Okay, I am sure I am not the first to come up with this idea, but the search didn't yield any results (or I am too stupid, if so, I appologize). I assume it to be common knowledge that species-appropriate ethical animal husbandry involves that lifestock is held in flocks/herds, which involves having a male animal with the females. Especially with poultry, a rooster is important for the social interaction of the hens, making sure there is no fighting for food and "protecting" them from predators. Considering SDV is all about being a good farmer that is treats his animals with care and respect and is "in tune" with nature, I think there should be certain male animals. Question would be, how would one implement such a thing that it'd be worthwhile? Of course, a rooster wouldn't be able to lay eggs, a bull wouldn't give milk (in b4 any kind of innuendo ), only the ram would be able to also give wool (and this is one of the reasons sheep should also be milk-able). Instead, how about shifting the advantages of the male animals onto another plane. My suggestion would be that, first of all, any coop or barn could only benefit from one male animal's benefit in relation to its population. E.g., if you have a deluxe coop, if you bought one rooster, any chicken living in this coop would benefit from that one rooster, bot there'd be no benefit from a second one. I could see the benefits being that with a male animal, the related animals' happiness could increase faster depending on how many hearts the male animal has himself. Maybe one could also make it so that if a female animal is affected by a male, they could reach an additional heart level, increasing the chance of getting higher quality eggs or milk from them as an "active" bonus. A passive bonus derived from how many hearts the male animal had could be linked to certain thresholds. E.g., if your rooster has 3 hearts, your hens would not consume one whole unit of fresh gras when they are outside, but only one half per day, something like that. Or that at a certain level, your poultry has a chance of laying two eggs a day. It would also allow for breeding, maybe with a small checkbox when you click on a cow, you could "allow breeding", and depending on how many hearts your bull has, it increases the chance of the cow getting in calf. While in calf, the cow might not give you milk, but a cow that has calfed this way might get some kind of permanent bonus (maybe like milk always has silver star quality, next time it's golden star, or always getting large milk, something like that), and a calf born this way would get hearts at an increased rate. All these bonuses should consider that you are essentially giving up one of your directly "producing" animals. I could see it as a kind of "short term loss, long term gain" kinda thing. I am just thinking out loud here to make you see where I am coming from, but I'd like the idea of becoming a little more intricate with the whole animal thing while also giving it more potential if you really wanted to invest in it early on.
I like that idea. Few days ago I had one brown and one white cow and one night Milka or Nutella, I dont remember which one, had a baby. And I question myself... Who is daddy? Answear: none. There is only mother. It would be nice to have male animals to get more "real" game. And this is not much work I think. CA Please +1 For Idea, I hope I will se it in the update in the future.
I'll +1 this as well, more animals for the farm would be great. I don't really even care if they give *any* bonus, I'd get them just to have them.
This would be a good addition. Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life required male animals solely for breeding purposes, and it was kind of interesting because it gave you some added control over your animals and added another cost/benefit analysis in the form of a male that didn't produce anything directly but gave other benefits (namely: free baby livestock). It'd be nice to shift away from this weird and random asexual reproduction thing the barn animals have going in Stardew Valley. It's easy to build a flock of chickens, but getting a calf is pure luck. I didn't see one until most of the way through year three. Being able to control that more would make the male animals worth it even without other bonuses because you could build your herd without buying every animal from Marnie. The herd/flock bonuses would just be the icing on the cake. Also, having new sprites for the male animals would be aesthetically enjoyable. I'd love a rooster sprite running around my farm.
