Livestock Harvester Units.

[rdouglass1]

I have placed the Auto-Feeders, and Harvester Units in several bases where Animals are Abundant. If I Hang Around the base, they pick up items from Critters while I am There... If I leave, and go to do other things for some time, I come back, and they are Empty...
Why do they Only Collect While I am THERE?? Working this way, they make no sense.

Just went to one base this am, and it had 198 Pellets in the Feeder, and 1 Milk* in the Harvester, [*probably collected after my arrival)

(I saw some older threads for this issue, but chose not to Raise The Dead...)

[Kobs]

I noticed that too because animals go to your feeder only when you're at the base, makes no sense

[rdouglass1]

I just went to a second base with them, and it had 3 items in the Harvester. 1 Critter standing at my feet while I collected the items.

[majzerofive]

1) Creatures require you to be present at the planet to load your base and "behave"
2) if you're off planet, it is reasonable to expect all the creatures to either freeze or despawn. Second is more optimized for the sizes of the game.
1) + 2) = 3) automatic systems with animals won't work.

To fix it you have to shortcut all the logic and write the same logic the game has for automated mineral gathering machines. Which is, take a constant value "farmed per hour", calculate it upon your arrival and add the resources which are supposed to be there. But imho it isn't fun.

[Foxglovez]

They work when you're there. They stop the second you leave. Just how it is. Lazy critters.

[Prescient Stones]

I've spent a few irl hour on this. what I've noticed in respect to all the above post is that the Auto Feeder will despawn from sight and visor around 100u away and animals then loose interest.

Standing on a floating rock land formation I can see 3 of my auto collection units and huge creature laying fauna about, If I chunk a creature pellet way into the horizon and it makes it to the ground the creatures icon goes to (?) and then the auto harvester gets the item. This is a workaround,

As it stands now you need to set these Auto-feeder, Auto-harvester down first, then start the build out of your base to maximize the interaction/profit. If you just plop on the couch in your base the animals will still feed/supply but they will diminish over time. Shift/Tab to overlay keeps the animals and game in subfocus and allows for things to progress.

That ancient way - pre Waypoint of collections occurring until feeder is empty, is history.

Mech KO'ed by Fauna

https://youtu.be/RpK1NtsTzCg

[rdouglass1]

OUCH to the above 3 Posts...
I got a Taste of the Being Present issue yesterday when I dropped in to a base with the Feed/Harvest, and stood in the Prefab to adjust Items in the Freighter from my ship & suit. During the time I took, the harvester had 40 or 50 items in it, instead of the Normal 1 to 3, in the time it usually took to reach it....

[raving_madness]

i get that this is annoying, but i feel its already rather easy to get ressources, so if getting ingrediences is a bit harder, am ok with it. and:
since am into cooking, i tend to use bases not freighter.
go to my base, fill refiners, cooking stations, sort my inventory, switch the food, the refiners, prepare something and then catch the eggs, milk etc. and store for next time

tip: leopard fruit animals are predators and may eat other animals. so if you see them, shot them and from my experience it will increase outcome.

i built farms at places where i recognised a bunch of them already walking around, idk if this really helps. assumed there are "good spawn points" for them.

p.s. another theory is, if lets say cold planet and animals eat frost root, i planeted some of them near the feeder too. not sure if that does anything either, but hey, some 100s frosts for free...

[Veran]

Along the same 'Theories of the Animal Kingdom' bookshelf that @raving_madness is browsing and contributing to... well, I have one.

I set up a great base on a fantastic planet. Biodomes for the crops, large lovely wooden factory floor for Nutrient Processors, well... you get the idea.

Noticing that the animals preferred me to be around the farm while they ate, deposited their products for market and even dumped a bit of "fertilizer" around, I also noticed that -

The more you stick around and the more that you engage in feeding them, the more appear and I might add get rather aggressive with you (more so than in the wild) whilst wandering amongst the herd. I can stand still while the feeder is pumping our pellets and have them bumping against me constantly - annoyingly - even when 50m away from equipment. And it's getting worse every time I return to the farm.

Haven't been bitten yet, or trampled, but just a matter of time! Should have stayed in the city