Do feeders support 12 or 15 animals?

[Fruchtgummi]

I've read several comments concerning this question but I couldn't really find a clear answer. Some people say 12, some say 15. I've read a dev comment where it was stated to be 15 but another dev not correcting someone who stated it was 12 animals.

I have no idea what the real answer is or if anything changed recently. Sorry for this stupid question : /

[Easy Frag]

Feeders contain 2 times the amount of manual feeding for up to 12 tiles. If you have a bigger coop (lets say 18 tiles) it contains about 1.5 times the amount of manual feeding. For further info read here.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/673950/discussions/0/1733216261941159277/

Depending on how many times you have to feed a certain animal for a single harvest you have to calculate how many feeder you need.

[Sophi]

if you have animals that require a lot of hand feeding you might try out a farmhand - they will keep feeding them for you and will harvest them as well!

[archmag]

Първоначално публикувано от Easy Frag:

For further info read here.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/673950/discussions/0/1733216261941159277/

It does not help. At first developer says that one feeder contains 2 manual feed for 12 tiles, then he says that limit of 3 manual feeds can be reached with single feeder per 15 tiles. I don't get how they correlate here.

Let's try some examples based on first phrase:
1. 12 tiles of animals that require 4 feedings per production cycle.
Result: Impossible to fully automate, but filling manually and having 1 feeder allows you to get to 3/4 cycle. Second feeder does not help because limit of 3 manual fills is reached.
2. 24 tiles of animals that require 3 feedings per production cycle.
Result: Possible to fully automate the cycle by using two feeders and manual fill at the beginning.
3. 48 tiles of animals that require 2 feedings per production cycle.
Result: Possible to fully automate the cycle by using two feeders and manual fill at the beginning.

Do I understand it correctly or is something wrong?

Or I can just look in game:
I have 18 chickens that cost 20 per feed and had to be fed 3 times. Each feeding lasts 10 minutes, total cycle is 30 minutes.
Manual feed costs 360.
Filling the feeder costs 480.

So result should be:
0 minutes - 360+480
10 minutes - 0+480
20 minutes - 0+120
Somewhere before 30 minutes mark food will run out.

If I used two feeders result would have been:
0 minutes - 360+480+480
10 minutes - 0+480+480
20 minutes - 0+120+480
30 minutes - 0+0+240.
So with two feeders cycle would have been complete and there would remain 240 worth of food left.

Edit: ohh, I think I know the mistake. Limit of 3 manual feedings will be equal to 360*3, so I won't be able to fill second feeder to 480. State at 0 minutes will be 360+480+120. And in 30 minutes everything will be empty.

[indy-anna]

I'm confused about the feeders. (I started a new farm after the last patch.) I put the feeders like this on five animals that were fenced in with no space between the animals and the fence. a = animal, f = feeder.

aaa
aaf

After resetting my farm and using the same layout except for the fencing, the feeders didn't work. I had to place the feeders like this for them to work.

afa
aaa

See screenshot of the animals after the farm reset.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198019248832/screenshots/?appid=673950

[archmag]

What do you mean by "didn't work", how exactly did it look when it was not working? They work for me even if I put them behind the fences (- = fence).

f
-------
aaaaaa
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[archmag]

I think I finally got how it works.

There is normal food capacity and there is extra capacity that can be accessed only by using feeder. Normal food capacity is equal to the number of squares in your animal section. Extra food capacity is equal to double that amount. Feeder lets you fill 24 units of extra food capacity every 15 minutes.

The best case scenario is when you fill your base food capacity and extra food capacity and don't have to come to this animal until it is ready to be harvested. This is possible to do only with animals that require 3 or less feeds per production cycle.

If animal requires only 2 feeds per production cycle (like horses that require food every 2 hours and produce in 4 hours) then you don't have to fill all extra capacity for best case scenario. You only need half of it. So if you have 100 squares of horses you need 100/24=4.17 - 5 feeders. You also can reach that half extra capacity with single feeder because you can fill it every 15 minutes, while consumption is 100 food per 2 hours, so only 100/8=12.5 food is consumed every 15 minutes. But still using 5 feeders in the very beginning and never having to bother with feeding for 4 hours is useful.

If animal requires 3 feeds per production cycle then you need to fill both normal capacity and extra capacity. So if you have 100 squares of chickens that have to be fed every 10 minutes and produce eggs in 30 minutes you need to use 200/24=8.33 - 9 feeders.

I wish instead of red slower circle on top of yellow circle it would have displayed a single circle with 3 parts. First part shows how full is base capacity, second and third parts show extra capacity. This way if you fill only feeder it still can show you that base capacity is empty by filling only 2nd and 3rd part. If you don't have feeder it will show you the current limit - 1/3 of the possible max amount. It shows you the order of consumption (I think extra capacity is consumed first because I never have to refill base one while feeders still have some). It actually shows you the actual limit instead of confusing people with similar circles. I don't remember if anywhere in the game there is a mention of max limit being 3x the base limit, with circle divided into 3 parts it would have been obvious.

[indy-anna]

Първоначално публикувано от archmag:

What do you mean by "didn't work", how exactly did it look when it was not working? They work for me even if I put them behind the fences (- = fence).

f
-------
aaaaaa
aaaaaa
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They were out of food and the feeder was full. I couldn't put any more food into the feeder. The ducklings had the red empty food icon on their tiles.

The other animals, cows and hamshire pigs are working like before. I can fill the duckling's tiles of food even though the feeder still has food. I tested it by letting the ducklings food tiles go empty and kept the feeder full. So the feeder is feeding the ducklings but it's acting different than the feeders on the cows and pigs. I can't put any food on the cow's and pig's tiles with the feeder not empty.

[archmag]

Първоначално публикувано от indy-anna:

The other animals, cows and hamshire pigs are working like before. I can fill the duckling's tiles of food even though the feeder still has food. I tested it by letting the ducklings food tiles go empty and kept the feeder full. So the feeder is feeding the ducklings but it's acting different than the feeders on the cows and pigs. I can't put any food on the cow's and pig's tiles with the feeder not empty.

Ducklings eat very often. They eat every 5 minutes. Food that is displayed in the feeder isn't actual food, it is just an animation till feeder can be recharged (it starts as full and becomes empty in 15 minutes). Food that is red bar on actual tiles is the food that was added when you filled the feeder and it slowly goes down. With feeders you can only fill up to 2 manual feeds. So if ducklings eat every 5 minutes, then feeder for ducklings is limited to 10 minutes worth of food. That's why food from feeder expires faster than you can recharge it. And after food from feeder expires they start eating food that you added manually.

So if you check ducklings between 10 and 15 minutes since you started the process this will results in animation showing that there is still food left in a feeder and you can't recharge it yet, but actual food from the feeder was already eaten.

[indy-anna]

I got rid of one of the ducklings and added 5 chickens with another feeder. The feeder acts like the feeder on the pigs and cows now. I was also running out of cereal for the cows and kept having to buy it. So I got rid of the cows and put in goats since I'm mass producing fruit with lots of apple trees.

[archmag]

Първоначално публикувано от indy-anna:

I got rid of one of the ducklings and added 5 chickens with another feeder. The feeder acts like the feeder on the pigs and cows now. I was also running out of cereal for the cows and kept having to buy it. So I got rid of the cows and put in goats since I'm mass producing fruit with lots of apple trees.

Yes, chickens are slower than ducks (10 minutes for each feed) so feeder limit for them is equal to 20 minutes of food. So it does not run out before you can charge it again. Horses have 2h between each feed so feeder limit on them is whole 4 hours.

I keep different animals. I buy them when they are required for a mission and then just leave them be feeding them from time to time. I also started mass production of apples for jam. Almost 1 medal per season now. Now can start putting sprinklers everywhere.

[TheOrigin]

I completely switched to farmhands for animals. You only need to give them 8 tickets for a couple of hours and you have nothing to do anymore. I HATED to feed the animals. Had 24 slots with 2 feeders per animal type. Means over 40 feeders to fill every 15minutes. Now i only refill farmhands every 4hours.

Those feeder mechanic really needs to change, they are a waste of ribbons.

[archmag]

Първоначално публикувано от TheOrigin:

Had 24 slots with 2 feeders per animal type. Means over 40 feeders to fill every 15minutes.

You don't have to fill all feeders every 15 minutes. If you use 1 feeder for 24 horses (feeds every 2 hours with full production cycle 4 hours) it has enough food to last for all 4 hours (it will show that feeder is empty, but food from that feeder is still being consumed). Some cows also don't need to be refilled all the time. But yeah, keeping track of what needs to be filled and what does not is not very comfortable. Maybe if you group animals according to their feeder timer then you only need to refill feeders for each group at different periods. Those with 30 minutes timer - once per hour, those with 1 hours timer - once per 2 hours, those with less than 30 minutes - everytime the feeder is empty, just in case.

I am still building my house, so don't know how to get those tickets that you need for farmhands. And don't know how farmhands work. But if you refill farmhands every 4 hours, then for horses it is easier to use feeder (single feeder per 24 horses). For other animals it is more complicated so I have no idea.

[TheOrigin]

Първоначално публикувано от archmag:

Първоначално публикувано от TheOrigin:

Had 24 slots with 2 feeders per animal type. Means over 40 feeders to fill every 15minutes.

You don't have to fill all feeders every 15 minutes. If you use 1 feeder for 24 horses (feeds every 2 hours with full production cycle 4 hours) it has enough food to last for all 4 hours (it will show that feeder is empty, but food from that feeder is still being consumed). Some cows also don't need to be refilled all the time. But yeah, keeping track of what needs to be filled and what does not is not very comfortable. Maybe if you group animals according to their feeder timer then you only need to refill feeders for each group at different periods. Those with 30 minutes timer - once per hour, those with 1 hours timer - once per 2 hours, those with less than 30 minutes - everytime the feeder is empty, just in case.

I am still building my house, so don't know how to get those tickets that you need for farmhands. And don't know how farmhands work. But if you refill farmhands every 4 hours, then for horses it is easier to use feeder (single feeder per 24 horses). For other animals it is more complicated so I have no idea.

Then feeders dont work properly. Why did ALL feeders in my farm get empty at the same time? If they would provide food for different timeframes? That doesnt make sense.

[archmag]

Първоначално публикувано от TheOrigin:

Then feeders dont work properly. Why did ALL feeders in my farm get empty at the same time? If they would provide food for different timeframes? That doesnt make sense.

It is just a visualization showing that you can interact with it again (it shows as empty in 15 minutes and I agree, it is confusing, I also keep checking my sheeps' feeder all the time even though I know that there is still food there), it does not mean that all food is already spent. If you look at red circle inside the animal area you see that there is still a lot left. You may notice that when you try to activate the feeder again it will cost just a little, this is because for horses full red circle is equal to 4 hours, so you just add 1/16 of it on second activation (if you do it in 15 minutes). And you can't even activate second feeder because it will say that it is full even though animation will show that it is empty. If you use 2 feeders for 24 animals each full feeder in the beginning adds half a red circle.

You can try to imagine it like this:
Each square that has an animal has 3 capacity for food - 1 base that you can only fill manually and 2 extra that can only be filled by feeder. Each feeder adds 24 food into those extra slots (so fills one extra slot if you use it for 24 animals or both extra slots if you use it for 12 animals). Each 15 minutes you can activate the feeder to add another 24 food if there are free extra slots. But each animal consumes that food with different speed. Ducklings consume food from each slot in 5 minutes, this means that in 10 minutes they will empty both extra slots and in 5 more minutes they will empty the base slot. Horses consume 1 food in 2 hours, so if you use one feeder to add 1 food into extra slots for 24 horses, that slot will become empty in 2 hours. If you use 2 feeders for 24 horses, you fill both extra slots, so you can wait 4 hours before having to fill them again. And in 15 minutes feeder will show that it is empty, because food is not in a feeder, it was moved inside the squares into those extra slots.