What is the point of butterfly domes?

[ElDudorino]

Don't get me wrong, I think they look nice and I can understand using them for aesthetic purposes. But they only produce insect mass at a rate of 20/s versus the 75/s you get from a butterfly farm. I imagine the 20/s probably becomes 40/s with two butterfly larvae in it but even then it's just barely over half what you get from the farms, and besides that with two butterflies you could have two farms for 150/s. Plus the dome requires more resources to build than a farm, and requires an absurd amount of energy. Am I missing something?

[storm.hound]

One probably becomes available first. Newer technology superseding older is a constant in this game.

[ElDudorino]

Ah, I think you're probably right. It appears further to the right in the unlockables. I loaded an existing save for the dev branch and already had a lot of biomass so everything was unlocked right off the bat.

[hardworker]

I wondered the same thing. I wish the Butterfly Dome was more useful so that it's not completely obsolete when the Butterfly Farm is unlocked. The Dome with 2 Futura larvae contributes 320 g/s to Insects; the Farm with just one Futura larva contributes 600 g/s, using less energy, materials, and space.

[UncleBadTouch]

I think the benefit is that you can mix 2 different butterfly larvae in there and it makes a mix of those 2.

[storm.hound]

It just has two different ones flying around if you use different larvae.

[Caver451]

At first, I believed the dome would produce something I needed, like the other dome produces bark.

And maybe that is the solution? Perhaps the dome should produce a substance which you can use instead of fertilizer for new butterfly larvae beyond the "basic" ones? That would make the dome vital for higher quality butterflies, instead of just aesthetic.

Maybe you put basic butterfly larvae in the middle, and the dome produces an item in the wall panels like the other dome produces bark? Perhaps depending on what butterflies are in the dome will determine what tier of this substance you get, allowing the chance to be able to produce very high quality butterflies?

A lot of possibilities!

[chutz748]

Originally posted by Caver451:

At first, I believed the dome would produce something I needed, like the other dome produces bark.

And maybe that is the solution? Perhaps the dome should produce a substance which you can use instead of fertilizer for new butterfly larvae beyond the "basic" ones? That would make the dome vital for higher quality butterflies, instead of just aesthetic.

Maybe you put basic butterfly larvae in the middle, and the dome produces an item in the wall panels like the other dome produces bark? Perhaps depending on what butterflies are in the dome will determine what tier of this substance you get, allowing the chance to be able to produce very high quality butterflies?

A lot of possibilities!

I waited like four hours for the dome to start producing larva

[No Name Bae]

Ya you're right I kind of have no use for it other than being a nice room to walk through

[Jay Ren]

If it can't produce things, it could at least let us put in like, 4-5 butterflys so we can have a colourful mess <3

[Tekcruzer]

Originally posted by OmegaJasam _ DGD _:

If it can't produce things, it could at least let us put in like, 4-5 butterflys so we can have a colourful mess <3

You mean we don't have one now?

[storm.hound]

Put half a dozen or so butterfly farms in tight formation, each with a different variety. That should make a suitably colorful mess.

[carl.kenner]

The butterfly dome is like a flower spreader after you have unlocked tree spreaders. I think the dome unlocks first, and you have to use it to increase insect mass enough to unlock the butterfly farm. I built two domes, but because they're pretty, I left them there when I started building butterfly farms. I just put the colourful but low-multiplier larva in there. There's infinite larva, unlike flowers, so no need to remove them from the dome.

[Korombos]

Oh, I thought it would make larva of those butterflies, too. That what I get for plunking along after burning though the content. I'm not even THAT far ahead. I think I'm 0.04 Amphibians after the update. Guess I should move my 800% larva to an outdoor fixture.

[ElDudorino]

I really like the idea of the dome creating larvae. The 600% butterflies already very much look like hybrids to me, and I think it would be cool if putting two different species of butterfly in the dome could result in hybrids like Nere, Lorpens, and Fiorentina (or whatever the other is called) appearing.

If this were the only way to get the 600%+ larvae or their world spawns were made prohibitively rare or finite, this would give motivation for players to grow different types of larvae in the incubator to create new hybrids.

[Taonath]

The Dome creating the little buggers would be awesome. I hate having to pick them up and deltete them later on, meanwhile blocking my inventory, just so I can build something.

There shoudl be a different solution than them spawning willy-nilly everywhere you stand for a few seconds.