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[Batgirl1]

I'd like to play a zoologically-oriented safari-type fort one of these days, but I got discouraged when I read that it wasn't yet actually possible to domesticate an animal to the point where it shows up on your civ's embark supplies.  This would be a cool thing to have.  Another cool thing would be discovering new species that your civ never knew about before, but once you've seen/heard of them, your artists can engrave them (with the level of accuracy depending on just how familiar your civ got to be with them: has anyone seen those ancient European drawings of "elephants"?)  Basically, enabling a "gotta catch 'em all" style of play, somehow, with results that extend beyond the single fort.

It'd also be cool if the animals had some of their other historical uses, such as beasts of burden and mounts.  Beasts of burden might be the easiest of these to implement, I assume, as it's essentially Hauling jobs being enabled on certain species.  I'd recommend, though, that they actually function the same as a wheelbarrow: a Dwarf must load the creature up and guide it to its destination.  Max Load could be determined by the animal's strength/size, making elephants prized and squirrels hilarious. 

Perhaps mounts would be handled that way, with a mount essentially hauling a dwarf rider.  Or, there could be complications like a Riding skill and/or requiring a saddle, with poor quality of either causing risk of falls and injury (based on height of animal and speed of travel).  Maybe riding "bare-back" would generate an unhappy thought ("Urist McSorebottom was forced to ride without a saddle") while expensive saddles would bring a postive one  ("Urist McRider rode in luxurious style today").  This also brings up mounted fighting, of course.

Thoughts?

[Elagn]

I would say much of this is already planned, but it would still be great. As for beasts of burden, animals pulling minecarts was going to be implimented, but was cut for now due to time constraints.

Also, I would say you should have to send several tame animals, at least 2 breading pairs, of a new exotic animal back to the mountainhomes before you can embark at a new location with them.

[cochramd]

I'd really like to see the "training levels" have an actual in-game effect, since right now I take pleasure in adding animals to my civilization's list and increasing the training levels just for the sake of it. I have read that this is already in the works, and think it would be great if higher training levels made training that particular species significantly faster. Domesticating an animal on a civilization level would also be handy.

Of the other stuff you mentioned, beasts of burden are of the most interest to me, but I've noticed that most creatures suitable for being a beast of burden are grazers, so a means of feeding grazers without pastures would be necessary first.

[AceSV]

Allegedly, the coding for mounts is already implemented, it's just a matter of making an interface for the player to control them. 

Someone previously suggested that you should be able to trap animals with lassos and nets, so that you can send someone to go out and capture an animal, instead of waiting for them to blunder into cage traps. 

You might find these interesting:  Animal Armor  Randomly Generated Animals

[Batgirl1]

I'd really like to see the "training levels" have an actual in-game effect, since right now I take pleasure in adding animals to my civilization's list and increasing the training levels just for the sake of it. I have read that this is already in the works, and think it would be great if higher training levels made training that particular species significantly faster. Domesticating an animal on a civilization level would also be handy.

Of the other stuff you mentioned, beasts of burden are of the most interest to me, but I've noticed that most creatures suitable for being a beast of burden are grazers, so a means of feeding grazers without pastures would be necessary first.

You mean like troughs?

[Dirst]

I'd really like to see the "training levels" have an actual in-game effect, since right now I take pleasure in adding animals to my civilization's list and increasing the training levels just for the sake of it. I have read that this is already in the works, and think it would be great if higher training levels made training that particular species significantly faster. Domesticating an animal on a civilization level would also be handy.

Of the other stuff you mentioned, beasts of burden are of the most interest to me, but I've noticed that most creatures suitable for being a beast of burden are grazers, so a means of feeding grazers without pastures would be necessary first.

You mean like troughs?

I was thinking bails of hay, but troughs would probably fit in better with the "build something on the tile you want the job done" theme of DF.

[cochramd]

I was thinking feedbags myself, so that the draft animals could work continuously without having to check in at a pile of food every so often, though that wouldn't work for elephants. In an earlier thread I suggested feedstock crops that grew very fast but were only fit for animal consumption....now that I've seen how fast crops can be grown I see that it's redundant. What would be nice is the "Farm-Pasture" suggested in that thread, and being able to see if a female animal is pregnant.

[AceSV]

I also like the trough idea.  You could also make meat-troughs for carnivores. 

[cochramd]

Carnivores should be perfectly willing to eat *almost* any corpse that's lying around, especially if they're responsible for its current state. When an unfortunate but deserving band of goblins falls into your pit of cave crocodiles, that should save you not only the trouble of the goblins, but also the trouble of feeding your cave crocodiles for a while.

[callisto8413]

War Pigs!   

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[NEANDERTHAL]

I think it would be amazing if certain hauling animals could be trained to haul independently, just like a dwarf with only the hauling labor enabled. Of course, they wouldn't be able to move things heavier than themselves.

For example, you could have trained guinea pigs bringing bolts to your marks dwarves mid-battle. This would also pave the path for things like messenger pigeons/chihuahuas.