Sandbox mode animals

[JenMDX]

I started playing sandbox mode at the weekend and got to the point of looking for some animals. I noticed that in general there are fairly poor options. There was a few silver and bronze scattered about but even those looked poor stat wise.

Is this pretty standard? I did refresh a few times and looked for some better options but is that the general idea, just keep refreshing or is there a strategy around getting better animals?

Thanks!

 

[NZFanatic]

I started playing sandbox mode at the weekend and got to the point of looking for some animals. I noticed that in general there are fairly poor options. There was a few silver and bronze scattered about but even those looked poor stat wise.

Is this pretty standard? I did refresh a few times and looked for some better options but is that the general idea, just keep refreshing or is there a strategy around getting better animals?

Thanks!

It didn't used to be standard, but something changed in one of the recent updates. The only way to get around it is to purchase all the bad stat animals and refresh, and sell off the ones you don't want to keep out of the trade centre. It can be really tedious (this is also how you albino hunt in Sandbox).

 

[JenMDX]

It didn't used to be standard, but something changed in one of the recent updates. The only way to get around it is to purchase all the bad stat animals and refresh, and sell off the ones you don't want to keep out of the trade centre. It can be really tedious (this is also how you albino hunt in Sandbox).

Ah, thanks very much. I'll give that a go. It sounds like it might take a while to get some decent ones which is a shame if it wasn't always like that.

 

[NZFanatic]

Ah, thanks very much. I'll give that a go. It sounds like it might take a while to get some decent ones which is a shame if it wasn't always like that.

It's hard to know, to be honest; it might have always been like that, but the bug might have been that the stats looked better than they actually were. I believe someone mentioned that they recently fixed something similar in Franchise Mode. I honestly don't know, though.

IMO in Sandbox the most important genes are size and fertility - size because the upper scale is more realistic for most species, and fertility if you want to breed. You can switch off disease and death so longevity and immunity aren't an issue (though if you want to play with death turned on, then longevity is probably important).

 

[JenMDX]

I think I turned off death and illness but hadn't thought about it making the immunity and longevity genes irrelevant. Thanks. Hopefully I can get some better animals next time I play!

 

[JenMDX]

I have a couple of questions after playing today. I did buy a lot of animals and sell some though you seem to have to go through an awful lot to get anything even half decent.
I noticed that one I have looks like it's half the size of the other!
I managed to get 1 gold Timber Wolf.

But, anyway, got some animals in my habitats and I'm having a problem with the Gharia. I put one in and it seemed fine but I added another two and now it's complaining that they don't have any space or water. Looking at the traversable habitat on the heat map it seems to be just around the animal itself or its body. One did seem to be stuck under a rock so I deleted that but nothing changed.
Is it likely to be the decorations I've added? I didn't get a chance to take a screenshot but I have a fairly big enclosure with a pond in the middle and a few trees round the boundary and a couple of piles of rocks.

The other thing I tried was adding aquatic plants to the water but it seems like you can't lay them on top of the water so they look realistic. They were like water lilies so they should 'float' so how do you add them?

If you breed an animal with good size and one with good fertility, will you get a chance of a baby with size and fertility?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[NZFanatic]

Is it likely to be the decorations I've added? I didn't get a chance to take a screenshot but I have a fairly big enclosure with a pond in the middle and a few trees round the boundary and a couple of piles of rocks.

Yes, most likely.

The crocodiles and monitor lizards especially have very large hitboxes. In case you don't know, the hitbox is an invisible area around the animal which determines how much space it needs to move. In general, the hitbox is the total length of the animal in every direction (so, a circle with a diameter equal to the total length of the animal). In other words, you need to make sure the animal has enough space around it in every direction to turn on a dime, otherwise it won't be able to move.

Unfortunately, adding scenery such as rocks that the animal can't climb on takes away from the total traversible area of the habitat.

 

[JenMDX]

Ah, okay, thanks! - I didn't know about the hit box. Can they climb on them if they're low enough?

I think maybe I put the rocks by the gate and the keeper dropped them in and so in retrospect, perhaps they are being "blocked in" by the rock group. I'll remember that in future!

 

[NZFanatic]

Can they climb on them if they're low enough?

Yes, if they're pretty much level with the terrain they can, or if they're positioned in the perfect way to act as ramps. Some animals are naturally better at climbing than others, of course. Crocodiles have a harder time of it than most.

 

[JenMDX]

Thanks very much. Yes, I should have thought of that. I'll try lowering them and remove them if that doesn't work.

Do you know how to get aquatic plants to sit on top of the water?

 

[NZFanatic]

Do you know how to get aquatic plants to sit on top of the water?

There's really no trick to it. I assume you're talking about the various water lillies? All you can really do is use the advanced move (so press 'x' to bring up the x/y/z axis) and drag them up to the surface using the green arrow. It helps to angle the game camera so your view is parallel with the water's surface.

 

[JenMDX]

Yes, the water lilies. Thanks again. I'll give that a try.

 

[Kolikokoli]

I started playing sandbox mode at the weekend and got to the point of looking for some animals. I noticed that in general there are fairly poor options. There was a few silver and bronze scattered about but even those looked poor stat wise.

Is this pretty standard? I did refresh a few times and looked for some better options but is that the general idea, just keep refreshing or is there a strategy around getting better animals?

Thanks!

This is a bug and it's reported here. https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/39470

 

[JenMDX]

Thanks. Looks like it's a common problem. I've added to the report.

 

[Bobble2017]

Also make sure in their options they are not set to the surface or they will go to ground level every time you try and place them

 

[JenMDX]

Also make sure in their options they are not set to the surface or they will go to ground level every time you try and place them

Thanks Bobble. I tried today and not sure if that setting was on or off but I did use the advanced movement tool and managed to place them on the surface of the water.
Looks like I accidentally placed one under the water too without realising!

 

[JenMDX]

I noticed today that when I've had my first babies from Gharial and Timber Wolves, even though their stats were not great, the babies look to have pretty good stats overall. They even seemed to be mostly gold animals.

 

[Cocolori]

I noticed today that when I've had my first babies from Gharial and Timber Wolves, even though their stats were not great, the babies look to have pretty good stats overall. They even seemed to be mostly gold animals.

The way the genetics works the size and longevity genes are pretty much additive so a high size mother and a high size father will have a high size offspring although there is still some variation depending on their exact genetics. The fertility and immunity genes are different and you want to avoid parents that have the same types of those genes. The more heterogenus they are the better the outcome. Put simply you can have two animals with 0% fertility who have offspring that are 100% fertile or also have low fertility - it depends on the combination of genes they inherit. I mostly play sandbox but rarely use the filters in the market to go for gold rated animals because there with animals that have high size and longevity genetics I can often find cheaper mates that will still produce gold offspring with lower ratings. It is worth playing around with the compare mates tool to see this in action and bear in mind that you shouldn't automatically sell or release animals with low fertility and immunity - if you are planning for future generations they might be the best mates to get better genes especially if they have good size and longevity stats.

 

[JenMDX]

Thanks Cocolori. Ah, that changes things a little. I'll have to look at the stats a bit more carefully. I've not tried the compare mates tool yet. I might not worry about it too much while I'm learning the game so I don't get bogged down in too much complexity, but look into it more once I've got going more.

I was trying to make a water enclosure yesterday and got stuck not being able to put in a habitat gate, presumably because there was no land inside, just a big pool, so still got a lot to learn! Will watch some more tutorials.

 

[Horser01]

The store is random, but I've noticed that the more you buy one species, the more you start to get better stats show up. Supply and demand?