Egg crackers' egg selection

[Neckcen]

As of the current preview, the egg crackers will happily accept any egg of the kind selected. This creates two problems:

• Wild eggs may be used, causing wild critter populations to die off.
• Eggs which were needed to keep a stable's population... stable are used, causing stables to die off.

 

Suggestions which, I believe, solve both issues:

• Make the egg cracker a stable building and have it work the same way as the drop off (max. number of egg/critter, crack extras).
• Add a "sweep only" setting to the egg cracker and add a "sweep extra eggs" option to the drop off.

[Juicearific]

I like the sweep only options, I dislike the stable building part. I use it in my kitchen, since I'm cooking the eggs I crack.

I would like to mention, this problem gets solved if there is someplace to store eggs (like a nest), which has its own priority. You could just make the cracker a lower priority than the nest. This is only an issue as the new eggs to hatch are laying on the ground, not in a building.

As for the wild eggs, I feel like you should be putting them in a safe place or keeping them blocked off in the wild. I'm OK with dupes stealing those, as I feel it's on you to make sure they're OK.

[Neckcen]

I quite like the idea of nests, one can even imagine wild critters would also build their own nest which would solve the problem on their end too.

12 hours ago, Juicearific said:

As for the wild eggs, I feel like you should be putting them in a safe place or keeping them blocked off in the wild. I'm OK with dupes stealing those, as I feel it's on you to make sure they're OK.

In theory I agree, but I feel there are currently no good way to tell your dupes "leave the wild critters alone". Especially in preview since eggs can no longer be stored.

[Juicearific]

7 hours ago, Neckcen said:

In theory I agree, but I feel there are currently no good way to tell your dupes "leave the wild critters alone". Especially in preview since eggs can no longer be stored.

I feel like the way to leave wild animals alone is to not break the area they're in. It's that, or you relocate them to your own room and leave them alone there.

Realistically, wild animals at best produce meat. At worst they exist. They will always lay 1 egg before they die (more if they're eating the natural environment, but if we assume they're not being fed it's 1 egg), which is enough to keep the species going. You really only want to keep them for meat, or to keep a species around, and usually it's the latter. I don't see a reason to differentiate between wild and tame eggs, as if you're trying to keep a species alive, you can just lock the door to the room you put it in (or not crack open the area they're being held in)

[Neckcen]

I like to keep wild critters around just because they look cute and make the world feel alive, not for any production. As such I'd love my dupes to just leave them alone by default.