Looking for Drecko ranching tricks

[WanderingKid]

Sorry I never came back to this.  I've taken to using a variance on someone else's design that works very well for me.

2 Wheezeworts to get it to cool down to what you need, and then one wheeze after that to keep the temperature stable in caustic environments.  Can use either O2 or CO2 depending on how you end up need to layer the Mealwort for simplicity.  Built it near the top of a caustic biome and it basically pressurizes itself. 

I've got some automation circuits I use to maintain air pressure and types, but the only place you really need is H2 everywhere but the lower Mealwood level, which is CO2 and O2.  The automation is more because I tend to overcomplicate everything and I wanted to get it *right* a few times before I could figure out where I was going to be able to get it wrong.

If you want to use an O2 system to pressure the farm tiles, I recommend you leave the wall leading into the farm tiles open until you get the pressure up to full on the local deoxygenizer.  Let it fill the two rows below the H2, then wall it in properly, and shut off the deoxidizer.  You can leave it with an automation switch at around 800 - 1000 grams if you feel the need after that to make it easier for your ranchers, but I really recommend just putting in a checkpoint with 2 suits instead.  If they need to groom two in a row, they tend to need to take breaks.

Also, I overkilled the tempshift plates a bit, but not too badly.  You'll need to get the farm to get to a stable temperature and not have huge swings from the middle to the ends.  … and I just realized this is not the best image.  You can skip the last two outer farm tiles and just stick in two normal blocks (16 mealworm for 8 drecko), which leaves you a bit of space for some automation.  Also, never.  EVER.  Layer your tempshift directly adjacent to the insulated tiles.  You're in for a long wait if you do.  Always skip a tile for tempshifting near the insulated ones.  

If there's a lot of interest I'll grab the automation and what not pics with my actual final designs, but this is pretty much the idea.  It would just be a some clean up of a few mistakes.

[PhailRaptor]

6 minutes ago, WanderingKid said:

Sorry I never came back to this.  I've taken to using a variance on someone else's design that works very well for me.

The only real issue I see with this is the length of time it would take for a Drecko to move from the middle part of the Mealwood layer to climb back out into the Hydrogen.  We can already see it happening in this screenshot, with the Woolly Drecko on the bottom right.  Not to mention how long it would take for one to reach the Ranching or Shearing Stations when the Rancher calls.

[WanderingKid]

@PhailRaptor They actually are rather rambunctious after they get fed and wander all over the place.  I'd say it's about a 75-80% hydrogen uptime, which I consider reasonable for a simpler design.  Because the dreckos can jump across the ladders, it's not quite too bad in getting them to shearing of grooming, but yes, that's a concern.  You really want an exosuit in this design, or you're likely to have a decent number of fails.  The closer to the entry ladder the groom and shearing stations are, the better off you'll be, but it's still not enough.

But really, the dreckos don't hang out in the mealwood for long.  They feed up a bit each day, and then at some point the groomer comes by.  Between then it's up to the RNG, after that I usually find them on the ceiling somewhere.

[Kabrute]

 

They spend 70% and more of their time in hydrogen. 2 plants per drecko

[WanderingKid]

@Kabrute Yeah, the design from that discussion from @youtube_stmmomo is what inspired this one.  This has the maximum size I could fit into a single ranch for enough mealwood and space for 8 dreckos (96 squares).  The only place they don't get hydrogen is when they're eating the mealwood.  I suppose it 'works well enough' for me.  There's probably higher hydrogen ratios but you'd be limiting the number of dreckos that can eat for glossy.

After you've got glossy for days, I'd assume there's a desire to switch to using a single 'egg ranch' like this, where you get what you can out of the shearing machines but the main purpose is to get glossy eggs, and then subsidiary 1-3 drecko ranches that are glossy only that are completely designed for maximum plastic production.  I haven't taken it that far in my builds yet, just getting this one up and getting the occasional glossy eggs in under a hundred cycles can be challenging some times.

[fishoutofwater]

I'll come back with another idea.

[SaySosa12]

I have a question about Glossy Dreckos, when they eat the plant, do you have to replant it or will it just regrow on its own??

[Denisetwin]

On 5/14/2018 at 3:12 PM, Kabrute said:

lemme be specific, raise dreckos on mealwood and glossy dreckos on pepper nuts

keep a drecko ranch just to farm glossy eggs, keep a gloss ranch for farming glossy scales

wait what??  I thought glossy dreckos only ate mealwood or bristle blossom??

I keep a glossy drecko ranch in an E shape with hydrogen at the top and carbon dioxide at the bottom.  I put the groom station at the bottom to get the dreckos down to the plants occasionally, they don't seem to have good food finding pathing.  The shearing station juts out into the middle of the E above the mealwood plants. 

[Kabrute]

yeah that data doesn't work anymore, but the build in the post is what I want to highlight, by keeping the station on the floor with the plants the drecks path to it more frequently.

[WanderingKid]

10 hours ago, SaySosa12 said:

I have a question about Glossy Dreckos, when they eat the plant, do you have to replant it or will it just regrow on its own??

You don't have to replant, but you'll have to keep it fertilized now and then like you do normal meal wood.

[SaySosa12]

@WanderingKid thank you for the response. Have not really tested any Drecko features yet, and when I get into ONI I will post a design I've been thinking about.