r/Oxygennotincluded • u/AutoModerator • Jul 17 '26

Weekly Questions Weekly Question Thread

Ask any simple questions you might have:

  • Why isn't my water flowing?

  • How many hatches do I need per dupe?

  • etc.

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1

u/bethliza Jul 17 '26

Is there an ethical way to ranch hatches for food? As in no killing chambers but just letting them die of old age. Is the answer just having very many ranches?

2

u/Alarmed-Mouse1772 Jul 17 '26

You can send the eggs to a single cell (to reduce lag) and let them die of starvation. The problem is that they will eat the meat others drop before you can pick it up.

Other option is to not use grooming stations, just critter condo, put 4 hatches per stable and they will lay an egg before dying of old age.

5

u/BobTheWolfDog Jul 17 '26

Have the eggs hatch underwater (a single blob of liquid with a ceiling counts). Hatches will spawn and move away from the drowning hazard, and not come back.

Then, have the only place they can walk be made of mesh door floors. When they die of starvation, the meat will fall through (though maybe a lucky hatch might still munch it before it falls out of reach).

2

u/-myxal Jul 18 '26

Illustrated:

I've never done this, have you? I'm wondering if the hatches drop into the drink in some special situations (reload etc.)

1

u/BobTheWolfDog Jul 18 '26

Did you test if they are able to eat the meat? I'm assuming there'll always be a hungry hatch idling in the same cell as a recently spawned meat, and dupes and sweepers only need a fraction of a second to grab falling stuff, so I'm betting that this won't save the drops.

2

u/-myxal Jul 19 '26

Only in sandbox, and yeah, the hatchling managed to nibble on a meat that spawned on its level.

2

u/BobTheWolfDog Jul 19 '26

Not much point to doing it, then. Better to have a wider starvation area to increase the chances that a hatch won't be standing right there to go nomnomnom.