Pigs are unbalanced!

@kumokiri
They are more worth than chickens, so the extra care you have to take is in line with that IMO. Just as snakes are a bit more difficult to handle.

I always hunted for pigs after I got the rest or grabbed pigs at an island close to the Outpost it needed delivered to. If I had to do a bunch, I just made more trips.

When it comes to pigs you have to be mindful of everything you do. Even jumping scares them and makes them hungry. Keep all your pigs in a rowboat incase you get into a fight with something, that way you can drop them at the first sign if danger, when looking for more pigs only use small islands, you can circle the medium islands checking the shores but going inland for too long and your pigs will starve.

When pigs are on board, DO NOT TOUCH the jump button. Even just.ping off the ship too close to the pigs can scare them. If they're at the back on the ship use the ladder or jump from the front.

Ugh, pigs. Like, I get it, why they need maintenance, but they are the bane of my existence

@schwammlgott said in Pigs are unbalanced!:

@kumokiri sagte in Pigs are unbalanced!:

I would happily do more merchant quests if the pigs didn't die from lack of feeding.
I get it that you need to keep the plants watered, the cloth dry, the rum bottles unbroken.
But if you fail at these you can still cash them in for a lesser value.

If the pigs die you get nothing.

That's wrong...you still got the cage and you can catch another one

And you get some pork as well.

Feed them pork chops instead 😈

Now I don't mind the micro management of watering/keeping dry/carefully

So a plant can die, bottles can break or cloth can get wet. But pigs starving, that what you don’t like managing?
And mind you, pigs can be replaced…unlike the other three.

I like that everyone is just explaining best tactics for catching and maintaining pigs as though those suggestions aren't INSANELY OBVIOUS to anyone other than a new player.

OP's request is actually not unreasonable. They are the only type of fauna that requires actual maintenance or it dies and loses 100% of its value.

In fact, I really like the suggestion of "Keep the feeding in just made the pigs get fatter or thinner as a gold +/- akin to the rum/plants and cloth." I'd opt for that alternative instead of just "no maintenance."

That being said, I don't think that's the reason that very few players actually focus on those voyages. I think the real reason is that they are incredibly tedious and provide no reward at the end of the tunnel. Aside from silly titles, there are zero cosmetic rewards for Merchant of the Wild Hog, Merchant of the Dawn Caller, Merchant of the Serpent's Scale, Merchant of Grand Fauna (which is what the Golden Gatherer Merchant Sails SHOULD have been awarded for), or Legendary Merchant of Fauna.

For something so tedious and that has been in the game for this long, surely there could be some neat cosmetics tied to them? A chicken figurehead? A Pig Figurehead? A Snake Figurehead? How hard would those be?

@wolfmanbush said in Pigs are unbalanced!:

make it all more appealing and less annoying imo

almost nobody does it and it's been that way a long time, dead content doesn't really serve anyone

your point is valid but I'd approach it in a more - save the whole dang thang- kind of way.

Get some people out there catching some animals again.

So true. I would love to see some generic cosmetics tied to the completion of those commendations.

Merchant of the Wild Hog = Pig Figurehead
Merchant of the Dawn Caller = Chicken Figurehead
Merchant of the Serpent's Scale = Snake Figurehead
Merchant of Grand Fauna = Figurehead with all 3 similar to the Golden Gatherer Sails
Legendary Merchant of Fauna = GOLDEN version of the above mentioned figurehead

No brainer.

@burnbacon well yes, because the others can be left alone on a ship, set up in a way that the plants are watered the cloth is dry and the bottles aren't getting damaged whilst you go off chasing chickens etc....but the pigs will starve if left. There is no way of managing it other than constantly returning/taking them with you, making them more of a burden than he others and they need to be. Thus making a tedious voyage even more tedious.

I can get behind what @SweetSandMan is talking about, in part what the OP is talking about.

Rather than them dying, I could see a fattening system be cool where the value shifts based on how well fed the thing is kept. This could be on a basis of 2 Minutes per Tier dropped. I would also have a pig start at Tier 3 when first captured so you are encouraged to feed it right away.

To not be cheeseable though I would say that every time the Pig gets to Tier 1 (Starving) it would prevent a higher Tier from being reached (using 5 Tiers say it hits Tier 1 the highest it can get now is Tier 4, happens again Tier 3 is now the cap). I'd also set an interval of time for staying at Tier 1 where it further reduces the top Tier (say, 30 seconds). So now, say you get a Pig and fatten it up from the Base Tier 3 to the max Tier 5 and then let it hit Tier 1 (8 minutes of not feeding), and it stays there for a full minute before you feed it again (total of 9 minutes without feeding), your new max Tier is now Tier 2 (-1 for hitting Tier 1, -2 for sitting 2 intervals at Tier 1, total of -3 from total of Tier 5 is Tier 2).

This keeps it in line with the fact that you can't really restore damaged Cargo, and it prevents just getting a Pig and only feeding it once you reach the Outpost. So it also maintains the gimmick of "pigs are pigs" and you need to feed them as such (which gives them a niche among the other animals, Chicken is easy just get it and set it anywhere, Snakes you need to keep out of the way or be poisoned walking around or have to play music to pacify, pigs require lots of attention).

Additionally I remain all for adding Cosmetics to existing Commendation grinds. So having those added rewards mentioned would be pretty idea to me and they fit the theme of the Commendations very well.

@wolfmanbush I agree. Variety is the spice of life.
I would love to come across more merchant ships loaded up with animals and cargo as opposed to the usual meta of players just stacking chests on top of each other at the front.
Heck I would like to occasionally rock an ark myself to liven up the ship, but due to the fact its annoying and I have no incentive anymore, it has become a dead feature like you say.

Cosmetics would help a lot as always.

@lem0n-curry As a day one player, I didn't even get that when I was wrangling pigs! 🤣

@sweetsandman YES PLEASE!
I would Deffo rock a giant chicken figure head and name my ship the great Gonzo.

@kumokiri

I have all the PL commendations that wants you to sell like 500 skulls, 500 chests and 500 cargo stuff etc...; the only one of those PL commendations I still haven't completed is to deliver animals as a PL. I'm at 6/500, I currently have no intention to complete it and it's not because pigs die of hunger.

@galactic-geek said in Pigs are unbalanced!:

@kumokiri said in Pigs are unbalanced!:

@sweetsandman YES PLEASE!
I would Deffo rock a giant chicken figure head and name my ship the great Gonzo.

We already have a chicken figurehead.

???? We do? Which one?

I was thinking something simplistic, somewhat comical and universal like the Figurehead of the First Crew.

@galactic-geek said in Pigs are unbalanced!:

As is now, you only need to feed them occasionally (usually every 5 minutes or so) in order to keep them satisfied. Any food will do, so go to town with those cheap bananas!

Your idea would make it even more tedious, because then we would have to feed it more frequently and waste more food. Also, fatter pigs won't fit in their cage - they already barely fit as is.

I think just extending the hungry period would help to Make pig transporting less of a pain. Things like excessive emergent threats on islands as well as infinite black screens leads to far too many pig deaths, and frustration.

@galactic-geek said in Pigs are unbalanced!:

We already have a chicken figurehead.

As far as I can tell, we have a phoenix, a Griffin and an Eagle figurehead. But no chicken. Unless I'm mistaken.

@galactic-geek said in Pigs are unbalanced!:

@sailorkek said in Pigs are unbalanced!:

Scaring them doesn't make them hungrier. Nothing does, in fact, except for time.

You sure about that?