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[Knight Errant]

Things have slowed a bit with the central construction site lately.

The New Allosaurs are a concern simply because they only come in groups and do a lot of damage. I therefore want to build a perimeter wall with a little urgency.

This will require a lot of material (metal and paste). The intention is to run the wall from near the point where the western end of the cliff starts, north around the back of the hill top and then east and south to meet the cliff a decent distance north east of the current platform area.

If anyone wants to look  the map points for the path of the wall should be something around:
47.5, 45 (west cliff)
44.6, 45.7 (behind the hill)
44.6, 48.7 (north east perimeter turning point)
45.5, 49.9 (east cliff)

These are very roughly plotted and subject to change if the ground itself is unfavourable (too steep to place the gates effectively).
We will need two Behemoth gates (west and north) to provide ground access and enough metal fence foundation and wall pieces to complete a 4 layer high wall.

[Knight Errant]

I've worked out a list of things for the central base. Some of it will be a bit vague until I can work out location, space and whether or not some of it will actually work in a practical sense.

Things and facilities
Manufactory:
Forge x2 – installed
Fabricators x2 – installed
Smithy x2 – 1 installed
Chem table x2 – 0 installed
Storage:
Basic – installed
Extended – unspecified, not installed

Biologicals:
Hydroponics – installed
Grills x4 – installed
Cooker x2 – 0 installed
Refrigerators (preserving x4 and 1 per stable) – 2 installed
Smokehouse (4x preserving bins + material storage) – not built

Generator & power system – Generator installed, limited wiring.

Perimeter & gates – Complete
Railings and space control for wandering critter patrols? – Pending decision on practicality.

Taming pens 3x3 and 2x2 – not built – must have clear air approaches and isolation from active security systems.
Trap pen – pending decision and location (local but off-site)

Stables:
Small/med critters – built, needs partial second floor.
Bughouse for beetles – not built
Hatchery – not built
Megafauna – not built
Aviary – not built (may be incorporated into to megafauna structure)

[Knight Errant]

Well the foundation for a slightly smaller perimeter has been laid. The maps are surprisingly deceptive on scale and the plots above would have been huge! I have tried to keep it within render range of the current buildings to limit the likelihood of critters wandering through undrawn fences.

The next step is to build the gates, work out where best to place them and then place the wall segments that will frame the gateway (the walls have to be placed first so that the gate will clip through them and seal any gaps).

The perimeter is roughly 128 foundations long. Take off 14 foundation lengths for the two gates and we’ll need 456 metal wall pieces to complete the perimeter.

That’s 11400 metal ingots and 3192 paste not including the materials for the gates.


I want to colour code the four feeder vaults so they're easier to tell apart. I know some of us find certain hues easier to differentiate than others so any advice on four distinctive colours to pick would be useful.

[Neon Vixen]

I really need to spend more time actually crafting and less being distracted with random tames. However we do now have a level 112 (pre-tame) Beaver and a cool Orange coloured Monkey. So there is that.

[Knight Errant]

Once the perimeter is reasonably secure I intend to work on expanding the platform so space for the other facilities can be allocated and built.

[Knight Errant]

I'm trying to work out the dimensions and stuff for a mega-fauna stable to house the critters that are to big to fit through a regular sized gate.

Currently I'm listing:
2 Bronto's (both for egg production)
2 Diplo's (both for egg production)
2 Spino's (one for egg production the other for secure river work).
1 Mammoth (kept for archive)
4 Rex (currently all at the Waterfall base and capable of active use).
Room for 4 Quetzal

I'm toying with the idea of something resembling the old train sheds with one, or possibly opposing walls, made of "B" gates to provide the greatest ease of entry and exit. And access gantries or some sort of raised flooring so that dismounts aren't so hazardous.

The Quetzals can occupy the upper half of the building above the non-Bronto pens. It may be that the Diplo's and Mammoth can be kept up there too.

I need to measure the foundation space occupied by a Bronto, my current estimate is 15x4 but it may be longer. Wherever they end up getting house they will take up the full height of the building.

I am left wondering if we even need to keep Bronto's, their kibble is only needed for taming Cats and I currently have some L120 cats that can be bred should we need more.
The Diplo's we'll want to keep for eggs at least until we've tamed some L110+ Allosaurs.

[dafoe]

I am left wondering if we even need to keep Bronto's, their kibble is only needed for taming Cats and I currently have some L120 cats that can be bred should we need more.

Id say, no need for bronto housing at the central base. We have other bronto egg sources, G's base for example, and they should provide enough eggs where they are.

[Doc Liah]

Bronto's might be a bit too much hastle... and we can always just steal eggs from G.
Definitely birds and Quet's though. And the more useful large land predators.

Speaking of bird storage, how about an elevator deployment system. Something like in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wfp42wO-sU
Looks a bit quicker than opening a giant gateway and not even an opening is needed...

[Knight Errant]

Bronto's might be a bit too much hastle... and we can always just steal eggs from G.
Definitely birds and Quet's though. And the more useful large land predators.

Speaking of bird storage, how about an elevator deployment system. Something like in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wfp42wO-sU
Looks a bit quicker than opening a giant gateway and not even an opening is needed...

I don't want to dismiss that idea out of hand, but my personal loathing of ever using an Ark elevator again is making it exceedingly tempting. They're way to fiddly and expensive for my liking.

There is some sort of hangar gate thing due to arrive in the next update, details on it are apparently sparse at the moment.

***

Given the feedback I'm going to scrap the inclusion of Bronto housing, that should streamline the design a bit and provide more options for the stable layout.

[Doc Liah]

I don't want to dismiss that idea out of hand, but my personal loathing of ever using an Ark elevator again is making it exceedingly tempting. They're way to fiddly and expensive for my liking.

There is some sort of hangar gate thing due to arrive in the next update, details on it are apparently sparse at the moment.

That's interesting... the game does badly need some better gates.

[Knight Errant]

That's interesting... the game does badly need some better gates.

It's hard to say whether it will be a better gate. It will probably just be "different".

On another note.
The falling through ceilings glitch may be something to do with proximity to the ground. There are currently three Rex's in the cliff stable. They are arranged so that they are on ceiling tiles that are progressively further away from the ground (the ground itself is sloped the tiles are all on the same level). Only the one nearest to the ground has consistently fallen through.

Based on this limited evidence I am persuaded to conclude that this may be a matter of the ground being rendered first so it can take priority over the ceiling tiles as a standing surface in these circumstances.

As a possible solution it may be worth introducing false floors (like the Manufactory one) to stables built on raised platforms over uneven terrain. This would hopefully introduce an "illegal" space that large critters cannot fall through.

[Knight Errant]

Here's a rough layout plan for the ground floor of the mega-fauna stable.

The green areas are "bays" for the four Rex's and the active Spino. These "bays" and the space between them and the gates are intended to be lower than the rest of the floor which will be raised by 1 or 2 wall heights for safer dismounting. The orange areas are useable floor space for the Diplo's, Mammoth and inactive Spino.
Once we have some high level Allosaurs they can replace the Diplo's.

The arrows on the ramps point towards the highest point. It is likely they will not occupy the entire space allocated for them because ramps can be silly.

The floor above will be exclusively for the Quetzals. I'm not sure if I should subdivide it into pens or leave it as one open space. Quetzals require at least a 3x5 area.

Argentavis and other small to medium fliers can be housed in the bridge-side stable. I intend to expand that structure somewhat so that it can accommodate more critters. Probably an extra floor, with maybe a landing deck and gate.

All initial builds should be in stone. We can renovate some of it with glass-metal later for a less gloomy feel.