This is not a bug. Piggies need to be petted every once in a while or they become too bummed out to be nibbled. Piggies that have been petted recently enough by someone else will let people with enough AK nibble, piggies that are already bummed out need a pet first.
No, they should not be getting bummed out this fast. I used to be able to do the entire Piggy Porkway route and encounter nothing but happy, nibbly piggies. My own piggies were fine as long as they had some kind of interaction every few days. Now I encounter nothing but bummed piggies wherever I go, and my own won't be nibbled even if I just petted them the previous game day.
This is unusual behavior. It might be a nerf, not a bug, but it's not the way it used to be either way.
I moved my collectors around and they started working again so that was a different thing (probably had them too close together).
I also noticed recently that I petted all the pigs in my back yard, then went to the front yard briefly than back again. When I got back into the back yard all the pigs had reset and needed petting again to give meat, even though I hadn't nibbled most of them after petting the first time. However, on other occasions I'd spent much longer than that in my back yard without needing to re-pet anyone before being able to nibble them. So it seems to be more of a going-away-and-coming-back issue (like they get reset to 'meat out' when you enter the street) than a time-since-last-petting issue.
I haven't checked today if it's fixed but figured I'd recount my experiences in case they're helpful.
We did look into it, and found no difference with street piggies that led us to believe anything other than the piggies mood was low, hence, they need the petting.
But shouldn't it last for a few nibbles then? Heck, sometimes I pet my piggies and don't nibble and if a new day happens before I nibble they still need another petting first.
even if i've fed and petted my homestreet piggies without nibbling on them, if i go elsewhere then return to my homestreet and try to nibble, i am still required to pet them first. This is incredibly annoying given that i'm getting no benefit from the skill...
Kevbob, that doesn't make any sense. I'm having to pet my piggies every single game day, which is NOT how they were working before this thread was created 56 days ago. I hardly ever had to pet home street piggies to nibble and then all of a sudden they all wanted petting 100% of the time before I could nibble, as if I didn't have AK VII.
Let's ask this differently. How many nibbles is it supposed to take to lower the mood of a piggy to where you can't nibble with AK VII, and how well does petting twice restore mood? If my piggies are all refusing to be nibbled and I pet twice and nibble twice with AK VII, is it expected that I should have to pet again the next Glitch day?
My guess is that petting restores more mood than nibbling takes, and some mood gets lost as time passes. (Possibly each game day)
This would mean that piggies nibbled and petted by multiple Glitches can maintain a good mood for far longer than a Piggy who gets nibbled by just one person. Backyard piggies simply don't get the chance to build up a high enough 'mood reserve' to take with them to the next day, since they only get one petting every day, not counting the days when their owner is asleep.
Depending on how high their 'mood meter' goes, it could take quite a while for the piggy's mood to hit rock bottom, which would explain the difference in behaviour we're all seeing now.
So the trick to keeping piggies happy is keeping them in your Home street and make sure they get lots of visitors, or just pet them every day. You're the only Glitch those poor bundles of bacon get to see. :'(