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(Nearly) Automated Small Pacu Ranch


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Again, thanks to @TheMule for the wrangle-after-incubation tip.

I like my builds as small, compact and efficient as possible, regarding space, materials and power consumption. It combines several ideas found (so much of this will be familiar to many of you) on the web and tackles the annoying Fish Release. Particular mention to Reddit user u/cowbell_solo 

Auto Sweeper can reach Incubator (set at Pri 6: pacu fry; continuous) and right hand Conveyor Loader (set to Pri 5: pacu fillet, fry egg). Mechanized Airlock opens 0.5% per cycle for Auto Sweeper to take Algae from Conveyor Receptacle and place into Fish Feeder (set to Pri 6: 1kg). Any accidentally dropped Algae will be put into the left hand Conveyor Loader (set to Pri 5: Algae [allow manual use]). Excess eggs (along with fillets) are dropped off to the left of the Mechanised Airlock whereby upon hatching will flop through the door (set to: open) into the single tile of water. 

Fish Release: the Critter Sensor (set to: count critters, below 1) meaning when the breeder dies the Mechanised Airlock is opened allowing a Duplicant to transport a Pacu Fry from the incubator to the Fish Release. The door on the right is restricted access for exiting only.

Cons (so far!): There's a chance you could be without a breeder for a few cycles, if a Pacu Fry from the incubator isn't immediately ready for release.

Additional Automation Options: I leave the polluted dirt in the water to prevent off-gassing until Dupe collection. However, a solid filter can easily be implemented in order to send that elsewhere automatically, along with the Pacu Fillets. Does Polluted Dirt off-gas whilst it is on a conveyor?

pacu.png

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Really dig it, especially perfect for my mini base - have had a one tile pit next to the printing pod for over 500 cycles with an auto dispenser to feed some algae here and there. That’s a great design I can tuck in somewhere to finalize infinite surf and turf for all.

There’s a YT vid that I’ve normally tweaked with 2 in the breeder tank to avoid not having a breeder fish. I keep thinking there’s a way without tweaking space too much to automate that process a bit more to avoid the issue. Will need to play around. The 2 ladder segments in the tank aren’t needed so maybe the conveyer loader can get moved? If I figure any improvements I’ll post it

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Very nice.  I like the compact design.  Though, there are a few ways I think it could be improved.

I typically use something like this:

377902674_SimplePacuFarm.thumb.png.f719d8356db5f568f5b08fee0506bd26.png1793458543_SimplePacuFarm-Automation.thumb.png.6ed39e5dcef1593c7362f44d3e972b30.png

The incubator system has been entirely removed.  Instead all eggs get sent to the 1 tile hatching chamber.  The automation controls 2 the doors.  If the breeding chamber is empty, the next pacu fry flops to the right and becomes the new breeder. Otherwise all of them go into the water tile on the left.

I've removed a tile to allow the sweeper to reach through the corner into the glum farm.  That way it grabs eggs from there as well so that all eggs hatch in the same spot.  That prevents the "cramped" debuff and ensures that you always have eggs ready to replace the breeder when it dies.  I've also moved the door so that the upper left water tile has an open connection to the rest of the base.  If you leave it closed off by a door the pacu will get the "confined" debuff and won't produce eggs.

Algae delivery is managed by the 2 bins.  The lower left one is set to priority 5 for dupes to deliver algae.  The up right one is set to priority 4 and is intentionally unreachable.  That way it will never be full and can receive any algae that gets dropped by the sweeper. The feeder is set to priority 6 to be filled with 1kg whenever the cycle sensor opens the door.

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23 hours ago, TripLykely said:

That’s a great design I can tuck in somewhere to finalize infinite surf and turf for all.

There’s a YT vid that I’ve normally tweaked with 2 in the breeder tank to avoid not having a breeder fish.

The 2 ladder segments in the tank aren’t needed so maybe the conveyer loader can get moved?

Yes, Surf'n'Turf'n'Lime!

This seems so productive that part of me isn't so fussed about a temporarily missing breeder. However, the OCD part of me says otherwise... 

I like the ladders, that's my only defence haha, but you're right they can totally go and it would save a bit on materials 8-)

15 hours ago, ghkbrew said:

Very nice.  I like the compact design.  Though, there are a few ways I think it could be improved.

I typically use something like this:

377902674_SimplePacuFarm.thumb.png.f719d8356db5f568f5b08fee0506bd26.png1793458543_SimplePacuFarm-Automation.thumb.png.6ed39e5dcef1593c7362f44d3e972b30.png

The incubator system has been entirely removed.  Instead all eggs get sent to the 1 tile hatching chamber.  The automation controls 2 the doors.  If the breeding chamber is empty, the next pacu fry flops to the right and becomes the new breeder. Otherwise all of them go into the water tile on the left.

I've removed a tile to allow the sweeper to reach through the corner into the glum farm.  That way it grabs eggs from there as well so that all eggs hatch in the same spot.  That prevents the "cramped" debuff and ensures that you always have eggs ready to replace the breeder when it dies.  I've also moved the door so that the upper left water tile has an open connection to the rest of the base.  If you leave it closed off by a door the pacu will get the "confined" debuff and won't produce eggs.

Algae delivery is managed by the 2 bins.  The lower left one is set to priority 5 for dupes to deliver algae.  The up right one is set to priority 4 and is intentionally unreachable.  That way it will never be full and can receive any algae that gets dropped by the sweeper. The feeder is set to priority 6 to be filled with 1kg whenever the cycle sensor opens the door.

I mean this is just brilliant. I love the incubator work-around. 

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There's a couple of issues I've come across. The lower door needs to be "locked" to prevent dupes from sneaking in and filling the fish feeder!

Also, I'm feeding the breeder 1kg a cycle. This seems to keep it alive but not majorly reproductive. Is that the long term aim for most people? 

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2 hours ago, dupe_da_whoop said:

The lower door needs to be "locked" to prevent dupes from sneaking in and filling the fish feeder!

Yeah, you have to do that with a lot of these types of sweeper fed builds. It's pretty easy to use door restrictions to keep dupes from entering (It's generally a good idea to let them leave even when they shouldn'tbe in there in the first place), you just have to add some shipping to get the pacu fillet, egg shells, etc out.

2 hours ago, dupe_da_whoop said:

Also, I'm feeding the breeder 1kg a cycle. This seems to keep it alive but not majorly reproductive. Is that the long term aim for most people? 

A pacu fed 1kg per cycle will produce 3 total eggs and live it's full 25 cycle life span. The problem is that they don't get the reproduction bonus from eating from the feeder while they're starving (for the last 15 or so cycles of their life). To get those same three eggs you only really have to feed them 3-4 times right after they reach adulthood. This is possible to do, but takes a lot more effort. For instance:

 

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Thanks @ghkbrew that clears that up. I'll take the three eggs for now :D

I realise that by locking the door the dupes can't get to the polluted dirt, so it looks like I will install the solid filter after all (not really a bad thing anyway) plus use restricted access rather than a lock as you have advised. Cheers!

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image.png.cf29222bd0957b3ee2da7a3da713158a.png

@dupe_da_whoop I'm not sure if you know this but this here won't work. They need at least 8 tiles of space in the enclosed area or they will get Confined and have 0% reproduction. And if it is enclosed, and not just open to your whole map, then eggs need to be pulled out as they are laid.

I use this for a "controlled" fast population boom:

image.thumb.png.bce3360fec6f810aaa27444193babfc8.png

I don't see the point in a algae restricted diet when the Pacu isn't being ejected. Because breeding up to 50 Pacu to sustain 12 dupes on Surf'n'turf would take 625 cycles. No thanks.

If I want fast boom with low algae I'd build my design linked above.

I hope this is interesting to someone. However, do whatever you want and have fun.

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Hi @Nxf7, thanks for sharing your ranch. If you could share a bit more info on how it works exactly that would be appreciated (I'm trying to figure it out by looking at the image). 

This is the design I ended up using:

image.thumb.png.37f3c0b2444474e2f366175d0890ea3e.png

It amalgamates mine and @ghkbrew's ideas however as you pointed out, even though the autosweeper can reach the single tile of water, they are confined and produce no eggs. I installed a counter so that when the breeder has laid it's third egg I have it killed off (door permission set to only dupes with attack/excavation ability). 

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Sure @dupe_da_whoop. Each incubator can guarantee that exactly 2 pacu are in the breeding pool at all times. When one dies at age 25, the timing should work out that one with age:5 is ready to hop out of the incubator to replace it. The only caveat is the sweeper that loads the incubator(s) must only be able to see fresh eggs. Loading an incubator with an old egg will ruin everything.

It's a cute design but it's not nearly as fast as it could be. I've since designed this first one here: 

 

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Here's a design I like from reddit user /u/V0RT3XXX. As shown it's not an algae-restricting design, but shouldn't be too hard to modify if you so desire. As you can see, the one-tile starvation pool is open to the map, so no issue with egg laying, and if you want to have multiple breeders you just adjust the size of the larger pool and change the setting on the critter sensor therein.

345AB19D29BC1B149FB0A05755C3A398D5068AB5

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