Pen marker

Pen markers designate a zone for pen animals to be held, and one is required if you wish to "rope" a tamed animal and lead them to that pen. Pen markers determine which types of animals will be kept in each pen, and provide other utility as well. Each different pen that you wish to use needs a pen marker.

Acquisition[edit]

Pen markers can be constructed, each requiring 30 Stuff (Metallic/Woody/Stony, 300 for SMVs) and 600 ticks (10 secs) of work modified by the construction speed of the builder and the work to build factor and offset of the material.

Summary[edit]

For a more complete discussion, see Pen.

While all animals are tamable, some animals cannot be trained or set to an allowed area and instead must be led to a designated pen; if they are not led to a designated pen or have an accessible path to exit the map, pen animals will slowly wander away. Pens can only be defined by a pen marker.

Analysis[edit]

Pen markers are cheap (30 material), and are required if you wish to actively use your pens, to lead recently tamed animals to that pen so they don't wander away. A pen is defined when a pen marker is placed within fences, walls, doors and natural terrain (hills) preventing any exit toward the sides of the map. However, unlike rooms, pens will expand if a gate, door or animal flaps is "held open", allowing you to easily expand, restrict or open pen areas when needed. (This also means that if you "hold open" a door leading to a pen, those halls and rooms will soon be visited by any pen animals, and their filth.)

In addition to defining a pen, Pen markers provide three tabs (see images at bottom) to help manage domestic/tamed animals. These are:

An "Animals" menu in order to select what animals are allowed in that pen (male / female option included).
A "Food" information popup that shows the available "grazing" nutrition value of the pen, the number of different animals currently in the pen, and the total consumption calculation. By default, cows/goats/chickens are shown, plus any animals actually present, and you can "force" other animals onto the list if you wish to see their consumption rates. This can help you plan whether the field size holds enough nutrition for them to graze unassisted, or if you'll need to manually feed them to supplement their grazing.
An "Auto-cut" menu to designate what plants are allowed to grow within the pen and what are not. (Some are good grazing food, some are not (and these are selected by default), but cutting them does require labor from your colony.)

When managing pens make sure to check the nutrition grown compared to the nutrition consumed, if there nutrition grown is less than the nutrition consumed then animal starvation is inevitable.

Pen Marker Menus

Animal Menu
Food Menu
Auto-cut Menu

Stats table

Pen marker	Beauty	Work to Build	HP	Flammability	Market Value
Material	Beauty	Work to Build	HP	Flammability	Market Value
Bioferrite	0	001,500 ticks (25 secs)	200	75%	28
Gold	20	000,540 ticks (9 secs)	60	40%	3,000
Granite blocks	0	003,740 ticks (1.04 mins)	170	0%	41
Limestone blocks	0	003,740 ticks (1.04 mins)	155	0%	41
Marble blocks	1	003,440 ticks (57.33 secs)	120	0%	39
Plasteel	0	001,320 ticks (22 secs)	280	0%	275
Sandstone blocks	0	003,140 ticks (52.33 secs)	140	0%	38
Silver	6	000,600 ticks (10 secs)	70	40%	300
Slate blocks	0	003,740 ticks (1.04 mins)	130	0%	41
Steel	0	000,600 ticks (10 secs)	100	40%	59
Jade	10	003,000 ticks (50 secs)	50	0%	161
Uranium	0	001,140 ticks (19 secs)	250	0%	184
Wood	0	000,420 ticks (7 secs)	65	100%	38