Crops not staying planted?

[Anna]

I was playing the steam version (3.82) on 12/23/23 and I found a (bug?). I was in a field, it was Swidden Month. I saw patchy bits of ground that looked like prepared soil. I planted a crop in that square and the tile changed like normal. Upon leaving the area and coming back, the crop tile returned back to "normal". Normally when you prepare the soil and plant the crop it remains the "planted" even if you leave the area?

[Plotinus]

Are there any rabbits around?

[Brygun]

Was it a village's crop field or one of your own?

[Anna]

Are there any rabbits around?

!! rabbits can eat your crops? I did not know that! I did not see any rabbits so far. How would I protect them from getting eaten?
Fences? Traps?

[Anna]

Was it a village's crop field or one of your own?

I was about 2 tiles away from the village. No villagers wandered into the crop area so I assume it was "available".

[dangerousbrick]

Either birds or rabbits ate it, or village fields get wiped.

[PALU]

Lots of animals can eat crops. I've had significant damage caused by a badger, for instance (managed to hunt it down eventually, but it took many attempts).

Traps can provide protection to some extent. However, traps suitable for small animals will do nothing to stop medium sized animals, and traps for medium sized animals will do nothing against small animals (fences will keep large animals out, although bears can smash them if they find a reason to do so). Small and medium sized animals have no problems passing through fences.

Also note that while trees block passage for ground based animals, they're passable by birds.

[Plotinus]

In addition to the animals already mentioned, elk and reindeer eat some crops, too. I put all different kinds of traps around my field, in a trap fence -- the fence doesn't deter the small animals but if there's a trap for them nearby they'll often find their way into it anyway, based on your trapping skill

[Sami]

Was it a village's crop field or one of your own?

I was about 2 tiles away from the village. No villagers wandered into the crop area so I assume it was "available".

That is still very close to the village, so during the harvest time the villagers might actually take advantage of this field.
But as it was swidden month, and not the harvest season, we can rule out the NPCs.
The other plausible theory, as mentioned, is that the wild animals have been eating your harvest, but in that case I believe there would still be some crops to be found and not the entire field cleared.

To find out for sure, if you feel like it you can .zip up the character folder and e-mail it over to me. I'll check it out and see if there's something odd going on.

[Anna]

Was it a village's crop field or one of your own?

I was about 2 tiles away from the village. No villagers wandered into the crop area so I assume it was "available".

That is still very close to the village, so during the harvest time the villagers might actually take advantage of this field.
But as it was swidden month, and not the harvest season, we can rule out the NPCs.
The other plausible theory, as mentioned, is that the wild animals have been eating your harvest, but in that case I believe there would still be some crops to be found and not the entire field cleared.

To find out for sure, if you feel like it you can .zip up the character folder and e-mail it over to me. I'll check it out and see if there's something odd going on.

Regretfully I have since died in the game file by falling into ice and freezing/drowning to death! But thank you for the offer!