Donkeys VS Horses and Grain types

[Brenden]

I may be wrong, but I can see no benefit of horses over donkeys. Has anybody else noticed a difference?
I would have thought that Donkeys would be for carts and horses for riding?


Grain types - again, I can see no benefit of having different types of grain crops. So why not just have the one.

Brewing - It states it only needs grain - surely it only needs Barley? Can we get some clarification on this?

It may be worth adding a calorie impact to food like Life is Feudal Forest Village. This would add a good dynamic to make people think more about the food they are hunting and gathering. It may be that this is already the case but it isnt clear in gameplay. Once you have a few fields planted you can all but give up hunting and fishing...

[Roda]

+1

[The_Count]

imagine if they add an update where horses are used as an early form of cavalry or male cows (oxen) used to plow the fields instead of having more than half the village out in the field poking holes in the ground in spring when they plant new crops

[hbrosmoe]

The benefit of multiple grain types is Disease. Each crop is susceptible to disease. Some are more resistant. Each plant has it's own unique "properties". Barley can produce more straw for instance.

Although I've never times them, I assume Horses move faster than Donkeys.

[martiño]

Horses live a bit longer, have more health and produce a bit more food. It's good to have a variety of animals so if a disease affects them it doesn't wipe out your whole population.

Grain types have slight differences:

Barley: Extra straw
Emmer: Extra grain
Einkorn: Resistent against diseases
Rye: All rounder

And as hbrosmoe mentioned if you only plant one type of grain you are taking a risk, because disease could wipe them all in 1 given year.

[Brenden]

Thanks Martino for the clarifcation. I always plant a variety but just never knew the difference. good to now know. Would be useful to add this to in-game info too.

[Teralitha]

Could you survive on orchards and berries instead of grains? Wine instead of beer? No animals? Unarmed combat?

[hbrosmoe]

Brenden - the grain information is in the Help Files

Teralitha - I don't think you can, but feel free to prove me wrong. I always struggle to keep enough food for my villagers. NO single food source is adequate. In the earlier ages you are reliant on Hunting, Fishing, and Gathering for food. As you learn agriculture the focus shifts from Hunting to Farming to secure your food source.

Unarmed Combat - Poor Kung Fu Master found 4 spears and 8 arrows in his chest before he could get close enough to threaten the Raiders. Guess that answers that,.

[Teralitha]

Wouldnt the kungfu master simply dodge or catch them or use stealth to get close? Not a good analogy for you to use. Naturally armed is better than unarmed, but I was wondering if you could survive unarmed. I cant test these things myself I dont have the game.

[hbrosmoe]

Teralitha - the point would be that there is no "Kung Fu Master". These are cave men. I don't believe punching an animal will be effective. Besides, you can't control what a villager carries. One minute he's a farmer, then a fisher, then a Hunter, and later a carrier.

[abhi]

In the real world... nearly all beer is made from a mix of grains. Barley is usually the primary grain, but some of my favourites are almost entirely wheat. Some regions make beer from corn, though I've never tasted that.

Horses have long legs allowing them to move very fast over short distances, and they're stupid making them easier to train. That's about it for the advantages of horses, in just about every other way donkeys are the superior animal and are used for everything horses can do (except racing and warfare, both of which require speed above all else).

martiño - why have you set horses to live longer? In the wild they live the same amount of time, and in captivity a well cared for donkey will live much longer than a horse. 50 years is common for donkeys, but almost unheard of for horses. Also, donkeys are well known as being tougher and requiring less food — to me that suggests they should have more "health" in the game.

[Brenden]

abhi - not a beer drinker myself so wasn't aware you could make it from wheat! I've got sweet potato moonshine though which is amazing! Well worth a buy haha.

A few people have mentioned horses in various ways - mainly the ability to ride them. I do think this is something that should be looked again.

[martiño]

We will eventually revisit the whole horse/donkey thing, we wanted to differentiate somethow, but maybe we should just leave them as equivalent in the game.

[Dedicated86]

I figured horses might be faster pulling the carts, that would at least be a reason to upgrade.

[Valar Morghulis]

As far as things go currently, there's really no reason to use donkeys once you have a decent horse population. While diseases are a thing you should have to consider, I find that having 20 horses is a much safer bet than a combo of 10 donkeys and 10 horses. More might get sick, but the chance of them actually dying is already quite low, which means you'll recover from any hits you might take very fast.

[jwinter]

Originally posted by Brenden:

Thanks Martino for the clarifcation. I always plant a variety but just never knew the difference. good to now know. Would be useful to add this to in-game info too.

Check the ingame help the crop description is there but nearly nobody reads it based on the types of questions that pop up frequently.