Scalable, super simple and efficient algae restricted Pacu farm

[Nxf7]

Each vertical feeder section produces a net of 2 eggs every 3.01 cycles at the cost of 3kg algae. It is easily scalable to fit your needs, just add more fish feeders to the right. Shown here are 3 feeders but minimum could be 1 if you so desire. You can either send the produced eggs to your 1x1 Pacu stack, or if you want the best hands-free food (omelette) this will sustain 3.7 dupes (4.2 if cooking and counting the Fish Fillet) using only 1kg algae each cycle (per feeder). If algae is a concern, and to put things in perspective, a single wild puft can sustain 3 of these fish feeders.

Below is the default view. Note that this shows 3 feeders wide but you could make it 1 wide or as many as you can fit in the width of your map. Also note the video shows the old automation system, but this one is better.

I mostly only frequent the ONI discord, on there my name is Mozzy but it seems I can't name change on this. I piqued a few peoples interest with my Pacu farms and then it took ages to explain it. The least I could do is make a decent resource for showcasing it. In general I advocate that if your map started with lots of algae and you aren't interested in omelette, only just lime or fish fillet, it's best to switch from Diffusers to Electrolyzers are soon as convenient, and then don't bother building an algae-restricted farm. Every 21 tonnes of algae you don't care to lose to Pacu stomach this way would produce about 100 Pacu.

I would build this bottom up. Once it's built, you prime it by sending in a single tame egg, or more. That's it. See near the end of the video about how to send one in, if you need help with that. If you must use a wild egg, you would need to configure the counters to stop ejecting every 3 cycles, because that's not long enough to tame a Pacu. This would be a very silly endeavor though. Taming a pacu out in a nearby pool is not hard and not very wasteful of algae considering the efficiency of what you're about to build.

Conveyor:

Spoiler

Automation:

Spoiler

This has been tested and proven robust on x3 speed. I believe it's robust on even faster modes (debug's fast forward) but do note this increases the lifecycle length a decent amount because then critters aren't as responsive to gravity. As long as pacu decide to fall within 200 seconds (game simulation time, probably 20 seconds in debug fast mode) then there won't be any problem.

Automation (old, it works but it's just not as efficient or awesome):

Spoiler

This has a lifecycle of about 3.28 cycles instead of 3.01, so it's a little slower. It's still been tested and proven robust on x3 speed but not for anything faster.

Note: every Signal Counter is on standard mode and has the output also connected to its reset, but they could also be on advanced and not connected to their own reset.

 

Power:

Spoiler

Basically power everything except the top 3 rows of doors. It's not necessary to power the bottom two door rows if you don't want to but doing so can shave a couple seconds off of a lifecycle.
With the old automation the only door I was powering was the one for the water clock.

Here's an image but just link them however you want that won't allow for overloading.

Plumbing:

Spoiler

Pacu mechanics:

Spoiler

Eggs can sit on rails for up to 10 cycles and halts incubation during this time. In this farm they sit on rails for at most 6.66 cycles but this doesn't have any adverse effects. These are good mechanics, as it means I can guarantee every Pacu in a stage is the same age and not need to duplicate automation.
Eggs hatch after 5 cycles then another 5 cycles until adulthood.

A baby starts with 450cal, only loses 2cal per cycle while confined (small room). Babies don't have access to Feeder and are confined to preserve calories, otherwise they lose 10 per cycle and start adulthood with 400cal which could be problematic if I allowed that to happen.

Once an adult, it only needs 1kg algae from feeder to gain the reproduction buff (6.66% -> 66.6% per cycle).
In order to retain 66% reproduction rate they still need 8 water tiles per Pacu. The water only needs to be connected, they don't have to be able to path there, so water inside or beyond a mesh tile or fly-screen door works.

They lose 100 calories per cycle while they have the reproduction buff. After a lifecycle (3 cycles) is over, they are ejected from the feeding chamber. At this point they have only eaten 3kg of algae and will lay their 2nd egg at any moment. They have 145 calories remaining and are 8 cycles old. Since they now lose 20 calories per cycle, they will hit zero calories in 7 cycles but this only starts a 10 cycle countdown until death. They will actually die of old age (25) at around the same time, but not before laying a 3rd egg with over a full cycle to spare.

 

Sandbox 2020.sav

[Tobruk]

Nice build! One question though:

why do you use water to count cycles/time? Is the timer included in the new automation package inaccurate on higher speeds or something?

[Nxf7]

6 minutes ago, Tobruk said:

why do you use water to count cycles/time? Is the timer included in the new automation package inaccurate on higher speeds or something?

I need 4 time-triggered events because the three algae feedings aren't divisible with the 3.3 lifecycle. I did give Timers a shot, but unless if I completely missed something, it seems harder to setup those timers to do what I want. I would need to set the [lifecycle over] Timer, then physically wait until 0.3 cycles has passed, then set the first feeding Timer, then wait 1.0 cycles and set the 2nd feeding timer, etc.

I did hear from someone that multiple Timers can get out of sync, I'm unsure if that was their own configuration error but that's a huge no if that happens despite the best laid plans.

[Nxf7]

Redesigned the automation significantly. It now produces more eggs because the lifecycle has been dropped from 3.28 to ~3.01. Also I think this iteration is completely resilient to modes even faster than the standard x3 (like debug's fast forward) however you won't get as low of a lifecycle as 3.01 when doing that.

3 cycle "lifecycle" clock that is variable in length, it's reset when the critter sensor goes from off to on (rising edge), so it could be 3 cycles + 4 seconds one time, or 10 seconds for another. This mins the risk and maxes efficiency.

Buffer set to 0.6 immediately after the critter sensor because Klei is bad and when you reload the game the critter sensor toggles itself to the other state and then back. Doesn't matter which state the critter sensor was in before, it still toggles back and forth and creates a 0.4 second pulse of the opposite state.

Proud as punch about this unit. It basically can't be improved by any significant amount anymore. Famous last words