First, RIP meme legend Dave Brandt. Farming can be pretty tedious, and some of the things that make it easier are just plane ugly! I’m looking at you bio-domes!
If you want to farm circuit boards, which as far as I can tell are the most cost-effective, single site, single planet farm there’s no way around it, you need some planters. I should note I gave up on farming stasis devices because I didn’t care for looping between three gas-farm planets and endless refining to get condensed carbon.
For a long time I just set up bio-domes in a row (with a four-space planter in the center of each) for how ever many plants I needed for the math to come out right. Then I’d run through harvesting all with one button push until I got to the end. I tried making loops, or long runs with a short-distance teleporter to get me back to the start. It works, it’s just utilitarian and unappealing. And those domes really clash with wood, stone, or metal walls, they only match with the pre-fabs.
For something new I’ve tried setting up a big airy room with rows of planters. I feel like that really looks a great deal better. It’s also nice that I can pretty much keep the same style between the “grow room” and the rest of my base. Harvesting 80 something plants one at a time isn’t awesome, I can handle it once a day though.
Has anyone found themselves having to make a similar choice between an efficient harvest and an appealing layout? Did you find a way to make bio-domes look good with the rest of the base? Do you like the look? I’m curious to hear what other people have done. The only set ups I know other folks are using are the ones people have put into tutorials and they are all really cookie-cutter. What are all us random schmoes doing?
Exploration is a big part of it though. From finding the planets where the plants I want to farm grow natively so I can collect the seed-stock, to trying to complete the local systems encyclopedia, there’s always something to do if you want to stay in game and play while things grow.