Working Cats

Description

Vanilla promises: "Cats hunt rats in the settlement."

This mod makes it true.

Farthest Frontier's Pet DLC added cats — and even shipped the plumbing for rat-catching cats (a catCount field, cat-based rat-control curves, pet slots on the Rat Catcher). It was never connected. This mod finishes the job.

Cats from your Cat Kennel automatically attach to Rat Catcher buildings — the same way dogs attach to Hunters. No micromanagement. They patrol the work area and kill rats through the vanilla rodent system: kills are recorded in the building's own "Rodents Killed This Year" counter — full vanilla integration, not a fake HUD.

Cats appear as pet cards in the Rat Catcher window (portraits, names, statuses). They work across your whole town automatically — cellars, markets, houses: wherever rats live inside the Rat Catcher's radius.

Cats rest in winter (rats despawn in winter anyway — vanilla rule). Attachments persist across save/load. Built for large towns: no scene scans in update loops, tested on a 285-resident settlement.

Manual control: select a Rat Catcher and press C to attach a cat instantly, Shift+C to release cats and disable auto-attach for that building.

ROADMAP

[]Cozy companions — cats as residents of the Tavern, Bakery, Tier-5 homes, Fisherman's Boathouse (presence + pet cards, no stats)[/]

[]Idle spots — cats visibly lounging at their building's door[/]

[]Fisherman's cat — occasional fresh fish at the boathouse[/]

The rats never stood a chance.

Installation instructions

1. Install MelonLoader 0. 7. 0 — run the installer once, point it at the Mono version of the game exe (Farthest Frontier (Mono)).

2. Drop WorkingCats.dll into Farthest Frontier (Mono)\Mods\

3. Launch the game and load a save.

4. Check MelonLoader\Latest.log for the init line — you're live.

5. Build a Rat Catcher, own cats (Pet DLC) — they walk over and start working on their own. Optional manual control: select the building, C / Shift+C.

Main features

[]Auto-attach — cats from your kennel join Rat Catchers on their own, like dogs joining Hunters (up to 2 per building)[/]

[]Vanilla integration — rats are removed through the game's own rodent system; kills count in the building's native "Rodents Killed This Year" stats[/]

[]Pet cards — cats show up in the Rat Catcher window with portraits, names and statuses[/]

[]Whole-town coverage — cats clear every rat-infested building inside the Rat Catcher's radius: cellars, markets, homes[/]

[]Manual override — C attaches a cat to the selected building, Shift+C releases cats and disables auto-attach there[/]

[]Winter rest — cats idle in winter, matching the vanilla rat cycle[/]

[]Save-safe — attachments persist across sessions[/]

[]Performance-friendly — no scene scans in update loops; built and tested on a 285-resident town[/]

[]Configurable — keybind, cats-per-building, catch rate, duty radius (UserData\WorkingCats\config.txt, created on first run)[/]

Requirements

[]Farthest Frontier v1. 1. 2a — Mono version only (Farthest Frontier (Mono) build; will not load on the . NET build)[/]

[]MelonLoader 0. 7. 0[/]

[]Pets DLC — cats come from the Cat Kennel[/]

Standalone mod — no other mods required.

If you also run Cats and Dogs Combat, its experimental "CatRats" feature covers similar ground — disable one of the two to avoid double-counting.

Shout outs

Crate Entertainment — for a great game, and for leaving the cat system half-built where modders could find it.

The FF modding community — for paving the MelonLoader path.

Misty & Wren — the first working cats in the settlement