4x24 Hatch farm: What do you use the upper space for?

[zOldBulldog]

I know the most common/standard design for Hatch farms is 4 wide, 24 tall.  That makes all 8 hatches stay in a very compact area and if you researched automation you can have auto delivery and pickups to avoid wasting your duplicants time.

But... I have seen very few design screenshots for it and those that I saw don't show the upper area.

Since I can't imagine people wasting all that valuable space I must ask... what do you use all that upper space for?  Storage?  Something else?  If you don't mind, share some screenshots too.

[Trypophobic]

24 tall? I make it 24 deep so they drown before they reach the bottom. Mwa ha ha ha ha! 

[DarkMoge]

I do not make hatches farms, but I assume that you could just place a wild farm up there, generate wild blocks and make your pips plant some things   Considering that pips can plant in groups of 3, it is just perfect for a 4 wide room. 3 tiles of wild plants and than 1 empty space so it counts as a part of the same room.

[Tobruk]

43 minutes ago, zOldBulldog said:

9I know the most common/standard design for Hatch farms is 4 wide, 24 tall.  That makes all 8 hatches stay in a very compact area and if you researched automation you can have auto delivery and pickups to avoid wasting your duplicants time.

But... I have seen very few design screenshots for it and those that I saw don't show the upper area.

Since I can't imagine people wasting all that valuable space I must ask... what do you use all that upper space for?  Storage?  Something else?  If you don't mind, share some screenshots too.

Well, I personally go for 9x11 and plug off some of the odd tiles to get 96. This way you get full sweeper range plus less vertical space.

[Lifegrow]

I build mine in pairs. 6 wide allows you to share loader/receptacle/feeders when you fully automate. 1 sweeper arm per room.

[Mathgeekburch]

I like going 10x10, with the hatches at the very top at one of the corner standing on top of 4 tiles, 2 support the grooming station, 1 supports the drop off, and 1 supports the feeder.  The hatches only walk over 4 tiles so they get to the grooming station fast, don't provide much pathfinding lag, and are covered by the autosweeper. The room gets the 96 area needed for 8 hatches so all is good.

Since hatches won't randomly jump off the cliff, I can either fill the bottom with liquids, or place storage containers on the bottom, or place machinery there.  But it typically leaves a lot of empty space between the hatches and the bottom.  When I want to use that, I make it a bigger size, and I add floors to hold more storage containers or machinery; and I still design it out so it is 96 tiles.

Also dupes can use ladders, critters can't, useful to remember.



 

[axxionx12]

I put liquid or gas storage buildings in there

[beowulf2010]

I put a bunch of floors of storage under a 5x4 area for the feeders and the like. I'll post a picture in a couple hours. 

[0xFADE]

I've got some tall hatch farms too.  Not really much you can do with the space.  Does storage still work without a floor?  I guess using a ladder floor with lots of storage is the best use of space.

[storm6436]

4 hours ago, Tobruk said:

Well, I personally go for 9x11 and plug off some of the odd tiles to get 96. This way you get full sweeper range plus less vertical space.

Yeah, the design I'm working at is similar, but "bigger" due to the fact I'm integrating it into the general floorplan for the base... and since my rooms are all 4 high... This allows me to replace the appropriate wall sections on the right to allow pass-through traffic... like to an adjacent ranch.  Any narrower and really starts to limit what you can do with the spaces, but if that isn't a concern f  4-floor version would be 6 tiles wide.

 

Since I'm looking at dropping two of these side-by-side, I'm considering filling the left one with the 3 research stations in whatever layout gets me the best decor, and then putting my textile loom, atmo suit forge and storage for them in the right ranch.  I don't normally need it, but I could probably stuff a skill scrubber in there somewhere.  Fond of the 9-tile because a single sweeper will hit the whole room and it allows some flexibility if I have to tinker with things.

[Promethien]

Storage is the easiest. I also have put plants in there as another person mentioned. Its also a good place to put your looms or other not extreme heat industrial equipment. My crusher is in a ranch for instance. 

[Chthonicone]

I make them 12 tall and 8 wide myself. Still sweepable by a single sweeper, and still narrow enough to have the shortest hatch grooming times. The upper area? Not much, unless I built it 9 wide to fit the base, and can build some platforms in there. Then I can build something like a kiln to keep the sweeper busy.

Personally, I don't mind empty space.

[Argelle]

1 hour ago, storm6436 said:

 Fond of the 9-tile because a single sweeper will hit the whole room and it allows some flexibility if I have to tinker with things.

Nice design, it fits well with the rest of a base floor plan !

@storm6436 where exactely do you plug your unique sweeper to get access to the whole room? (concidering the walls and floors you have)

[Chthonicone]

2 minutes ago, Argelle said:

Nice design, it fits well with the rest of a base floor plan !

@storm6436 where exactely do you plug your unique sweeper to get access to the whole room? (concidering the walls and floors you have)

You don't need to access the upper walls or roof with the sweeper. After all, nothing falls up. All the useful stuff is on the bottom.

[Timych]

Interesting topic.

Would be so nice to have some pics

[Chthonicone]

6 minutes ago, Timych said:

Interesting topic.

Would be so nice to have some pics

Maybe I'll take some pictures of my setups this weekend. I'm just so tired from the hurricane prepping this week and then work.

[MorsDux]

I am sure there are better designs, this worked for me in evolution (6x16) meaning first I had dupes carry the food and everything, then I upgraded to carry away the eggs meat and coal, then later I added the auto food delivery.

[Lilalaunekuh]

Just something I noticed about the critter feeder placement:

 

Am I the only one always blocking manual access to the critter feeder ?

[I don´t want my ranchers to see a new task every time a hatch ate something.]

 

[zOldBulldog]

Thank you guys, the information has been quite good even though most people are using different widths/heights.   Still it gave me good inspiration.

I think I will stick to the 4-wide format to minimize the walk time during grooming, but I will add extra height to account for floors to hold mainly storage and some liquid/gas tanks.  Of course, the immediate space over the hatches will be reserved for automation, and all floors will have an open block so that it all still counts as a stable.   The ladder will remain outside the hatch rooms and access to the upper floors will be through additional doors.

This will neatly solve the issue I had in previous runs as to where to put my storage for materials that are at the 20-28C temperature range.   Given the multiple floors, I should even be able to organize it by product type so that I can tell availability at a glance.

 

EDIT:  I see that lilalaunekuh just posted a screen shot very similar to what I had in mind.   I don't plan to have that blocked access, but instead to set the feeder at priority 1.  I think (correct me if I am wrong) that priority 1 should ensure that my dupes will not bother with it as they will be busy with higher priority tasks.
 

[Gus Smedstad]

I’ve been playing a long time, and yet this thread has helped me. I’ve been making my hatch farms  just regular rooms 24 wide x 4 high, which meant a lot of walking. Going vertical’s a lot more attractive if it’s integrated into the regular floor plan. I do NOT want my hatch farm to block through passage on its floor or the floors above it.

As for blocking access to the critter feeder - I haven’t found that so important since it seems the auto-sweeper usually refills the feeder before a Dupe decides to. I’d do it if I could figure out a way that didn’t prevent passing through the room to the next one.

[Lilalaunekuh]

2 minutes ago, Gus Smedstad said:

As for blocking access to the critter feeder - I haven’t found that so important since it seems the auto-sweeper usually refills the feeder before a Dupe decides to. I’d do it if I could figure out a way that didn’t prevent passing through the room to the next one.

It´s about how you set your priorities:

If your like me and have a high priority on ranching (for at least some duplicants), they will take the task of refilling every once in a while.

=> It require unnecessary traveling and the duplicant carry just low amounts.

 

[I have less "real" ranching tasks each cycle than my ranchers can handle, so if a new tasks comes up I want duplicant to take it as soon as possible.

But I don´t want my ranchers to fill the rest of their schedule with low priority critter feeder refills.

=> My ranchers should prioritize the job which requires their specific skill and not only fall under the same task category.]

 

12 minutes ago, Gus Smedstad said:

I do NOT want my hatch farm to block through passage on its floor or the floors above it.

Ok for me it´s the opposite, so could you elaborate a bit why you want passage through your stables ?

[If all your rooms have access on both sides you will create many pathing options which reduce your fps. But in the case of a stable it´s not my only concern.]

[storm6436]

5 hours ago, Argelle said:

Nice design, it fits well with the rest of a base floor plan !

@storm6436 where exactely do you plug your unique sweeper to get access to the whole room? (concidering the walls and floors you have)

By the whole room, I meant the section with the hatches. Why would I be sweeping anything else?  Research doesn't create items and throughput on the loom and forge is low enough you're wasting materials sweeping for that. 

1 hour ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

Just something I noticed about the critter feeder placement:

 

Am I the only one always blocking manual access to the critter feeder ?

[I don´t want my ranchers to see a new task every time a hatch ate something.]

 

PS: The picture is a bit older and came from a time where a light was required^^

My way around that was to lower their priority to 3 or 4 and adjust the recepticle priority accordingly.  Sweeper always got there first. 

24 minutes ago, Gus Smedstad said:

I’ve been playing a long time, and yet this thread has helped me. I’ve been making my hatch farms  just regular rooms 24 wide x 4 high, which meant a lot of walking. Going vertical’s a lot more attractive if it’s integrated into the regular floor plan. I do NOT want my hatch farm to block through passage on its floor or the floors above it.

As for blocking access to the critter feeder - I haven’t found that so important since it seems the auto-sweeper usually refills the feeder before a Dupe decides to. I’d do it if I could figure out a way that didn’t prevent passing through the room to the next one.

Don't feel bad.  I started looking into vertical forms the day before I saw this post. 

[Lilalaunekuh]

4 minutes ago, storm6436 said:

My way around that was to lower their priority.  Sweeper always got there first. 

Like I said above, if my ranchers looking for the next ranching task which will be available, it doesn´t matter if the critter feeder is (sub-) priority 1.

[The same goes for my usual water sieve / killn setups. For the water sieve it´s that filling a compost bin is considered farming, but I want my farmers to just be ready for the next harvestable plant ... ]

=> If duplicants would consider the "new" tasks to be the one with the highest priority to them, they will take the job over the sweeper.

[And I mean it happens more than once a cycle if I open my pneumatic door^^]

[Lutzkhie]

I add paintings why? because I can

[storm6436]

44 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

Like I said above, if my ranchers looking for the next ranching task which will be available, it doesn´t matter if the critter feeder is (sub-) priority 1.

[The same goes for my usual water sieve / killn setups. For the water sieve it´s that filling a compost bin is considered farming, but I want my farmers to just be ready for the next harvestable plant ... ]

=> If duplicants would consider the "new" tasks to be the one with the highest priority to them, they will take the job over the sweeper.

[And I mean it happens more than once a cycle if I open my pneumatic door^^]

I'll have to double check when I wake back up but I'm pretty sure feeder fills are supply/storage errands, not ranching.  Either way, I can't say I've had that problem. Not sure why. 

Same goes for sieve/compost.