Pip ranching production

[psusi]

Oni-db says that a happy, groomed pip will eat 400g of arbor tree per cycle and turn it into 20 kg of dirt.  That is kind of nonsense though isn't it because they eat a whole fully grown arbor tree that is worth 300kg of wood if harvested.  Do they really only produce 20kg of dirt per cycle?  So you are trading 300kg of wood for 20kg of dirt, when if you put that wood through an ethanol distiller, you'll get 100kg of polluted dirt plus enough ethanol to generate 150 kJ ( without tune up )?  Do they at least rummage up more seeds faster if happy and groomed compared to leaving them wild?  Is there any reason at all to ever groom them?

 

[Neotuck]

They don't eat the "whole" tree branch

[psusi]

2 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

They don't eat the "whole" tree branch

Are you sure?  I could have sworn they worked just like drakeos: when they munch on it, it resets the growth.  Unless you mean they can eat it before it reaches 100% growth, so yea, I guess it isn't quite a full 300kg of wood.  Still, only 20 kg of dirt seems pretty weak.  Do they at least rummage new seeds faster?

[suxkar]

7 hours ago, psusi said:

Are you sure?  I could have sworn they worked just like drakeos: when they munch on it, it resets the growth.  Unless you mean they can eat it before it reaches 100% growth, so yea, I guess it isn't quite a full 300kg of wood.  Still, only 20 kg of dirt seems pretty weak.  Do they at least rummage new seeds faster?

I can't remember where it is, but I'm sure they patched rummaging. I can't find in which patch and what they did, but I'm 100% certain they made getting acorn seeds easier, may be with dupe interaction even. I just don't remember how, sorry. May be someone else can help about that, or if you are really interested you can look in all the recent patch notes.

Ranching pips is of very limited utility in my opinion. They drop half the meat mass compared to hatches and drekos while still requiring the same amount of grooming time (so they are twice as expensive in terms of duplicant time). On the other hand, they are essentially free since they feed off of trees they can naturally plant themselves, unlike hatches. I can see them being useful where there are absolutely no other food alternatives or if you don't want to use plants in the early game for some reason (Verdante start might be an example). In the late game, hatches or slicksters feeding off of the CO2 from generators is much better.
Theoretically, they are the only sustainable source of dirt, other then sieving PW and them composting the Pdirt (very dupe time inefficient). Still, I personally don't see the need for dirt since you can wild plant everything.

I don't groom them. I keep them wild, stock them in a "stable" and use them for wild planting. As you most likely know, they replace themselves in wild state so you can forget about them, they don't need anything and you can move them around when you need to wild plant.

[Xenotrix]

I use wild arbor tree pip ranch. Groomed periodically. Arbor trees harvest regulary. I don't calculate exact amount of products, but have a lot of dirt, lumber and no problem.

Pip ranch (dirt, lumber, meat)

Spoiler

And drecko ranch (reed fiber, plastic, meal lice, meat)

Spoiler

Simple 4 cells aligned in height design. If you not enough dirt, lumber and etc just build more ranch everywhere.