Farming not worth it, sprinkler a step backwards.

[Spazmaticus_Rex]

The sprinkler seems poorly designed. The only added benefit is being able to slightly increase crop yield by not requiring to water at a specific time but the use of the sprinkler itself is so clunky I normally don't even bother with it and ultimately try to avoid farming at all. I still have to individually add cleaned water from a bucket or bottle, no "dump all clean water" ability so I am making basically the same effort and clicks as if I just wanted to water the plants normally.

Not sure if its a bug or intentional but when using clean water from water bottles to fill planters the bottle disappears, which doesn't make sense and makes me want to only use the bucket, with only three charges and the sprinkler has five. After finally unlocking pumps it was at least a tighter loop but still super tedious to pump the water, fill the bucket, clean the water at the kitchen, run to the sprinkler, click 6 times (three on the sprinkler and three on the bucket option), run back to pump because the sprinkler can hold five units. If I just want food to eat it makes more sense to just be diligent on the naturally growing plants in the area, which is backwards. Farming should offer advantages that make it worth while, but other than doing it to complete discrete tasks like getting enough for the vending machines or so I can get worms (usually also ultimately for vending machine tasks) I end up never touching farming.

If the bucket could be upgraded to hold more (before access to pumps ideally) that would be helpful, or just let me recycle bottles used just for watering plants/sprinklers so I can at least make fewer trips in the loop.

I imagine it's also in the works to either make a pipe system or a module for the robots to automate water carrying (which would automate easier of bottles are recycled I think). I can see the upgrade to automatically pump with electricity is planned, but would be nice to get automatically cleaning water, and carrying it to sprinklers too.

[Kaery]

I agree it's slightly tedious, but some small hints to make it easier: The sprinkler can actually hold six, so two full buckets. Also, if you right click on the bucket, you take it in hand and can left click to use it. So one click to fill from the pump, one click to desalinate at a fueled cooking station and three quick clicks to fill the contents into the sprinkler.

[Trollzy]

I built my kitchen/farm right next to the pump. Quick harvest, quick replant, easy worms etc. (and over the bridge there's a fishing spot right next to the pump so it saves running and a load screen)
I spend about 10 seconds to water 18 ish gardens with a bucket, you can also equip the salt water bucket and use it on the kitchen without having to find and craft the recipe for clean water. It's kinda annoying how I'm always left with 1/3 water in the bucket though.

The sprinkler has more benefits than just auto watering (kinda), using a sprinkler saves a lot of time you'd spend running around your garden watering everything individually. So you just need to clean the water and dump it into the sprinkler. My setup is a kitchen touching the pump, a sprinkler about 3-5 squares down from the middle of pump and kitchen, then a wood storage and some chests right next to the kitchen.

You'll need gardening if you you upgrade your generators cus it eats through the yellow flowers really quick.

I'd also avoid using plastic bottles for farming, seems like it would consume a lot of plastic, just shorten your loop as much as you can and stick to a bucket. (would be nice if the pump could filter the salt water and turn it into clean water tho)

[Dmike]

I totally missed where the pump is. I have the stuff for it but can't find it. Any hints?

[Spazmaticus_Rex]

Originally posted by Dmike:

I totally missed where the pump is. I have the stuff for it but can't find it. Any hints?

You need to get the upgraded syringe before you can access the pump sites. It happened for me long after I found my first pump piece.

[Dmike]

Originally posted by Spazmaticus_Rex:

Originally posted by Dmike:

I totally missed where the pump is. I have the stuff for it but can't find it. Any hints?

You need to get the upgraded syringe before you can access the pump sites. It happened for me long after I found my first pump piece.

Thank you, that is what I am missing then.

[Spazmaticus_Rex]

Originally posted by Trollzy:

You'll need gardening if you you upgrade your generators cus it eats through the yellow flowers really quick.

I am assuming you are using an engineer bot. Don't use it with flowers, they are wasteful. The flower grants 40 or more energy but the bot will toss it into a generator only missing 20 or less/ I regret the upgrade and need to keep you yellow flowers in my own inventory to avoid it.

[Spazmaticus_Rex]

Originally posted by Kaery:

I agree it's slightly tedious, but some small hints to make it easier: The sprinkler can actually hold six, so two full buckets. Also, if you right click on the bucket, you take it in hand and can left click to use it. So one click to fill from the pump, one click to desalinate at a fueled cooking station and three quick clicks to fill the contents into the sprinkler.

I'll try it out. Playing off a Deck so maybe it's not as bad with an actual mouse and keyboard.

[Kaery]

I'm sure there must be a way to take the bucket in hand even with a deck, since you need to take the device to move buildings in hand by the same way. Maybe that works? Taking it into your hand just spares you having to navigate all those interaction menus. Much easier.

[JU1173]

I would like to be able to upgrade the sprinklers so they hold more water. Just put a bunch in there so you don't have to refill it twice a day. If you put plants all the way around, think I have 8 plants put around it, they don't all get watered so you have to refill again later. It makes it a bit annoying to use.

[BFBlazer]

Originally posted by Spazmaticus_Rex:

Originally posted by Dmike:

I totally missed where the pump is. I have the stuff for it but can't find it. Any hints?

You need to get the upgraded syringe before you can access the pump sites. It happened for me long after I found my first pump piece.

Where did you get the syringe upgrade? I can't find it anywhere and I'm pretty sure I've unlocked all areas.

[Kaery]

The eco-mat vending machine in the lower area of the roof, the one with the third big plant you find, has it. It's between the two stairs down from your starting area.

[Grimiskitty]

Originally posted by BFBlazer:

Originally posted by Spazmaticus_Rex:

You need to get the upgraded syringe before you can access the pump sites. It happened for me long after I found my first pump piece.

Where did you get the syringe upgrade? I can't find it anywhere and I'm pretty sure I've unlocked all areas.

For some reason it's called "Chemical Resistant Bulb" in the Ecomachine until you get it out of the machine then it switches to "Chemical Resistant Syringe" (or whatever it's called in the workshop) I think the dev probably forgot to switch the name in the ecomachine. Cause it's pretty easy to miss due to the name change.

[Mr. Fibble]

The sprinkler looks like its spewing water but the bar doesn't actually drop until a crop within range needs some so as long as you keep it topped up the plants should grow in the fastest possible time.

The pump has a note on upgrade that says it'll be auto filling the bucket once that gets added to the game. I'm kind of hoping there'll be others that include desalination and feeding sprinklers since those are the kinds of busy work things which do tend to get automated out of survival games as you progress.

[BFBlazer]

Thank you. I forgot all about that.

[Cerberyus]

It would be nice to have an auto desalination system. i'm wasting so much wood having to make clean water all the time :(