stepbystep StepByStep: Making Early (Glossy) Drecko Stable

[abud]

Who this aimed for

• New player to know how to make a slightly complex build in their game. It didn't mean to share good design, but how to make them. It also will not cover details of ranching technique.

 

Minimum tech

• Hazard Protection tech and already have atmo-suit ready

 

Recommended

• Insulated tile
• Radiant pipe
• Insulated pipe

 

Planning

To be successful in making a big result from drecko ranch, we need a minimum of 2 room. One main stable and the other one is shearing overflow. There is another room that can be added like a nursery, but this StepByStep didn't cover that.

We will want max 96 tiles for stable so we can put as much drecko as possible. But for drecko, there is some other aspect that needs to be considered. Bigger room means a longer time for drecko to reach rancher. Their food (mealwood plants) also need to be scaled well with numbers of drecko. This StepByStep didn't cover that, we will use a simple design that may or may not efficient enough. Let's say we will make stable like pic below, with main stable on top and shearing room under the stable. It also has room for a supplier to supply farm pot from below, didn't need to enter stable. Few extra spaces here and there for the possibility to insert sweeper or decor items.

Drecko only grows its fur when immersed in hydrogen. Meanwhile, mealwood need oxygen, polluted oxygen, or carbon dioxide to grow. For the final gas state, we will want non-hydrogen tiles as minimum as possible. We will choose CO2 for mealwood in this StepByStep. Something like this

We will need to fill it with hydrogen first, then CO2 next.

 

Digging and making outer wall

To make it consist of hydrogen and CO2, we can make it vacuum first. But in this StepByStep we will follow normal digging method without making vacuum room. Using insulated tile is optional, but will help greatly to keep mealwood in desirable temperature. For early base insulated igneous rock is good enough, if you have mafic rock use that instead. Also, prepare piping for waterlock and atmosuit docks. Notice little pit under shearing room? We will use it to remove unwanted gas later.

 

Filling waterlock and atmosuit dock

Because we use U-type waterlock, it will take time to fill. Meanwhile, make atmosuit ready (start fill it with oxygen) and make gas pump inside just don't connect its power before waterlock complete

 

Pump out gas inside

After waterlock ready, start pumping gas inside the chamber to outside. It may take a few cycles with one gas pump, which can be accelerated using more pump. We didn't need to make it vacuum, under 100g per tile is good enough.

 

Fill it with hydrogen

Deconstruct gas pump inside then pump hydrogen in from your sources, probably hot one from electrolyzer or preferably around room temperature from storage.

After this process, gas layout should shown that unwanted gas moving to the bottom area.

 

Introducing Carbon Dioxide

To decide how much we should put CO2 in, let's take a look at mealwood requirement and current pressure.

We need at least 150g in top of each those farm tiles and have to be less than hydrogen above them (1800g). To simplify the remaining process, let's take 1000g per tile. It will be same with full packed gas pipe max capacity. Start constructing pipe from CO2 sources like pics below, wait until it backed up, then deconstruct gas pipe above farm tiles.

After that, deconstruct the bridge, flip it around, and reconstruct the pipe. The remainder of CO2 inside the pipe ready to shipped back to where they belong. Because we want it to be one high tile of CO2, deconstruct tile below the door or even better if we have tech to make airflow we can put it there.

At this state, gas will be moving around trying to find a place to settle. The one that didn't get a place will falls.

While waiting, it is right time to deconstruct all gas pipes inside.

Just in case If after 1-2 cycle there is excess CO2 that cannot find their way down (because it's moving randomly), we can force it out by introducing small pit like this. And then close it from inside.

 

Planting mealwood and building inside stable

After gas settle, now we can start planting and constructing, including reconstructing one tile under the door. Bring your drecko inside. Normal drecko can have good chance of laying glossy eggs when eating mealwood.

 

Clean up gas inside the shearing room

If we look at the shearing room, it should be like this. It turns out we don't have enough space to remove unwanted gas.

We can add a few tiles as needed from outside. This example below in case so many unwanted gases.

Then deconstruct (or dig) from inside

After those guys out, close the gap

Now build all buildings inside the shearing room.

 

Cooling

Because we use plants and machinery inside a sealed room, we need to keep the temperature inside in check. To do so, in early base we can use liquid pipes. If you can make radiant pipe (higher thermal conductivity is better, like aluminum), use it on certain area that need more strict check, rest of the pipe can be granite. But if you don't have that tech, just use granite pipes. You can always change it to radiant later, after researching related tech.

I assume liquid will flow from left to right, where they cooling down plants first and taking heat from shearing stations the last.

Extends that pipe to somewhere cool, preferably large body of liquid. Your water tank probably a good choice in early base. If you can make insulated pipe, use it between stable and water pool, especially for outgoing liquid from pool. Put one bridge on the route, then fill the pipe.

Quote

In this example I use water, which is not good for transferring heat (because easy to freeze) but every base has them. Better liquid for coolant is the one that has high Specific Heat Capacity (SHC) to be able to carry as much heat as possible. Lower freezing point is better, and if your cold area below 0C or you're using active cooling like aquatuner, then choose the one that have lower freezing point than your cold area. Higher Thermal Conductivity meaning faster heat transfer, and important if we don't have radiant pipes. As I write this StepByStep, polluted water is better coolant for early base because lower freezing point, but not thermal conductivity. Another worth mention is salt water. Their values can be changed in future game update, but at least you know how to pick one.

After pipe full loop, detach it from the pump.

 

Finishing our build

Now we have completed our build, but how we can move their eggs? Depending on tech level:

1. Compactor with sweep only. We will need to sweep eggs from the stable from time to time, and dupe will carry it to compactor inside shearing room. After that we need to "drop" it to the ground by uncheck and re-checking critter egg inside compactor

2. Automatic dispenser with sweep only. This one need some research in solid material category. We still need to sweep eggs from time to time on this stable design to prevent dupe taking eggs from shearing room back to dispenser. Because this research just before conveyor chute, probably you can skip this one and just use sweeper arm with conveyor chute later.

3. Sweeper arm with conveyor chute. Probably I don't need to mention or explain it. Sweeper will take the eggs and drop it into shearing room without our or dupes interaction. More details I'll leave it to you to explore a bit.

 

Good luck on getting stable plastic production early.

 

Addition:

• How to determine how many plant/drecko

Spoiler

4 minutes ago, abud said:

With recent update about critter tooltips, probably it's a good idea to explain how to calculate how many X plant needed for Y critters.

Take glossy as an example, he can eat up to one full mealwood per cycle. Given mealwood domestic grows in 3 cycles, meaning each glossy need up to 3 mealwood to satisfy his stomach. Only happens if he never glum all the time. Glum will reduce metabolism to 20 percent (less eat, less excrete). Happy drecko on the other hand, receive a bonus to reproduction.

However, It is didn't affect their scale growth. Drecko will glum from time to time: delay waiting rancher to groom them, delay on grooming process itself. among some other situations. So they will not eat full one mealwood all the time.

Drecko rancher has few options:

1. Feed them minimum mealwood as long they didn't die. Some people opt for this, especially when they didn't have an overflow room and just care about plastic. When calories hit 0, they will start starving state. After starving for 10 cycles they will die. But if they eat anytime on that 10 cycles duration, their starving count will reset. No matter how little they just ate, starving counter reset.
2. Feed them maximum mealwood the can eat. Dupist players (as compared to humanist) usually opt for this. Dupe can harvest mealwood that didn't get eaten
3. In between both options. If there is mealwood ready to harvest means too much mealwood (or need more drecko), but if there is drecko that have low calories can't find food means too much drecko compete for food.
4. Did not feed them at all. I don't need to explain, self-explanatory.

There is a maximum range of how much drecko can detect food, how far drecko can be called from grooming stations, among other mechanics that provide challenges into designing an efficient stable. I will leave the introduction to deeper ranching mechanics here.

 

 

[nakomaru]

This is such a great walkthrough. I didn't even realize you could get a stable (heh) gas layer of always 1 tile height as it seems you have done with no pickiness in measuring ahead of time. Great stuff.

[LucidFugue]

Really like the gas management advice in this guide! I had never thought of deconstructing pipes in situ like that as a way of getting exact placement. Thanks! 

[DemainaNyx]

Aww, but I like my haphazard drecko farm built on the remnants of my original meal lice farm one floor above my printing pod.

 

All joking aside, this is a very well put together walkthrough.  Personally I never have a sheering overflow room because I hate the idea of my dreckos starving to death and instead opt to take extra eggs for omelettes, but you did a really nice job explaining all this.

[abud]

5 hours ago, nakomaru said:

This is such a great walkthrough

Sorry I was spent earlier. Making this takes 6 hours, way too much than what I imagined before. I underestimating walkthrough making process, including the struggle to present it in a foreign language. Still considering the topic for next walkthrough, any idea? On newbie level though, I still don't have the courage to write anything on advanced topics.

 

3 hours ago, DemainaNyx said:

Personally I never have a sheering overflow room because I hate the idea of my dreckos starving to death and instead opt to take extra eggs for omelettes

Sounds good to me. Not everyone looking for max efficiency, producing plastic as fast as possible only to be stacked 200t on compactors not always fun. We are playing a game for fun, not competing to get a raise from our boss.

The reason I choose this topic because I read some new player having trouble get into plastic, a few days ago maybe. That time I feel that someone could make a guide that can ease their worries to a certain degree. I'm thinking that if I had time maybe I should give it a shot.

 

[Vampyre_by]

Maybe I am stupid but why you do all of this if you can simply do this. 71 tons of plastic, ladders, transit tubes, never built Plastic refinery. No high tech required at all

 

[Rucki]

Very nice guide

Just one note,  Dreckos dont eat that much. 4 Farm Tiles (meal wood) are absolutely enough for an 96 Tile room with 8 glossy Dreckos.

[abud]

On 7/25/2019 at 5:07 PM, Rucki said:

Dreckos dont eat that much. 4 Farm Tiles (meal wood) are absolutely enough for an 96 Tile room with 8 glossy Dreckos

I read bug reports about that a while ago, where drecko reset their calories each time they eat to full. But I cannot reproduce it in my game, probably only hit on certain conditions. Nope, I'm wrong. Double checked my LaunchTest base, they bugged too. But we cannot rely on bug, isn't it?

There is a very famous old thread about it, where so many players actively researching various critters. From observation, code, try to find hole here and there. If that works 1 mealwood for 2 glossy for you, then it is good, but not everyone got that bug going. I (un)fortunately not included  That's part of the reason I didn't mention this design for how much drecko, etc.

[snoozer]

With small basins in the corners of the stable, dreckos cannot crawl up to the ceiling. This speeds up the grooming call a lot.

[Aevum]

AWESOME guide. But I wonder if it's just as effective to use some of the simpler builds?

[abud]

56 minutes ago, Aevum said:

I wonder if it's just as effective to use some of the simpler builds

Might be actually Because I don't know how simpler it is. If it has less hydrogen coverage for example, then less growing furs. Because furs growth stopped in non-hydrogen. Well, this guide meant if you want to make slightly complex, you can. But you don't have to use complex things to be successful in ONI.

In my game, I can get at most around 50 20 glossies using 6 groomed. Almost similar design. Even so, it is far from maximized, for example @snoozer shearing room can greatly affect efficiency under certain condition. Less shearing time = more grooming = less gloom = more glossy

Let's say 20 glossy total from both rooms (there is some normal drecko in shearing room). 150kg / 3 cycle meaning 20*150/3. = 1ton plastic per cycle.

 

Edit: when room overlay said 50 critters, it includes eggs? I forgot about it.

[abud]

With recent update about critter tooltips, probably it's a good idea to explain how to calculate how many X plant needed for Y critters.

Take glossy as an example, he can eat up to one full mealwood per cycle. Given mealwood domestic grows in 3 cycles, meaning each glossy need up to 3 mealwood to satisfy his stomach. Only happens if he never glum all the time. Glum will reduce metabolism to 20 percent (less eat, less excrete). Happy drecko on the other hand, receive a bonus to reproduction.

However, It is didn't affect their scale growth. Drecko will glum from time to time: delay waiting rancher to groom them, delay on grooming process itself. among some other situations. So they will not eat full one mealwood all the time.

Drecko rancher has few options:

1. Feed them minimum mealwood as long they didn't die. Some people opt for this, especially when they didn't have an overflow room and just care about plastic. When calories hit 0, they will start starving state. After starving for 10 cycles they will die. But if they eat anytime on that 10 cycles duration, their starving count will reset. No matter how little they just ate, starving counter reset.
2. Feed them maximum mealwood the can eat. Dupist players (as compared to humanist) usually opt for this. Dupe can harvest mealwood that didn't get eaten
3. In between both options. If there is mealwood ready to harvest means too much mealwood (or need more drecko), but if there is drecko that have low calories can't find food means too much drecko compete for food.
4. Did not feed them at all. I don't need to explain, self-explanatory.

There is a maximum range of how much drecko can detect food, how far drecko can be called from grooming stations, among other mechanics that provide challenges into designing an efficient stable. I will leave the introduction to deeper ranching mechanics here.

[DarkMaster13]

Just throwing this out there, but there's a really easy 'loft' design you can do for an early low-tech drecko farm.  You don't even need any tech other than the ranch gear.  Basically you create a ranch at the very top of your base and then intentionally breach hydrogen pockets.  Then make sure it has a path to flow up to that loft drecko farm (airflow tiles, doors, or even just open spaces) and you'll end up with something like this:

Obviously this design is not as efficient for keeping dreckos inside hydrogen for maximum scale growth time, but it offers an extremely fast way to start getting plastic.  I've done this basic design a couple times to get fast plastic.  Dupes can get in and do grooming and shearing without exosuits, since they can breath just fine.  The extra doors are just in there as a temporary alternative to airflow tiles and can be replaced with more farm tiles once you have all the hydrogen in there.  Any CO2 generated will simply flow down through the door.

[LucidFugue]

Is there a reason the shearing room is separate from the main stable? It seems like instead of having tiles in the corner to meet the 96 tile stable max size, you could instead have 3 tiles in a row above one of the mealwood plants and put a shearing station on there. I would think a design is possible that allows 3 or 4 shearing stations if that is needed, but I don't know if there is other benefits to separating the rooms.  

 

[Promethien]

If you want to do it sans atmo suit here is a decent design. Works with either lillies (fiber) or mealwood (plastic). It very much relies on stable air pressure in the base though. If you spike in either direction the hydrogen and plant gas will expand or contract and some will escape. Its easy to set up too. Just do the heavy gas for the plants first. Let it drain out the bottom. Then pipe in the hydrogen. This can be improved but its the one I have a screenshot of at the moment and don't feel like digging up one of my better (later) designs. 

[abud]

26 minutes ago, LucidFugue said:

Is there a reason the shearing room is separate from the main stable?

Because critter in shearing rooms is "slave". They didn't eat and will die starving after 10 cycle, yields 3x shearing + meat. Can reach huge numbers cramped inside a small room. Don't tell labor department about this.

Critter in main stable in the other hands, they are keep happy. And producing more future generation of "slaves". They had their own shearing station in main stable.

5 minutes ago, Promethien said:

If you want to do it sans atmo suit here is a decent design. [snip]

I like all those design. Of course, each one has strength and weakness, let them (new player) decide which one design to adopt. Usually, we can avoid complex design until at some point need serious production rate going.

[Reynard the Fox]

On 26.07.2019 at 11:10 AM, Promethien said:

If you want to do it sans atmo suit here is a decent design.

1. Eventually some H2  will escape due to dupes breathing - O2 and CO2 packets will move unpredictably. Especially if you use mealwood for glossys and dupes will run back and forth fertilizing and harvesting crops.

2. Dreckos will aimlessly crawl on the floor outside of the H2 layer for quite a while.

3. If some drecko eventually make it to the ceiling, it will take ages for grooming/shearing call.

Spoiler

Sorry for necromancy. Nice thread though.