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Any smooth hatch farms?


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I did a few smooth hatch ranches. They are just a copy of my regular hatch farms with different food being loaded to the feeders (mostly iron ore). Nothing special about the ranch.

I usually build rooms that are 4x24 but i think there are more optimal designs out there. This size just fits my base layout. After it`s done i just let the dupes manage it.

Smooth hatches are an excellent step before you get your metal refineries set up, especially if you're lucky enough to get one from your first wild hatch eggs. I'd recommend using them to eat your gold amalgum, saving iron for late game steel production, whilst in the process giving you lots of material to build your smart batteries, transformers, etc etc.

14 minutes ago, Lifegrow said:

Smooth hatches are an excellent step before you get your metal refineries set up, especially if you're lucky enough to get one from your first wild hatch eggs. I'd recommend using them to eat your gold amalgum, saving iron for late game steel production, whilst in the process giving you lots of material to build your smart batteries, transformers, etc etc.

I'd argue the opposite way, let the smooth hatches eat iron and save the gold for smelting.

My reasoning for this is because the main purpose for smooth hatches is the power and heat generation savings. If you aren't prepared to deal with the heat of smelting iron, having smooth hatches get an early start is a good option. Iron is so incredibly plentiful in most maps, while gold is a somewhat more difficult to acquire resource, dealing with germs and being really spread out.

Gold can be smelted at almost zero heat cost, and if you've used your iron from smooth hatches on smart batteries or transformers, you can replace them with gold ones later. Gold is also better conserved for low-tech and medium heat applications, whereas iron is far less useful for low tech, while at the same time being far more plentiful.

1 hour ago, crypticorb said:

I'd argue the opposite way, let the smooth hatches eat iron and save the gold for smelting.

My reasoning for this is because the main purpose for smooth hatches is the power and heat generation savings. If you aren't prepared to deal with the heat of smelting iron, having smooth hatches get an early start is a good option. Iron is so incredibly plentiful in most maps, while gold is a somewhat more difficult to acquire resource, dealing with germs and being really spread out.

Gold can be smelted at almost zero heat cost, and if you've used your iron from smooth hatches on smart batteries or transformers, you can replace them with gold ones later. Gold is also better conserved for low-tech and medium heat applications, whereas iron is far less useful for low tech, while at the same time being far more plentiful.

The "main" purpose for smooth hatches? They eat raw metal and give you a refined version, that is the sole reason for them surely?

If you're able to deal with the heat of refining gold, then you're already able to deal with the heat of refining anything - because you've a system for deleting your heat - whether that be sieving, oil refining, or whatever coolant handling method you use. If you're in a position to have a metal refinery set up to smelt anything, then you have zero use for smooth hatches any more. Fact is, most players need just a little bit of refined metal to get them through their first electrolyzer build, or their first aquatuner setup, etc. For this purpose, smooth hatches are perfect.

In terms of diet choice, I would argue that having a plentiful supply of iron to allow you to begin to bunker off the surface of space with the god-awful amounts of steel that you require is far more important than holding onto gold - which is superseded by numerous materials in the late game, and isn't required for any crafting recipes. No point arguing "welp, we have loads of refined iron in space....If only I could safely get at it..." whilst your base lacks the materials to safely get there.

It may also be worth noting that for the early/mid game there are far less "useful" materials in igneous/caustic biomes than in slime biomes (unless you have a particular lust for igneous rock and bleach stone...) which is another excellent reason to get out there and dig out slime biomes. They're also far warmer; heat death being one of the most common causes of base death/difficulty for beginner players. Slimelung is a trivial concern, and even the newest of players soon learn it can be mitigated with only a bit of sand and some deodorizers - hell, just look at Sips' recent playthrough ;) 

11 hours ago, Lifegrow said:

If you're able to deal with the heat of refining gold, then you're already able to deal with the heat of refining anything

I`d argue. My early designs often realy on using leftover polluted water. You can use 50oC polluted water to smelt gold but iron might break your pipes. Not to mention steel. I wouldn`t attempt to forge steel before i get crude oil for cooling.

3 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

I`d argue. My early designs often realy on using leftover polluted water. You can use 50oC polluted water to smelt gold but iron might break your pipes. Not to mention steel. I wouldn`t attempt to forge steel before i get crude oil for cooling.

Using polluted water should be the first thing you do, but as soon as you can build a pump in oil, that should be your coolant. Cycle oil until it's as near to 400 degrees as you dare, then slap it through an oil refinery for 75 degrees c petroleum. Profit.

Spoiler

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Use an element sensor connected to a not gate to disable your refineries whilst the coolant is being emptied/recycled - this allows time for the liquid shutoff to do it's thing based on a pipe thermo sensor, and decide if the oil needs to go to the refineries/be recycled.

This prevents dupes from repeatedly charging the refinery with hotter and hotter oil, leading to pipe breakages/base explosions/nukes.

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4 hours ago, Lifegrow said:

Using polluted water should be the first thing you do, but as soon as you can build a pump in oil, that should be your coolant. Cycle oil until it's as near to 400 degrees as you dare, then slap it through an oil refinery for 75 degrees c petroleum. Profit.

  Hide contents

image.thumb.png.3927f9ecc5e2ae68f31f5a47176e6510.png

image.thumb.png.292324645a919fdd0e582f393e16956d.png

Use an element sensor connected to a not gate to disable your refineries whilst the coolant is being emptied/recycled - this allows time for the liquid shutoff to do it's thing based on a pipe thermo sensor, and decide if the oil needs to go to the refineries/be recycled.

This prevents dupes from repeatedly charging the refinery with hotter and hotter oil, leading to pipe breakages/base explosions/nukes.

image.thumb.png.d56b070dec66b6934030fe6b8cf2c2bb.png

 

Are you looping the petroleum through the metal tiles to "cool" the refinery? 

1 hour ago, Tunechi_sama said:

Are you looping the petroleum through the metal tiles to "cool" the refinery? 

Nah, I have a separate pipe from a spare aquatuner cooling that area - I have plans for a few more builds there, so it warranted it's own radiant piping :) 

Spoiler

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