Animals and Farming on a Project Zomboid Server (Build 42): the Settings

Which animals there are and what they're for

According to The Indie Stone: sheep, chickens, pigs, cows, rats, rabbits and deer. They give meat, leather, eggs, milk, wool and manure (to fertilize crops). Domestic ones are found on the map's farms; wild ones leave tracks and droppings you can follow to hunt them.

Looking after them levels up a skill of its own, “Animal Care”, and there's a new profession that starts with it. On a server with friends, the farm is usually the job of whoever prefers to stay at base: someone who feeds, collects eggs and milks while the others go out for loot. What else Build 42 brings besides animals, in Build 42's multiplayer changes.

How many spawn: farms and wild animals

“Animal Spawn Chance” (AnimalRanchChance in SandboxVars) sets how many of the map's farms have animals, from “Never” to “Always”. The default is “Often”. For a farm-focused game, “Very Often”; if you don't want animals, “Never”.

Wild animals use two settings: “Animal Tracks Chance” (AnimalTrackChance), how many tracks they leave, and “Animal Paths Chance” (AnimalPathChance), how many animal paths appear on the map to hunt them. Both default to “Sometimes”. If your group has hunters, raising them to “Often” makes hunting trips worth it.

As with loot and zombies, it's safest to decide this before you start: the rest of the sandbox is in the sandbox settings guide.

The pace: hunger, offspring, milk and wool

Seven settings go from “Ultra Fast” to “Very Slow”, all at “Normal” by default:

“Stats Reduction Speed” (AnimalStatsModifier): how fast their hunger, thirst and the rest drop. It's the one that decides how much work the farm is: on “Slow” you can feed them less often.

“Meta Stats Reduction Speed” (AnimalMetaStatsModifier): the same, but while the game simulates them without drawing them, far from any player. It's the one that matters most if time keeps running when nobody is on (the next section explains it).

“Pregnancy Time” (AnimalPregnancyTime), “Egg Hatch Time” (AnimalEggHatch) and “Aging Modifier Speed” (AnimalAgeModifier): how long the farm takes to grow. “Milk Increase Speed” and “Wool Increase Speed” (AnimalMilkIncModifier and AnimalWoolIncModifier): how often there's something to collect.

And two more: “Breeding Season” (AnimalMatingSeason, on by default), which makes animals with a breeding season breed only during it; turned off, they breed and lay eggs all year round. And “Grass Regrowth time” (AnimalGrassRegrowTime): the hours it takes for grass that's eaten or cut to grow back, 240 by default. With lots of animals on a small pasture, lowering it keeps them from running out of grass.

Keeping them alive while you're not playing

It's the most asked question on a server: if nobody joins for three days, does the farm starve? It depends on PauseEmpty, in the server .ini (“Pause time when nobody is on”). It comes on: with nobody connected, game time stops, and animals don't eat or age until someone comes back.

If you turn it off so the world stays alive without you, animals keep using up food and water even with nobody around. Then it's worth setting “Meta Stats Reduction Speed” to “Slow” or “Very Slow”, leaving them plenty of food and water before you go, or both. What else PauseEmpty changes (the power and water shutoff, for example), in the .ini guide.

And an enemy you can't see: with “Meta Predator” (AnimalMetaPredator) on, a simulated fox can attack your chickens if you leave the hutch door open at night. It comes off; if you turn it on for the thrill, make someone responsible for closing up.

Animals attract zombies

“Animals Attract Zombies” (AnimalSoundAttractZombies) comes on: mooing and clucking call the zombies around. A farm next to your base is an alarm that never switches off. Fence it well, or move it a little away from where you sleep. If you want the farm without that risk, turn it off.

In a group: who looks after the farm

“Animal Care Multiplier”, among the XP multipliers, raises or lowers how fast the skill is learned (1.0 by default). If the farm is one person's role in the group, raising it a bit saves them weeks of play.

In the .ini, AnnounceAnimalDeath posts in everyone's chat each time an animal dies. It comes off; on a server with a group farm, turning it on is how you find out something's wrong (a zombie inside the fence, food that ran out) before it's too late.

So nobody walks off with the neighbour's chickens, keep the farm inside a safehouse: safehouses and factions.

If the server stutters because of animals

The server simulates every animal, including those far from everyone. With huge farms, or the map full of animals with “Animal Spawn Chance” on “Always”, the processor feels it. What helps most is having fewer: a farm with a few of each species is plenty for a group, and lowering that setting to “Sometimes”. Everything else you can turn down, in the Project Zomboid lag guide.

With NapNodes

All of this is in your server's “Settings”, with a search box: type “animal” and they all show up. Almost all are under “World: nature and farming”; “Animals Attract Zombies”, under “World: zombies”; and “Pause time when nobody is on”, under “The essentials”. Change a value (it saves on its own) and click “Restart”. On a paid plan, make a backup in “Backups” first.

On the free server you don't need to worry about days without playing: it shuts down on its own after 20 minutes with nobody on and, while it's off, nothing happens in the world. If your server is somewhere else or on your PC, the Project Zomboid settings editor opens your .ini and SandboxVars.lua with the same names.

Frequently asked questions