Help with tamed animals

[Robb]

New player here....

I started off with a warg and thought that was a pretty cool pet to start off with. But I'm not even through Fall in my first year and I've been inundated with self-tamed animals.

Have 1 buck and doe (both deer)
3 Alpacas
10 cats

They were eating everything until I finally figured out how to bar them from my freezer. But I don't what I should do with them all. I assume I can train the alpacas to be pack animals, but do the deer and cats have any useful purpose? Or can I slaughter them without any mood penalties? Pretty sure since they can't get into freezer they will start raiding my crops.

[Canute]

Deer = meat
Cat = meat and happyness
Alpaca = milk,wool,caravan transport and ofcouse meat.

You should just keep that many animals you can affort to feed. Or when you let them move freely around they maybe targetdummy for predator animals or raids.

I think you allready found out, that you shoul 1. mark your freezer als animal zone, then invert it.

[AngleWyrm]

Some animals can be trained to do hauling chores, and relieve your colonists from that duty so they can do better things.

And many animals can be traded for hundreds of silver to the exotic goods caravans.

[Greep]

You'll want alpaca for the wool, wait a season, get a few hundred silver in wool.  Just restrict them to stay in a small zone nearby with animal zones to graze and they'll just eat natural grass.  Slaughter the rest   As for hauling, generally boars or huskies.

[Pink Photon]

If you use mods (which I recommend in general), here's one that would help.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=30708#msg313430

It changes animal behavior so that, for example, your alpaca will always try to eat grass before going for crops or meals or whatever, and animals such as cats and wargs will try to hunt prey before eating your food. As a nice bonus, animals often don't eat their prey whole, so you'll get a steady stream of half-eaten animals you can butcher.

[RazorHed]

Another super useful mod I use a lot with my animals is Industrial Rollers. I put a small 5x5 or so  animal area next to my colossal freezer . I have a puller machine pull through the freezer wall onto a 1x1 stockpile for hay . I make tons of hay . So that feed zone of hay is always full for the animals to eat. then theres a zone over the whole barn that has a puller machine onto a roller that pulls all the eggs, wool , corpses and sends them away to whatever zone they need to go to.

I only ever make kibble if I use dogs for hauling , which I never do because pigs are superior and they eat hay. 50 or 60 hens in that coop will cover you for protein forever either by 75 chicks every couple days or just unfertilized eggs. Iguanas are pretty good too for meat. I also keep a heard of muffalos in there till I go on a caravan, and 5 to 6 boomalopes , since I use the mod to make nuetroamine from their juice.

[Robb]

Thank you for the suggestions...

I didn't even think of selling them to a trader. I do have food enough for everyone. In fact I have way too much. I planted too many/too large so my freezer is overstocked and some of the crops just sit and deteriorate in the field. In a way I'm glad I did as have already had 1 Blight come through.

I will be adding mods at some point but since I'm a really new player I think I would like to complete at least one play-through before installing any. Would like to get a better handle on the game first. But I am interested in them (eventually) so i am taking notes on the one suggested.

@ RazorHed..is there any chance I could ask you for a pic of your freezer/barn setup? I'm really interested in what it looks like.

Again thanks for the help
Robb

[RazorHed]

Sure Robb , here is how my current base works. I'll link to any mod I use that shows up in the pics.

The Freezer


Industrial Rollers
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=26967.0

I have a loop of rollers that goes around the freezer then passes item storage and around by the fields. There  is a pusher machine that pushes whatever into the proper zone in the freezer and elsewhere off the main roller line.

A:Smaller Main Hay storage
B:Hay Overflow with a puller to A if it ever empties
C:Herbal Meds and plant matter
D:Large corpse storage
E:1x1 corpse storage right by door to the butcher with a puller machine to keep it stocked with a corpse when I have an abundance of corpses
F:Main Meat storage with a puller to G , off till G empties
G:Meat storage that sends to a 1x1 zone right by the stove
H:Veggies with a puller to a 1x1 zone right  by the stove
I:Veggie overflow with a puller to H if it empties
J:Meals

The Main Base


A: Hay till im full then Psychoid leaves
B: Trees Cecropia in the beginning then Teak
C: Always Devilstrand
D: Corn or Hay whichever is lower or Psychoid Leaves
E: Always Cotton
F: Corn or Hay whichever is lower or Psychoid Leaves
G: Corn or Hay whichever is lower or Psychoid Leaves
H: only Silver + beacon
I: Everthing that has no specific zone
J: Stone Chunks
K: Stuff I take on caravans to sell

The Barn


A: Meat (eventually only unfertilised eggs)pulled to stove
B: Veggies pilled to stove
C: Main Corpse storage fills up fast if I keep roosters in with all my hens
D: When I have lots of corpses a use a puller to keep a corpse here to save run time to the butcher table
E:  The corpse Butcher table the zone around it catches meat and leather
F: butcher table to make compost for a mod
G: Compost room to make fertilizer
H: The animal spot , a 5x5 animal area , also 2 zones 5x5 minus 1x1 top right which holds hay. Anything that falls on the zone gets pulled onto the roller belt . All animals live here only , unless its a hauling trained pig which then goes to a special zone which covers the entire map but the meals zone and any potted plant which they just LOVE to eat .. dirty bastages
I:Slaughter spot

Fertile Fields Mod
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=29473.0

Base Location ( makes things way too easy)


Caravans always exit south , and only take maybe 5 hours to get to one of those villages.but from the village to my home zone is instant.

[Robb]

Wow. First off thank you for taking the time to reply with all the pics/descriptions. Looks I have a long way to go before I have anything comparable. Very nice setup. Will still complete one vanilla paythru but will definitely get rollers on my next base.

Hadn't though about caravans/base proximity, so my nearest friendly neighbor isn't even on the world map
if I'm on the closest zoom. Sounds like they would take weeks to do roundtrip.

Couple questions..

Is your freezer double walled? Is it for insulation or is it more for protection from raids? Are single walls really bad for freezers?

Looks like your conveyor belt goes around fthe freezer and through all fields. I assume anything grown/harvested has to be placed manually on belt. But the 'pushers' can be set to only push off certain items? Wouldn't they just fall on the first tile after pusher? Or does the mod somehow push all items down one tile to make room for next? Or do I need to manually place them in the freezer after they have been dumped off? Guess I could always get mod and find out for myself.

[Canute]

Double/tripple walls islolate the temperature more then single walls, which means you need less cooler/heater and need less power overall.

The belt system go:
Belts: move things around
Puller : pulls things from a stockpile on the belt behind.
Pusher: push things from a belt to a stockpile behind and stack things up.
Ofcourse they got the same storage settings like a stockpiles so you can select what pusher/puller do what.
But be warned, pullers are very power hungry.

After you finished your current colony you realy should take a look into mod, they enhance the game in various ways and give you a different gameexpierence.

And when you need a challenge take a look at the Hardcore-SK modpack.

[RazorHed]

Yes the freezer is double walled . The temperature tries to equalize with the outside , and the double walls stop it pretty much.

there are several small zones directly on my roller belt going through the fields. I tried one long zone once but they will carry things way too far to odd points on the zone instead of walk a few feet to the nearest belt.

Yes pushers have to have their input on a roller and output to either a zone or a belt. They can be set to only push certain things just like any zone. 

Pullers input needs to be a zone , the bigger the zone the more power it uses, which is why I use a smaller zone to pull from constantly and a larger overflow zone with a puller between them that I only power when the small zone empties. Pullers can be set to allow certain items just like a zone too.

I also have a belt going way over to the other side of my base by my kill box that ends in a puller which is connected to a thin zone that goes through 4 doors and has a little spot outside the wall people can drop anything on so they don't have to haul miles.

[RazorHed]

I always do a no mod play through too every new alpha build .

BaRKy
https://www.youtube.com/user/BaRKy1911

BaRKy does a lot of mod showcases you might find interesting

Bjorn Strongndarm

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6XG9r7oJU1ixftFf_73LNw

Bjorn makes some videos that show the way things work .

Jenny Nicholson

Jenny has nothing to do with Rimworld , but shes HILARIOUS.