Sheaperding

[grenkar]

I would be most content if I were able to purchase a flock of sheep and travel the countryside of Yliakum finding them fields to graze in and watering holes to drink at.  I think that I would even be benificial to create a new skill for it.  If there were a skill for sheaperding, perhaps you would have to train a level before you could make a sheep follow you.  As you progress further perhaps you could learn how to tend to a pregnant ewe or shear your sheep to sell their wool to a textile merchant.  Indeed this would also create the source of a textile industry with weaving and sewing.

I imagine that each individual sheep could work like a familiar.

I just thought it would be a very nice aspect/proffession for Plane Shift to have.  Of course, it wouldn't neccessarily have to be sheep you were herding.  It could be any sort of animal that might be found in Yliakum, as long as it's not something to farfetched.  I certainly wouldn't want to be a trepor herder, that would just be weird.

[sangrouge]

i like the idea... But the way is long to get to that results...

I personnaly want to grow an army of samourai clackers !

[dying_inside]

Its a nice idea... Apart from the fdct that we wont have sheep I dont think.

And I'm not sure about the idea of walking around town when suddenly a mass of players with twenty sheep storm into the plazaa, creating hellish lag.

[Under the moon]

Most lag is caused by your own computer, I have found.

Also, if there are to be no sheep, you can always shepherd Sheeples.

I do like the idea of advanced farming. There is a reason why Harvest Moon is a uniquely popular game. Toss in monsters attacking the farm, and this sounds like fun.

[zanzibar]

I know that certain dyes come from insects... and we know that clackers give meat.  I'm sure that other parts of them can be used as components of tools or other domestic items.  They probably wouldn't make a good army, but it would make sense that there's an NPC somewhere raising a herd of clackers.

[Homik]

I do like the idea of advanced farming. There is a reason why Harvest Moon is a uniquely popular game. Toss in monsters attacking the farm, and this sounds like fun.

Unfortunately harvest moon was a fun game. It was lacking the 'oh my god, theres a monster eating my cow!' or 'my barn is on fire!' I blame that on game cube.

Farming and things attacking your heard sounds like fun! 

[steuben]

* steuben has a vision of uber herding 

[dying_inside]

Thats correct. lag is generated by your own computer and how many polygons and effects etc it can handle at once.
You really want to  try and get through hydlaa plazaa with 50+ players  and at least ten of them is busy tending to a flock of sheep.
A bunch of players are casting a bunch of spells so theres alot of particle movment etc, and others are just running around insanly.

My compter can deal with the players and alot of monsters etc, but i;m not sure about herding mass amounts of sheep, by lots pof playera in an already latency generating area.

And I have a decent computer, so as alot of people dont have that type of power then I'm not sure  it would work too well.

[Kiraki]

I don’t think animals where meant to be hoarded into a town for any reason whatsoever.  It is not a place meant for animals to go running about.
I like the idea of herding though, but the animals would have to be restricted to specific areas, preferably large open areas away from cities. When a herder wants to come into town or do something other than watch his flock he would have to risk leaving them there (If they get restricted to certain areas they wont follow him beyond a certain point) or find another herder to keep an eye on them for him. There might be the safer option of using sheds or paddocks. There could be large community paddocks or smaller more private ones perhaps owned by farmers.
Naturally there will have to be a way for farmers to recognize there flocks are there flocks to recognize him/her.  Each farmer could have a flute or something similar specifically crafted for him to which only his flock reacts.  The only way to steel the animals would then be to steel the flute as they will not willingly follow strangers. 
Different herds can be used for all kinds of resources. There can be a large variety in tamable creatures as well as different levels of difficulty for each type of creature – the level becoming higher the more valuable or rare the creature is.

[Nikodemus]

You are wrong Kiraki. It is completly normal people take their cows, sheeps, horses and such to towns Mostly to sell them i gues.
But more on topic. it isn't normal to have your own single sheep or somethink, which walks behind you all the time and you can take its wool from time to time. Such things are hapening on farms and people keep animals in herds.
So i'm against having your own cute sheep which love you to deatch and bla bla bla

[Kiraki]

No Nikodemus, I am not wrong since I did not state anything factual. I simply said that is what I think, implying that it is my opinion as how I feel about having a herd of animals in a town.
(When a herd of cattle comes into town during the night there is much damage the following morning.  Gardens are ruined, paths are trampled, and generally everything in their way is flattened and all that is left is a huge amount of dung.  Even when they are herded through town by people they always leave mess behind and there is always a stray that gets away to go and ruin someones porch or fence or go poke a horn through a window - This is just one of the reason why, in my opinion, it is best not to have animal herds in towns.)

I know that people take their animals into town, especially if you think of a medieval setting, but with big towns that have stone roads and such I am sure you can imagine the mess and chaos this would cause -  areas with dirt roads would be ruined.  Even back then in the more organized cities large hoards where kept outside the city and there where usually specific areas where herds where taken to be sold.  Only single or small animals where taken into the central area of a town and these where usually in cages or on carts.

You are wrong however in saying that it is not normal in having your very own sheep or animal following you around to take resources from now and then.  This just so happen to be a very common practice in some of the smaller communities around my home town and it is not a strange site to see a kid running around with some or other farm animal on a piece of rope or even seeing one or two goats in a pen outside a hut as this is often a source of milk.  And yes, sometimes even a lone little sheep.

[Nikodemus]

Erm ok, I missed the herd word ;P
yeah, for a change, you are right ;P (it is just i dont say this often )

Oh, i know kids like to make their pets of smaller animals. It is just hard for me to imagine a full age man doing this and for addition taking the wool and all what the animal may offer.
Maybe i have see not enough

[The Shadow Nose]

On idea that I think would be nice. If there was a "Spawn monster" spell

basically, cast a spell and then make a rat, Tefusang, Clacker, Trepor or whatever appear just a few feet from you. Doesn't matter if it's friendly or not, just being able to create something like that would be nice.


Imagine this, a mage can summon rats by using MP, a sizable amount so you can't summon a rat every 5 seconds but enough where a high-level character could create about 2 or 3 before having to recharge . These are just regular rats and anyone can kill them with little trouble. Then they can summon them near some new players so the new players can practice on them. If they summon a rat in town, its only natural that someone will kill it in a short time so it won't cause too much lag if lots of people summon rats. The rats will just get killed off. These rats would also have lootable items on them, it would be nothing major and a bit more interesting than just standing in the sewers waiting for rats to spawn naturally.


More powerful monsters might be spawned but they would need more MP, higher levels, and perhaps use up some sort of material. Like to spawn Tefusangs you use up Tefusang Hides, or bits of coal or something.


I know its not really shepherding, but it would supply a way to create creatures to butcher, could be more fun than constantly camping the naturally occuring spawn points. Also it could provide a way for some of them more evil players to cause a bit of RP havok, since monsters can attack players regardless of the "No RvP" option. If wouldn't be too disruptive if the monster once spawned acted just like a regularly spawned monster [i.e. it sits there until someone attacks it, so the caster can't command it to target players. Though with weak rats it shouldn't matter since anyone can kill them]


Anway, thats one idea. I don't think any other MMORPGs allow players to spawn monsters.  As far as the herding aspect, if there was a /follow feature, and items like "Rat shepherding staff" or "Clacker shepherding staff" which allows players to make those specific monsters follow them it could work out. Naturally, you don't want staffs that let people lead away all the trepors and rogues and stuff that people use to kill and get xp from. Or lead Ulbernaughts into town with.

[Karyuu]

...Oh yes. Let's create a spell to help mages help powerleveling in the game   Because clearly spawning a monster only to have someone kill it is a worthy effort for someone who has devoted much time and effort to their studies. I am sure that they would be absolutely delighted to use their energies to "spawn" monsters that people can simply go find on their own. Because killing is important, and we need to let people do it as fast as possible and as much as possible.

Harmless sarcasm may be involved.

Seriously though, that's a really "out there" idea. I don't like it at all.

[Gondric]

skipped the last 5-ish posts but u could always reduce the number of "sheep" like say in real life ud have 10 but in game u have 1.
so its like 5 sheep would be a rich shepered of somthing like that