a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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So, there's not really a whole lot dogs can do right now, but what if we used them to solve some problems? I think dogs have the potential to be in-game anti-griefing tools, and on top of that, a defense against invasions from hostile families. Here are some ideas.
Tracking Dogs
It's a hassle to search for items hidden in the wilderness by griefers and near impossible to see if they drop them behind trees. But what if it was possible to track items? I think this could be a good use for dogs. Train the dog through some item (maybe if we could craft dog bones out of sheep skeletons?), then give them a search command. Not sure if it would work better for the dog to be able to search for specific items, or maybe they could just find the closest manmade item in a specific tile range. This would obviously only be useful relatively further from town. This could also obviously be used to steal items. Someone could defend against this by dropping items they don't want to throw off the tracking dog.
Guard Dogs
I suggested this one in another thread. It would be useful to have the ability to train dogs to defend the town from dangerous animals and hostile non-family. Guard dogs could be stationed at the outside perimeter of a town, and if a dangerous animal or non-family member got within range they'd start barking. If the threat got close enough they'd attack. This would hopefully also make it easier to defend against griefers luring bears into town, rogue boars suddenly running into the town's swamp biome border etc. They should only attack the humans wielding weapons, because we don't want to automatically kill peaceful people, but the barking would notify the town that there was something going on and that they should check it out.
Self-Defense/Companion Dogs
What if dogs could become loyal to their specific human and follow them around, maybe have a pack to carry items, and if trained, were able to attack things that can attack their human? I don't think it's a good idea right now for them to be able to attack other humans on command, but if their owner was attacked, the dog could start chasing the thing that harmed its human, not stopping until it caught up and bit the attacker, the attacker was forced to flee, or a set period of time passed.
These would be more for individual defense than the whole town. Possibly make it so this type of dog can’t be used while also holding swords, so they become a self defense tool for a weaponless person, rather than an attack dog that can be unleashed on an unsuspecting town. There’s also a danger that these could be used by griefers to stop people from killing them when they steal items and sabotage towns, and for this reason the dogs should be killable, only chase the individual who harmed its owner, and stop trying to attack after a set period time.
Some other possible safeguards: Maybe give dog bites a 50% chance of killing rather than 100%. Only one of this type of dog can be bonded to a person at a time and if its owner dies it can bond with another person. Possibly allow people to name another person as the dog’s second owner, so when the first person dies the dog becomes loyal to their second owner and starts protecting them instead. To make it so people can’t kill someone and then simply steal their dog by bonding with it, when a dog’s sole owner is dies and its time to attack is up it should return to its owner’s location, which is more likely to be by the person’s family.
Yeah, this is the type of dog I’m most shaky on. Without careful balancing, these self-defense/companion dogs could become griefing tools rather than anti-griefing ones, so it would be really important to have some safety checks in place if these existed. I like the idea though, they could end up being a deterrent to violence in cities and a way to defend explorers from dangerous wildlife in the wilderness.
Hunting Dogs
This one isn't my idea. This was a topic on the onelifesuggestions sub. Wouldn’t have any defensive purpose but thought I’d mention it since I’m on the topic of dogs anyway. These would be a quicker way to hunt rabbits from rabbit holes and geese from ponds. The player leads the dog on some type of leash, then clicks a rabbit hole and immediately gets a rabbit without the wait. Same with goose ponds.
I don't know dog breeds well enough to know which breeds should be trainable in which skills, but I think an expansion of dogs' uses like this would open up a lot of possibilities. Thoughts?
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Just wanted to add that it would be great if tracking dogs could be used to search for natural resources as well. If you wanted to find ponds or iron or some rare item, or if well sites ever became random instead of being in a grid, you could have your dog lead you to it.
Looking back, a lot of this could end up turning into a complicated command system if dogs were allowed to do too many things, and I don't know how to resolve that besides making different breeds of dogs able to do different things. But I just think dogs could be so helpful and having practical uses for them would bring a lot of life to the game. It would be incredible if dogs were as important to the survival of a village as sheep or cows, and if OHOL permanently shifts to more fighting between towns, dogs could fill a niche for defensive play without breaking immersion.
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