Never tried that, but by dumb luck I built a base right next to a natural spawn spot of critters. I had a fairly big herd that showed up every time I used the feeder. I thought that was normal until I built a base somewhere else and had to coax them in by feeding them creature pellets or riding them to get anywhere close to what I got with no work at the first base.

Never tried... can you even build more than 1 per base?
If its possible then, at the very least, having 2 harvesters would double the inventory for the foodstuff

I build a Harvester, a 3x3 glass foundation free placed on top of harvester with power doors and steps to ground, couch slightly askew on glass floor above harvester with a portable food processor beside couch, 4 Bait chukers spread out beyond the corners of the platform. That gets the straggles in. NSEW

Can sit on the couch, and irl go make food, come back and collect from harvester and make digital grub.

May also walk the perimeter, tossing bait in a high arch to grab some attention, till the lopper see the auto feeder.

Good trick for aggressive animals is to put down a feeder but no harvester, they can't go aggro if their fed and won't reverts as long as you stay put and the feeder has two bait pellets, One will be deployed the other is insurance. Since your not collecting berries, or what not from the aggressive animals you won't waste pellets.

My question is why? Why would you need so many food resources I don't get it. One harvester will make hundreds of food and there is only one of you, and they aren't worth selling.

Good pellets have a limited range to attract creatures. Throwing out more doesn't increase the range. However placing several feeders and harvesters at the edge of their area of attraction could attract more creatures.

The only animal products I ever collect in mass is chewy wires which can be consumed for nanites. Usually I use just one harvester and running around throwing bait and leading them back to the harvester.

Originally posted by Voodoojedizin:

My question is why? Why would you need so many food resources I don't get it. One harvester will make hundreds of food and there is only one of you, and they aren't worth selling.

Because as it sits right now I'm making about 20 million units a day.
I can also make around 10,000 credits a day.
And I've just started and only have 2 bases.

Just curious to see how far I can push this.

Originally posted by Lindy Bomber:

Good pellets have a limited range to attract creatures. Throwing out more doesn't increase the range. However placing several feeders and harvesters at the edge of their area of attraction could attract more creatures.

The only animal products I ever collect in mass is chewy wires which can be consumed for nanites. Usually I use just one harvester and running around throwing bait and leading them back to the harvester.

Hmm. Is there more than the standard pellets that you can make? If so, that's something I hadn't discovered yet.

Originally posted by Ramar:

Originally posted by Voodoojedizin:

My question is why? Why would you need so many food resources I don't get it. One harvester will make hundreds of food and there is only one of you, and they aren't worth selling.

Because as it sits right now I'm making about 20 million units a day.
I can also make around 10,000 credits a day.
And I've just started and only have 2 bases.

Just curious to see how far I can push this.

I don't see the need to work hard I have hit the maximum cap on credits like 4 billion credits and I haven't worked to get any of them. I built one feeder just to see how it works found no need for it at all or the products it produces.

Originally posted by Shadow Strider:

Never tried... can you even build more than 1 per base?
If its possible then, at the very least, having 2 harvesters would double the inventory for the foodstuff

That's what I'm hoping for. :)

But if the point is to make food to sell, and to run up your money...Why?

You can plant one biodome with Fungal Clusters, and use only that to make piles of (at least one of) the most rewarding foodstuffs.
Harvesting takes a very occasional visit, and one button push. cooking takes a little longer, but not all that terribly much.

My favorite is use one Med. Refiner (and Oxygen) to constantly expand Chlorine. When you can fill a Rocket, shoot it.

Or just put in an Antimatter machine. Make magically free AM, and AM Housings. Load those in a Rocket. Millions. Heck, even if you just sell the magic-Antimatter-from-ashes, without Housings, you will steadily gain wealth.

?Better? yet. Spend one day, after you've got a base with full storage and a handful of refiners, make a Rocket-full of Igniters or Stasis, and you will be at the 4+B cash limit.

Now move on to other goals in the game.

Accumulating a lot of cash in this game, once you are past the very early point of possibly dying for lack of a safe spot, is just not a problem.

It isn't like it's a game where you have to eat.

Originally posted by Lindy Bomber:

The only animal products I ever collect in mass is chewy wires which can be consumed for nanites. Usually I use just one harvester and running around throwing bait and leading them back to the harvester.

Oh, cool, thanks for that info
I was only ware that you could process them into carbon nanotubes...

Originally posted by dreamrider:

But if the point is to make food to sell, and to run up your money...Why?

there is more to food than just to sell it...
Some refill life support or hazard protection,
Some give jetpack boost, like the flowers do (bread is a very easy one for this)
I've not explored if there are other effects, but I imagine sprint boosts exist too

And although there are much more efficient methods, the more advance recipes can earn quite a nice chunk of nanites (average of a few hundred each) from feeding Cronus on the Anomaly... its very tedious though.

Also, some people simply want to find all the recipes because they are completionists

One thing to keep in mind is that this game appears to offer many routes to many goals. I don't doubt that the antimatter or fungal biome routes can make lots of money, but... those things require certain pieces to be in place that not everyone has yet. The antimatter machine, I think, will need following the plot to the anomaly and salvaged data to unlock the blueprints. The fungal biome, I think, will need a freighter, with the money and events in place for that. Feeding creatures to refine and make fancy food (cookies, pies, etc.) will require some things too. If you're having fun feeding animals and cooking, I'd say go with that for awhile. Personally, I haven't figured out how or why some feeding spots are much more popular than others or how to affect it. I've put a few near bases on planets with "many" or "abundant" fauna. Some are working better than others when I'm in that base.

edit:
forgot to answer to the question. i d say it firstly depends on finding a good place, where animals appear. and kill or keep fed the predators (or they eat the other animals). then i d say 2 gives more.
----

am totally addicted to cooking in nms! i always build 2 harvesters and feeders around.
loving my refining and sorting breaks in bases. ground bases and freighter have both their own advantages. i prefer ground.

i always cook in big batches. got at least 10-20 cooking stations and cook full stacks of stuff. prepping ingrediences and storing them in all the exocar storage.
sometimes i even build a camping-base. call my exocrafts, put cooking stations and refiners up and enjoy the surrounding :)

about the WHY
first i was just curious, then i discovered taht there are endless possiblities. over 1000 recipies? i forgot the number...

now with maxed out inventory i often have at least one row full of different meals with me.
- have a talk about food with chronos
- use it as intended, eat it for boosts, restore some HP etc.
- sell it. in big batches, its a good income source. once you know how to, its not too much work - and many stations
- share with players (i hope they dont mind), especially after a nexus mission. just as a appreciation gift

Originally posted by raving_madness:

edit:
forgot to answer to the question. i d say it firstly depends on finding a good place, where animals appear. and kill or keep fed the predators (or they eat the other animals). then i d say 2 gives more.
----

am totally addicted to cooking in nms! i always build 2 harvesters and feeders around.
loving my refining and sorting breaks in bases. ground bases and freighter have both their own advantages. i prefer ground.

i always cook in big batches. got at least 10-20 cooking stations and cook full stacks of stuff. prepping ingrediences and storing them in all the exocar storage.
sometimes i even build a camping-base. call my exocrafts, put cooking stations and refiners up and enjoy the surrounding :)

about the WHY
first i was just curious, then i discovered taht there are endless possiblities. over 1000 recipies? i forgot the number...

now with maxed out inventory i often have at least one row full of different meals with me.
- have a talk about food with chronos
- use it as intended, eat it for boosts, restore some HP etc.
- sell it. in big batches, its a good income source. once you know how to, its not too much work - and many stations
- share with players (i hope they dont mind), especially after a nexus mission. just as a appreciation gift

glad to see I wasn't alone here. There are 1,074 recipes in cooking. However, I understand how most people might not like it. It takes a LOT of grinding. That's not as popular as it used to be. :)

Right now I've moved from pastries to cakes. and I make a good amount of dough doing it. (pun intended). I've only found around 15 systems and just got to my first green system.
Even this new, I've made over 100mil and have tons of nanites. I make around 70 mil a day, and 10-15 thousand in nanites a day.

right now I'm really curious what the most expensive food item is. Since for me, selling would be the way to go. I think the benefits of the food are really terrible and easily compensated for.

My processing is small for now. I can stand in the middle of the room and have 6 processors going. first 4 are for processing Flour and Sugar. The other 2 are for final food stages. Small, but growing.

got a long ways to go....