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A Friend Indeed

Named pets for your factory: a dog that mines, a cat that scavenges, a crow that picks things up, a turtle that takes the hits, a biter that fights and a capybara that makes friends.

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3 hours ago
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codytnewman
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0.3.1 (3 hours ago)
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A Friend Indeed

I was thinking the other day about what makes me happy. There was one thing that came to mind right away, without a single second of hesitation: my dog. Nothing else stood the test of not having any "but". I want to dedicate this mod to my little puppy and I hope it will become something that brings joy to you, the one reading this, as well.

The mod adds several animals, each having a unique role and ability, with the possibility to have up to 3 active pets at a time. Synergies, aka combining pets as a sort of "build" are planned for a later update.

The art/models are mostly going to be made by others, as while I can do some base geometry and make things that look alien and machine-like, as I did with Proliferation, making animals is still above my skill for now. Maybe later I can add my own, if I get the time to learn more complex modelling. Credits will be on the bottom of this document.

What you get

The dog. A few minutes after you start, a stray dog walks up and tames itself. It has a name that you can also choose, it follows you, it fights beside you, and when things are quiet it mines ore nearby and hands it over. Once you have a shelter, it now and then runs off for a while and comes back with a new friend of its own: another dog, a biter, a capybara or a turtle. If you've seen those videos about dogs bringing random stray animals to join "your pack", this is pretty much inspired by that. You're the one choosing if the stray joins you or leaves.

The cat. Drop some raw fish on the ground and wait. A stray cat will come and eat it. If you're lucky, it might choose to stay. It's a cat, you don't command it! It's the boss! Giving it some more fish might earn its favour. Once it chooses you as its servant, you may place it down near a cat bed, which might convince it to show you how to properly hunt for items (it will get you a random item after a configurable time, with a 60 second cooldown period). Not giving it a bed means it will honour you with its presence, luring biters away (it's faster than the smaller ones) for a few seconds, after which they continue what they were doing, and they stop bothering the cat (as they should!).

The biter. Of course your dog brings home your worst enemy! It's part of the pack now! And it's a very strong fighter. For now, this is the only pet with different skins (hopefully I will be able to change that soon). Pick one of twelve colours in the shelter.

The capybara. The king! Heals the soul and befriends everyone! Tends to form gangs of questionable fellows (any unit in the enemy force). It is immortal, even if downed, it gets back up. It heals the souls of whoever is nearby, including machine spirits (buildings). And after a cooldown, it also makes friends, up to 10, 1-5 at a time, if there are at least 10 enemies (or you feed it a treat). The capybara's friends will have a heart above them, so you know who is safe (unless you steal their leader!). There's a conversion ring visible before triggering the ability, along with a healing ring that shows when the king shares the healing with you. You might find the conversion does a sound that feels a bit familiar. Ok... I tried my best... I couldn't use that exact sound, so I did the voice acting and a bit of sound editing... Also, it's a bit slow, but it will try its best to catch up if it falls behind.

The crow. Crows like shiny things and are very smart (even if they don't yet show it in the mod). Drop a copper plate on the ground and wait, and with a little luck a stray will choose to stay with the one giving it "shiny". It just needs a bit of fishy persuasion to stay forever with you. It picks up whatever lies on the ground around you, even things you would not normally be able to pick up (like the drops of a Proliferation base that still has defenses...) and brings it to you. It flies, so water and walls don't stop it. It's smart enough not to challenge things that can eat it, so it won't pick a fight with them. When something hits it, it flies off.

The turtle. Slow and very hard to kill. It can save you from a tight spot, just make sure to bring it some medicine after you escape, because this unsung hero will sacrifice itself so you can run away, or shoot something that is not actively chasing you. While the cat is providing active distraction, the turtle is static distraction. It followed the dog, trying to bite its tail, the dog kept wagging it without realising until they got back home.

Every stray is tamed the same way, with fish. A stray you ignore (shame on you!) wanders off after about five minutes, so tame them before you lose them. Some are more rare than others.

Pets also show their names on the map, so you can actually spot them.

Treats

"Who wants a treat?" A lot of ears are currently pointed towards you, and the eyes are staring at you. A treat makes the pet have a surge of happiness and triggers its special ability RIGHT NOW! (if possible). You can give it to a pet directly, choosing which pet gets it, or consume it and it will be "eaten" by the nearest pet (within 15 tiles, or by none if there are no valid pets within 15 tiles).

  • The dog runs off at once to find more for the pack. It still needs a shelter to come home to, and only one dog runs at a time.
  • A cat that lives by a bed skips its rest and goes looking straight away. You bear gifts for your master! Your master is pleased! It will still take a while, but the cat leaves immediately to find something new. Normally, it waits 60 seconds.
  • The capybara makes friends with one to five biters around it on the spot, however few there are, if there's at least one and it doesn't have 10 in its gang. Hint: there's a secret related to this.
  • The biter goes into a rage for 30 seconds. It shrugs off almost all damage, hits harder and runs faster. Not really invincible, but close enough for a short while.
  • The crow brings YOU a shiny, a little copper coin. You can smelt it back into a copper plate for now. Later, I'm planning something a bit different as an alternative to smelting it.
  • The turtle hides in its shell for 30 seconds. Nothing hurts it in there, and every biter around comes for it. The ultimate static diversion, all targets should be easy pickings if you have the gun for it.

A pet only eats the treat if it can do something with it, so you never waste one. Once the effect is over, that pet wants no other treat for two minutes. Yeah, I know, my dog would have eaten the whole bag of treats, but we have to keep this a bit balanced, right?

A treat takes 50 raw fish. With Space Age you can also make one from 10 yumako and 10 jellynut. However, treats spoil after five minutes if you have Space Age, so make them when you need them.

The shelter and the rest

You can own as many pets as you like, with up to three active at a time. You can have as many copies of a single pet in your inventory, but only one of them can be active at a time. The pet shelter is the hub for all pets and their settings. Open it to rename them, pick a biter's colour, or take a pet as an item to carry in your pocket and summon again later. Right click on one of your own pets to pick it up. Pets in item form come with you in a rocket.

The cat bed is a chest for a cat's finds. Since the finds are random, you may have to clear it out pretty often and sort the things.

The whistle sends the nearest pet to fetch something, dig ore, break a tree or rock, or attack. Click one of your own pets with it to make it stay or follow, and a pet that is working stops and stays. It's a bit tricky to get the hang of it, but it should technically choose the best pet for an action (for example, clicking on ores will make a dog that you have active mine it, or clicking on an enemy will make a pet with combat abilities attack it).

If a pet dies it leaves a "sleeping pet" (body) where it fell, with its things inside. Throw medicine on the body, or put it in the body's inventory, and the pet gets up again with half hp. Medicine is raw fish and wood, and you can make it by hand. Throw it at a pet that is hurt but still standing and it heals half its health. If there's nothing to heal, you get the medicine back.

Your own guns, turrets and vehicles cannot hurt your pets, or any stray. Biters can. Bad biters! My dog would definitely bite them back! Or not, my dog is completely incapable of hurting any other living thing, except me, because I can't get out of bed due to her sleeping on me... Such is life...

Research

  • Pet shelter and medicine, red science.
  • Cat bed, red and green.
  • Whistle and treats, red, green and blue.

The first dog needs no research.

Custom commands

/afi-run [optional type parameter] triggers a dog's "run off" ability to bring back a friend instantly, without the need for a treat. Currently, the supported types are "dog", "capybara", "turtle", "biter".

Settings

Under Settings, Mod settings, Map, you can change these timers at any time, even in a running game (all in minutes):

  • Shortest and longest cat trip: a cat on a find is away for a random time between the two. 1.5 and 4 by default.
  • First dog arrives after: how long after you first appear the stray dog walks up. 3 by default.
  • Shortest and longest time between dog runs: once you have a shelter, a following dog runs off at a random time between the two. 60 and 180 by default.

Under Settings, Mod settings, Startup, you can make each pet tougher or weaker. These need a restart:

  • Health multiplier for the dog, cat, biter, crow and turtle.
  • Damage multiplier for the dog, cat, biter and crow (the turtle never bites).
  • Speed multiplier for every pet.

1 is the normal amount. The capybara only has a speed multiplier, since nothing can hurt it and it never fights.

Credits

The capybara, crow and turtle are based on these models, used under their licences:

The dog (Shiba Inu, from the Ultimate Animated Animal Pack) and the cat (from Animal Pack Vol.2) are by Quaternius, released as CC0. Thank you, Quaternius.

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