Feeding problems...

Ampersand

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Jul 9, 2010
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So in B&W 1, when my ape goes to pick up and presumably eat a pile of grain from the ground such as what happens when you dump it out by hand/miracle...  He'll stand there with the bundle in his hand, staring at his feet and hovering the hand over him displays "Your creature lost the object he was looking for."  It seems like the only things he can eat on his own are flock critters and fish...

Has anyone else ever experienced something like this?  Does it sound like a bug or is it a quirk of his training?
 
Do you mean the grain is in a pile(looks like a bunch of sand), or in the form of what appears to be solid bunches of wheat?

If it's in a pile, where is he getting it from?

If it's not a pile, or the grain is from a farming field, the game sometimes registers the object as inedible(like rocks and trees), so if you've taught your creature not to eat inedible objects, he may choose to ignore field grain as well. If he would eat this, he would throw up or not get much energy from it.

If the pile of food was on the ground, in 'sand' form, and he still doesn't want to eat it... I don't know what the problem is. He could be picky. I would recommend teaching him to eat fish or livestock, anyway, as relying on food piles is a bad idea. You can't teach the creature to use miracle food for himself when he's hungry, if that is what you are thinking. I've tried it, doesn't work. :suspect

Edit: On "Your creature lost the object he was looking for.", the game gives you this message when the creature is supposed to pick up something from a specific area, but it's moved before he could get to it. The only reason I can think you would get this is if you tried to move the grain before he could get to it. Are you clicking on the grain for him to pick it up, or is he picking it up without you telling him to?

Also, you don't need to hover your hand over the creature to know what he's doing. Just using C to check his status will have the game update you with every thought he's having. You may need to check your options for this, though.
 
It's in the pile form, cast from a miracle.  And I'm not trying to move the food at all after casting.  I cast it in front of him when he's pretty hungry and he'll go over to pick it up, then once he's picked it up and it becomes the solid bundle he just keeps staring at his feet.

I also can't seem to get him to take any food from the village stores, although it says he knows how to use them.  I've tried using the leash of learning while taking food from the stores to give to him and making him eat that, but so far it doesn't seem like he gets the idea...
 
When he goes to pick up the food, is it because he is interested in it since he saw you cast it? You have to make sure he is picking it up for the right reason. Make sure you get a message relating to him wanting to actually eat the food. It should be something like "Your creature is hungry" when he goes to pick it up, not "Your creature is curious" or something else.

I've never seen a creature take food from a village store in all the years I've had the game. The only purpose in teaching him how to use the store is so that he can provide supplies, I think.
 
Never, huh?  That's a pain, this guide on creature raising I read mentioned that if your creature took food from the stores it counted a little against their alignment...

Also, I forgot to ask about the settings...  I don't get the messages unless I hover my hand over the creature, even when I've hit the key to fix the camera on him.  I've got it on "No help - Story text - Intelligent tooltips - Creature help - Text from bottom."
 
I can't play the game right now, so I don't know what settings you need. Just tinker with them until you get what you need.

As for that guide, could you post a link? I'd like to take a look.
 
http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/bwcreature.html

Looking it over, I may have been mistaken in reading anything about your creature being able to take from the stores...  Or I'm thinking of a different guide for some reason...  (._.)a
 
It is a very rare thing that your creature will take food from the village store but,
my Wolf has done it once, maybe twice.
The only times he did it he was off the leash and hungry.
And, if I remember correctly, you can't teach him to use the village store until the end of land 1.
Same goes for creature tips at the bottom of the screen. 
 
Skimming over that article, a lot of it seems to be inaccurate, and mostly based on single experiences without further testing, or in-game hints which are almost always wrong.

I used to rely heavily on articles like that, but when most of the things I 'learned' from them turned out to be wrong, I chose to rely only on my own experiences with the game.

That said, some of the article seems okay. But I'm not gonna bother reading the whole thing just to point out all the little flaws.

Same goes for creature tips at the bottom of the screen.  

Yes, I didn't mention that because I thought he was past land 1 at least. I wouldn't bother trying to train a creature that early when you don't even have access to all the things you'll need.
 
Well, I thought he was on Land 1 because the miracle of discussion was food.
You can only get Water Food Well and or Lightning on land 1.
But then again isn't the Food miracle a pretty basic one?
So, yes, Ampersand could very well be in any story mode land, even Creature Isle!
 
The cause of the creature tips only showing up when I hover my hand isn't what land I'm on, since it does the same thing on skirmish maps, land 2, etc..  It also feels the need to remind me to "hold your hand over the creature to find out what he's thinking" and "clicking the action button on an object will cause your creature to pick it up" constantly...

And he did actually eat from the stores once when I was watching him, though I doubt he'll do it again soon...  Also he seems to have trouble picking up the difference between being encouraged to eat at 40% hunger and discouraged from eating at 0-20% hunger...
 
Well, I thought he was on Land 1 because the miracle of discussion was food.
You can only get Water Food Well and or Lightning on land 1.
But then again isn't the Food miracle a pretty basic one?
So, yes, Ampersand could very well be in any story mode land, even Creature Isle!

You have access to the miracles, but you have to fly around the map using miracle bubbles instead of just casting the miracle with your own power, so it's rather inconvenient. I'd rather wait til land 2 or use a skirmish map.

The cause of the creature tips only showing up when I hover my hand isn't what land I'm on, since it does the same thing on skirmish maps, land 2, etc..  It also feels the need to remind me to "hold your hand over the creature to find out what he's thinking" and "clicking the action button on an object will cause your creature to pick it up" constantly...

Yes, unfortunately that is a side effect of having "Creature Tips" on, I think. I'm not even sure if you need to have that checked to know what he's thinking. Here's a tip in case you decide to keep that on: Quickly pause and un-pause the game to make the message disappear when it pops up. Because while these useless messages are up, it prevents you from seeing other messages that could be more important at the time.
An example would be... Say you see your creature pick up a villager. Obviously, you want to know what he is planning. Is he gonna eat them? Is he feeling playful? Or is he gonna make them breed? Oh no, the game isn't telling you what's going on, but instead its reminding you for the five-thousandth time that clicking on stuff does things! Just quickly tap P twice, and the game will bring up the message you want.

And he did actually eat from the stores once when I was watching him, though I doubt he'll do it again soon...

Well, if you ever see your creature eat from the store, please screen cap it(print screen key on windows, paste it into most any paint program.) I've really never seen it, and thought it might be a myth. If you figure out how to teach him to do it consistently, you absolutely must share. :)

Also he seems to have trouble picking up the difference between being encouraged to eat at 40% hunger and discouraged from eating at 0-20% hunger...

Those numbers are too close together. I wouldn't worry about it. Just worry about how much he actually eats. He should be taking a bit more at 40 than at 20. And he shouldn't be gaining any fat. You also don't want him to eat after 50%, because then he starts losing fat. A bit of fat makes your creature look better in my opinion, and some claim it raises endurance in battle. It also provides a fail-safe if your creature doesn't have time to eat. If he has no fat, he will start losing health when he's too hungry.
 
Well, if you ever see your creature eat from the store, please screen cap it(print screen key on windows, paste it into most any paint program.) I've really never seen it, and thought it might be a myth. If you figure out how to teach him to do it consistently, you absolutely must share.

Miine does that regularly. Especially if there's no easy food source available. Gets to be a bit of a pain since it really takes a big chunk of food from the storehouse.

I can't say how to train him. Mine was trained to eat fish and will eat grain but not livestock. Somehow over time when playing on maps with limited food sources he got into the habit of stealing food from the storehouse.
 
This sounds like a job for...
Well, me. I'll do it tonight because I just found a flash drive, and upload the pic tomorrow.


EDIT: The way I've had the most success is on accident testing maps I've made. Teach the creature to eat grain on its own, by feeding it grain and petting it, then put it in a skirmish where the store is the only food source, and wait. I suppose petting him when he does it will reinforce the behaviour.
 
Didn't want to double-post, but this is just sitting in my thumb drive.

24wajid.jpg

As you can see, the creature's shoulder looks a bit odd, since I'm using the Eve skin, but it is very clearly taking food from the store. And that's it.


So, Ampersand... Do you have any more questions or requests...

*puts on glasses*

:cool: In store? YYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! :yourock:
 
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