Hive Farming - clarification or tips, or both

[Cannenses]

THE SCENARIO

First ever spontaneous infestation, not from my mining activity. Ok. Let's fight.

Fight over. As I un-drafted all of them, the entire crew of ever-so-efficient (fighting) pawns went straight for the insect jelly!!!

What's going on here, I thought. Then I read the "Recreation = 8.0". Ok. Wow!

THE PLAN
Now, I want to farm the hives. Life in Rimworld (Cassandra/Builder, no mods) should be more interesting ... :-)

HIVE FARMING?
So, based on Rimworld Wiki (https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Hive), a close reading (maybe too close?) of the entry on Hive says:

1) "If left untouched, each hive will spawn another hive within a few tiles in a progressive pattern. The time between hive reproduction depends on difficulty. ..." (Actually, in-game, my 6 hives has between 19 to 27 days for next reproduction).

Then, next para, it says:

2) "Dormant hives may be present in maps which have Caves. Those hives will not spread, although they will produce jelly and glow pods as usual. ..."

My confusion is this: what is the difference btw "untouched hives" vs "dormant hives"? The former allows me to start a hive farm, but the latter (dormant) situation does not.

I ask here because I wonder if the generally available info (discussions, reddit, etc.) on hive farming is outdated (i.e. before 1.0). I am not sure if these hive farming tips, mainly reddit, are still applicable. For instance, some tips mention one has to have at least 2 insects to start farming. I don't see that in the Wiki. Is this still a requirement?

To save everyone's time, if there's a "generally accepted" video or explanation post by popular players, just tell me with a link please. Thanks.

[ManOfCulture]

I think the dormant hives are the hives that was there before you found it meaning it doesn't reproduce like a hive you find from mining. This is to balance for instance say you just started your game with caves and you see 2 hives already now if those how were able to reproduce it would be hard to stop them early game but you will have no choice but to stop them are they would build up and eventually overwhelm.

Ex: Had a small ancient area in the desert mined and early game and a hive was in it. I wasn't perpared to them with them so I waited it out for a few in-game weeks. Eventually it got to the point where there were 12 hives now I was far away from them so I figured i was good but once one of they got provoked but a human they charged my base forcing me to leave that colony to die

[Cannenses]

@ManOfCulture:

So, "dormant" meaning there were already in place when one arrives at the location. For instance, "area revealed" after mining a location or cave. The alternative ("untouched") refers to spontaneously created ones after I have, say, created a dark, but roofed, location within a cave or mountain.

Am I understanding your post correctly? Thanks.

[crgzero]

Dormant hives won't do anything once their bugs are dead. They'll eventually die.

If you get an active infestation, you need to let a bug or 2 stay alive to maintain the hive. I like to lure them away with one pawn, and let another swoop in from behind and take all the jelly. After your bait pawn gets far enough away (Needs to be fast) the bugs will go back to the hive and maintain it. After a while (population gets high enough) they'll eventually attack you but if you're smart you can keep the colony trimmed down and manageable.

Dormant are there at map generation.
Spontaneous are spawned randomly based on the storyteller/player actions.

[ManOfCulture]

Originally posted by crgzero:

Dormant hives won't do anything once their bugs are dead. They'll eventually die.

If you get an active infestation, you need to let a bug or 2 stay alive to maintain the hive. I like to lure them away with one pawn, and let another swoop in from behind and take all the jelly. After your bait pawn gets far enough away (Needs to be fast) the bugs will go back to the hive and maintain it. After a while (population gets high enough) they'll eventually attack you but if you're smart you can keep the colony trimmed down and manageable.

Dormant are there at map generation.
Spontaneous are spawned randomly based on the storyteller/player actions.

yep what he said. I'm not too good at explaining but always will try

[crgzero]

Also, "active" hives will make more hives, which in turn spawn more bugs AND more jelly. So if you're wanting to jelly farm you need to pay attention to the bugs and it can get over whelming really fast. On the plus side, they'll target raiders just as fast as they'll target your own pawns so SOMETIMES having a large hive is a really good defense.... But they'll eat your traders just as fast.

And by the by, I'm the one usually feeling like I can't explain myself very good. It looks like plain and clear english to me and everyone is looking at me like I'm speaking Klingon pig latin.

[Sugar Show]

I imagine this guy like :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1494258292

[Cannenses]

Thanks for the info, all.

I will try to farm them bugs. If I succeed, I will come back to gloat. Otherwise, I will keep it quiet, and pretend I never tried. Cheers!

[TSense]

Looks like two years of researching this game is good for something.

Click on a insect. If you have the option to tame it, it is free.
If the option doesn't show up, it is linked to a hive.

Free Insects will act like any other animal. Hunt for meat, walk all over the map, ignore humans unless hungry. Your People will also deal with them as with any other animal. Walk right past them, try to tame them and so on.
(Taming them is rather hard, as they have one of the highest manhunter chances if failed.)

Linked Insects will stay near the hive, not hunt, dig around the hive to make a bigger cave, kill humans that get to close.

It is not possible to make a free insect linked. They enter the map linked. Free Insects can't join hives. Ever.
Linked insects become free when they are downed once. Read the movement ability becomes 0%. This happens most of the time because Consciousness drops to low. Which happens because Blood Loss and Pain get to high.
So if you save a shot insect, it becomes free.

A Hive spawns linked insects every once in a while. A Hive with linked insects will also spawn more hives. A Hive WITHOUT linked insects will die after a few days.


Well, TSense, if you spend so much time on these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you know how to farm them, right?

Yeah, sit down son, that comes now.

Close the cave room they are in with 2 or 3 layers of steel wall, then start a nice raging fire inside. They will panic after a while and try to dig out, but the heat will down them. Be ready just outside. As soon as every insect is downed, break the walls so it connect to the outside.
This will vent all the heat in less than a secend. Then rush in and put the fire out. Maybe move a pre-build firefoam popper from just outside the hive in.
The insects will be downed and will be free when they get up, so they will be non hostile.
Grab all the good ♥♥♥♥ and get out.

Important: Get a feeling when new linked insects spawn. Save, wait for it and note the time and then reload. Or just get so many hives that they spawn all the time.
You need a fresh spawn right after you carry all your loot out, or within the next 4 ingame hours. Some of the hives will die, but the once that are close to spawning will get new linked insects before they begin to die (which makes them stop spawning.)

[Cannenses]

@TSense,

Thanks for this. That is some serious research you've done.

Unfortunately for me, they died or I did too much (fighting). And the hives died along with them. Will use this approach the next time the hives spawn. I hope there is a next time, I'll will do more spelunking otherwise! :-)

[Spicy pineapple]

Currently I'm just using dormant hives with insects linked to them and stealing jelly they produce. This nets me over 20 jelly every night. Which in the long term will add up and has no risks as they are sleeping.

I will be optimising this by eliminating additional insects, keeping only one or two and sealing them tightly from the outside. pawns still want to target them due to them defending the hive.