Cleaning Animal Pens

[Marcuson]

Currently, small animal sheds for goats and sheep become dirty faster than hutches, where squirrels are kept. (I haven't checked if this is also true for large animal sheds or coops.) And, yes, I recognize that goats and sheep are bigger than squirrels, but the relative sizes of the pens still don't reflect, in my opinion, a proportional increase in dirtiness. I can clean out the small animal sheds in the morning, and they'll be extremely filthy by that evening, whereas the hutches seem much slower to accumulate filth.

In addition, I would suggest that if cleaning animal pens gave a tiny amount of experience to people with Animal Husbandry skill, that would probably take the sting out of the time and effort it takes to keep those shelters clean. That experience for cleaning pens would offer people who keep chickens some Animal Husbandry training as well, since they otherwise cannot obtain any.

[tulpa]

I've also noticed this vs. coops, though I'm actually unsure what the difference would be if I cleaned out the small shed more than once daily.

My large shed, on the other hand, doesn't seem to get dirty at all, though it has eight cows in it. Another player has suggested this might be because it's a relatively new construction. Small sheds are just super dirty though, regardless of how long they've been around.

[Rokal]

I have 3 sheds. 2 small, 1 large on my farmer char. All of them are at max occupancy

And 3 hutches, at max occupancy.

I have to, roughly, clean them three times a day, where they'll all reach extremely filthy three times. The sheds progress the fastest.

I geniuinly think its way to frequent, personally. When a farm gets as large as Allies (the max possible size of 160 plots right now), between crops, and animals, its a geniue effort to keep everything in check, and while i get that a big farm should have more work, the effort of cleaning out the sheds is perhaps the least thrilling of these tasks.

[Taliaferro]

From a simulationist rather than a gamist perspective, for what it's worth, that definitely seems excessive! In real life I've only ever mucked out horses' stalls and one goat pen, but I sure never did it more than once a day.

Also, consider: it takes a few minutes in the game to tan a hide, while it takes, what? Months? To do it in real life. Also, crops! Also, etc., etc., etc.

I have no idea how this all works out in game-balance terms and effort-vs.-reward considerations, mind you!