Forest or agrarian nightmare?

[BaloneyOs]

Not having sand in the starting biome really helps secure farmland efficently! It's still way grindier than the sandstone start though because mealwood is so labor intensive. Maybe devs can address the forest early game tedium in some way.

Now if only acorn chances weren't glitched.

[mathmanican]

1 hour ago, BaloneyOs said:

because mealwood is so labor intensive

You can put each section of your farm behind a door, keep it locked till all the plants are ready to harvest, and then get them syncronized.  This will eliminate the tedium. 

Even if you farm them in tiles, you can do the same thing. Interestingly enough, mealwood continues to grow even when it runs out of dirt. A single 25kg delivery of dirt, right after harvesting, is enough to fully grow the next batch.  I've been using this for several months now to basically eliminate the extra labor.  And if I have enough planted, then I just open the doors once every 7 cycles after the food has self harvested, and the dupes (1) deliver 25kg of dirt to every plant first (very fast), and then (2) extract all the food.  Quite fast. Hope this helps. 

[beowulf2010]

@mathmanican, do you build some sort of automation timer or do you just check your farms once a cycle to cycle through the lock/unlock processes? 

[mathmanican]

Just now, beowulf2010 said:

@mathmanican, do you build some sort of automation timer or do you just check your farms once a cycle to cycle through the lock/unlock processes? 

From the start of the game, I open/close my farms manually once every 3-7 cycles (more often if I need more food, less often if have plenty). I generally plant more than twice what I need, so I can let it self harvest.  By the time I get to needing full automation, I have usually ripped out all my mealwood and replaced it with fully automated bristle berry farms and leave the doors locked forever. With the new self planting, I'll still use doors to keep things on a nice schedule (reduces dupe back and forth time). A simple water clock could easily automate all this, but I haven't bothered.

[Lilalaunekuh]

For me after beta testing (Rime/Aridio/Oceania each on ravanging hunger/double food consumption):

=>Forest feels way easier than the (old) sandstone start.

Spoiler

And the remaining natural tiles/nature reserves look way better without the holes the sand left behind.

 

[BaloneyOs]

14 minutes ago, mathmanican said:

mealwood continues to grow even when it runs out of dirt.

Didn't know this! Though I'd personally prefer to not play around this bug especially since release is so close. At the start dupes don't have to travel far so I didn't bother syncing and ngl I don't have the patience to keep manually controlling doors 

Ultimately the plan is to replace them with blossoms and collect them by triggering auto sweepers for a few seconds every cycle.

[mathmanican]

11 minutes ago, BaloneyOs said:

I don't have the patience to keep manually controlling doors

Copy/Paste settings of doors makes this extremely fast. Without that feature....  I can focus on one door, and often I only remember to open it when I get a "food shortage" alert.  

[natanstarke]

13 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

For me after beta testing (Rime/Aridio/Oceania each on ravanging hunger/double food consumption):

=>Forest feels way easier than the (old) sandstone start.

  Hide contents

And the remaining natural tiles/nature reserves look way better without the holes the sand left behind.

 

I love everything about forest starts i dont think its that easy because in the old times i rushed mushrooms.

[mathmanican]

33 minutes ago, mathmanican said:

mealwood continues to grow even when it runs out of dirt.

Note that it does not grow forever, rather continues growing for maybe one more cycle (enough to complete a full harvest).  If you run out of dirt for too long, then mealwood STOPS growing. 

[Lilalaunekuh]

Just now, natanstarke said:

I love everything about forest starts i dont think its that easy because in the old times i rushed mushrooms.

Sry, if my question is stupid or if I am just missing something:

What changed for mushroom farming ? (Aren´t (artificially-)wild mushrooms an even better food source since the beta ?)

Spoiler

• Mushrooms have the same Quality of food like berries, but you need less work time to cook a daily ration.
• Mushrooms can grow in a sterile atmosphere.
• (Mushrooms release no "germs", which can be good or bad.)

 

1

 

[natanstarke]

4 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

Sry, if my question is stupid or if I am just missing something:

What changed for mushroom farming ? (Aren´t (artificially-)wild mushrooms an even better food source since the beta ?)

  Reveal hidden contents

• Mushrooms have the same Quality of food like berries, but you need less work time to cook a daily ration.
• Mushrooms can grow in a sterile atmosphere.
• (Mushrooms release no "germs", which can be good or bad.)

 

1

 

In the maps im playing im not having access to them " and some times not even slime too" then i tend to stick with mealwood long times now and when i secure water and cooling i go to berrys and barbeque but im trying to live on omelletes in oasis. " i still need a mechatronics engie for that and a cooking room :).

[BaloneyOs]

I can see forest start being easy on Verdante

27 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

For me after beta testing (Rime/Aridio/Oceania each on ravanging hunger/double food consumption):

=>Forest feels way easier than the (old) sandstone start.

  Reveal hidden contents

And the remaining natural tiles/nature reserves look way better without the holes the sand left behind.

 

Wow, I didn't think anyone would find Aridio easier than most sandstone starts though to be fair Rime and Oceania aren't advertised as easy maps either.

 

1 minute ago, natanstarke said:

In the maps im playing im not having access to them " and some times not even slime too" then i tend to stick with mealwood long times now and when i secure water and cooling i go to berrys and barbeque but im trying to live on omelletes in oasis. " i still need a mechatronics engie for that and a cooking room :).

Yeah the screenshot is of Arboria and I always find that stabilizing on mealwood with no immediate alternatives is exponentially slower than being able to rush hydroponic farm for low-labor blossoms.

[KittenIsAGeek]

1 hour ago, mathmanican said:

Copy/Paste settings of doors makes this extremely fast. Without that feature....  I can focus on one door, and often I only remember to open it when I get a "food shortage" alert.  

I use that method a LOT as well.  Rather than the tedium of clicking 'auto' or 'lock' I just copy/paste the door permissions from another door that has the permissions I want.