up quick (10 animals per stable). And the animals that didn't get to eat lose health until the next person that feeds them, leading to starvation. Lower workload will help, but only real fix is an update to the AI.

Ahhhh. Thanks man.

[Jo_Rocker]

Stock pile straws! They only need straws and water and keep the cattle population down. Set it to 10 of each animals in the beginning. I had 10 stables at one point and too much cattle to feed even with huge crops. The task of harvesting + feeding and looking after the animals became too much.

[VA gamer]

Are you villagers over-tasked? Use hotkey 7 and see what your villagers are doing instead of feeding the animals.

AI is just basic, not horrible - understand the rules and it works adequately for most things, imo.

[Big_Stick_83]

in this game they eat straw set up some stacks for them

[SteelBlood]

I have a large population town and people and animals die quite often just because the AI. For the most part, the AI works like this: Person will choose a task, complete it, and then will check for the next task they need to do. Which means they ignore anything else until they complete their current task. (A tip if you want everyone to re-prioritize tasks, turn the alarm on and then off)

My villagers have died from hypothermia and starvation right next to shelters filled with food. It is also why you can't effectively build other settlements far away (close is doable) because the villager does not take distance into account for most tasks (only when looking for food, water, totems they pick the closest it seems). So during their long trek to the next village, they will die because they pick a task in the next village and ignore their own needs until they complete the task in the next village.I won't even go into the items they leave on the ground. For me, it is horrible. Might be fine for others, but that would be because we want to do different things in the game.

[Jo_Rocker]

Originally posted by VA gamer:

Are you villagers over-tasked? Use hotkey 7 and see what your villagers are doing instead of feeding the animals.

AI is just basic, not horrible - understand the rules and it works adequately for most things, imo.

Good advice. Once they tend to the crops you often get the over-task message but you can ignore it since it's temporary. I look at the number of resources and remove some tasks. If you have too much sticks for example you can remove that task as well as stone etc whatever you have enough of for the moment. Having too much crops to tend to and cattle to feed and slaughter you wont be able to hunt as much.

[VA gamer]

Villagers seem to have a built-in survival mechanic. They go off-task to drink, get warm or drink all the time.

I don't understand how they could die right next to food - they gather berries and eat raw meat in the woods to survive when needed. I wonder if having multiple settlements is affecting their survival mechanic.

[Wardaddy™]

Originally posted by VA gamer:

Villagers seem to have a built-in survival mechanic. They go off-task to drink, get warm or drink all the time.

I don't understand how they could die right next to food - they gather berries and eat raw meat in the woods to survive when needed. I wonder if having multiple settlements is affecting their survival mechanic.

Yeah, I got that before too. My other settlements are not even that far from one another, not ever a screen length over and that happens.

[martiño]

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

It's due to the horrible AI.

I suspect this is not the case, we made many tests on this. Make sure there is grain/straw near the stables and you should be fine.

Could you plz share a savegame with us is you think this is a bug?

[Wardaddy™]

Originally posted by martiño:

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

It's due to the horrible AI.

I suspect this is not the case, we made many tests on this. Make sure there is grain/straw near the stables and you should be fine.

Could you plz share a savegame with us is you think this is a bug?

Where do you want me to send it? I have 4 straw storage things near by. But also 200+ grain and animals in general are still starving.

[martiño]

Post it somewhere (upload it to our bug tracker[madrugaworks.com] if you want). And place a link here.

[SteelBlood]

Oh them dying, and animals starving happened when I still only had 1 settlement. It was just large. Trying to build another just amplified the issue. The survival mechanic you mention is correct somewhat. When they complete their task, they first check if they themselves need anything. But they do not cancel their current task if they need anything (except when pulling megaliths).

For example, the new village I wanted to build was fairly far away, but it was along the same river as my original town. It was nice because the bank of the river became a sort of natural road. (even put rest tents and fruit trees along it). I had to micromanage people walking along the riverbank to not die of thirst because they had chosen a task in the new village, and would not drink till they had gotten to it.

Here is an example of how the AI works, say you want to build a new hut. An idle worker will grab materials for the new hut and start walking towards it. They ignore any needs they have while walking to the hut carrying the materials. Once they place the material at the new hut, they check if they themselves need anything. Then they drink, eat, etc. Tasks that take time however (building, pulling monoliths, possibly crafting) villagers WILL stop to take care of themselves.

[SteelBlood]

I typed that response before the page refreshed with the developers response. If I am wrong about how the AI works please do correct me. I will upload my savegame as well if it helps. The animals and people dying is not constant for me, but does happen.

[VA gamer]

Originally posted by SteelBlood:

Oh them dying, and animals starving happened when I still only had 1 settlement. It was just large. Trying to build another just amplified the issue. The survival mechanic you mention is correct somewhat. When they complete their task, they first check if they themselves need anything. But they do not cancel their current task if they need anything (except when pulling megaliths).

For example, the new village I wanted to build was fairly far away, but it was along the same river as my original town. It was nice because the bank of the river became a sort of natural road. (even put rest tents and fruit trees along it). I had to micromanage people walking along the riverbank to not die of thirst because they had chosen a task in the new village, and would not drink till they had gotten to it.

Here is an example of how the AI works, say you want to build a new hut. An idle worker will grab materials for the new hut and start walking towards it. They ignore any needs they have while walking to the hut carrying the materials. Once they place the material at the new hut, they check if they themselves need anything. Then they drink, eat, etc. Tasks that take time however (building, pulling monoliths, possibly crafting) villagers WILL stop to take care of themselves.

Maybe the survival mechanic only kicks in during specific tasks - I have observed villagers stop hunting to gather berries or eat raw meat to prevent starvation, for example.