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Suggestions / Re: Disease, pests, and the joy of cats
« on: October 04, 2017, 03:38:55 AM »I think there was another kind of rat (black?) in the area before the brown rat invaded and took over that niche. Regardless, there are smaller rodents (mice, voles, etc.) that can make cause serious damage to your food stores even if rats are not introduced.
I agree cats probably have no role in the northern tribes as those don't have any agriculture (although that doesn't stop those villages from having farmers...).
I'm not sure I agree with the thought that cats would have a role in fighting disease, but they certainly ought to have one in fighting vermin munching through your food stores.
As a trade off, a cat at your homestead might mean small traps near it are less likely to catch anything, as the cat(s) scare them away (and the blood thirsty critters may also kill or mutilate creatures that actually are trapped).
Yea the disease thing is a good point. Does the game have the plague yet? We could go one step further and introduce fleas hah.
I really like the idea of pests eating stores in general. It would be a check against the increasingly huge pile of food we keep in our cellars.
As for a game dynamic... vermin could be represented as more of a swarm, "It's several mice", though that might not model into the game well. If rats are applicable though, I think they could be represented singularly, like ermines and their ilk, and could stand in for all vermin activity. And certain kinds of terrain, including building walls, could be places they disappear into, similar to seals and beavers going under water. It'd certainly make a cat more necessary.