Yeah I've got the same issue (only running CC mod) - I'm not one to complain about free stuff, but the new buildings for stable/shepherd are pointless if we're getting domesticated animals for nothing.

Me too. I think this is a bug as it just completely breaks trading. I can pretty much buy anything my town needs just with domesticated animals.

I think I know what's going on. This is a best guess based on observation.
The wild shepard building works similar to a gatherer or forester. it picks up a given surface resource. In this case the game must be creating a scatter of invisible domesticated animals on map creation, probably using the same algorithm as surface stone and iron as I don't think the animals respawn like say wild foods. The problem is that because during building all surface resources are cleared out of the footprint area and collected, building things collects all random domestic animals in the area at once, making the intended animal gathering method redundant.

Not sure if this has beed tweaked/fixed, but I'm lucky if I can find more that 2 animals in a 20 year span. Maybe it's because my town is so small/slow growing? (Adam and Eve start)

Yeah it does start out slowly, you usually start noticing them build up when you start building farms and other large area structures. I've found the map/climate seems to effect it too. I made a desert town and this gets a much lower rate of domestic animals than my verdant planes/mild town where I first noticed this happening.

Originally posted by Bronzewing:

Yeah it does start out slowly, you usually start noticing them build up when you start building farms and other large area structures. I've found the map/climate seems to effect it too. I made a desert town and this gets a much lower rate of domestic animals than my verdant planes/mild town where I first noticed this happening.

I think part of it was the Adam and Eve start, for me. I hardly had any of the animals after 20 years, then once I got a stable population bloom, I suddenly had over 20 of them sitting in my dry goods storage (Which just raises more questions than answers at that point).

Yeah, I don't know why they're classed as dry goods either!

i use them for the milk wool and eggs but if you have that many trade them but as your town grows you could use more of them as you branch new communties

you don't want to know how much 1495 of them is worth if you do it's 373750 value which is easy if you have a forester

Although the mystery of why they are labaled as dry goods continues, I have realized in full just how OP these things are at a trading post. Even just using them exclusively for trades, I still have way to many of them too.

yes they build up pretty quick but it gives you some good wool eggs and milk

I noticed a couple of random ones on the map I am on. I've only found 2 in the past 20 cycles though (one found by forester as described above) so nothing in the quantities others are describing.
When I have too much of something that I just need to get rid of it --- don't do a fair trade. Say I want the 3 fancy housewares the merchant is offering, but I overpay by however much I need to. He'll walk off with the excess and I didn't have to buy an entire warehouse of goods for it

They do actually respawn, to the detriment of every other resource on the map. If you clear out large groups of trees, the trees never grow back simply because the animals take up all the spaces. I've got 500 in my trade house with over 2k in various warehouses, and I only have a population of about 100. I find it annoying and game breaking.

Yeah I don't get what's up with the domesticated animals. I did notice (in amendment to my previous post) that I was getting animals when people were clearing the plot to build a house or so forth. I could see where they could add up quickly, particually if actually expanding or clearing new areas. What I find odd is that I have 1.7 running on 3 maps and I am only experiencing this on one of them. On one I have a shepherd who was only able to find 3 domesticated animals for me over 10 years...only enough to build my stable really and no animals started showing up in the lumber. On the second map I have no domesticated animals at all but haven't built to look for them. On the third I have found 20 animals in my construction and foresting so far. Freakish.

Yeah, Domesticated Animals really seems to break the game's economy. I have a Stable producing 2-3 Domesticated Animals per year. I consistently have 300+ Domesicated Animals from clearing land for expansion, and I spend around 100 Domesticated Animals per year.