Looking for ideas/experiences about nurseries

[NoviSadDude]

Hello, this is a cross-post from Reddit. Please let me know your experiences or thoughts.

Just starting with breeding and would like to hear opinions regarding keeping young dinos (post-baby phase, until full maturation) in an open pen vs. an enclosed structure. I play on an official PvE server, so there are official timing modifiers and I am only worried about Argents attacking. I am in a small tribe (only two of us) and we play daily, but there are stretches of hours while we are at work when the young ones will be unattended. Can I simply build several Plant X towers around an area and leave the juvies there? Or is an enclosed structure recommended?

 

Thanks.

[Plannb23]

Our nursery is built out of greenhouse materials.  We did this so we could see inside and check on the little one's without actually having to open the pen doors.  We have 10 AC units inside as well as a fridge with eggs and meat.  Along the outside of the pen we have 7 food troughs and another fridge.  4 of the troughs to the left as you're facing the nursery are for meat and 3 on the right are for veggies / berries.

We enclosed ours because it allowed us to ensure that the eggs being incubated stayed at a constant temp.

2 minutes ago, NoviSadDude said:

there are stretches of hours while we are at work when the young ones will be unattended.

If they are still in the hand feed stage they're going to die.  If they're trough fed there is a calculator that tells you exactly how much food you'll need to ensure that they can go X Amount of hours without the trough being empty.

[NoviSadDude]

Thanks. Was the concern about incubation temp your only reason for enclosing it? I was thinking about hatching the eggs in an enclosed space, hand-feeding the babies there as well, then when they can start eating from troughs taking them outside (walled but without roof). The enclosed area I mentioned is OK for smaller dinos (like, maybe carnos max), so I would have to take them elsewhere to accommodate for their size. If I could keep them outside, that would be the easiest universal solution, and would work for both smaller and big dinos. However, since we cannot be there constantly, I am worried about random argents attacking the dinos which won't fight back. My base is in the NE so argents are quite frequent. I thought about placing Plant-X towers around this open area as a way to protect the juvies from argents, but not sure if that would be a safe-enough solution.

[Plannb23]

1 minute ago, NoviSadDude said:

Thanks. Was the concern about incubation temp your only reason for enclosing it? 

No.  It was a serious concern, but what we wanted to do was get the generator out.  Then from there we had people that would come and just randomly turn on / off the generator so we enclosed that as well.  Basically we wanted an area that only we controlled what happened in it.

2 minutes ago, NoviSadDude said:

I was thinking about hatching the eggs in an enclosed space, hand-feeding the babies there as well, then when they can start eating from troughs taking them outside (walled but without roof). 

That's exactly what we do.  Ours is 2 walls high and roofed though.

3 minutes ago, NoviSadDude said:

The enclosed area I mentioned is OK for smaller dinos (like, maybe carnos max), so I would have to take them elsewhere to accommodate for their size. I

We have hatched a Giga in there so ...

3 minutes ago, NoviSadDude said:

If I could keep them outside, that would be the easiest universal solution, and would work for both smaller and big dinos. However, since we cannot be there constantly, I am worried about random argents attacking the dinos which won't fight back. 

Yeah I wouldn't leave them outside.  They'll  get smashed as they don't defend themselves until they're an adult.

4 minutes ago, NoviSadDude said:

 I thought about placing Plant-X towers around this open area as a way to protect the juvies from argents, but not sure if that would be a safe-enough solution.

It could be a best option for you.  They'll attract the argent's attention ... We don't have the argent problem though.

[NoviSadDude]

I see. Thank you for your thoughts, they're definitely helpful.

 

[Plannb23]

3 minutes ago, NoviSadDude said:

I see. Thank you for your thoughts, they're definitely helpful.

 

I'll see if I can find a few images of ours for you so you can get a visual.

[ciabattaroll]

Given you stating that your place is in an area where Argents could exist, I recommend building an enclosed structure with the turrets placed as outside defenses. The reason I suggest this is because unless you are willing to always put the plants to sleep and wake them up, they will inadvertedly kill the babies the second they hatch, as they are marked as not yours until you claim them. Building an enclosed structure allows you to claim them without being hassled with having to turn your defenses on and off all the time.

[Plannb23]

4 minutes ago, ciabattaroll said:

They will inadvertedly kill the babies the second they hatch, as they are marked as not yours until you claim them. Building an enclosed structure allows you to claim them without being hassled with having to turn your defenses on and off all the time.

This is a very good point that I overlooked in my explanation of the claiming process.

Here is the only one I have available from work.

I'm standing at the very back center of the building.  The dino door is the front and you can see the AC Units and the lines coming from the generator above in the very center of the building.

P.S. Pay no attention to the bush beaver over there in the image.  

[NoviSadDude]

19 minutes ago, ciabattaroll said:

Given you stating that your place is in an area where Argents could exist, I recommend building an enclosed structure with the turrets placed as outside defenses. The reason I suggest this is because unless you are willing to always put the plants to sleep and wake them up, they will inadvertedly kill the babies the second they hatch, as they are marked as not yours until you claim them. Building an enclosed structure allows you to claim them without being hassled with having to turn your defenses on and off all the time.

 

Got it. My plan was to hatch and hand-feed them inside, then take them outside. The reason for this is because the space where I would hatch/hand-feed them is too low, only 3 walls high (much like on the screenshot Plannb23 posted). So, my concern was how am I going to let a Rex fully mature in a 3-high space? That is why I wanted to take them outside after they start eating from the trough. That way, plants wouldn't kill them immediately after hatching.

 

16 minutes ago, Plannb23 said:

This is a very good point that I overlooked in my explanation of the claiming process.

Here is the only one I have available from work.

I'm standing at the very back center of the building.  The dino door is the front and you can see the AC Units and the lines coming from the generator above in the very center of the building.

Thanks for the screenshot! So, just to make it clear, you only hatch and hand feed babies there, then you take them out when they turn juvenile?

 

[Plannb23]

5 minutes ago, NoviSadDude said:

Thanks for the screenshot! So, just to make it clear, you only hatch and hand feed babies there, then you take them out when they turn juvenile?

We do both.  The Giga we had to take out.  But the beaver, pteranodon, dimetredon, and compies pictured here all hung out there until adult hood.

[NoviSadDude]

3 minutes ago, Plannb23 said:

We do both.  The Giga we had to take out.  But the beaver, pteranodon, dimetredon, and compies pictured here all hung out there until adult hood.

Got it. Thanks again!

 

[Plannb23]

Just now, NoviSadDude said:

Got it. Thanks again!

 

I would say if you can safely keep it in side do.  One more line of defense against those pesky argents or other trouble makers.  Then just walk them out.  So I would say you'd likely need to anything that won't walk through a dino gate out and leave everything else that can inside.  

[DmpTrkDrvr]

Exactly what ciabattaroll said.. Be aware yo the plants those are targets until claimed.    Best option is to have defense that can't access the location of your nursery.

[NoviSadDude]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I think I will go ahead and give it a try with hatching/hand-feeding inside, and then taking the bigger guys out and protect them with plants.