allow beavers to drink out of river in emergency

395 votes

link to a bit of discussion:
https://discord.com/channels/558398674389172225/558398674854608910/888616523164418129

basically, if it's a choice between dying of thirst or drinking unpurified water, we should be able to at the cost of a penalty.
i'd say you'd have to be able to swim in the water to drink though.

some penalty ideas brought up (not exclusive): increased hunger (from diarrhea ), leaving a nasty trail behind them, move speed debuff, permanent debuff until medical beaver heals them.

Under consideration Suggestion Suggested by: Jcheung (18 Sep, '21) • Upvoted: 22 Apr • Comments: 37

Comments: 37

18 Sep, '21
Vinny P Merged
So, I had a beaver die from thirst, which is tragic.

However, he did die while swimming in a river full of water.

This got me thinking that perhaps we could include a feature that has beavers say 'better than dying' and drinking the river water, or raw food (uncooked potatoes, wheat or flour etc.) as an alternative to dying of hunger or thirst.

However, this should come to a penalty, and I think that becoming sick from dirty water or raw food would be enough; they take a hit to the other stat as a result. A thirsty beaver becomes hungry more quickly, and a hungry beaver becomes more thirsty, increasing overall consumption of resources; this leaves properly preparing pumped water and cooked meals being the optimal solution.
6
19 Sep, '21
Gin Fuyou Admin
""Better than dying" - emergency food and drink" (suggested by RogueVector on 2021-09-18), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
20 Sep, '21
Ryvre
My penalty suggestion is for the beavers to not work for a while after needing to drink or eat from ungathered resources. Someone who needs to drink from the river could then spend a bunch of time playing in the water or someone who needs to eat from a berry bush could make an elaborate picnic (and/or also go play in the water). It doesn't seem like the water should need to be purified (and there is no resource use by the pump so it doesn't seem like they are doing any purification) so I don't think getting sick from drinking out of the river makes sense.
22 Sep, '21
FuryoftheStars
Have them be sick the following day and unable to work.
2
22 Sep, '21
eleazzaar
It does feel very arbitrary when they die of thirst next to a full river.

Water pumping still has importance for water storage, or efficiency -- getting the water to where the beavers are. I don't think it has to be necessary for survival.
24 Sep, '21
Ivan Vale Merged
Since there is no water purification structure, pumping water serves only one purpose: storage for the drought. Because of that, I've had games in wich I survived a drought in wich all adult died of thirst and some children were born right after it ended. But since young beavers can't operate structures, they eventually died of thirst even though the water had just come back.

My suggestions are: either make it so beavers can't die of thirst if there is fresh water available within the district(lakes, rivers, etc.) or allow young beavers to operate essential buildings such as farms, gathering/woodcutter flags and water pumps at a lower efficiency so that they have a chance to grow up and rebuild your town.
24 Sep, '21
Gin Fuyou Admin Merged
> Since there is no water purification structure
There is, it's a pump, read the description please.
24 Sep, '21
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Beavers shouldn't die of thirst outside of drought season - if there is fresh water in the district." (suggested by Ivan Vale on 2021-09-24), including upvotes (1) and comments (1), was merged into this suggestion.
25 Oct, '21
Bryan Wenzel
have also had beavers die of thirst....while swimming in a lake/river.
Me: "WHAT?!!!"

Also, on the idea of children operating buildings: I think that could be accomplished (game-design wise) by having a check to see if there are < n adult beavers in district, and < y children in district, then either children "grow up" or buildings accept them as workers. I think the idea of them being able to work makes more sense game-wise then them just automatically growing up though.
26 Oct, '21
George
I had a child beaver die of hunger in a field of full grown carrot.
1
25 Nov, '21
Arreclain
Yeah, I'm going to upvote beavers drinking from a water source they have access to if they are dying of dehydration. I had most of my losses in a drought at night before the pumps started up with water in the river they even had a staircase into. It just feels bad to watch them die that way when their salvation had literally arrived and was flowing before them.
02 Jan, '22
MKD
I'd like to see some sort of "emergency" buff added; if more than x% of the population is starving or dehydrated, then beavers should automatically leave their jobs at other buildings and go to the water pump/tower and farmhouses instead. The number of times I've lost colonies due to this problem is ridiculous. In real life, no one would keep making planks at the factory if there was literally NO WATER and everyone was dying. I went around pausing everything so the beavers would move into the unmanned food/water production buildings, but they it took too long and they all died. Allowing the beavers to drink from the river directly would help a lot.
01 Feb, '22
Nick
Just make drinking from the river slower and not filling thirst very much, so they keep returning to the river.
1
20 Feb, '22
Mark Taylor
The only way this could work is if it affected their 'health', and since we don't have diseases (yet), I'd say that any time they do this they loose some longevity (simplest way to implement illness into existing mechanics).
26 Mar, '22
Jimmy Merged
drink water like regular without a pump
26 Mar, '22
Gin Fuyou Admin
"water" (suggested by Jimmy on 2022-03-26), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
22 Apr, '22
Rayne
Seriously, many players ask, "Why would a beaver die of thirst when there's a river nearby!" and they seem to be confused.
If a beaver is determined to die of thirst, it is more immersive if it looks for water nearby, jumps into it, and then dies.
The cause of death would be "death by drinking unclean water".
It's not fun, but it does look good on video.
However, this will not matter to many players, as the situation is rare where there is water left on the map but no water for the beavers to drink.
09 Jun, '22
Rayne
Now that the disease debuff has been implemented, isn't it possible for beavers to drink polluted (not pumped) water to quench their thirst and have the disease debuff? If they continuously drink contaminated water, the disease debuff gauge will be swept away and they will die of illness. It would lower the difficulty level, but I think it would be better for beginners.
13 Aug, '22
Stwf
In agreement, kind of silly to have them die of thirst when the river is there, or a place is flooded. It would be cooler to have them able to drink up slowly, then have a wave of sickness in some of them after a little bit (faster for the ones that drank flooded water on the street). More like what would really happen (lol), and would be an interesting game mechanic.
09 Oct, '22
kide_lee
we can add a toilet, and toliet will contaminate the water body
03 Dec, '22
Albalma
It is absurd, I hate seeing my beavers die of thirst and be thirsty for entire seasons with many more pumps than would be needed for them to be satisfied... This needs to change!
18 Dec, '22
Oktokolo
The beavers indeed need some most basic survival instinct. They always manage to end up stranded when building ramps and happily die to hunger or thirst next to massive fields of ripe berry bushes and a river. They should know better - they aren't humans after all...
26 Jan, '23
Fox799
Another idea of beavers drinking from the river is that the shower could provide some hydration, therefore; fore going the fact of youglings dieing because of no one is there to pump the water for them. This could be adjusted by the amount of hydration they get from showers, ei. an adult would only take 1 unit of hydration of the 3 needed, vs a child would get fully satisfied for the day.
17 Mar, '23
Morti Merged
My beavers all died of thirst because they were too thirsty to pump water (even though they were at max priority) nor to drink straight from the river.

Very dumb way to lose.
17 Mar, '23
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Beavers should be able to drink out of the river (and get sick) in case of emergencies" (suggested by Morti on 2023-03-17), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
23 Apr, '23
Mel
If your beavers dies of thirst because the pump operator dies, simply set that building to a higher priority. I usually have water pumps set slightly high and district centre set slightly low and it works beautifully to absorb extra workers as they grow up then move them automatically to other buildings as needed.
27 Apr, '23
Mariusz Merged
Possibility of drinking water straight from the river, which carries a risk of disease.
Renaming the collected water as filtered water (whitout a risk of disease).
02 May, '23
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Drinking water straight from the river." (suggested by Mariusz on 2023-04-27), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
11 May, '23
Wolfcaroling
THIS OMG.

I couldn't believe all these beavers dying with a WHOLE RIVER flowing by. They are AQUATIC MAMMALS.

There's a kind of contagious amoebiasis called giardia which is also called "beaver fever". I say if the river is full they can drink it but it causes outbreak of beaver fever and they get sick.
26 May, '23
Ken Merged
There either needs to be an emergency stop work and take care of food and water or a way that beavers can just go down the stairs into the river and drink the water that is RIGHT THERE. The fact that my entire colony is dying of thirst simply because they are waiting their turn to drink from the water pump is infuriating. They are already in the water to fulfill their wet fur need, why can they not just drink the water while in there.
30 May, '23
Gin Fuyou Admin
"If they are thirsty, THEN LET THEM DRINK WATER!" (suggested by Ken on 2023-05-26), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
31 May, '23
Buffalochips1968 Merged
This problem of beavers who are traversing a long distance through water makes NO sense at all.
01 Jun, '23
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Beavers swimming should not get thirsty!" (suggested by Buffalochips1968 on 2023-05-31), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
05 Jul, '23
Wolfcaroling Merged
Hear me out.

We all get annoyed with beavers starving in fields of carrots, and dehydrating while swimming at the Lido. It takes us out of the game because it's unrealistic and ridiculous.

SO.

Plague.

When a beaver hits -9 or -10 or something in thirst, and IF there is water in the river, they will binge drink river water. Ditto with food, except they start eating directly out of the fields. HOWEVER, when they do this, they get ill.

Simple version: After eating dirty carrots or drinking unfiltered water, they need a medical bed for two days or somesuch. If there are no medical beds available, they may die from illness.

PLAGUE version: A more complicated mechanic could allow beavers to pass illness to the other beavers they live or work with. This could create interesting mechanics with districts, where you try to quarantine an affected district etc.

Either way, it makes it less frustrating. Also, an opportunity for "Senwe has died of dysentary".
2
11 Jul, '23
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Plague solves everything" (suggested by Wolfcaroling on 2023-07-05), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
19 Aug, '23
Earth Dragon
Because injuries now exist, I feel this should be something that your beavers do if water is in the area and there is no water in storage. There should just be a 2-5% chance or so of acquiring an illness that then needs rest/medicine to fix. So technically, you should be able to play during wet season without a water pump. It's just risky and extremely taxing on your workforce.
1
10 Apr
Colin
I have to say that it was really confusing when I'd stockpiled 200+ wheat, then almost all my beavers starved because I didn't realize you needed to mill it and bake it into bread. Pretty sure you can eat raw wheat. I like the suggestions in this thread!