Horses and Other Domesticated Animals

I have no 'inside knowledge' about development, but summarizing what appeared here and there in these fora, more animals seem definitely on the way.

Riding animals has also been spoken of, but I got the (rather vague) impression that it is going to happen after some other transportation mean (boats?), apparently for technical reasons.

Taming has not been spoken of by any "usually well informed" source yet, but who knows...

Having pets is something, I believe, Red51 is highly eager in doing. I could be wrong, yet I believe he wanted to give us something overly basic to buddy us up with, or it just might be my bias in wanting some NPC companions to join us overriding whatever Red51 said. Every command would be kept RPG basic (think those old Pokemon type games, or 'Timber & Stone' AI logic). It be neat with what you're mentioning as it would allow your pet & human companions wander around on their own. I would love to tame an arctic fox to be my cute little pet. Maybe even finding the odd items in the scenery handing it to you, or yelping to gain your attention to certain 'attractive' points of interest, if Red51 allows it in his coding.

Animal hearding & breeding is planned, yet struggling to reach because of biome & water updates holding everything back. We're going to eventually breed cows, pigs, and the like once dungeons end up being worked on to contain entities within structure points. The hostile entities in Dungeons need to be contained because entities currently can walk through walls, fences, and solid objects. Once that happens we'll likely see some little teasers of breeding & farming then. Maybe even getting a nice update just for it after that also. That be awesome.

As for riding & mounting we'll be getting horses & camels first (hoping for mountable moose & elephants), & boats. Vehicles, trains, and anything mechanized MUCH later down the line. Basic first, complex later. We'll be able to customize the horses with various accessories, armour, and such, or so was the plan. Similar with the camel. We're however waiting on the player models & animations to get these horses & camels in the game. Likewise with boats. Just waiting on the player models & animations. I really need a horse & boat entity to travel this vast world. I wish I knew what type of boat it was, yet I guess Red51 fears me harassing him some more

I'm sure there was a cooking update also, just that slipped away with the priority of water & biomes. We needed more biomes to be entertained with so that may come along with the 'cooking table' you speak of. The ability to make cooked potatoes, pizza, sushi, poutine, coffee, tea, and all sorts of goodies. I would welcome a table just for food types though, even a kitchen decorative type. Something immersive. Would also love the detailed take into 'butter churners', among many others. Whatever furniture you need to cooking would be much welcomed to encourage people to make buildings for them, and such. Factories, and the like.

If you're curious, fishing is also on the way while being tied with the player model & animations update. I can't wait for that. That's going to be a big one with horses, boats, fishing, & such, or from the way it was mentioned.

I have also wished for NPC companions as you @ArcticuKitsu I see you in your suggestions are somewhat similar in many things to mine. Of course great minds think alike but so do fan boys lol. I have a wish for horses as well but NPC companions would be setting it apart from Minecraft which is a good thing. I don't mind having horses, dogs too but I played many games 'Elder scrolls' with companions has been player mod since it's existed this one of first things that we try to do is have an NPC character helper which we boss that NPC around. It's fun to have in game to have these. Yes. I know someone wants a dog or a cat or whatever else as animal companion but I always enjoyed giving my NPC a name, task, and gear. Even if the NPC does nothing for fighting or even nothing other than follow you and you put inventory in the NPC that is better than a dog. Fact is a humanoid NPC can set the tone for your experience in game, I love to have many in my town a list of custom NPCs to spawn in my town even if I had to use ingame a pile of gold / silver to place an NPC in my castle. Even if that NPC doesn't don't do anything. It fill up my empty castle with peasants, knights, ladies, servants. Giving life to my world that even a whole pack of dogs couldn't do as much as one human NPC could. Especially if you had custom spawns for humanoids of Elves, dwarfs, trolls, aliens, robots or would you prefer a dog. I think given the fact that our avatar will have some ability to change clothes or appearance would stand to reason those same things could apply to an NPC we load, it also could take the same animations / AI that the monsters (pathing->finding a shortest path to player/attacking -> range / close /picking up items dropped/ various - animations) will have so it might improve the game overall just having an AI for NPCs.

Horses being a big thing for me, for obvious & repeated reason. Hoping for great customization abilities for them.

And glad more of us seeking NPC buddies that we keep bringing up Skyrim in comparion. That's similar to what I'm seeking that I want them to join me for when my friends can't to push away the eerieness of the world, to help me fight (yet only fight when told to - Normal, defensive, & passive) that they'd be a great help. Whatever you give them, or recruit them with their own stuff, they'll use it normally. They would follow you, stay put, tend to basic mining, farming, or even wood chopping. Just the basic stuff. That, and probably even tending to their own hunger & thirst needs. Giving them their own bed, storage chest, and such to pull from. I still strongly feel the desire to customize them that I want to have an anime styled fox partner (avatar) that this game would further win higher points. That, and they would be valuable entities for holding onto torches & ores I dig up that they should point where I"m digging with flashlights. Imagine them being your light holder & ore gatherers. Maybe not mining themselves, just pointing the light where your pickaxe points to & holding all the ores you pick up.

But then there's also what you mentioned of simply populating the world. That's something I would do. I'm still waiting for both the game to mature & for NPC Traders & NPCs themselves to go crazy with building. To finally build my 'Arcticu Empire' to make my full mark in the world. I however have to wait a long while for this game to mature.

I don't mind if I, at the very least, get an arctic fox pet. Nothing special, just an ability to tame an arctic fox by having it told to follow you or not, and to just hang around an area without teleporting. Having it curl up when sleeping, feeding it, and such. Not die, but just fade out & back in because death of pets would be brutal in this game. People would grief-kill pets to be the idiots that they are. That, and if in a bonus to have them find various things for you that they would either point or gather small items of interest for you.

If this game had Elves I would use it to nudge one of my stubborn buddies into this game by making & showing images of light & dark skinned elves. Even one from the anime 'Gate'.

http://gate-thus-the-jsdf-foug…kia.com/wiki/Yao_Ro_Dushi <-- This is up to Red or the modders if they shall be in or not. Once this game matures I'm sure someone would make a similar mod to this game to how Twilight Forest was to Minecraft to handle both the 'Gate' Anime & the way 'Elves would pop in & such. That be amusing. There's so much potential with this game

Yes, Horses are pretty nice been used for work, fighting thousands of years. I like the way Horses worked in Elder Scrolls first in Oblivion as expansion pack with some armor and various other things as well. IMO I don't know how you can compare them to NPC. Since NPC could possible do everything you can but horse would look funny using elevators, mining rocks, working on machines. However I am sure horses will be in the game I don't see why it's not already in the game other than Red51 maybe didn't want a firestorm of people asking him to let us RIDE the horse now! now! now! ... But once you get horse ride-able I don't see why not other animals just put a seat position on back of animal and let all the people go crazy riding elephants, tigers and bears lol.

Surely there's a lot to do for this game yet.

Especially in Animal mechanics in general
(no breeding/babies, no fence aka pens, no way to stop an animal's motion, no method of capture, lack of interaction between species, invisible spawns on servers, not much of AI other than three standard simple modes - [aggressive run at, neutral->aggressive, flee]) Of course riding neutral animals such as a horse has nothing to do with AI or any other things mentioned since it could be as simple as hit 'E' or 'F' <use key> when next to animal holding a saddle it puts on animal and now you ride it.

I don't know what the update for tomorrow is? I guess bug fixes.

Fan boy? There are no fan boys here to speak of. never in a respectable community like his!

There has been a horse model floating around in the game files for a month or so now but its not spawnable yet. There's probably some additional code changes or animations needed to make it work. Also, I think Red hinted at wanting to bundle a saddle with the horse update because it just seems natural that we ride horses once they are added. I'm not sure when this is going to be released. I suspect its going to be part of the player model update since it has alot of new animations for all tools and weapons and utilities. The horse animations from player perspective are probably dependant on the new player animations, same with the new boat model.

I doubt if we will see any taming system yet. There's some kind of animal AI update planned which will fix lots of the crazy bugs like flying pigs. Perhap a proper taming system will come bundled with that. For now I suspect that when the horse comes, we will simply plop the saddle on and start riding. Its' a start.

I'm not? And ya, horses been used for absolutely everything that they have nice accessories made from them from one civilization to the next. It's awesome. Shared a head mask I'd love Red51 to look into whenever he has the time for it.

I"m sure horses been used in combination with elevators when mining. Maybe on ships, or even various mines, but ya. The rest would be minecarts there. And now you're being silly reading what I wrote as if they would act as humans. That should be left for humanoid NPCS. And i'm not even comparing them to NPCs, just saying I'm desiring horses heavily.

I"m obviously going to wait for horses when the player models shall wait. I can't push Red or else we'll have swimming upside down horses drowning you on land, or some silly traditional glitch like that. Riding a Moose makes sense, as with Oxen, & Elepehants. I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to. It's all for fun. Mod should do the rest. The bit you mentioned about breeding is what I noted also that from what was mentioned that dungeons shall contain the entities so shall benefit farming also. That, and I agree that animals need to be given various preset behaviors of behavior & percentages of when they attack & not. Shall be fun when Red51 considers doing an animal update or similar.

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And because Zork posted before I could:

Loving how horses have been modeled up, something you keep mentioning that I love hearing. Can't wait for the player model & animation update knowing that. And it does sound natural to have a saddle hook up to the horses because you do need to ride them, yet you could always stand-ride them without a saddle. Because I'm being spoiled by this game I'd love to see various styles of saddles to use so we can have our fun & joy riding our horses in that personalized manner heh.

Guess I'll just nod to the last bit Zork also said. The bit about AI being updated & given the basics to a horse. The bit I'm curious about is if I have to now go to new chunks to find them (the irony in distance), or if it can be made to have horses phase in and out of map at random. I guess I'll have to hunt them down by walking for very long distances.