Birdwatching

Have a new general feature to suggest, or think one should be tweaked? Share your ideas here.
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tulpa
Posts: 118
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2021 5:00 am

Birdwatching

Post by tulpa »

The recent changes to beekeeping and the addition of flowers spurred this random suggestion. I'd like to see more wild (non-combat) birds to go with the bees!

I'm not sure it would be quite right for farms, but until we have our own player housing, hopefully with garden spaces (?), it'd be fun if we could use some plots to attract avian visitors and help them to sustain themselves over winter.

With a bird-feeder in the room stocked with birdfeed (seeds, lumps of animal fat, pine-nuts) players can use the action BIRDWATCH to observe a while. This is a silently repeating action a bit like foraging, with successes resulting in a description of the bird's appearance, activities and its call. When a particularly notable bird is spotted, the player recieves a small morale bonus (typically +0.30, perhaps higher for exceptionally rare or beautiful birds. This applies an effect with a duration comparable to other similar morale boosts). Attracting these birds is difficult, however, and may require specific conditions (the presence of certain flowers or plants, the presence of an accessible source of water, etcetera). Building a hide and occupying it with HIDE, or being an exceptionally stealthy individual, will greatly increase the likelihood of viewing rare and unusual species. Purchasing and holding some binoculars, or having high Perception, will do the same (wouldn't be player-craftable until/unless we have glaziers). Chawtooth squirrels, if present, may also feed from (and possibly damage) your bird-feeder.

The main reason I would want this as an action, and not a toggleable room ambient like rumors, is because I'd like Primalists (and maybe other druids?) to be taking notes about their observations in their portfolio (in hand) all the while. They record characteristics as well as number of sightings of bird species for the benefit of Scholars at the Library of Qamar. I suggest these notes can then be the object of STUDY in the Ecology stacks, similar to lore research.

(I'd be really happy to come up with some descriptions of real and/or fantasy birds. Others are more than welcome to pitch in!)

A few recipes that probably need tweaking (I'm not that familiar with Construction):

Bird-feeder
Information on the bird-feeder (build):
A quaint feeding-station intended to attract wild birds.
It is a container that can hold items of a size up to small, with a capacity of 50.
It is a structure that takes up 2 plots of land.

Skill(s) required: Construction (0)
It requires 2 plots of available land to build
The following additional components are required to craft this item:
- some nails (x2)
- some rivets
- a wooden pole
- a block
- a thin spoke (x4) (unless there is wire in-game?)
Tools required:
- something to hammer with
Steps: 30 (about 2 minutes and 30 seconds to build, not including rest time)

Wooden bird-hide
Information on the wooden bird-hide (build):
A small wooden hide designed to mask the presence of occupants from nearby fauna.
It is a structure that takes up 4 plots of land.

Skill(s) required: Construction (200)
It requires 4 plots of available land to build.
The following additional components are required to craft this item:
- some nails (x50)
- a long plank (x20)
- a short plank (x8)
- a medium plank (x10)
Tools required:
- something to saw with
- something to hammer with
Steps: 300
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