Drecko Farm

[DimaB77]

Several variations of the Drecko farm, with a capacity of up to 1.6 tons of plastic.

[LadenSwallow]

In the final version, would it be possible to build a critter sensor to close the conveyor chute at 20+ critter, and a second chute to just drop the eggs straight into the second shearing station. The conveyor belt to the second chute would pass through the first chute so will only be used when the first is closed.

Would it be worth adding a layer of doors to further confine the unfed dreckos to a smaller perimeter, so they have less travel time from their 'average' rest position to the shearing station?

Does 'well lit' bonus affect shearing?

How does the door 'critter dropper' work?

[DimaB77]

8 hours ago, LadenSwallow said:

In the final version, would it be possible to build a critter sensor to close the conveyor chute at 20+ critter, and a second chute to just drop the eggs straight into the second shearing station. The conveyor belt to the second chute would pass through the first chute so will only be used when the first is closed.

If you want to do this to limit the Drecko population, it's easier, imho, to turn off the incubators with the sensor.  It will be enough to add 1 animal sensor.

8 hours ago, LadenSwallow said:

Would it be worth adding a layer of doors to further confine the unfed dreckos to a smaller perimeter, so they have less travel time from their 'average' rest position to the shearing station?

You'll shorten the travel time, which is good, but you'll also shorten Dreсko's time in hydrogen, which is bad. The more time they spend in hydrogen, the more their fur grows.

8 hours ago, LadenSwallow said:

Does 'well lit' bonus affect shearing?

It should, if there is no bug in the skill of ranching (I have not heard of it).

8 hours ago, LadenSwallow said:

How does the door 'critter dropper' work?

The animal steps on the plate, the upper door opens. The animal tries to go further through the open door. At that moment the door closes, with the animal trapped inside the door. After 2...3 seconds the animal falls down.

If I don't forget, I will take down a short gif showing how the door works.

[LadenSwallow]

2 hours ago, DimaB77 said:

If you want to do this to limit the Drecko population, it's easier, imho, to turn off the incubators with the sensor.  It will be enough to add 1 animal sensor.

It was mainly in response to: "...After 20 animals, the Critter drop-off will stop working."

But I suppose with the door dropper it never reaches this point?

2 hours ago, DimaB77 said:

You'll shorten the travel time, which is good, but you'll also shorten Dreсko's time in hydrogen, which is bad. The more time they spend in hydrogen, the more their fur grows.

I was referring to the totally hydrogen immersed subsection

[DimaB77]

19 hours ago, LadenSwallow said:

It was mainly in response to: "...After 20 animals, the Critter drop-off will stop working."

But I suppose with the door dropper it never reaches this point?

Quite right.

[LadenSwallow]

So I had a random thought... Would it be possible to use planter boxes to leave a gap between the 'floor' and the 'food' that you could flood to promote the dreckos feeding only from the side (they still need access to the 'bottom' mealwood tile which means that you can't prevent them from dropping fully purely from using planter boxes)? It would limit feeding points to a maximum of '2' per farm section (side walls) (can have more than 1 farm section per ranch) rather than 'applicable walls' + 'number of farm tiles'. It has the further advantage of allowing you to use the flood section to heatsink the area and to run your cooling through to control the farm temperature.

[DimaB77]

Your suggestion gave me another thought, but in the same direction. It would be worth trying to build a minimum size farm that would keep Dreckons on the verge of starvation (a half-starved farm).
This would reduce both air time and farm size, and make it easier to maintain pressure (in the first 2 options).
We'll have to experiment.

On the other hand, phosphorite is also useful. And the Dreсko farm is a good way to replenish it.

Your question about the effect of light on the speed of work in the stable is not simple. The Russian Wiki states that the light has no effect on the grooming station, but says nothing about the shearing station. We will have to test separately.

[LadenSwallow]

One further thought regarding the use of cycle sensors in incubators; I personally find the use of a timer sensor to be better - the reason for this is that the lullabied buff lasts for exactly 1 cycle, and a dupe cannot reapply the buff while it is already in effect. Given dupe travel time and time to actually apply the buff, using a timer sensor means that you can make it so the incubator doesn't turn on until the point where the buff must have run out and therefore actually be reapplied, given that the lullabied effect will start and expire later each cycle for each egg.

Settings example:

Once per day:

Green = X+B+Y = G seconds (X accounting for travel time, B 'buffer time' to account for extremes/finishing previous tasks (e.g. refilling feeders), and Y buff application)

Red = 600 - B < R < 600 seconds (individual experimentation for colony layout, how much additional buffer you have applied to the green zone, dupe priorities etc.)

n times per day:

Green = G

Red = (R - (n-1)G)/n

Would allow you to compromise between power consumption and singing to a new/missed egg as soon as possible, by offering various 'start' points throughout the day, and can still run timers set to different values so that multiple incubators continue to run at different times, or chain with 'filter/buffer' combination gates.

[DimaB77]

Of course I knew that there will be a "shift" in time each cycle, but I decided to leave it as it is. It seemed to me that it is not essential, and unnecessary complication is unnecessary. By the way, it's not a fact that skipping a cycle will happen, since the incubation time is not long. But it's still a stupid solution.

And the solution is simple - instead of a cycle timer, a timer sensor should be used. Screenshots I'm too lazy to fix, but in the description will indicate a more correct solution. Thank you for your observation!