Prehistoric early observations and questions

[ChrisPBacon000]

I'm a dozen or so cycles into my first prehistoric colony and I thought I'd record some observations and questions for others.to consider.

First, the fig plant... Seems like the first thing to farm like mealwood, but maybe I'm not understanding it's purpose. Super slow growth and no obvious means of getting more nodes means that maybe it's not a starter plant?

Second, food is tight so farming early is crucial... Sweet corn seems a good place to start but pollination is important. Is one pollinator enough for a ranch of like, 16 plants?  

Third, is there sand on the map?  I haven't explored beyond the starting biome, but I'm feeling a lack of filtration material. 

 

More thoughts to come, seems like a cool DLC

[Tigin]

33 minutes ago, ChrisPBacon000 said:

First, the fig plant... Seems like the first thing to farm like mealwood, but maybe I'm not understanding it's purpose. Super slow growth and no obvious means of getting more nodes means that maybe it's not a starter plant?

The fig, like most plants, is quite terrible if kept wild. Planting it domestic and investing in watering yields insane returns. Note the vine needs an open area around it to grow, but can grow up to 12 vines on each side (for a total of 24 vines)

 

90kg of water/cycle yields up to 2600 kcal/cycle from figs. (For comparison, feeding this water into 4.5 bristle blossoms would only give 1201 kcal/cycle of berries). You can then take these figs to feed up to 6 Lumbs, which would net about 18000kcal/cycle of smoked brisket. Not bad for 90kg/cycle of water!

33 minutes ago, ChrisPBacon000 said:

Second, food is tight so farming early is crucial... Sweet corn seems a good place to start but pollination is important. Is one pollinator enough for a ranch of like, 16 plants?  

 For 16 sweatcorns, having the butterfly pollinate once every 37.5 seconds seems possible but the coverage will be staggered

33 minutes ago, ChrisPBacon000 said:

Third, is there sand on the map?  I haven't explored beyond the starting biome, but I'm feeling a lack of filtration material. 

Yes, there's an ocean biome 

Edited May 24, 2025 by Tigin

[ChrisPBacon000]

I don't quite follow the math on the fig. 2600 cal at 325 per fig is 8 figs. So how is that 12 vines per side calculated?  I'm kinda expecting 4 per side... Is that aiming too low and I should be farming with much more space per node?

Edited May 24, 2025 by ChrisPBacon000

[Tigin]

1 minute ago, ChrisPBacon000 said:

I don't quite follow the math on the fig. 2600 cal at 425 per fig is 8 figs. So how is that 12 vines per side calculated?  I'm kinda expecting 4 per side... Is that aiming too low and I should be farming with much more space per node?

12 on each side is just the limit before it stops expanding. There's no reason not to go for the full 24 if you have the space for it. Note figs take 3 cycles to grow, so 325* / 3 x 24 = 2600 kcal/cycle

Edited May 24, 2025 by Tigin

[bobthedog]

47 minutes ago, Tigin said:

90kg of water/cycle yields up to 2600 kcal/cycle from figs. (For comparison, feeding this water into 4.5 bristle blossoms would only give 1201 kcal/cycle of berries). You can then take these figs to feed up to 6 Lumbs, which would net about 18000kcal/cycle of smoked brisket. Not bad for 90kg/cycle of water!

I didn't get that far into the new planetoid yet, but I had checked the numbers and it says vines produce 0.67 kg/cycle, while Lumbs consume 1.3kg, so at 24 vines you could feed 12 Lumbs, no?

[Carib94]

I havent done any math I just wing it and I think SweetCorn + the Mimika for pollin is actually very good early game and even mid game food, especially if you add the Smoker to get Veggie Poppers which gives good morale early and calories. Also remember the Mimika also boost growth by 25% for 1 cycle. by cycle 33 I had over 100k Calories of Corn with 4 Mimika buds and 25 Corn with 7 dupes(normal difficulty btw). Not to mention the Mimika themselves also drop Mimillet which is the seed for the Mimika Bud but it can also be cooked for Toasted Mimillet so even more food. Lastly the Mimillet being a seed can feed Pacu as well, since Mimika guarantees a Mimillet on death they might be useful for taming Pacu then switching Pacu to eating the Seakomb.

Then you got the Ovagro Figs which the Mimika can also tend to the vines as well. I think they are better off using them to feed the Stegos(Lumbs) for more Peat and More Food.

Im still kinda scratching my head with Rhexes and Dartles with the DewDrippers.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2025 by Carib94

[Tigin]

17 minutes ago, bobthedog said:

I didn't get that far into the new planetoid yet, but I had checked the numbers and it says vines produce 0.67 kg/cycle, while Lumbs consume 1.3kg, so at 24 vines you could feed 12 Lumbs, no?

Each vine produces 108 kcal or 0.33kg/cycle of fig. Where do you see that a vine produces 0.67kg/cycle?

[bobthedog]

2 hours ago, Tigin said:

Each vine produces 108 kcal or 0.33kg/cycle of fig. Where do you see that a vine produces 0.67kg/cycle?

Looks like I just found a bug. Vine status screen says it produces 650 kcal per harvest. I hadn't actually noticed the difference until now.

[Gurgel]

On 5/24/2025 at 6:12 AM, bobthedog said:

Looks like I just found a bug. Vine status screen says it produces 650 kcal per harvest. I hadn't actually noticed the difference until now.

Yep, that tooltip saying 650kcal is wrong. It is half that per vine. 

[par_joe]

On 5/24/2025 at 8:19 AM, Carib94 said:

I havent done any math I just wing it and I think SweetCorn + the Mimika for pollin is actually very good early game and even mid game food, especially if you add the Smoker to get Veggie Poppers which gives good morale early and calories. Also remember the Mimika also boost growth by 25% for 1 cycle. by cycle 33 I had over 100k Calories of Corn with 4 Mimika buds and 25 Corn with 7 dupes(normal difficulty btw). Not to mention the Mimika themselves also drop Mimillet which is the seed for the Mimika Bud but it can also be cooked for Toasted Mimillet so even more food. Lastly the Mimillet being a seed can feed Pacu as well, since Mimika guarantees a Mimillet on death they might be useful for taming Pacu then switching Pacu to eating the Seakomb.

Then you got the Ovagro Figs which the Mimika can also tend to the vines as well. I think they are better off using them to feed the Stegos(Lumbs) for more Peat and More Food.

Im still kinda scratching my head with Rhexes and Dartles with the DewDrippers.

 

 

I not yet do the math, but dont Rhexes are simpler feed Tough Meat from Lumbs then have the brine ice melted and desalinate the water for vines?
Probably water negative, but the questian are how bad is it?

[Carib94]

8 hours ago, par_joe said:

I not yet do the math, but dont Rhexes are simpler feed Tough Meat from Lumbs then have the brine ice melted and desalinate the water for vines?
Probably water negative, but the questian are how bad is it?

I rather use their brine ice for Dew Drippers, tho the Rhexes can be a small water source because of the brine so theirs that. I rather feed them Dartles Live and have a feeder with  Dead dartles meat together, and the Rhex eggs overflow they can eat their offsprings tough meat after the babies become adults. I shear their feathers then i send them to drowning chamber.

[Tigin]

You can feed Rhex off just the tough meat from itself for some brine ice and decent feather fiber production. This won't net you any tough meat, but this allows you to maximize their initial stomach size with no resource inputs.(You can expect about 60% feather fiber throughput through a cannibalism farm)

Edited May 27, 2025 by Tigin