WHY ARE MUSK OXES GOATS IN THIS GAME!?

[BrimstoneTaco]

I am playing on world where I started up in the Arctic and I just came across some Musk Oxes. When they bounded away bleeting like a goat...it just....didn't make any sense to me. I know there are a bunch of different kinds of goats in the game and had seen Musk Oxes lumped in, but seeing it in game just felt so wrong. Musk Oxes are stock big creatures, that lumber more than they leap. The generally are more a grunter instead of bleeting like a goat would. Also for the AI, you would be the run running from it. Same thing with a Moose. It really shouldn't be running from the player.

I understand on a logical level why they would use the same mob AI and sounds for the musk ox and the goats....but it still feels wrong when I see it. 

Edited July 25, 2025 by BrimstoneTaco

[Thorfinn]

Goats are the archetype of new creatures. I think it was mostly to highlight how easy it is to add creatures.

Will they create a more appropriate archetype, whatever that is? Dunno. But open

.\assets\survival\entities\land\hooved\goats.json

in your favorite text editor. You could probably figure out a way to move them into moose.json if that makes more sense. Or between the various behaviors and aitasks, you could probably figure out something that is more temperamentally appropriate. Can't really help you out much. I have no idea how they are supposed to act.

[dakko]

15 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Can't really help you out much. I have no idea how they are supposed to act.

Probably more like a buffalo (North American)..

[Facethief]

17 hours ago, BrimstoneTaco said:

Same thing with a Moose. It really shouldn't be running from the player.

You clearly haven’t met a moose in game…

[Thorfinn]

2 hours ago, dakko said:

Probably more like a buffalo (North American)..

I got the better part of a bison in my freezer as we speak, and it isn't doing anything.

[Moltrey]

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

I got the better part of a bison in my freezer as we speak, and it isn't doing anything.

Ba dum, dum, tish!

Thank you folks, he's here all week! 

[Lugh Crow-Slave]

Pretty sure they were just used a a proof of concept for archetypes and are probably not representative of the final product. 

 

Odds are they already had this model ready and used it rather than creating a brand new one. This game is an alpha after all. 

[LadyWYT]

https://www.britannica.com/animal/musk-ox

Well...I mean, they look like cows, but are more closely related to goats. So it's accurate.

[fluffydragon]

I feel like a really big question to ask is why the only sheep in the base game is the bighorn? that sheep is so undomesticated it dont even sheep like the farm ones, then again all i know is from the wiki.

[williams_482]

Musk Ox using the goat AI is strange because the current bighorn sheep behavior would work perfectly and it's already in the game. 

[Thorfinn]

18 hours ago, fluffydragon said:

I feel like a really big question to ask is why the only sheep in the base game is the bighorn?

At a guess, the goats thing is on shakedown. Once they see how that works in practice, they will start switching over the other animals to the way they did goats. And butterflies. And mushrooms. One module defining the basic archetype, individual lines of key/value pairs to adjust for the differences between the members of the class. Expect the same from crops.

[Facethief]

1 minute ago, Thorfinn said:

At a guess, the goats thing is on shakedown. Once they see how that works in practice, they will start switching over the other animals to the way they did goats. And butterflies. And mushrooms. One module defining the basic archetype, individual lines of key/value pairs to adjust for the differences between the members of the class. Expect the same from crops.

Sort of like with the fish in the prerelease. Man, I hope they add some way to trophy mount fish. Maybe skulls?

[Maelstrom]

On 7/30/2025 at 9:01 PM, fluffydragon said:

I feel like a really big question to ask is why the only sheep in the base game is the bighorn? that sheep is so undomesticated it dont even sheep like the farm ones, then again all i know is from the wiki.

They haven't gotten around to anything else.   Base animals (pig, sheep, wolf, fox, raccoon and bunny) haven't changed much since implementation waaaaaaayyyyyyy back before 1.14.  This may get on a dejank list sometime in the future.

16 hours ago, Facethief said:

Sort of like with the fish in the prerelease. Man, I hope they add some way to trophy mount fish. Maybe skulls?

At this time fish are just fancy particles, except for the fresh water fish.  Hopefully mounting said fish will be added to the to-do list in the future.

[Facethief]

2 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

At this time fish are just fancy particles, except for the fresh water fish.  Hopefully mounting said fish will be added to the to-do list in the future.

I’m talking about the reef/ ocean fish in pre2, you should check them out.

[Maelstrom]

I will.   Once I upgrade to 1.21.

[PandaBearJelly]

On 7/25/2025 at 4:23 PM, BrimstoneTaco said:

 Also for the AI, you would be the run running from it. Same thing with a Moose. It really shouldn't be running from the player.

It should be a bit randomized or situational. A moose will absolutely run from a human (I've seen it in person). They are also just as likely to stand their ground or be the aggressor. 

[Maelstrom]

To answer the original question: WHY ARE MUSK OXES GOATS IN THIS GAME!?

 

Ummm....   To get your goat? 

Ducking for cover!