Ranching vs Meat Printing

[bkline1187]

Just wondering which one is more efficient. Is it better to tame animals for butchering or just go the route of meat printing? I’ve heard that animals can potentially breed out of control and slaughtering them can lead to happiness loss among the survivors though.

[Elgar]

Originally posted by bkline1187:

Just wondering which one is more efficient. Is it better to tame animals for butchering or just go the route of meat printing? I’ve heard that animals can potentially breed out of control and slaughtering them can lead to happiness loss among the survivors though.

To avoid happiness loss, just disable the "pet" setting for the animals you plan to slaughter. That way survivors can't bond with them.

Have a few couples of Ulfens and/or Drakkas who will be the parents you'll always keep. Give them names to remember that they are the parents. "Pet" should be enabled for them to keep them happy (and survivors get happiness buff too). After that, it's very easy to control the offspring population, you slaughter them when you want or need to.

As for your question about the efficiency, I don't know, I don't really use meat printing.

If you don't mind using mods, you can also use an "official" mod made by devs themselves, in order to grow meat :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2937292005

[starlight78sso]

I dont worry about taming them, when I need meat or leather, I just mark them to hunt, and let my hunters kill and butcher them, no unhappiness that way, and no need to feed them.

[bkline1187]

Originally posted by Elgar:

Originally posted by bkline1187:

Just wondering which one is more efficient. Is it better to tame animals for butchering or just go the route of meat printing? I’ve heard that animals can potentially breed out of control and slaughtering them can lead to happiness loss among the survivors though.

To avoid happiness loss, just disable the "pet" setting for the animals you plan to slaughter. That way survivors can't bond with them.

Have a few couples of Ulfens and/or Drakkas who will be the parents you'll always keep. Give them names to remember that they are the parents. "Pet" should be enabled for them to keep them happy (and survivors get happiness buff too). After that, it's very easy to control the offspring population, you slaughter them when you want or need to.

As for your question about the efficiency, I don't know, I don't really use meat printing.

If you don't mind using mods, you can also use an "official" mod made by devs themselves, in order to grow meat :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2937292005

I’m on xbox so I don’t think I can get mods. So Meat printing isn’t really that useful then? I do like the idea of taking care of animals and your explanation definitely helped clear things up. So how often do you think animals have babies? Also can they just live off of a hay field or do you need to provide them with a variety of foods like your survivors?

[Elgar]

Originally posted by bkline1187:

So how often do you think animals have babies? Also can they just live off of a hay field or do you need to provide them with a variety of foods like your survivors?

I'm not sure, but I would say my Ulfen females have at least 1 baby per year. Probably 2. As for Drakkas, I don't know because I don't breed them (yet).

As for food, yes they can definitely live off of hay. There are other choices too, but unlike survivors you don't need a variety of foods to keep your animals happy.

[MicS]

For me, it's the permanent +18 happiness bonus from bonding that's important. Worth extra trouble with hay and the base covered in a layer of manure.

Meat printing is just food, which there's enough of anyway.

[Chrianda]

To control manure just turn it into fuel.

[🥇 Xaxoon 🥇]

Unfortunately, ranching isn't worth the trouble. Have tried several times. I hunt the critters better in the wild. And cow dung is lying around everywhere. You need staff to run a ranch like this, but what's the point of doing it?

[Bjørn]

Originally posted by Xaxoon:

Unfortunately, ranching isn't worth the trouble. Have tried several times. I hunt the critters better in the wild. And cow dung is lying around everywhere. You need staff to run a ranch like this, but what's the point of doing it?

Yes, I've yet to try taming in this game, since I haven't seen a good reason for all the extra work yet. I built some animal shelters and sleeping spots and feeder in my last game, but never got around to the taming

I don't hunt in the game either, so I don't use meat (except for fuel / oil production of the insect attacks), and just harvest the manure from the free-roaming animals to make fuel.

Never had the meat printing tech, so not tried that.

[wcbarney]

"Meat Printing" is practically useless. As many have posted on this thread, if you need red meat all you have to do is send one of your survivors hunting. Ranching is OK for red meat, but getting leather is probably more important. I do ranching most of the time, taming 4-5 ulfens, but the most important benefit seems to be the happiness buff from the survivors interacting with the pet animals.

[Bjørn]

Originally posted by wcbarney:

Ranching is OK for red meat, but getting leather is probably more important.

I've always had those leather plants close by, so I haven't focused on animal leather so far.

But what do you guys use the leather for, mainly? I use the plant ones for carpets and beds maybe early on, and build some punching bags, but not for armor, for example. I saw I still haven't gotten the achievement for making leather armor. Gone straight to synth for armor in my games.

But I've only played on Sobrius, so haven't needed clothes that needs leather to make, but might need warmer clothes on Desertum?

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Bjørn:

But I've only played on Sobrius, so haven't needed clothes that needs leather to make, but might need warmer clothes on Desertum?

Desertum is actually more forgiving when it comes to the need for clothing. You don't even have to really 'prepare for winter' the first year to the extent you do on Sobrius. It only gets cold at night, and even then just having a campfire near the beds is enough to keep people warm enough.
Mind you, your people wouldn't fair well if they are naked. LOL

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Bjørn:

Originally posted by wcbarney:

Ranching is OK for red meat, but getting leather is probably more important.

I've always had those leather plants close by, so I haven't focused on animal leather so far.

But what do you guys use the leather for, mainly?

Shoes & boots. As you say, leather armor isn't very good.

[Daynen Drakeson]

Taming and ranching is, unfortunately, not worth it at the moment. Everything you get from taming is completely replaceable and the animals just eat up extra food. They also make prime targets for bugs. Putting them behind fences/walls may help, but sooner or later those hummingflies WILL come for blood. The best thing you ever get is carbon, and that's if you manage to tame a SHRIEKER BROODMOTHER. Have fun with that.

It's been brought up before; animals need more purpose than just their droppings, their meat and their skins. Leather clothing is meh and meat is nice to have but not really needed. Having a close manure source is nice for fuel, but remember someone has to MAKE fuel from that. Other options nearly always make themselves available and some are so superior it's a joke. If you get fuel fermentation, you may as well just butcher your animals and tear down the ranch because barrels require neither work nor food to keep producing those pretty red cans of gas.

[Flin Fredstone]

Tbf, hummingflies gunning for the animals ain't a bad thing. No cry when one gets wacked and shots fired at them isn't a shot fired at your people.
The rest of your post is pretty valid though. But i like cows or camels in my settlement.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Flin Fredstone:

Tbf, hummingflies gunning for the animals ain't a bad thing. No cry when one gets wacked and shots fired at them isn't a shot fired at your people.
The rest of your post is pretty valid though. But i like cows or camels in my settlement.

Agree with this. I do like cows in my settlement, but don't like butchering them for food & leather. The hummingflies usually end up doing the slaughtering of some of the cows each time they attack, so it isn't so traumatic to butcher the ones that have been killed.