The new numbers on Animals: Can they actually compete?

We'll see. I do need to fill 9 silos by winter. Middle of spring report: I'm going to be close to netting 1million for the month. Have made just under half of that by the 12th. Would have been more but every rain day has been followed by depressed sheep and a drop in production. This animal bugginess is really cutting into my business.

 

Hey nevyn, you have Shepherd correct? I think your sheep-centric play could definitely be comparable, especially when you reach 1,000 Friendship with all of them. When a player has 900 or more Friendship, the first time they pet that sheep it will set its days required to produce wool to 2 instead of 3. And then shepherd subtracts an additional day, so they'll produce wool every single day!

 

Maybe if they weren't all bi-polar. :/ I see high days and days were not one of my 60 flock produce. I've definitely made at least 1m for Spring with my total farm earnings though. Will provide evidence soon.

Edit: Oh, your question: I do have Shepherd. Some of my sheep may produce every day and I may just not be seeing it but the bug with happiness makes it so that it's rare at the least. I'm trying to come up with a daily routine to minimize both effort and occurances of the bug. I feel like a small child again. Going to bed at 7pm is hard.

 

I've finished my Spring month with my farm and I can show my in-game earnings for the season. I didn't get a shot of my cash on Spring 1 but it was around 350k. I do have one on Spring 7 that shows somewhat higher.

Spring 7: 563,978




Summer 1: 1,623,292

 

Fall 1: 2,988,406



Things are going pretty good. I'm all set to make over 5 million by the end of the year. Since this doesn't include my cellar, my total should be higher. I'm going to go ahead and call this "good". I could easily add 3 more barns and eat the 135k (96*28*50) for winter fodder every year and still be able to afford my monocle.

In short: Nevyn just showed Rancher can compete. We also showed that I'm particularly susceptible to the animal bugs and am only making around (generously) 65% of my real potential. At this point I'm curious about what a cheese farm can do and whether goats or cows are better.

 

@Nevyn
Thanks for putting in so much effort! I might be tempted to do a coop-focused run now. I have some questions though since i've never messed with coop animals before. Do we have any hard numbers on how long it takes to incubate various eggs as well as the base (zero heart) sell price for chickens, ducks and dinos? (the wiki lists only the 5-heart sell price for each). I'm thinking one coop dedicated to egg production with the remainder focused on incubating and selling the animals directly just to see how the profit compares.

 

Sell price for an animal at zero hearts is 30% of their purchase value at Marnie's (This means ducks would be the highest price. You can't buy dinosaurs at Marnie's, but their buy value is 1,000 whereas Ducks are 4,000). As for the time to incubate, I don't have the .xnb files extracted so I can't look. However, I'm very confident that keeping the slot open in a coop is much more detrimental than just having a fully happy animal there producing every day.

 

I don't have any coops, sorry. All I have are 60 head of sheep and a 96 barrel ancient fruit winery. I suspect the real profits may be with Artisan with ducks and duck mayo but I haven't put together a model. Either that or void mayo. Coopmaster has no real benefits to production and selling animals doesn't have a good enough profit margin.

I'll see if I can work up some models based on 60 coop animals.

 

Actually, I think regular mayo is probably the most profitable if you have max friendship chickens. That way you can guarantee large eggs, which guarantees Gold quality mayo every day. Next best would be Void chickens, because they produce every day as well, but the sell value for void mayonnaise is very slightly less than gold star mayo.

 

@Shiverwarp

Assuming then that baby ducks sell for 1,200, and the coopmaster perk works as written, if incubation time w/perk is 4 days or less then you get about 300+g/day for selling the duck chicks versus 187.5/262.5 w/ artisan for duck mayo.

void mayo may be the way to go at 275/385 per day per chicken (normal gold star mayo is slightly more profitable, but only if you can ensure large eggs, void chickens are more consistent with less upkeep.)

total profits 4,620 per deluxe coop per day (artisian perk), okay, but I think we can do better.

lets examine cheese then;

the maximum number of casks one can have is 125. Aging cheese takes between 14-7 days (depending on what% of cheeses start the aging process already at gold quality)

9 cows/18 goats are sufficient to max out your cask usage assuming no large milk/gold cheese is produced. If you want to only age gold star cheese then you need twice that amount to keep up with demand.

this gives a low-end eyeball of 4480g/day for cows using normal cheese and 8960g/day if enough gold cheese is produced to keep the casks running constantly
for goats (assuming you have enough to keep up with demand) you stand to earn about 8400g/day on the low-end and 16800g/day if only gold cheese is used.

double checking my math, in all cases artisan perk is assumed;
Cows
125(#of casks)*560g(Irridium chese)=70,000g per aging cycle
at 14 days processing time (no-star cheese base) that equals 5,000g/day
at 7 days processing time that equals 10,000g/day

Goats
125*1050g(irridium goat cheese)=131,250g per cycle
@14 days processing time that equals 9,375g/day
@7 days processing that equals 18,750g/day

Compare to Starfruit Wine
125 * 6300g=787,500g per aging cycle
at 56 days processing time that equals 14062.5g/day

and Ancient Fruit Wine
125 * 4620g=557,500g per aging cycle
@56 days processing time that equals 10,312.5g/day

so goat cheese slightly outperforms starfruit in casks assuming you feed them nothing but gold-star cheese, while normal cheese performs roughly equal with ancient fruit (again assuming only gold-star cheese going into the casks).

:EDIT: of course, aging goat cheese requires at minimum 3 deluxe barns worth of goats and likely 1 or 2 more just to ensure a stable supply of gold-star cheese to feed those casks. going with wine instead only requires your farm output at least 3 bottles of wine per day to ensure all casks are fed with some excess stock remaining each cycle.

 

Three deluxe barns isn't bad to manage, nor is five. Assume 45 game minutes per barn, or at least that has been my experience.

Using your cellar for cheese pretty much eliminates using it for aging wine. But my greenhouse makes 96 bottles of ancient fruit wine for 150k (Rancher price) a week anyway. Cheese should be able to make up for losing the cellar.

 

Alright, just looked a little further into the code for the incubation times since I was curious. It appears that all things that can be incubated have an incubation time of 9,000 minutes, except dinosaurs, which have an incubation time of 18,000. If the player is a coopmaster then the amount is halved. I don't know exactly how the game calculates time passage, because I know there is some weirdness for things like kegs that are inside vs outside, and a difference in time passage when the player sleeps for those items. I'll just assume that the time passage is 24 hours per day, and 60 minutes per hour. In that case, it'll take 6.25 days for a duck to hatch without coopmaster, and with coopmaster 3.125 days. So you'll have to calculate that against the more lucrative large egg gold star mayo, vs keeping a duck to incubate its eggs.

I'm not into the optimization stuff, I'll leave that up to you. I prefer a varied farm, with a bunch of different animals (Which is why I'm passionate about the animal bugs, they particularly ruin this playstyle)

 

I can say with all certainty no matter what my care style void chickens have RARELY not produced, while normal chickens are a very mixed bag no matter what I do. So investing in a coop of void buddies isn't a bad way to go!

 

Void Mayo has potential, especially with Artisan. Even with Coopmaster a gold void mayo is 494g a day. When I had a coop, I recall alot of silver or gold void eggs. I think the issue there lies with silver eggs making normal quality mayo. Otherwise I think Coopmaster's bonus to incubation and mood may have a slight edge over Artisan if it could be tested. Assuming that coopmaster gives the same bonus to chickens that shepherd does to sheep. But that's only if silver and iridium mayo were possible.

 

I've worked up some projections based on 48 animals (4 coops), which I believe is a fairly sweet spot between profit and effort per day for most players.

Ducks (Duck Mayo @ Rancher Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 450g = 21,600 / 2 days = min 10,800 g/day

48 Gold Mayo * 674g = 32,352 / 2 days = max 16,176 g/day

Median Profit is 10,800<->16,176 = 13,488 g/day

Ducks (Duck Mayo @ Artisan Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 525g = 25,200 / 2 days = min 12,600 g/day

48 Gold Mayo * 787g = 37,776 / 2 days = max 18,888 g/day

Median Profit is 12,600<->18,888 = 15,744 g/day

Chickens (Mayo@ Rancher Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 228g = 10,944 min profit/day

48 Gold Mayo * 342g = 16,416 max profit/day

Median Profit is 10,944<->16416 = 13,680 g/day

Chickens (Mayo@ Artisan Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 266g = 12,768 min profit/day

48 Gold Mayo * 399g = 19,152 max profit/day

Median Profit is 12,768<->19,152 = 16,010 g/day

Void Chickens (Void Mayo@ Rancher Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 330g = 15,840 min profit/day

48 Gold Mayo * 494g = 23,712 max profit/day

Median Profit is 15,480<->23,712 = 19,596 g/day

Void Chickens (Void Mayo@ Artisan Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 385g = min 18,480 profit/day

48 Gold Mayo * 577g = 27,696 max profit/day

Median Profit is 18,480<->27,696 = 23,088 g/day

Void chickens are probably the best bet once you acquire a void egg. Ducks are comparable to chickens with ducks having a slight edge in profits due to chickens skipping a day after they produce a large egg normally (something my projection does *not* account for. You have been warned). These set-ups require 48 mayo machines per day, except for ducks which require only 24 if you split the production into 2 days.

Edit: I've reworked the chickens and ducks assuming the following: Chickens lay large eggs one day on, one day off and duck feathers are produced in addition to duck eggs, not instead. The new numbers are:

Chickens (Mayo@ Rancher Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 228g = 10,944 profit/day

48 Gold Mayo * 342g = 16,416 profit/day

Median Profit is 10,944<->1,6416 = 13,680 g/day

*Adjusted earnings assuming 1 day on, 1 day off for large egg production

48 gold mayo * 342=16,416 /2 = 8,208

Median Profit is 8,208<->10,944= 9,576g/day

Chickens (Mayo@ Artisan Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 266g = 12,768 profit/day

48 Gold Mayo * 399g = 19,152 profit/day

Median Profit is 12,768<->19,152 = 16,010 g/day

*Adjusted earnings assuming 1 day on, 1 day off for large egg production

48 gold mayo * 399=19,152 /2 = 9,576

Median Profit is 9,576<->12,768= 11,172

Ducks (Duck Mayo @ Rancher Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 450g = 21,600 / 2 days = 10,800 g/day

48 Gold Mayo * 674g = 32,352 / 2 days = 16,176 g/day

Median Profit is 10,800<->16,176 = 13,488 g/day

Duck Feathers (Assuming 1 per week)

48 * 150 Normal = 7,200/ week or 1028g per day

48 * 225 Gold = 10,800/week or 1,542g per day

Adjusted Median profit = 10,800+1,028 (11,828)<->13,488+1542 (15,030) = 13,429 g/day


Ducks (Duck Mayo @ Artisan Price)

48 Normal Mayo * 525g = 25,200 / 2 days = 12,600 g/day

48 Gold Mayo * 787g = 37,776 / 2 days = 18,888 g/day

Median Profit is 12,600<->18,888 = 15,744 g/day

Duck Feathers (Assuming 1 per week)

48 * 125 Normal = 6,000/ week or 857g per day

48 * 187 Gold = 8,976/week or 1282g per day

Adjusted Median profit = 12,600+857 (13,457)<->18,888+1,282 (20,140) = 16,798g/day

Advantage: Ducks over Chickens

 

One more post to accompany my one above.

Yearly income for animals (@48 animals and median income) :

Chickens (Rancher) = 1,072,512
Chickens (Artisan) = 1,251,264

Ducks (Rancher) = 1,504,048
Ducks (Artisan) = 1,881,376

Void Chickens (Rancher) = 2,194,752
Void Chickens (Artisan) = 2,585,856

Edit: Corrected math error in ducks.

 

Chickens won't skip a day of production when they produce a large egg. That's another rumour as a result of the rollover bug. (Chicken gets high enough happiness for a large egg, they lay it, player rolls over happiness that morning after collecting the large egg, chicken produces nothing the next day because they are below 70 mood)

Ducks are also unable to produce gold mayo, same with void chickens. To create gold mayo you must place a large product in the mayonnaise machine.

Ducks also only produce every other day (daysToLay = 2)

Duck feathers ARE produced instead of eggs, not in addition to

 

My chickens have always been super spotty, large egg day before or not.

 

What professions do you have? Are you petting them after they eat grass? Are you keeping them inside?

The only way that chickens won't produce is if they're below 70 mood (This is just a chance not to produce, chance equal to Mood/70), or they were not fed the previous day.

 

I've tried both outside and inside care. I gave up letting outside since it didn't produce better results. Petting every day. Often was going to be early if they didn't go outside. Did let in and close door when they were going out, which is why I stopped since they were not really doing much with putting in the effort anyway.

The professions thing my brain is going a bit hazy on, so I'm for some reason not understanding the nature of the question fully.