Horse AI issues again

[Wurmhole 3,650]

I really want to do a free range horse pasture/farm, as it looks so nice, compared to individual tiny stalls.  Besides, moving through fence gates is miserable, when you add it the perma lag we have these days.

 

The concept has been working reasonably well until today, when nearly 40 horses are packed into 8 tiles in the NW corner and maybe 3 are out in the other 150+ tiles.

[marinethreeoseven 34]

yes i have also been having this issue but not just with horses its with all farm animals gather in one corner  and u lead them away and they just wander back to the same corner

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

You could put 1Q saddles on them all, then place them around the field "artistically". 

 

For this reason I have always wished we could put saddles on any tamed animal (but only VISIBLE on horses), for the function of making them not bunch up. 

Edited November 19, 2014 by Brash_Endeavors

[bwg 537]

I once heard from a renowned farmer that some animals (if not all creatures) tend to move away from settlements, so you may notice that they gather at the furthest point away from your token.

 

If this is indeed true then I'm not sure how it would be fixed server-side so that animals don't do this - aside from removing the feature altogether.

 

Of course this could be complete hogwash, but I believe it could be true! 

[Calisthra 59]

It would explain why all my horses bunch in both the open pens to the southeast... the token is northwest of that point.

But yeah, 48 tiles with 12 horses and it's not uncommon to find them all huddled on 3 tiles. The other 18 tile pen is a bit further away (both are on deed) and the 6 horses there are often on 2-3 tiles there.

 

A good fix for this would be to have the AI search for 'confinement conditions' especially when on deed. Where this is true the mob could be set to seek separation from other mobs. Yeah in theory it sounds easy enough and I realize the actual coding could be a challenge but hey, it's a goal worth putting up there. :-) If the RL argument wants a start

 

Or maybe it's time to start workin leather

[bwg 537]

Work the leather, saddles, job done.  At least as a work-around.

 

As I said I'm not privy to the workings and this is only word of mouth.  May or may not be true, but saddles will definitely help!

[marinethreeoseven 34]

the problem is mine  seem to go closer to my token they just gather in one spot?

[Wurmhole 3,650]

Brash, yes. I have been considering just that. Saddle up!

 

BWG, you just turned a big light bulb in my head.  Every deed I've had with horses seems to do jut that. furthest point available from token... this is fantastic info to work from, for creating pens in the future. Would be fun to make 4 small test deeds, all equadistant from eachother, then put horses in a pen in the middle and see if the clump to the center of that pen

[Planck 22]

As far as I've been able to tell, they mostly move away from people. I have a priest who spends a lot of time near an altar in the southeast, and they all congregate in the northwest. The token is to the northeast.

[Mordraug 2,542]

Bathe your priest -.-

 

One thing I've noticed is that the smaller the pen, the less they move around (as in times per hour), observed my critters quite a while when the AI went bust and I shifted them to a pair per 3x2.

 

Also, a pair in a 3x2 will occaaaaaasionally land both on the same tile, but hella rare, while if you throw a third one in, instant bunching.  That said, foals generally got weaned early, good thing they eat grass from day one on Wurm.