Automated Pip Ranching - Please share advice, ideas or builds

[ONI-addict]

Hello, I want to automate Pip ranching as much as possible, meaning I want to reduce dupe labor to a minimum and maximize dirt production.

1. No labor Pip ranching

My idea is to have one ranch with a grooming station to create more eggs and several ranches with just a Critter Condo to only produce Dirt.
I have made a graphic to visualize a self-sustaining ranch with only a Critter Condo.

Spoiler

A Pip egg is put into the ranch at age 0 every 20 cycles , 5 times. This gives 5 individual pip reproduction cycles as seen in the graphic above. This way there will always be at most 6 pips and 2 eggs or 7 pips and 1 egg, so never over the threshold of 8 critters in a room, which would stop reproduction.

Two wild Arbor trees produce 100/18 *10 = 55.55 branch growth per cycle, while 6 pips eat about 80/9*6 = 53.33 branch growth per cycle. For a short while 7 pips are alive, but I would be fine with them starving a little, I think.

However there is a problem: a 2% chance to produce Cuddle Pips, which would not only produce less dirt and eat more, but also reduce egg incubation time and mess up the incubation timings. A solution to this problem could be to store a few Pip eggs on rails, and drop one into the ranch when a Cuddle Pip egg spawns. A few eggs will become non-viable and crack, but that is a small price for automation.

2. Pip storage

Spoiler

With this design I could store Pips for the breeder ranch and periodically kill them if they get too old. I haven't tested it yet, but with this design I plan to kill a Pip with the Timer sensor every cycle or something to keep them below the age of 10 cycles, so that they can still produce 15 eggs in their lifetime. The signal switch simulates the request for a new Pip from the breeder ranch. The system should make sure to only allow one below 10 cycles old pip in the pick-up room, and only when it is requested.

Now I will try to see how viable a Cuddle-Pip-only ranch to use all the 96 tiles would be.

 

Please share your builds/ideas for automated Pip farms or give criticism to my ideas.

[KittenIsAGeek]

Beyond using pips to plant perfectly spaced arbor trees to maximize branches and then letting them go wild, I never bothered to ranch pips.  I always had plenty of dirt on hand and my goal was usually the wood.  

I think you've got a decent design idea, though.