Limit animal feeding quantities...

[JMSFedaykin]

Has anyone figured out a way to set and/or use feeding troughs with reasonable quantities of food? Right now, my survivors just fill it up to the max with whatever available food type is most plentiful. Not only does this cut severely into the available raw food for cooking, it ends up causing the dispensed food to rot most of the time. (Loading up 230 raw meat for 1 dog guarantees it's gonna go bad.)

Has anybody figured out a solution that doesn't require a god-awful amount of micro-management?

Thanks!

[Sant]

It's not possible. Survivors always fill all 3 slots in the feeder to maximum. It is annoying and it was pointet few time here so maybe devs will fix it.

[Lakota Pride]

i havent tried slop yet.. i guess i will try as it seems to last a long time according to the text.. .. but i am not sure if it has any effect on animal happiness

[Skorb]

I found out that swapping bad food from feeder to shelves/storage chest and vice versa brings food quality back to 100%, it's very useful in early stages where electricity and fridges are not available yet. So at least all food won't spoil in a few days..

[Actual Malice]

Originally posted by Skorb:

I found out that swapping bad food from feeder to shelves/storage chest and vice versa brings food quality back to 100%, it's very useful in early stages where electricity and fridges are not available yet. So at least all food won't spoil in a few days..

That's hilarious!

[battles_atlas]

Really hope the devs address this in next patch - I've just trained my first dog and I'll be out of food in no time having to throw away 300 meat every few days just to feed him.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by battles_atlas:

Really hope the devs address this in next patch - I've just trained my first dog and I'll be out of food in no time having to throw away 300 meat every few days just to feed him.

Someone uploaded a mod to the workshop which adds a feeder that holds only a single stack of food, if you want to save yourself some meat until (if ever) the devs address it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2973156911&searchtext=animal

[Flin Fredstone]

'until (if ever) the devs address it'

I feel a disturbance in your faith :-)

They do pay attention to this forum and even quickly respond with temporary mods to address issues. I find it hard to believe they would turn a blind eye to the major "grievances" the players have with the gameplay.

[Jaggid Edje]

I agree @Flin Fredstone, but I don't know for sure that they will ever address it, and I'd hate to mislead someone.

[Bloodcup]

They only work around i've found it to not use meat for cooking...and only hunt one animal at a time; just to dry it and keep for dog. And even then, it's still double what is needed and half sometimes goes bad.

[Actual Malice]

Originally posted by Actual Malice:

Originally posted by Skorb:

I found out that swapping bad food from feeder to shelves/storage chest and vice versa brings food quality back to 100%, it's very useful in early stages where electricity and fridges are not available yet. So at least all food won't spoil in a few days..

That's hilarious!

In my one experiment with this, it turned out not to be true. My survivors took dried meat from one feed trough on which I had changed the restrictions and dumped it into the dog's trough. The incoming dried meat was at 29 percent, the meat already in the dog's trough was at 62 percent. The end result: a combined batch of dried meat at 43 percent.

My dog was in Hugo's room, no separate pen, and so was the feed trough. Because it was "under a roof," the spoilage seemed greatly reduced, compared to the experience of those above. I only remember one of the three trays spoiling once. It's possible I missed some spoilage episodes, but there were long periods, including an entire winter, where I had no meat coming in and the dried meat already in the trough held out just fine. It is entirely possible that on those occasions when the tray would be replenished, adding good meat to bad at least extended the period before spoiling (see prior paragraph).

I gathered 50 Ulfen, instead of anything else, because I knew I could grow enough hay for them to eat. I couldn't.

The hidden cost of caring for 50 Ulfen is constructing all those pens with 70 hay and 70 sticks each. That's 25 pens, for a total of 1750 hay. I pushed a lot of bush fruits and buttermelons on those Ulfen, and fortunately I was on a seed with near unlimited supplies of the former.

Sidenote: I had gotten the achievement and was culling the herd, but it was taking forever. Then giant mantises attacked without warning at some point after the orbital radio acrtivated. They blew through the fences and chewed through 13 Ulfen in no time. Problem solved. I wish you similar good fortune. :)

[SashaMkai]

I feed my dogs insect or chicken meat. The red meat is for people and the other meat is for the dogs. It does make me have to click insect meat out of the recipe while cooking but it's a lot easier than fighting with the dogs for the dried meat. lol

[Skorb]

Originally posted by Actual Malice:

Originally posted by Actual Malice:

That's hilarious!

In my one experiment with this, it turned out not to be true. My survivors took dried meat from one feed trough on which I had changed the restrictions and dumped it into the dog's trough. The incoming dried meat was at 29 percent, the meat already in the dog's trough was at 62 percent. The end result: a combined batch of dried meat at 43 percent.

I agree, it doesn't work all the time. MOST of the times it worked for me, BUT I had to completely remove all of, lets say, insect meat from the animal tray, put it in storage in my kitchen, bring it back to tray. Well it was some time ago, maybe I'm forgetting something, but I know it worked for me. Just give it a try :)

[Mudin]

Just have your dogs run out and kill wild life and eat that

[Bludmeister]

You can reduce the number of usable slots in the feeder down to 1 which helps a little. But it would be nice to put limits on the amount actually stored.

[ZanyScum]

I did not do anything with animals yet, could create a cooled feeding room?