Here's my latest config. https://pastebin.com/cmDTK8vT

Main changes are that all critters require a bit less space (I can fit 12 hatches now rather than 8) and the diet and outputs are adjusted to make different critters more useful. Most critters have their conversion rate increased (meaning they output more than they used to).

Here is a general overview of the changes I've made. Don't forget that you can check the in-game search database to see the exact values.

-Dreckos now eat one unit per cycle but still output the same.

-Hatches no longer eat dupe food (because their conversion rates were so low they weren't worth it and I felt like changing it would be too cheaty/tedious). Default hatches conversion rate is increased.

-Stone hatches conversion rate of their diet is equal to the default hatches, but their conversion rate for the metals (which they need to eat to produce smooth hatches) is greatly increased to make it more worth it (the rate varies with the value of the metal). Their conversion rates for metal to ore are all over 1 (they make more coal than the metal they eat).

-Sage hatches' conversion rate is slightly higher than 1 because the materials they eat are more valuable than the sage and default hatches. They don't eat dupe food but eat the same materials otherwise.

-Moos eat half the amount and produce double the gas.

-Pips produce more dirt and eat slightly less.

-Pacus... I did a ton of tweaking and play-testing these fish to make them more useful. I reduced the space they need by quite a bit so now your fish tanks can actually look full. Default pacus eat a small fraction of the algae they used to require, and their conversion rate to polluted dirt is now 1 to 1. Though because they eat less, they produce the dirt much slower now. These are the only type of pacu that can eat your seeds because otherwise they would serve no purpose once you get the other two varieties. Their seed to polluted dirt conversion rate is higher, but seeds are so filling and so small, that they still produce very little poop dirt when eating seeds (1/5 the amount of dirt they'd make if they ate algae).

-Tropical Pacus only eat algae, and at the same rate as default pacus (5kg a cycle), but produce double the polluted dirt.

-Gulp Fish continue to clean dirty water, by default, but I added the ability to eat polluted dirt and make algae at a 1 to 1 ratio. So basically, one gulp fish and one pacu can sustain each other, or 2 gulp fish and one tropical fish can sustain each other. The tricky part is that if you don't keep them in different temperatures of water, they are not happy and don't produce much, let alone reproduce.

-Plug Slugs continue to consume ore, though at a lower rate. Instead of making hydrogen, they make abyssalite at a 1 to 1 (or higher) ratio, depending on the quality of metal they eat. [This was a personal preference to help balance some other mods I have that let me customize elements and recipes. I made it easier to make insulation so that abyssalite is more useful in early game.] If you prefer hydrogen, or something else, this would be an easy thing to adjust in the config.

-Pokeshells have their conversion rate increased and can now eat slime.

Puft Princes are now more useful because their conversion rate matches that of other pufts, and now they can convert natural gas into sulfur. Just let one loose in your base that's filled with mixed gases and he'll clean the place up for you.

-Shove Voles can't really be ranched because they phase through walls (super annoying), but I changed them to create dirt from regolith (conversion rate left at 50%). I also changed them to create clay when they eat dirt. They used to just eat dirt and poop dirt at 50%, like regolith, but now they change dirt into 75% clay (so I could make more ceramic). I removed their ability to eat iron.

-Slicksters: all have a conversion rate of 1 to 1 (drastic increase to make them useful), and I made the Long Hair ones who eat oxygen produce carbon dioxide at a 1 to 1 ratio (they used to just eat it and produce nothing). I did this so you could have a slickster farm on the bottom of your base and keep one or two longhairs in the pen to eat any oxygen that floats in, thus providing more carbon dioxide for your default and molten ones to make oil with.

Note on Shine Bugs: I haven't messed with their diets yet because I have yet to farm them. I plan to make them more useful too, but haven't changed them other than to make them require less space.

Version: 2.2

Intro:
Okay! I was going to post this yesterday but alas there was too much more optimizing to do but now I'm done! (Btw please don't feel obligated to share everything to the tea on each post. I felt like it but that is not the slandered)

Synopsis:
This mod is made with the idea of adding further practicality to usually barely practical ranching and with adding more resource conversion/sustainability options.This variation of the mod is best paired with Nuclear processing and Chemical processing as well as the asphalt tile mod but it works without any of them.

Here is da link: https://jsoneditoronline.org/#left=cloud.bfd2f249c95c4e448529ea1c587ef433

And here are the changes by animal:

~~~DISCLAIMER~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keep in mind that many of these values increase to some degree when ranched. These are all the wiled variants.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Shinebugs:
-Spaceneeded is decreased for all shinebugs since they ARE bugs and the more advanced
the bug the less this applies.
-Fertility cycles are decreased for most bugs similarly to how their space requirement is
effected by their variant.
-Adult threshold has again, been adjusted to the rarity of shinebuggage except while some
may have decreased some have increased.

-Shovoles
-Fertility cycle decreased to 50 cycles
-Adult threshold increased to 15 cycles
-Dietary changes (11):
-Regolith 2541.5kg > Sand 2465.2kg
-Dirt 1200kg > Dirt 1140kg
-Rust 533.3kg > Iron ore 453.3kg
-Crushed rock 505.3kg > Obsidian 303.2kg
-Coal 436.4kg > Graphite 218.2kg
-Iron 192kg > Corium 1920g
-Corium 1846.2g > UraniumOre 1846.2g
-Salt 96kg > Lime 12kg
-Sulfur 941.2kg > Lead 329.4kg
-Phosphorus 218.2kg > Bitumen 174.5kg
-Polluted dirt 480kg > Regolith 475.2kg

-Slickster:
-Regular:
-Dietary changes (4):
-Carbon dioxide 40kg > Oil 32kg
-Refined carbon 40 kg > Oil 38kg
-Petrol 75kg > Bitumen 71.3kg
-Oil shale 80kg > Oil 64kg <===================== (Chemical processing recipe!)
-Blue one: The blue one now eats 40kg of oxygen and turns it all into carbon dioxide.
This is just a blatant rip off of @smaurine's idea.
-Molten:
-Dietary changes (3):
-Carbon dioxide 60kg > Petrol 45kg
-Refined carbon 60kg > Oil 54kg
-Bitumen 75kg > Oil 82.5kg

-Plug slug:
-Space needed has been lowered to 9 as while they are big bugs they are still bugs
-Adult threshold has been changed to 10 cycles since they live for a long time.
-Dietary changes are slim. They now eat 20kg of raw metal as opposed to 50 and now
give 10% of the food as hydrogen waste.

-Puff prince: The diet of the puff prince has been adjusted to eat a third less and give off
75% the mass they consume. I have also 110% ripped off @smauurine82 's
methane to sulfur idea.

-Divergents:
-Sweetle:
-Space needed reduced to 9 for all intensive "Its a damn bug" purposes.
-It makes bebez slightly faster.
-Grubhub:
-Dietary changes (2):
-Sulfur 50kg > Mud 30kg
-Sucrose 14kg > Mud 14kg

-Crabz:
-Space needed reduced to 11 for more crabbage. Do not @me they are fish they don't
need too much space.
-Reproduction rate has been decreased to every 45 cycles because why not?
-Dietary changes (2):
-Polluted dirt / Rot pile / Slime (@smauurine82's idea) 33.3 > 16.7

-Dreckos: They take longer to mature and less long to make bebe now. They are also less
picky about cramming just for the funziez.

-Hatches (oh lord):
-Regular:
-Space needed has been decreased to 9
-Those little monsters make more, smaller and cuter monsters now at 80 cycles
-Regular hatches now take 7.5 cycles to put on their big boy shells.
-Dietary changes (5):
-Sand / Sandstone / Clay / Crushed rock / Dirt / Sedimentary rock 140kg > Coal 105kg
-Dwayne Johnson Hatches (Rock hatches)
-Dwayne Hatches grow up slower than regular hatches and tale 10 cycles to take off
their pebbles and put on their boulders.
-Dietary changes (9(*sighs*))
-Sedimentary rock / Igneous rock / Obsidian / Bitumen 116.7kg > Coal 99.2kg
-Mafic rock 140kg > Iron ore 84kg (Now THATS an iron rich rock.)
-Metal ore 140kg > Coal 133kg
-Salt 93.2kg > Bleach 5.85 kg (Dont hold me on this one. I may have screwed up the
values and if so lmk pls)
-Smooooooooooooooth:
-Space needed has been increased to 13
-Smooth hatches take 15 cycles to reach adulthood as it takes a while for their original
shell to be broken through...
-Dietary changes (8)
-Copper ore 87.5kg > Copper 74.4kg
-Gold amalgam 70kg > 59.5kg
-Iron ore 100kg > Iron 85kg
-Wolframite 58.3kg > Tungsten 49.6kg
-Aluminum ore 116.7kg > Aluminum 99.2kg
-Cobalt ore 50kg > Cobalt 45kg
-Lime 14kg > Granite 140kg
-Radium 7kg > Uranium ore 700g
-Fossil 70kg > Lead 35kg
-Steel 116.7kg > Iron 116.7kg
-Sage:
-Sage hatches take a little longer than regular hatches to grow up at 10 cycles.
-Sage hatches also only take 5 days to grow mature grass on their backs.
-Dietary changes (2):
-Dirt / Slime / Algae / Clay / Crushed rock 140kg > Coal 140kg
-Fertilizer 4.667kg > Radium 933g

-Pacus:
-Gulp:
-Gulp fish are tightly knit and can handle as little as only 6 space per fishy.
-Gulp fish now take 20 days to reproduce. They are rather slow fish.
-Gulp fish only take 4 days to become adults now.
-Regular:
-Space needed has been reduced to 4 as schools of fish do not social distance.
-Regular pacu also grow up real fast now. Like 3 cycles levels of fast...
-Tropical:
-Tropical pacu are kinda pricly in nature so they tend to need at least 8 blocks of space
from one another.
-Tropical pacu also grow up faster than kids in the alleyways of Detroit and now only take
2 cycles to grow up (slightly less than kids in the alleyways of Detroit).

Imma just write out loud rq:
Am I done?
(2 minutes pass)
I am! ******* FINALLY!!!

If there are any issues or balance concerns about my version of the mod please let me know - I'm no moder, game dev, or smart person. Also if I ripped your ideas off and you happen to not like that very much dm me and I will change it, though hopefully not bc overall the versions are still going to very greatly.

Originally posted by smaurine82:

Here's my latest config. https://pastebin.com/cmDTK8vT

I really like some of the changes you've made such as the vole dirt to clay - why didn't I think of that with all my other vole foods! There are several other changes that I really like and I would love to Incorporated some of your changes into my version!
A little off topic - What is the tag for abbysalite?

katairite
The way I found the tags for things is on this website. Item tags are only shown in the internet address after clicking on the element/critter you want. It's the only place I have found them. https://oni-db.com/details/katairite

Originally posted by smaurine82:

katairite
The way I found the tags for things is on this website. Item tags are only shown in the internet address after clicking on the element/critter you want. It's the only place I have found them. https://oni-db.com/details/katairite

Oml I used that site the other day but I didn't see that xP

Does anyone have a JSON file of the unchanged settings, so I could just modify a couple of things I want like SpaceRequired? Thanks