Ideas for animal-friendly killboxes?

[OgNimaeb]

I'm doing my first run on 1.3 and my colony has animal personhood as one of the core memes.

I was about to start planning a basic killbox to deal with raids, etc. and realised that my usual strategy (corridor filled with traps and sand bags, then box with turrets, then cover setup for colonists to shoot from) isn't going to work. As soon as (peaceful) wild animals start wandering in and getting killed I will start getting huge mood debuffs.

Have any of you experimented with alternative, animal-friendly killbox setups? Ideally something that doesn't require constant door micromanagement?

[Jigain]

While I am hesitant to recommend the Vanilla Expanded series due to it not being vanilla friendly, this particular one does have a scarecrow, and if it works as advertised it might be what you're looking for.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1957158779

[emmanuelfrancois]

Try adding a fence as a first line of defense - it will keep some critters away from the traps. Possibly pave the whole setup too, so ther won't be any juicy grass around the traps to draw herbivores (and any predator follwing them...)

Not foolproof, but it should limit the problems

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by OgNimaeb:

I was about to start planning a basic killbox to deal with raids, etc. and realised that my usual strategy (corridor filled with traps and sand bags...
Have any of you experimented with alternative, animal-friendly killbox setups? Ideally something that doesn't require constant door micromanagement?

Corridors filled with traps and sandbags?
Door micromanagement?
Are you building your entryway into a killbox correctly?
Here's an example...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1504716438
No sandbags or doors required and passive critter friendly ;)

[OgNimaeb]

Thank you all for the ideas!

The fence could be an easy trick to start with, I'll see if that works.

I'm reluctant to go with Vanilla Expanded, I did a couple of playthroughs with it and it was just too much, even picking only some of the mods. I will keep that in mind, though, as the scarecrow could be a good idea.

@grapplehoeker, how does that work? Admittedly, I'm very far from a pro, but my killbox entrances usually are snaking, single-width corridors with alternating traps and sandbags. I know that colony pawns are clever enough to avoid traps with the setup you posted, while enemies often won't, but won't wild animals do the latter as well, and end up triggering the traps?

[ᖇIᑎ]

Did you try putting a door on your trap corridor? You'd need to have someone open it each time it needs to be used, but at least animals wouldn't die?

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by OgNimaeb:

... As soon as (peaceful) wild animals start wandering in and getting killed I will start getting huge mood debuffs.
...

I assume you're talking about wild animals, right?

Unless something has changed, peaceful animals are not going to easily trigger any traps. (Very low base chance.) And, they will try to avoid them. Placing a trap right at the entrance to the area should discourage them from trying to cross into it.

Use cobblestone paths in any kill-zone areas where long grass can grow. This will remove the Long Grass wild animals graze on, helping to prevent them from targeting a patch and encouraging them to look elsewhere for food.

I don't know what the Mood penalty is for killing an animal under your Ideology. (I don't have it.) But, incidental low-value mood penalties should not be a big problem. I imagine it's pretty large, considering its a primary tenet of your Ideology though. And, that's the idea - You picked it, so you've set the conditions yourself and will have to deal with them. :)

[OgNimaeb]

Thank you! :)

I'll experiment a bit with fences and wider corridors with staggered traps, and see how it goes!

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by OgNimaeb:

@grapplehoeker, how does that work? Admittedly, I'm very far from a pro, but my killbox entrances usually are snaking, single-width corridors with alternating traps and sandbags. I know that colony pawns are clever enough to avoid traps with the setup you posted, while enemies often won't, but won't wild animals do the latter as well, and end up triggering the traps?

A single tile width corridor allows no wiggle room at all for pawns or passive critters to negotiate a pathway through them. So, by making them double width and staggering the traps, they now have a free path to zig zag their way through. This also means that your pawns can repair or replace traps within the corridor without the need for doors to access them.
There is always a very small percentile chance of triggering a trap and accidents are rare, but generally both your pawns and passive creatures will have safe passage.
Since 1.3, I have noticed a more frequent occurrence of animals hitting a trap while being hauled by rope to another pen though, but this isn't really as surprising as how the handlers manage to get large groups of them safely through most of the time ;)
Hostile creatures of any kind will not 'see' the traps though and only pawns with the nimble trait might evade them.