Animal Leash – lead your animals by rope

In Valheim only wolves, boars, lox and asksvin can follow you, and they do it loosely: they stop three metres away, lag behind, turn off after anything they want to fight, and stay behind at every portal. This mod adds a leash: a hemp lead with a leather collar. Put it on a tame animal and it walks right behind you, held by a real rope. A hen goes to her new coop, a boar crosses the river, a wolf comes aboard your ship.

	Where	Cost
Leash	Workbench	2 Leather scraps, 1 Deer hide
Hitching rail	Hammer → Misc, near a workbench	6 Wood, 2 Leather scraps

Leading an animal

Put the leash in your hotbar.
Look at a tame animal and use the leash, the same way you put a saddle on a lox. A collar goes round its neck, and the rope runs from it to your hand.
Walk. The animal walks behind you, and runs when you run.

Every tame animal: wolves, boars, lox, hens, asksvin, and tame animals of other mods. Hens follow too, though the game never let them.
Their young too: cubs, piglets, calves and chicks. A young animal on the leash keeps it when it grows up, and a hen keeps it when she becomes a Cluck Fighter.
Up to three at once, each on its own leash. They walk side by side behind you.
The rope holds. It never lets an animal fall further behind than its length. If you run faster than a hen can, you drag her along. The rope does not pull an animal through walls. Behind a fence or a low wall it looks for a way round. If it is stuck, it hops over to you.
Not distracted. On the leash an animal does not wander, chase or flee.
E on your animal takes the leash off. You get the leash back and the animal stays where it is. It grazes around that spot from now on, the way it does after the game's own stay.
Wild animals take no leash. Tame them first.

The hitching rail

Two posts and a bar with four rope rings, made of the game's own wood pole.

Lead your animals to it and press E on the rail. Each is tied short to a free ring and waits there.
A tied animal eats what lies within reach of its rope, so a rail beside a feeding trough or a drop of food keeps it fed. Food further off it leaves alone and does not strain at the rope. The same goes for an animal on your leash while you stand still, and one tied on deck.
Riding an animal unties it.
E on the rail again unties all of them onto your leash. E on a single animal takes only that one.
If the rail is torn down, the ropes hang loose.

Portals and ships

Portals: animals on your leash come through with you. They arrive beside and behind you, on firm ground.
Boarding: stand on a ship's deck, and an animal on your leash jumps aboard after you. Step ashore and it jumps after you again.
Sailing: on deck, E on your animal ties it to the ship. It stands still at its place and sails with it, even in a swell. If it is washed overboard, it climbs back to its knot. E takes the lead again.
Animals wider than 2 m or taller than 4.5 m, such as a grown dragon, stay ashore.

Carts

An animal hitched to a cart (the game's own cart, or a LoxCarts wagon) pulls the cart. The rope does not drag it, and it does not hop, so the hitch holds. It cannot go through a portal with the cart: the leash slips from your hand there.

A loose leash

Sometimes the leash slips from your hand, and then it hangs from the animal's collar and trails on the ground:

you went through a portal while ThroughPortals is off;
you suddenly ended up far away (you fell, flew, or the animal was stuck behind a wall);
you died or logged out;
another player mounted your animal.

The animal stays where it is. E on it takes the lead again. When it dies with a leash on, the leash drops beside it.

The real thing

The rope is drawn the way a rope hangs. A rope of length L between two points d apart sags into a parabola whose arc length is L:

L = ½·√(d² + 16 s²) + d²/(8 s) · ln((4 s + √(d² + 16 s²)) / d)

The mod solves this for the sag s each frame. A slack lead hangs deep, and a lead at full stretch runs straight. A light rope really hangs as a catenary, but for sags this small the parabola is within a few per cent of it.

The hop over a ship's side is a real throw. The animal jumps with the launch speed that lands it on deck under the game's own gravity, rising half a metre above the higher end.

The collar is fitted to each animal. The mod finds the bones of the neck, takes the skin they move on the animal's own mesh, and measures it round the middle of the neck. The measured neck radius is 21 cm for a wolf, 7 cm for a hen and 71 cm for a lox, and a dragon's collar sits on its long neck.

Configuration

BepInEx/config/zap.animalleash.cfg

Leash, travel and recipes (server-synced, admin only)

MaxLed (3): animals one player can lead at once.
RopeLength (2.2): rope from the hand to the neck, in metres. Big animals get their body on top.
Excluded (empty): creatures that never take a leash, as prefab names, for example CF_CluckFighter. Summoned helpers never take one.
WardProtectsTied (on): inside a ward, only players with access can untie an animal or take a loose leash.
ThroughPortals (on): animals on the leash come through portals. Off: the leash slips at the portal.
OnShips (on): animals jump aboard after you and can be tied to the ship.
Leash, LeashStation, HitchingRail: costs and station, for example LeatherScraps:2,DeerHide:1.

Client

HoverHints (on): an animal's hover text tells you how to leash it while you carry a leash.

Multiplayer and compatibility

Everyone needs the mod. The server's settings apply to all.
All players see the same ropes and collars. The player who holds a leash runs the animal on their own machine, so the rope pulls without lag.
What this mod does not change: taming, feeding times, breeding, and the game's own follow and stay for animals without a leash.
Made to work beside these mods:
- Cluck Fighters: fighters take this leash too. While one wears it, it does not start ring fights, and its own fighter's leash waits until this one is off. One that wears its own leash, sits at its tether post or is fighting does not take this one.
- Wolf Riding, Better Riding and other riding mods: the leash also works when you aim at the saddle or tack. Mounting unties the animal. When another player mounts it, the leash slips from your hand. A pet bonded to another player takes no leash from you. A pet called with Better Riding's call is called off by the leash.
- Wolfborn and Elemental Dragons: their wolves and tame dragons take the leash. On the leash a dragon walks and does not fly.
- Feeding Troughs: a tied animal eats from a trough within reach of its rope and leaves troughs further off to others.
- Starborn Breeding: a lucky birth keeps its leash when it grows up.
- LoxCarts: see Carts.

Deutsch

Tierleine – Tiere am Strick führen. In Vanilla folgen nur Wolf, Eber, Lox und Asksvin, und das nur locker. Sie bleiben drei Meter zurück, laufen jedem Gegner hinterher und bleiben an jedem Portal stehen. Die Tierleine ist ein Hanfstrick mit Lederhalsband. Benutze sie aus der Schnellleiste an einem zahmen Tier, wie einen Sattel. Dann läuft es dicht hinter dir her, an einem echten Seil.

Werkbank: 2 Lederfetzen, 1 Hirschhaut. Anbindebalken: Hammer → Sonstiges, 6 Holz, 2 Lederfetzen.

Führen: Das geht mit allen zahmen Tieren, auch mit Hühnern, mit Jungtieren und mit zahmen Tieren anderer Mods (Kampfhähne, Wolfborn, Drachen). Ein Jungtier behält die Leine, wenn es erwachsen wird, eine Henne, wenn sie zum Kampfhahn wird. Bis zu drei Tiere führst du zugleich, sie laufen nebeneinander hinter dir. Das Seil lässt kein Tier weiter zurück, als es lang ist. Rennst du, ziehst du ein langsames Tier mit. Durch Wände zieht es kein Tier: Dann sucht das Tier einen Weg, und steckt es fest, springt es über. Angeleint streunt, jagt und flieht es nicht. E nimmt die Leine ab. Das Tier bleibt dann dort und grast um diese Stelle.

Anbindebalken: Führe Tiere hin und drücke E am Balken. Jedes wird kurz an einen freien Ring gebunden und frisst, was in Reichweite seines Seils liegt, auch aus einem Futtertrog. Weiter entferntes Futter lässt es liegen. E am Balken nimmt alle wieder an die Leine. E an einem Tier nimmt nur dieses. Wer ein angebundenes Tier reitet, bindet es los.

Portal und Schiff: Angeleinte Tiere kommen mit durchs Portal. Sie springen dir an Bord nach und beim Aussteigen wieder an Land. An Deck bindet E das Tier ans Schiff, dann fährt es mit. Fällt es über Bord, klettert es an seinen Platz zurück. Tiere breiter als 2 m oder höher als 4,5 m, etwa ein ausgewachsener Drache, bleiben an Land.

Wagen: Ein Tier vor einem Karren oder LoxCarts-Wagen zieht den Wagen, das Seil zerrt dann nicht an ihm. Durchs Portal kann es mit dem Wagen nicht, dort gleitet dir die Leine aus der Hand.

Andere Mods: Kampfhähne mit Tierleine fangen keinen Ringkampf an. Ihre eigene Kampfhahn-Leine passt erst, wenn die Tierleine ab ist. Sattel und Geschirr (Wolf Riding, Lox) nehmen die Leine genauso an wie das Tier. Steigt ein anderer Spieler auf dein Tier, gleitet dir die Leine aus der Hand. Ein mit Better Riding an jemand anderen gebundenes Tier nimmt deine Leine nicht. An der Leine fliegt ein Drache nicht, er läuft.

Lose Leine: Rutscht dir die Leine aus der Hand, hängt sie am Halsband. Das passiert beim Portal mit ThroughPortals = false, wenn du plötzlich weit weg bist, wenn du stirbst oder dich abmeldest, oder wenn ein anderer Spieler aufsteigt. E nimmt das Tier wieder an die Leine. Stirbt ein angeleintes Tier, fällt die Leine neben ihm zu Boden.

Echt: Das Seil hängt als Parabel mit seiner wahren Länge durch. Der Sprung an Bord ist ein echter Wurf unter der Schwerkraft des Spiels. Das Halsband wird an der Haut gemessen, die die Halsknochen des Tiers bewegen: 21 cm Halsradius beim Wolf, 7 cm beim Huhn, 71 cm beim Lox.