Good Rhex and Dartle changes

[Mariolo]

I like how they balanced the Rhex-Dartle resource loop. It now makes a whole lot more sense. Dartles are now easy to maintain but produce less so you need to ranch them in large numbers. They also output some of their chlorine as gas and other as bleach stone which is another change I like and it allows you to maintain a large amount of megafronds.

Rhexes are now a viable source of water. You need 3 dartles to feed 1 rhex and that is 6 dewdrip plants so 60 kg/cycle of brine ice. Now, if you feed them raw meat directly you get just enough for that + a few extra kg, but if you feed them live prey you get twice as much ice. This means that if you want the brine you need to engineer some ranch like this but if you are only after the feathers you can get away with a much simpler design. I wish Jawbo were given the same treatment since this is much more interesting than the typical hatch ranch.

The reason why I like this change so much is because in SO late game, it always felt like if you wanted to colonize a planet without any natural water vents you always had to go for the arbor tree resource loop. I think rhexes are a viable option for this now, making food, fiber, and water.

Now they are still not perfect. A big problem they have has to do with the overcrowding mechanics, where critters consider all other critters on the room the same size as them. This means that you have to be very careful when dropping live dartles inside the ranch since they can get overcrowded very easily, and keeping a full ranch of 6 rhexes is a bad idea. It'd be more intuitive if critters only occupied as many tiles as they are supposed to, for instance, having 5 rhexes + 4 dartles doesn't overcrowd, -1 happiness if you add one more dartle and you need to add 4 more until they get -2 happiness.

The other problem is their hunting mechanics. I understand you don't want rhexes hunting wild critters to extinction, but inside a ranch these mechanics mean that a dartle may stay inside the ranch for an unreasonably long time. They also try to run away and the only good way I found to keep them within reach is a janky 2 liquid setup like this that gets messed up as soon as any liquid spills. I don't think domestic critters should be able to dodge attacks since they aren't under any danger of going extinct.

TLDR: the numbers are just about right at the moment but their hunting mechanics are still kinda junky

[Tigin]

That seems to mostly be sandbox testing woes. They hunt tamed critters just fine (I don't see any collar tags on those critters!) 

 

[Carib94]

6 hours ago, Mariolo said:

Now they are still not perfect. A big problem they have has to do with the overcrowding mechanics, where critters consider all other critters on the room the same size as them. This means that you have to be very careful when dropping live dartles inside the ranch since they can get overcrowded very easily, and keeping a full ranch of 6 rhexes is a bad idea. It'd be more intuitive if critters only occupied as many tiles as they are supposed to, for instance, having 5 rhexes + 4 dartles doesn't overcrowd, -1 happiness if you add one more dartle and you need to add 4 more until they get -2 happiness.

AND that is why the DewDrops can be refined into Brackene for this very reason to override overcrowding by using the Critter Fountain hydrated buff. With the Critter Condo + Fountain + Groomed you get +10 happiness for the Rhex then you can add 6 or less Dartles in the ranch to feed them, only caveat is that the Dartles will drink the fountain as well. 

 

Edited May 31, 2025 by Carib94