FYI - One Player's Animal Setup

[GameAddict]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3341987075
This setup works pretty well for my animals. I do everything possible to max the happiness of my settlers, which includes making 12-18 gourmet foods for them, so I need a lot of cooking ingredients, especially raw meat!

I have 8 regular pens:
2 chicken pens of 209 blocks
2 pig pens of 209 blocks.
2 cow pens of 209 blocks.
2 sheep pens of 209 blocks.

Since I struggle to get enough beef and pork, I have additional pens for cows and pigs:
1 cow pen of 429 blocks
1 pig pen of 667 blocks
Based on animal crowding info on the wiki, I keep 8-9 animals in every 8 blocks of space.

My pens are set to 20% males and 80% females. The animal keepers do a pretty good job milking, shearing, installing frames in the hives, and maintaining herd sizes, but that does not generate quite enough raw meat, so I need to cull the herds myself about once a day (play day not game day). I use my infinite rope to drag all but 2 of each gender (and never the babies) out to be executed. It's only pixels!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3341986969
My 8 animal keepers, 6 anglers, and 4 hunters do a great job keeping my 2 raw meat boxes filled 75% with meats and eggs, plus 1 full box of common fish, and 1 full box of honey from 16 hives with frames, My 8 farmers (and their support staff) keep the nearby crop boxes full of fruits and vegetables, My 2 chefs, restricted to full-time cooking and only the areas they need, are able to keep the Taco Bell box filled with food for my settlers (and me, too).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3341986874
This is my 3rd or 4th time through the game. I enjoy playing all aspects of the game and I only have a few achievement left to complete, but I especially enjoy maximizing the layout and automation of my settlements. My current game has one settlement where every block of my island and surrounding water is fully utilized by my settlers.

They have names like Doolittle Ocho, Vidal Sassoon, Paul Bunyan, Ahab and Ishmael, Robin Hood, Guards Alpha and Foxtrot, Jeremy Clarkson, Tomb Raider, and so on. They work in restricted zones with names like Taco Bell, Diddly Squat Farm, Compost Emporium, Wild Forest, Botanical Gardens, and so forth. It's all goofy, childish fun to help me remember who does what and who works where. Most importantly, all 61 of my settlers are at 100% happiness all the time. My ultimate goal for my settlement!

Hope this was helpful or at least amusing. My profile name explains it all.

[pseudo]

can't seem to access those images, your account is private so that might be why

[GameAddict]

Oops, I don't post screenshots often. Should be good now. Thanks for that, Pseudo. :)

[avie]

you could use water lanterns in the pool instead of candles on a block.
Nice set-up

[GameAddict]

Oooo! I have not looked at those yet. Thanks, Avie. :)

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Pretty nice. I just beat Void so I can finally get an Animal Keeper.

How many settlements have you run at a time before? You can trade with those, but you can't trade with NPC villages? I guess you can just rob them they won't do anything.

[Brilpoetsdoekje]

Thank you for sharing! I’m on my first playthrough, yesterday did a complete overhaul of my kitchen area, my settlement was running fully self sufficient with lots of varied food, but since the move, several foods have stopped producing including everything that needs milk so I need to redo my food production setup, this will help for the animal half!

Currently at 30 settlers, I can’t imagine managing a 60 man settlement damn

[GameAddict]

Titomosquito187 - Gratz! Getting Animal Keepers is one of the most fun times! I ran 3 settlements in one game but I like focusing all my resources on just one, like I do now. You can't trade with NPC villages but that might be a cool future feature. Other NPC villages don't like it when you try to steal their animals, but they ignore all other thievery. :)

Brilbpotsdoekje - Sounds like your settlement is doing great if you've achieved self sufficient operation! Whenever I change or move anything, I almost always have problems from prioritizing new chests wrong. But I always struggle a bit to keep enough milk on hand. I choose the auto recipes my chefs make on repeat, so they don't overuse any particular ingredients. Using Guards as my main haulers has helped minimize inventory shortages. They are my only settlers not restricted to specific work zones and they can haul stuff from my farm chests to my kitchen chests (or wherever) freaking fast! :)

Thank you both for your replies. Hope you continue having fun playing Necesse!

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

I love talking about games while I play. Wish more people would. Makes me want to play some games more that I may have never played.

Really like how they added all the activity from friends in the game's Library page.

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

The OST in this game is really underappreciated I think. Perfectly atmospheric. Menu makes me feel like a rainy day, with thunderstorms coming.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3344505937

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3344507244

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Raiders attacked my town, and spawned right next to my animal keeper and killed them.

[GameAddict]

So sorry about your Animal Keeper. A new settler of the same type often shows up very soon after a death and you can replace the one who sacrificed himself for you. Death to all Raiders!

Your houses look cool ... and you do too wearing your shades! Did you see the page at https://necessewiki.com/Settlements in the wiki? If not, it has some helpful info about settler happiness and lots of tips about settlements.

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Beat the spider.

Yeah Animal Keeper came right away that morning.

For some reason I can't get the settlers to fill the troughs with wheat. When I set it up they kept taking it all back and putting it in the fridge, so I guess I have to do it manually.

I ahve to go to the swamp, and fish, or something I think now since it requires another quest for another boss.

[avie]

you have to open up the trough to be filled.(green button on the trough) but even if i did that myself, my villagers only feed the cows, not the chickens :) must be because i was complaining about my cows not giving milk.

[GameAddict]

You might check your priorities on your troughs. I have at least one trough in every animal pen. I set my troughs all on the highest priority, make sure my haulers live close enough to reach the troughs and the lower priority boxes wheat storage, and I give settlers access to the boxes and crafting stations (troughs) that they need. A little time for you to setup and then hours of work for your settlers! :)

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

I will try it again. What I have to do is break up those pens though. They can't touch even if the animals are separated. Keeper just keeps killing all my chickens. lol

Must be they have to have separate harvesting areas? The assigned area needs to be split into separate squares.

Yep that was it. HAd to assign number of animals for each different pen with a new zone.

Also, you are right about priority as well. I hadn't started using that setting for anything yet I don't think, but I'm pretty sure I raised it for the fridges when I set them up so the pens are normal, and those are high, which is why.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3345148017