Jump to content

Who is able to use the Farm Station?


Recommended Posts

Ive got everything ready for the Farm Station. Its in a Greenhouse, Ive just got a Farmer and everything and all the machine needs is it says is "Awaiting Specialist". However my Farmer never so much as touches the machine. I even unchecked all of his jobs except the Farm one and he only remains idle...this is really confusing me. The Farm Station specifically says it requires the colony to have a Farmer at least, and I have one, which I assumed would be the specialist. What "specialist" is it talking about?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought mine wasn't using it either. Turns out they only use it very rarely after hitting tier two farming job, or when they plant new plants. I saw my farmer use it once when I set up a second bristle blossom greenhouse. It's not something they use often. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As Kabrute said, it has to be a T2 farmer able to do the Operate job.  There is also a good chance that depending on your setup they will also need to be able to do the Supply job so that they can supply their machine.

 

I don't know if Tinkering affects how fast they can do it (I haven't really tested it, but it makes sense considering the restriction), but I tend to give them tinkering jobs after they master the matching farming rank just to be safe on that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tier 2 and 3 farmers can do it.  If you want them to constantly do it, you can set the farm stations and plants to priority 9.  You can get them to constantly do it from dawn till dusk.  My farmers boost about 18 plants per cycle, which is awesome! 

I generally let one t2 or t3 farmer in to each greenhouse and only allow them to operate, farm, and deliver.  They are blocked using door controls from entering most other working areas or leaving the base, so all they can do is make plant food (micronutrients now I think?), deliver it, apply it, harvest, and plant new plants. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Roboson said:

I thought mine wasn't using it either. Turns out they only use it very rarely after hitting tier two farming job, or when they plant new plants. I saw my farmer use it once when I set up a second bristle blossom greenhouse. It's not something they use often. 

Ah. So only when planting new stuff. Got it. Oh well. Thought it would speed up growing...

4 hours ago, zzKratoszz said:

If you're trying to grow mealwood that won't work.

Kind of figured as much. Its a pretty basic food.

4 hours ago, Kabrute said:

make him operator capable and teir 2 or higher farmer

He is

2 hours ago, Steelflame said:

As Kabrute said, it has to be a T2 farmer able to do the Operate job.  There is also a good chance that depending on your setup they will also need to be able to do the Supply job so that they can supply their machine.

 

I don't know if Tinkering affects how fast they can do it (I haven't really tested it, but it makes sense considering the restriction), but I tend to give them tinkering jobs after they master the matching farming rank just to be safe on that.

Yeah like I said they are a Farmer. T1 is a Farmhand, and T2 is the Farmer. And the "supply" was already delievered. It just needs "Awaiting Specialist". From what Ive gathered from others its because it only working when planting new, non-Mealwood plants.

40 minutes ago, Zarquan said:

Tier 2 and 3 farmers can do it.  If you want them to constantly do it, you can set the farm stations and plants to priority 9.  You can get them to constantly do it from dawn till dusk.  My farmers boost about 18 plants per cycle, which is awesome! 

I generally let one t2 or t3 farmer in to each greenhouse and only allow them to operate, farm, and deliver.  They are blocked using door controls from entering most other working areas or leaving the base, so all they can do is make plant food (micronutrients now I think?), deliver it, apply it, and harvest new plants. 

Sounds like a good set up. I have trouble handling a crop of varying plants. I can never get the set up right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Izzy248 said:

Ah. So only when planting new stuff. Got it. Oh well. Thought it would speed up growing

The farm station actually doubles your growth speed. Just make sure you have 2 farmers with good priorities and that you're not trying to grow mealwood. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not just speed.  A greenhouse/farm station doubles you food productivity but even more important makes berries more water efficient than liceloaf (per calorie).  Once you know this, you will switch from mealwood to berries as early as possible (limited by trainnig speed to farmer).  Cutting water usage in half is huge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Roboson said:

It does speed up growing. That's the whole point. 

Yes but I thought in the capacity that it could constantly be used on/delivered to plants to speed up their growth. Turns out that isnt the case.

3 hours ago, zzKratoszz said:

The farm station actually doubles your growth speed. Just make sure you have 2 farmers with good priorities and that you're not trying to grow mealwood. 

So does it only get applied when making new plants or is it constantly delivered to non-Mealwood plants like water? And I do have 2 good Farmers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Izzy248 said:

Yes but I thought in the capacity that it could constantly be used on/delivered to plants to speed up their growth. Turns out that isnt the case.

You deliver it once and it boosts. Which is better than constantly having to do jobs to get the same boost. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, chemie said:

Not just speed.  A greenhouse/farm station doubles you food productivity but even more important makes berries more water efficient than liceloaf (per calorie).  Once you know this, you will switch from mealwood to berries as early as possible (limited by trainnig speed to farmer).  Cutting water usage in half is huge.

Thats pretty good to know. I just have to get used to growing other plants. I am kind of bad at managing multiple plants.

1 minute ago, Roboson said:

You deliver it once and it boosts. Which is better than constantly having to do jobs to get the same boost. 

Ah so it becomes like a permanent stat boost. Good to know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, Izzy248 said:

Ah so it becomes like a permanent stat boost. Good to know.

Actually, it only boosts for 1 cycle.  But it doubles the growth for that one cycle without increasing the plant's demands.  That means that if you have a bristle blossom that is just started, you can get 2 cycles growth in with 1 cycle's worth of water, which means you saved 20 kg of water per plant boosted.  If your farmers are consistent and they boost n plants per cycle consistently, then it is as if you have n extra plants in your colony.

Having the plant food applied is a 3 step process:  Make it, deliver it, and apply it.  They need to do all three steps to get the boost to the plants.  Make requires Operate job (also 5 kg fertilizer), deliver requires Supply, and apply requires Farming, so all three jobs need to be enabled.  You also need the farming station to be a high priority along with the farm tiles.  The farm tiles have to be greater than or equal to the farm station in priority.  If you don't, then they will plant food and never deliver it.

I personally keep my farm station and plants at priority 9 at all times.  The farmer is stopped from doing anything but working in the farm by door controls, and only the farming staff is allowed in the greenhouses.  Having this dedicated farming staff saves a ton of space and water, so it is definitely worth it.  By doing this, I make my farmers constantly make the plant food or apply it or harvest plants, all of which are important for maximizing the efficiency of the farms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Zarquan said:

Actually, it only boosts for 1 cycle.  But it doubles the growth for that one cycle without increasing the plant's demands.  That means that if you have a bristle blossom that is just started, you can get 2 cycles growth in with 1 cycle's worth of water, which means you saved 20 kg of water per plant boosted.  If your farmers are consistent and they boost n plants per cycle consistently, then it is as if you have n extra plants in your colony.

Having the plant food applied is a 3 step process:  Make it, deliver it, and apply it.  They need to do all three steps to get the boost to the plants.  Make requires Operate job (also 5 kg fertilizer), deliver requires Supply, and apply requires Farming, so all three jobs need to be enabled.  You also need the farming station to be a high priority along with the farm tiles.  The farm tiles have to be greater than or equal to the farm station in priority.  If you don't, then they will plant food and never deliver it.

I personally keep my farm station and plants at priority 9 at all times.  The farmer is stopped from doing anything but working in the farm by door controls, and only the farming staff is allowed in the greenhouses.  Having this dedicated farming staff saves a ton of space and water, so it is definitely worth it.  By doing this, I make my farmers constantly make the plant food or apply it or harvest plants, all of which are important for maximizing the efficiency of the farms.

I just tried with some Bristle Blossoms but for some reason the farmers still didnt use the Farm Station...not sure what exactly Im doing wrong but I think its best I give up on it until the instructions on its use become a bit more clear.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Izzy248 said:

I just tried with some Bristle Blossoms but for some reason the farmers still didnt use the Farm Station...not sure what exactly Im doing wrong but I think its best I give up on it until the instructions on its use become a bit more clear.

Don't give up!  They are finicky to get working, but once they are, they are amazing.  One farmer saves the colony around 360 kg of water/cycle.  That is a ton of water.

Could you upload the save?  Maybe I can look at it in a few hours and find out why it isn't working.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wait.  Are you sure stations need fertilizer? They do not say that and I tried to watch carefully and have not seen deliveries to the station.  The dup walks up, pressed it, and green stuff pops out.  When they apply it, the description is micronutrient fertilizer but is not related to regular fert

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Izzy248 said:

I just tried with some Bristle Blossoms but for some reason the farmers still didnt use the Farm Station

Ok, after having read the back and forth on this thread.. you seem to be getting no where.

Set farm station to higher priority than your farm plots.

It doesn't matter if it's fresh plantings or not, the buff can only be done on plants that haven't been buffed yet. Any plant will do, building description in build menu tells you the plants it can buff.

1 hour ago, Zarquan said:

360 kg of water/cycle.  That is a ton of water.

...no, it isn't. But it is a nice production benefit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, chemie said:

Wait.  Are you sure stations need fertilizer? They do not say that and I tried to watch carefully and have not seen deliveries to the station.  The dup walks up, pressed it, and green stuff pops out.  When they apply it, the description is micronutrient fertilizer but is not related to regular fert

It took 5 kg fertilizer to create 1 unit of plant food. at the farm station.  At least, it did a couple days ago.  Look at the contents of the farm station.

1 hour ago, The Plum Gate said:

...no, it isn't. But it is a nice production benefit.

Ok, fine, I exaggerated.  If you have 7 farmers, it is like having a free extra geyser though, assuming you need that much food. 

It is definitely significantly more water than it takes to support the farmer.  Each farmer saves enough water to provide food and air for himself and another two dupes for free.  They also make it so that you don't need to expand your farm as quickly and can live longer on less water before you find a geyser.  All in all, it is a significant boost.  My farm is probably about 60% of the size of the farm would need to be if I didn't use farmers.  I don't have the seeds yet to make a farm that big. 

Because of the boosts, my colony was off mealwood and mush bars extremely early.  I don't remember the exact cycle, but I think didn't have any mealwood plants at cycle 40.  This is in a colony where I accept every dupe and no one has died yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Parusoid said:

Since when 1% means 'doubles'? :D

That's a typo in the tooltip.  It doubles in speed.  In this thread, someone did the experiment, and the top plant finished when the bottom was around 50%.  The lower plant has a bit more than 50% progress because of the time between plant food applications.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, chemie said:

berries more water efficient than liceloaf (per calorie)

Liceloaf 50 water per 1700 makes 0.03 water per calorie. Berry 120 water per 2000 calories makes 0.06. So it means you need to use more water for berries than liceloaf. @Izzy248  berries are not more water efficient than liceloaf.

Assuming that the farmer's touch   buff (double growth) is present 100% of the time (wchich is doubtful) the water efficiency is approximately the same as the liceloaf, but it will never be better 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Please be aware that the content of this thread may be outdated and no longer applicable.

×
  • Create New...