[Suggestion] Improve corral auto-feeders

[Fruit]

When you buy the auto feeders and fill them up, they only dispense around 4 or 5 pieces of food, and they dispense it not very often. That's okay if you have like 2 slimes in your corrals but when you have upwards of 20 its basically worthless to buy because the only way to keep them all fed is to shoot the food in yourself. It should dispense the food more often, and maybe for every one piece of food you put in, it'll shoot out two? Of course, you wouldn't be able to pick up the duplicated food, but the slimes could eat it. Thoughts?

[Azreide]

Or just have it that it scales the amount to the slimes in the corral.

[Gobledigmus]

Or just have it that it scales the amount to the slimes in the corral.

I agree. That would (probably) not be too complicated to implement and still do its job.

[Fruit]

Or just have it that it scales the amount to the slimes in the corral.

How would it scale? We may as well try to think of something so they don't have to. One food dispensed per one slime in the corral?

[Elskah]

Or just have it that it scales the amount to the slimes in the corral.

How would it scale? We may as well try to think of something so they don't have to. One food dispensed per one slime in the corral?

That makes sense. But it also seems like some slimes take longer to become hungry again than others. For example I had a corral of 5 Boom Tabbies with Hen Hens in the auto-feeder, and I'd occasionally shoot a Stony Hen or an Elder Hen/Elder Roostro/Roostro in manually as my coops started to fill up. I would usually end up with upwards of 10 Hen Hens wandering the corral after the slimes were already full. I had a similar issue with Pogofruit in my Honey Slime corral, but most of my other corrals seemed to work just fine on the auto-feeders. So maybe the auto-feeders could dispense 1 food per 1 slime or Largo in the pen, and wait to dispense the next round of food until enough time has passed for the slimes to become hungry again.

[Pigcatapult]

Maybe checks for food on the floor?

[z0mbiesrock]

Auto-feeders dispense the food even if the corral is empty.

[Glarvole]

I normally have a bunch of food on the ground of my corrals. It would be nice if it checked for slime hunger. Dispensing when the slimes in the corral are ready to eat. It could be part of the hunger stat of the slime. Add a small noise or animation (the drool is s nice touch but they eat before they reach that point) when they are ready to eat and before they starve. Use that trigger for the slimes as a trigger for the feeder.... or they could push a button inside when they are hungry and dispense the food themselves? Those are my thoughts anyway.

[Fruit]

Unless there's a special things the slimes do to press the button, they could easily pile into the feeder and dispense it accidentally.

[Fruit]

Another thing, the auto feeder should have a different spot in the corral. I think four tubes on each corner on the TOP of the pen, aiming towards the center, could better feed every slime in the pen. Or, if the four nozzles auto aimed at the hungriest slimes?

[Sepolash]

The key things:(Summarizing all your ideas)
1) Location - A corner isn't the best spot, because it could deny some slimes food based on proximity.
2) Detection - Not only does it not detect slime hunger, it doesn't even detect if slimes are present when it dispenses food. It should also be able to check for food already present in the corral.
3) Amount - Regardless of how many slimes are in the corral, it always dispenses the same amount of food, and that it should increase/decrease based on slime population.
4) Button - A potential button for slimes to activate.
Personally I think that, because its automated, it should be simple and efficient, something you can leave alone to do its thing.

[Pigcatapult]

Agreed on all counts there.

[afterlifesol]

These sound like they would make good upgrades to the auto feeder, thus allowing more more progression, rather then just plain changes.

The first level could be just the regular auto feeder.. Then buy other upgrades.. detect if slime is hungry to feed, etc.

[Sepolash]

I don't think we need to upgrade something that's already an upgrade itself...

[Elskah]

I don't think we need to upgrade something that's already an upgrade itself...

I think the idea of upgrading an upgrade might seem redundant until you realize how much money you end up having that you can't do anything with. If it ends up being balanced to the point where you no longer need money sinks, then just changing the auto-feeder would be fine, but as the money works right now adding these features as separate upgrades wouldn't even put a dent in the player's pocket by the time they'd really need them.

[SpiralRancher02]

These sound like they would make good upgrades to the auto feeder, thus allowing more more progression, rather then just plain changes.

The first level could be just the regular auto feeder.. Then buy other upgrades.. detect if slime is hungry to feed, etc.

While with most upgrades I would agree with this, the auto-feeder is just so broken IMO right now, these should just be built in the original. It's terrible at properly feeding slimes at the right times.