Settings Reference
All Realistic Livestock RM settings are accessible from the mod settings menu in-game. Settings are saved per-savegame and synced in multiplayer.
Note: This documentation was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. If you spot an error, please open an issue.
Death & Accidents
| Setting | Default | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death Enabled | On | Off / On | Toggles all death mechanics (old age, low health, accidents). When off, animals live indefinitely. |
| Accidents Chance | 100% | 0% – 200% (10% steps) | Scales the probability of random accident deaths. 0% disables accidents entirely. 200% doubles the chance. Only available when Death is enabled. |
With death disabled, animals never die from any cause - but diseases can still make them sick if diseases are enabled.
Food
| Setting | Default | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food Scale | 1x | 0.5x – 5x (0.5 steps) | Multiplies all animal food consumption. At 0.5x, animals eat half as much. At 5x, they eat five times more. Does not affect water or straw. |
This setting stacks with metabolism genetics. An animal with high metabolism at maximum food scale will eat dramatically more than a low-metabolism animal at minimum scale.
Dealer & AI
| Setting | Default | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Dealer Animals | 50 | 20 – 200 (10 steps) | Maximum number of animals per species available in the animal dealer. Higher values give more choice when buying. |
| Reset Dealer | - | Button | Restocks the dealer with a fresh set of randomised animals. Use this if you want different genetics or breeds available. Admin only in multiplayer. |
| Reset AI Animals | - | Button | Refreshes the artificial insemination animal pool. Use this if the current AI pool has poor genetics. Admin only in multiplayer. |
Customisation
| Setting | Default | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tag Colour | - | Button | Opens the ear tag colour picker. Customise the colour of animal identification tags. |
| Export CSV | - | Button | Exports all animal data to a CSV file. Useful for tracking herd statistics in a spreadsheet. |
Messages
| Setting | Default | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Messages | 500 | 100 – 5,000 | Maximum number of messages stored in the message log. Older messages are removed when the limit is reached. |
| Message Summary | Off | Off / On | When off, each event (birth, death, disease) generates an individual message. When on, events are aggregated into daily summaries. |
Summary mode reduces message clutter in large herds but provides less detail per event.
Diseases
| Setting | Default | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diseases Enabled | On | Off / On | Toggles the entire disease system. When off, no animal can contract, spread, or suffer from any disease. |
| Disease Chance | 1x | 0.25x – 5x | Scales the base probability of all disease infections. At 0.25x, diseases are 4 times less common. At 5x, they're 5 times more frequent. Only available when Diseases are enabled. |
Disabling diseases removes Mastitis, CVM, Foot & Mouth, PED, and Avian Influenza entirely. Already-infected animals are not automatically cured when diseases are toggled off.
Genetics Display
| Setting | Default | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genetics Display | Off | Off / Short / Long | Shows numeric genetics values in animal names. "Short" shows average genetics as a single number (e.g., [72]). "Long" shows the average plus individual trait scores (e.g., [72-68:75:80:65:70]). |
| Genetics Position | Prefix | Prefix / Postfix | Controls where genetics values appear in the animal's name. "Prefix" places them before the name, "Postfix" places them after. Only available when Genetics Display is not Off. |
| Sort by Genetics | Off | Off / On | When enabled, animals in the animal list are sorted by average genetics (highest first) instead of the default type and age sorting. |
The genetics tag format for Long mode is [avg-metabolism:health:fertility:quality:productivity] (productivity only shown for species that have it). Values are scaled 0–99.
Custom Animals
| Setting | Default | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Animals | Off | Off / On | Enables loading a custom animals.xml file instead of the default. Allows modifying animal stats, production curves, prices, etc. Requires game restart to take effect. Not available in multiplayer. |
| Animals XML | - | Button | Opens a file picker to select the path to your custom animals.xml. Only available when Custom Animals is enabled. |
Custom animals is for advanced users who want to tweak animal statistics. The default animals.xml is located in the mod's xml/ folder and can be used as a template.
Dependencies
Some settings depend on others being enabled:
Death Enabled → Accidents Chance (only when Death is On)
Diseases Enabled → Disease Chance (only when Diseases are On)
Genetics Display → Genetics Position (only when Display is not Off)
Custom Animals → Animals XML (only when Custom Animals is On)
Dependent settings are greyed out when their parent setting is disabled.