Tame insect farm?

[Admiralthrawnbar]

This is probably a stupid question but can you make tame insects care for/maintain a hive a hive? I'm trying to create my first insect farm from scratch and not having to keep the bugs alive would be really helpful.

[Ashardalon]

the hive is kinda safe as long as you kill every bug it spawn
needs lots of micro but i have done it 2 alphas ago
cant tame them tho, there are no nice bugs, need to kill every one and keep a close eye on it

[KalkiKrosah]

The only way I know of in which you can tame bugs is if they come from a cryo sleep canister. And even then they are just mega scarab.

Alternatively (and also easier) you can get the plan carefully mod and give them to yourself right from the beginning. Then try and breed them. I never tried myself so no clue if they work that way.

[Admiralthrawnbar]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

The only way I know of in which you can tame bugs is if they come from a cryo sleep canister. And even then they are just mega scarab.

Alternatively (and also easier) you can get the plan carefully mod and give them to yourself right from the beginning. Then try and breed them. I never tried myself so no clue if they work that way.

You can tame them, I've seen it done, the only there is a mod so you can train them but they are tameable in vanilla

[Ashardalon]

megascarabs can be found wild in the desert
anything bigger or anything from a hive can not be tamed

[grapplehoeker]

I had that dream once too. I wanted to tame critters. It never ended well lol.
So I settled for caring for infestations at a distance. Giving them the room they needed to live wild and free.
In return I get free target practise, free jelly and free mining of resources.
They also make excellent defensive sentinels ;)

[Ashardalon]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

I had that dream once too. I wanted to tame critters. It never ended well lol.
So I settled for caring for infestations at a distance. Giving them the room they needed to live wild and free.
In return I get free target practise, free jelly and free mining of resources.
They also make excellent defensive sentinels ;)

this is the best/only method

something else to consider, these are like ants, they dont breed like other animals
unless you have a queen the number you tame is all you will get
so breeding them for profit can only be done with a hive

[Admiralthrawnbar]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

I had that dream once too. I wanted to tame critters. It never ended well lol.
So I settled for caring for infestations at a distance. Giving them the room they needed to live wild and free.
In return I get free target practise, free jelly and free mining of resources.
They also make excellent defensive sentinels ;)

this is the best/only method

something else to consider, these are like ants, they dont breed like other animals
unless you have a queen the number you tame is all you will get
so breeding them for profit can only be done with a hive

You don't seem to be getting my question. Hives need to be maintained by insects or they detiriorate. I am asking if tame bugs can be made to maintain the hives so I don't have to keep the wild ones alive in a farm I am making. And you can make farms. google it. My particular design is two side by side hallways on has the hives at one end and turrets at the other to kill any escapee bugs. the other hallway has granite autodoors so my colonists can access the hives and take the jelly. I can even sell the insect meat to traders. The problem is that if I need bugs to mantain the hives, my colonists can't get the jelly. I can sell than re-buy the jelly off orbital traders if I have to but I would prefer not to since it would lose me money. Hense my question.

[Ashardalon]

no they cant, tame megascarabs cant maintain enemy hives
best is to wait until there are only 8 hours or less left untill the next hive spawns
kill all the bugs, take the jelly
then let the old hive decay as it is replaced by a new one
every new hive comes with new jelly that is restocked regularly
it will only give profit every 2days or so, but since hive decay has been implemented that is the best you can do
it was easier before that

[Admiralthrawnbar]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

no they cant, tame megascarabs cant maintain enemy hives
best is to wait until there are only 8 hours or less left untill the next hive spawns
kill all the bugs, take the jelly
then let the old hive decay as it is replaced by a new one
every new hive comes with new jelly that is restocked regularly
it will only give profit every 2days or so, but since hive decay has been implemented that is the best you can do
it was easier before that

Thanks, If I ever figure out how I might make a mod to stop that in order to make them possible again. Less balanced but more fun.

[Ashardalon]

two day harvests are still faster then farming :)

[ministrog]

Even if you take a caravan out to a desert, tame a mega scarab, and let it frolic around your main base with hives, it's not certain they'll automatically take care of the hives. It could be that megascarabs have extra code in them to have 'other' functions like how muffalos can become pack animals. It's worth testing though.

BTW, if you allow 1 tile in the room to be empty, the hives can pump out glowing tubes (free light source) or jelly (silver income). No space means no second hive every 2 days but no loot that comes every few hours.

[ministrog]

Originally posted by daniel:

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

this is the best/only method

something else to consider, these are like ants, they dont breed like other animals
unless you have a queen the number you tame is all you will get
so breeding them for profit can only be done with a hive

You don't seem to be getting my question. Hives need to be maintained by insects or they detiriorate. I am asking if tame bugs can be made to maintain the hives so I don't have to keep the wild ones alive in a farm I am making. And you can make farms. google it. My particular design is two side by side hallways on has the hives at one end and turrets at the other to kill any escapee bugs. the other hallway has granite autodoors so my colonists can access the hives and take the jelly. I can even sell the insect meat to traders. The problem is that if I need bugs to mantain the hives, my colonists can't get the jelly. I can sell than re-buy the jelly off orbital traders if I have to but I would prefer not to since it would lose me money. Hense my question.

Just so you know, bugs do sleep. Just get one of your sleeping princess' to wake up and collect your loot.

[Jet]

know any youtuber that has done this effectively? id like to see it in action

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Jet:

know any youtuber that has done this effectively? id like to see it in action

I used this mature infestation colony for defensive purposes only. I'm not interested in jelly.
Raiders, mechanoids, manhunter packs? Nothing got past this sector of the map ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=793491715

[ministrog]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=767422445
From A15, leather stopped hives from spawning. Right now in A16, Hives can spawn on top of leather, weapons and clothes. Only furniture and installations still work. My favourite are torches since you can walk over them without too much slow down. I think stools would work too but haven't tried them.