Dallane wrote:I think training your dog to make it better would be more interesting than doing the breeding waiting game.
Yeah, that.
Was thinking of something like making dogs similar to pilgrims.
As in you get a pricy dog from IOUs/npc stall and it stays your companion untill it permadies. Can't breed them, or even if you can, it should be 1-2 puppies over a long period of time for selling purpose or to share with your townmates.
Dogs have stats similar to biles, but only two of them. One is blood or %other name% analogue of hp and the other something between phlegm and YB. First one works same as blood, the other one allows dog to perform tricks, affects it's attack, and basically is responsible for most of the tasks.
Initially you get 50-100 points in each, but can raise it in a dog gluttony mod, same as pilgrims, but with limited variety of dog food to slow down the process.
And of course there are dog bowls of different size that work as a feasting table.
Also would need a small skill tree with new attacks and functions. Learning skills depends on training, playing, passive gain from activities and treats.
Main purpose of dogs is hunting, and they would attack animals you are in combat with. However they would not only take regular damage, but, let's say, 10% or received damage would go permanent. And of course your dog can permadie. That's why you don't want to hunt bears with young puppy.
The other dangers for dogs are disease, being stolen by other players, being killed by other players and becoming a stray dog if left unattended for too long.
If you steal someone elses dog though, you can't just make it your own, you would need to put time and effort to make it forget it's former owner and start serving you.
A freshly spawned puppy is equally friendly to everyone and you can easilly steal it, but with each played game or recieved treat dog gets points of affection towards characters taking care of it. If you just stole this dog your points would be at 0 and points of it's previous master will be the higher the more this dog lived and the more often it was getting attention. With low to medium difference in points, dog just won't obey your orders and would break a leash sometimes. But if the difference is high, it can become hostile towards you. That means biting when fed, barking to cause fear and even starting combat.
Abandoned stray dogs would become hostile towards everyone.
Besides hunting, another useful function for dogs is searching for bones. When left unleashed and in a good mood, dog would run around your town and dig up random spots with a chance of digging up a bone. Bones would be stored in a dog house untill you are there to pick them up. Bones are useful, everyone would love some free bones. No terraforming is done by digging. But if dog can access your planted fields and there are no scarecrows, it can result in plenty dropped.
Mind you this is idea just off the top of my head and it is not well thought, so likely has some huge gaps and potential exploits.