Yesterday there was a documentary on the French TV about Morocco. I’m overworked until March, so I didn’t looked the whole of it, but there were scenes and gestures that I think could be used to give a more “lively” aspect to the settlements.
Among these scenes were:
a shepherd that threw stones to guide the flock, as far as 200 m away. There is absolutely no utility, in that, just this may give more life to the game.
Although that reminded me of a story when an Englishman had his cows killed after a mad cow disease, then he bought cows in France. However, the French farmer had to go to England to explain what to say them because English cows obey to whistles instead of shouts and pronounced words, so it appeared they looked at the English farmer like he had the mad cow disease himself, beside being an Englishman.
maybe useful for the late game, when settlements will grow bigger: along what is displayed at San Isidoro museum for Neolithic Madrid, there is an oasis town in the desert where people gather by activities (builders, plumbers, healers, etc.) on the main square, so people may go there to hire them and they discuss the prices. I think it could give a vivid impression for late game, with e.g. builders, carpenters, field workers, miners, etc.
@UncasualGames Aside of real scientific things, do you think such things could be useful for the game? Maybe on a separated thread? There could be piled up various things that would have 0 utility but where you could pick whenever you need to inject more life in the game.
Not sure if remote shepherding will work. Now it will be interesting to see different types of shepherding. Western European shepherds drive their sheep, with or without dogs, Middle Eastern Shepherds lead their sheep.and don’t use dogs. Each has its advantages.
In both cases the shepherd works closely to the flock, though dogs add a bit of range. 200m range shepherding will be unnecessarily confusing to the player. Either the flock attended or it is not, that means having the shepherd right there (or not).