build pens with a roof.. not to mention having animals in this game is so unnecessary.. I still don't understand the point.. I did it once just to say I did it and it was hardly worth it. If I need meat that badly I can go to "x" biome and kill a few animals and make my food.

I dont know man, chicken coops where I live are fully enclosed otherwise eagles and other birds of prey take your chickens. So not that unrealistic to fully enclosed your pets. It's how the game works.

I totally get the chicken thing we have many small farms near us that put em all up at night. But boar? have you ever seen a wild pig? They will even take on bears and force them away or injure them with their tusks. I get that raids are a mechanic in the game but still seems a bit much and domestic pigs are not small easily killed animals when spooked or pissed either.

Just for reference though i always use a deep moat in my builds and the only raids that get me are the flying ones usually.
I just don't like having to build alcatraz for the animals to live in to be safe.

Its why I never bother with it.

Originally posted by Kvarig:

So basically build a giant box fully enclosed is the only way to protect them...wow thats great... I'd much rather be able to have a more realistic looking farm and not have to build some crazy industrial breeding camp with a giant pit roofed in stone with only a portal for entry.

You don't need a giant box, I've built a realistic looking farm with a barn and barnyard. The barnyard has pigs and chickens wandering around breeding, inside there are stalls on each side that enclose pairs of wolves and pigs incase the ones outside get wiped out. It's also a good idea to keep a pair secured in a second location for boars just in case.
Also spawn protection helps out alot so you don't have to worry about ground raids, learned that after I had a swamp raid and an oozer poisoned all my pigs through the barn walls but thankfully a piglet survived. Bats don't hurt anything as long as they can't get through the windows.

Drakes are a temporary event so not much of an issue.

In case of bats, you could keep a portion of the herd in a sheltered area. Think of them as if being in labor or something.

Personally I think breeding is pointless not because of the animals being vulnerable, but because, other than chickens, you can get all the food and materials simply by hunting them in the wild. Having an army of guard dogs might be appealing to some but it sure isn't for me. :)

You don't have to raise animals if you find it overtly complicated. It would be silly if it was Minecraft-level easy. Seen enough games with that already.

Appreciate the constructive/ helpful suggestions! I guess the best i'll really be able to do is build a barn with glass windows and no other openings to safeguard a few of the breeding stock from bats..at least that seems the best choice for now.

Have you considered just not having raids on your livestock?

Here's a list of "player base" items. Have no more than 2 of these items within 40 meters of each other. https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Player_base

Make your farms away from your "base", and simply don't build any "player base" items near them. A workbench is 10 wood; build it when you need to use it, then tear it back down and stuff the wood in a chest for next time.

Voila, no raids.

Thanks i had not considered that as an option before...usually I have at least a few of those items at farms etc. I'll have to space them out more or remove some as you say and build it when i need it. I usually build a primary forge base or two and have minor stuff scattered around the map which is where my farms build up anyway..You would still have the risk of a player attracting the raids even if you remove the base items right? Just a lower chance?

Skill issue

Raids with Drakes won't happen anymore after you killed a specific boss (might be Moder).
Bats can't get in closed buildings. -> Put your boars in an enclosed pen and you're golden (or closer to it).

I had the fortune of populating the surroundings of my base with wolfs (they multiply on their own now) before bats even existed but I did loose a bunch of boars to Drakes even after building a roof over the pen.
The Drakes shot out a fence and the boars ran into the slaughter :-/

If only the game provided a way to put animals inside of a protective box.....oh wait, it does.

2* animals

Originally posted by Kvarig:

Bats and drakes ...1 raid and your breeding program is over they will kill every boar or whatever it is you are breeding. Why even have the breeding mechanic in game at all if the AI goes right for them and no defensive strategy will stop the total slaughter of all tamed animals. So far only wolves survive if they are 1-2 star and there are enough of them because they will attack the flying rats or drakes if you build any kind of roofed enclosure. but that same roof = doom for boar farms as bats get thru any opening and kill them all.

build smarter for your animals to roam in an area for themselves with enough protection, use the iron bars, stone walls and if youre really desperate then just make use of moats

the bats are a real nuisance and is just tedious and annoying to kill, hopefully theyll provide a way to block specific raids in the future

So basically build a giant box fully enclosed is the only way to protect them...wow thats great... I'd much rather be able to have a more realistic looking farm and not have to build some crazy industrial breeding camp with a giant pit roofed in stone with only a portal for entry.