Lately I've got a hankering for getting animals. Pigs are great for hauling. Cows for milk. Boomalopes for chemfuel (get them early). Muffalos for caravans, milk and wool. Cougars and panthers for hauling, if you can get them from traders or self-tames.
However, maybe this is too much? :-\ Where do you draw the line?
The cow sleeps outside because there aren't enough beds in the barn. Again.
(http://i.imgur.com/0hDLzrDl.png) (https://imgur.com/0hDLzrD)
(http://i.imgur.com/orMiT2Wl.png) (https://imgur.com/orMiT2W)
Cows in a pasture for free milk. Sell or slaughter all bulls as they come of age, except always have 2 in case your big daddy dies. Same with muffalo, alpaca, etc though I tend to only have one kind at a time.
Wargs in pretty much any quantity. Let them eat your dead enemies and hunt on their own, but don't let them in your food. They will tend to self regulate their numbers.
And that's about it. The other animals are at best too much work and at worst downright detrimental.
I allways like to get Boomalopes for the Chemfuel. I prefer chemfuel generators over solar/wind generatos since it is a stable power generation and i don't need batteries.
Even on extrem biomes once i have a greenhouse to plant haygrass from them.
Panther,cougar or wargs are nice hauler and they even slowly remove the raider corpse, because they eat them !
But don't forget they are wild creatures and your animal handler will fail much more to keep them tamed then when you got cultivated dogs/pigs.
But i gave up to have animals for milk,egg,meat. Mosttimes my freezer got more then enough animal corpses from manhunter events then i would need.
But that depend on the colony size and what meal you prefer to feed.
And with Giddyup mod, you even can ride animals, great addition for caravans and if you got some slow pawn's and they need to go outside.
Animals are aweome. The line is drawn by my cpu ;D
Haha, fair point ;D
Once you get a critical mass from one species, they seem to breed out of control. Cows and cougars are procreating like nuts, if you can excuse the pun. Actually only have two adult bulls like advised above, but that is more than enough. And I prefer to only tame/buy female boomalopes, muffalos, pigs. Otherwise the population gets too insane. Muffalos are mainly for caravans after all, though it's nice with a bit of milk and wool along the way.
With over 100 animals and 30 pawns, however, feeding them all is starting to become an issue. Really wish the game didn't stop sending manhunter events when you grow. It's a great way to get ahead on meat needs. Currently I'm basically emptying the map for wildlife, and also buying all the meat I get from traders.
Should probably have culled the cow flock earlier, but I don't have the heart to kill them. Female cows are so useful, and they're kinda cute as well. I love panthers and cougars too. They have free reign of the map, will feed on dead raiders and the occasional self-killed animal, and will haul stuff all over the place, plus helping out in the base proper to refill stockpiles and move stuff to and from the freezer.
Definitely true that it takes up much time to keep them trained, and even with high skills the trainer will frequently fail, but I do think it's worth it. They're so useful, and I'm a cat person so simply love them ;D
Rare to be able to get a breeding pair, but if they self-tame or traders offer them, I will always buy if I have the funds.
Boomalopes do eat a lot, but they're actually really useful too. I like to tame a few early, and start getting a chemfuel supply, for when I need it much later for mortars and transport pods. If you get an infinite chemfuel generator quest -- always take it on. Fantastic item.
Oh crap. The negative about having a couple of animals.
(https://i.imgur.com/BaKoAMZ.png)
You say oh crap, your pawn say "Yeah fresh meat!" :-)
Beside bond animals i wouldn't try to safe them.
Oh, I'm going to try :) If some die it will be meat as you say, and as they are breeding like bunnies it won't be a huge concern as long as the bonded animals don't die. And I honestly love the sight of a stream of cougars hauling in truckloads of dead raiders/mechs, or steel chunks when I need more steel.
Well, there is my stable. Implementation of the best way to feed animals. 8)
I have a game right now where I have Alpaca's, Boomaloopes, and chickens.
It's quite time consuming to ensure I have "pens" and food for them. I've had to start keeping the males and females separated. At one point I had 130 boomaloopes on the map. And they're not the easiest to "slaughter". But I saw a youtube video about using them as attack dogs, so any time I got sieged or a poison ship I would zone them there and several forest fires later and a kind orbital trader i'm down to 15. But I still have to keep the boys and girls separate. Same on alpaca's. The Alpaca's for the most part can live off the grass but they can become to much as well so I had to separate them. I have about 20 of them now.
I also have 2 Labrador males and 1 arctic wolf male I started with called bart. I had a 3rd female Labrador dog and used to breed them and sold off the pups but she died in a meteorite crash when it blew up 3 boomaloops and half the alpaca's at the time. RANDY sure likes to mess with animals.
For my chickens they eat the most. I have a 10x10 room full of hay for them and when it hits about 1/3rd I kill all the chickens (chics included) except for my 6 originals atm (until they too old) to fertilize more eggs. I'm sitting on about 200-300 eggs to cook with at any given time as they can really start to produce if you don't collect the eggs. I will slaughter when they hit about 30 population. BUT if RANDY is being RANDY, I can easily get caught up in other matters and their population can soar to the 70-100 range. It took my cooks 3 days to slaughter and butcher all the chickens back down to my 6.
But animals are almost a time investment in their own right. If you're not used to animal farming I recommend getting a meat eating dog or giant cat. Taming boomaloopes, and until geothermal using EXCLUSIVELY chemfuel from your milked boomaloopes. You'll learn all the negative parts of animals slowly while at least getting a large/decent pay off. I like to have boomaloopes and a hair shearing animal. It's why I have alpaca's atm. But Muffalo's and Camel are good too. But by having a large Alpaca population I can use the hair to make my clothes and furniture so that the cloth is exclusively used for furniture that requires it and carpets. But mostly for carpets and crafting medicine.
Anyways sorry for the wall of text, but Animals can be both fun and a nightmare.
Alpacas have the additional benefit that they can learn "Release" unlike Muffalos and Dromedaries. So a herd of attack alpacas is a thing. Plus alpacas are adorable and make really good wool IRL - so soooooft. An alpaca wool/silk blend is the softest yarn ever. :D
There's a mod out there that lets you neuter animals, for what it's worth - you can slow your population growth without having to separate your herds. Altho that's very effective too!
I have a horror of chickens....early on, I was playing with the scenario editor, and landed with 200 fertilized chicken eggs. Well. My computer couldn't handle 200 new chicks running around - it was craaaawling. So I went to go slaughter them, and discovered they were not tame. Okay, go hunt the d*** things. Killed 1, 2, 3, ...angered that one. And all the other chickens nearby were angered.
The first pawn went down almost instantly, mobbed by angry poultry. The second colonist, fought bravely, backed into a corner, but she was quickly ripped to shreds. The last one saw what was happening and bolted. He ran for the map's edge, with this long line of every chick on the map moving towards him. One. Slow. Frame. At. A. Time. He didn't make it.
I don't do large numbers of chickens any more.
Where do you draw the line?
Me? When the herbivores start starving to death over the winter. Or the carnivores eat EVERY animal on the map in Decebrary.
Quote from: B@R5uk on December 16, 2019, 08:46:59 AM
Well, there is my stable. Implementation of the best way to feed animals. 8)
Can animals use the Nutrient paste dispenser? Because if so what are the details and need to knows if any?
No animals can't use the NPD.
When the next colonist of you use the NPD you need to watch him.
1.Pause once he got a nutripastemeal,
2.draft him and he drop the nutripastemeal,
3.forbid it,
4.undraft so he will take a new one
5. repeat 2. until you got enough nutripastemeal on the ground for a few days for the animals.
If you like to use mod's take a look at Replimat, it is a hightech version of the NPC and even got a kibble dispencer.
Quote from: Livingston I Presume on February 03, 2020, 04:34:35 PM
Quote from: B@R5uk on December 16, 2019, 08:46:59 AM
Well, there is my stable. Implementation of the best way to feed animals. 8)
Can animals use the Nutrient paste dispenser? Because if so what are the details and need to knows if any?
No, they don't. You need hungry colonist every now and then to fill freezer with NPM for them to eat.
Quote from: Canute on February 03, 2020, 04:48:25 PM
When the next colonist of you use the NPD you need to watch him.
1.Pause once he got a nutripastemeal,
2.draft him and he drop the nutripastemeal,
3.forbid it,
4.undraft so he will take a new one
5. repeat 2. until you got enough nutripastemeal on the ground for a few days for the animals.
Well, in my case it's a little bit trickier as my colonists eat fine meals from entire different freeser. I need to watch out for hungry one, draft him, drop food out of inventory and lead to animal freeser. Once there, I need to forbid entrance doors, as otherwise he will not take NPM but go to find fine meal. Than I do as stated above. Oh! And NPM should be allowed meal in meals policy.
Quote from: Canute on February 03, 2020, 04:48:25 PM
No animals can't use the NPD.
When the next colonist of you use the NPD you need to watch him.
1.Pause once he got a nutripastemeal,
2.draft him and he drop the nutripastemeal,
3.forbid it,
4.undraft so he will take a new one
5. repeat 2. until you got enough nutripastemeal on the ground for a few days for the animals.
If you like to use mod's take a look at Replimat, it is a hightech version of the NPC and even got a kibble dispencer.
I thought it was too good to be true, sounds like far too much micro for me haha. Cheers, for the mod suggestion though.
Quote from: Livingston I Presume on February 03, 2020, 04:54:13 PMsounds like far too much micro for me haha.
Well, it is but depending on the herd size you need to do it once is a few days.
And it pretty quick done.
Just repeatly draft/undraft and you got 10 meals on the ground, then just forbid the next stack, ....
It is just important that you pause at the point he stand befor the NPD.
Quote from: Canute on February 03, 2020, 05:14:23 PMJust repeatly draft/undraft and you got 10 meals on the ground, then just forbid the next stack, ...
Actually, when there is a large pile of meals lying around and the next unforbidden meal is far enough, you don't need to stop pressing "R" anymore, as hungry pawn prefer to grub new meal from the dispenser right away than to go for ready one on the ground.
Quote from: Livingston I Presume on February 03, 2020, 04:54:13 PM
sounds like far too much micro for me haha. Cheers, for the mod suggestion though.
Exactly what I thought too when I read about that exploit way back. Besides, with 150+ animals, you'd probably be up shit creek with that trick anyway, and have to repeat it frequently.
Quote from: Pangaea on November 08, 2019, 07:17:40 PM
Lately I've got a hankering for getting animals. Pigs are great for hauling. Cows for milk. Boomalopes for chemfuel (get them early). Muffalos for caravans, milk and wool. Cougars and panthers for hauling, if you can get them from traders or self-tames.
However, maybe this is too much? :-\ Where do you draw the line?
The cow sleeps outside because there aren't enough beds in the barn. Again.
(http://i.imgur.com/0hDLzrDl.png) (https://imgur.com/0hDLzrD)
(http://i.imgur.com/orMiT2Wl.png) (https://imgur.com/orMiT2W)
Wow, that's an awesome amount, especially the predators. How do you feed them all?!
I feel like I don't use animals enough! I've been trying to survive the ship warm-up. My most successful attempt so far has involved using all of my animals for defense.