Boomalope

Boomalopes, called boomalope calves when babies, are herbivores with a high hunger rate. They produce chemfuel per day, and explode on death.
== Acquisition ==
Boomalopes can be found in . They can either be tamed by a Handler or self-tame in a random event.
Boomalopes can be bought and sold in other faction bases and from bulk goods traders. Boomalopes purchased from traders will be already tamed.
== Summary ==
 As pen animals, raiders will not attack boomalopes.
Boomalopes (both male & female) can be milked for chemfuel per day when fully fed. Production decreases as saturation drops. Production drops to half when the animal is hungry, one third when urgently hungry and completely stops when starving.
Boomalopes have 90% Toxic Environment Resistance rendering them highly resistant to environmental effects such as rot stink and toxic buildup from non-attack sources.
==== Explosion ====
On death, boomalopes explode, doing 10 flame damage in a radius that depends on the age stage of the animal. Baby boomalopes explode in a 1.9 tile radius, juveniles in a 2.9 tile radius, and adults in a 4.9 tile radius. This explosion does not itself set fires nor provide chemfuel puddles to burn but the flame damage might ignite surrounding objects and pawns. Note: This explosion will still occur if the boomalope is slaughtered or dies of natural causes.
Shambler boomalopes do not explode on death.
== Analysis ==
Boomalopes are an efficient source of chemfuel, more efficient than a biofuel refinery in almost every way. It is naturally risky to handle boomalopes due to potential collateral damage, but they can be a vital part of a colony's infrastructure. 
=== Chemfuel ===
Each boomalope produces enough chemfuel to fuel ~ chemfuel powered generators.
An adult boomalope consumes hay per day. In 100% fertility soil, this would require tiles of haygrass to grow. In order to produce the same chemfuel per day in a biofuel refinery, tiles of corn plant would be needed. 
This advantage is further increased if the boomalope is allowed to graze instead of requiring pawn-grown crops. This can partially or totally negate the ongoing resource costs of boomalopes, which the refinery cannot replicate. 
In addition, the process of milking tends to be faster than refining. It takes of work for units of chemfuel, or of work per chemfuel. A refinery would take for 35 units, or of work per chemfuel. Milking could be slower at low Animals skill, as it relies on animal gather speed rather than general labor speed. So long as a pawn has a skill of 4 or more, they'll be faster at milking. And unlike refining, boomalope milking speed can be reduced even further at high Animals skill.
=== Safety ===
Wild boomalopes spawn in areas with long and year-round growing periods. If you really need to kill a boomalope, use ranged weapons to kill them, preferably during rainfall to prevent fires from spreading. Manhunter boomalopes can be devastating to a colony, but, as explosive animals, they are prone to chain reactions.
For tamed boomalopes, it is relatively safe to let them sleep outside. However, one should have animal sleeping spots in a separate, fireproof safe area, to avoid bringing injured boomalopes inside your base. It may be a good idea to keep boomalope in a separate pen as other animals to minimize collateral damage in case of accidental death. It's generally better to limit the number kept in the same spot as multiple boomalopes can lead to a chain explosion. One option would be to disable boomalopes in the setting of your pen marker and to keep the animals exclusively tied to caravan markers outside your walls. If a large herd of boomalope get sick, it can be a good idea to move them to a caravan on the world map as boomalopes that die in caravans won't hurt each other.
Since there is no automated way to get rid of them without starting fires and auto-slaughter results in handlers getting harmed, boomalopes herds often end up overpopulating. To safely slaughter boomalopes, you can make a fireproof room, place a pen marker in there that allows for boomalopes, and shoot the boomalopes there once they have been transferred. Alternatively, if the meat and/or leather is not required, excess population can be sent in caravans and either banished once off the map, sold for a decent amount of silver or given for goodwill to other factions.
==Training==
== Health ==
== Gallery ==
=== Normal ===
Boomalope east.png|Facing east
Boomalope north.png|Facing north
Boomalope south.png|Facing south
=== Dead ===
Corpse Boomalope east.png|Fresh corpse
=== Dessicated ===
Dessicated boomalope east.png|Facing east
Dessicated boomalope north.png|Facing north
Dessicated boomalope south.png|Facing south
== Version history ==
* 0.12.906 - Added
* 0.18.1722 - Can now be milked for chemfuel, at a rate of 20 fuel per 2 days. 
* Beta 19/1.0 - chemfuel production reduced by 40%, hunger rate 1.0 -> 1.3
* 1.3.3066 - Trainable Intelligence reduced from Intermediate to None. Became pen animals.
* 1.4.3555 - Boomalopes given 90% Toxic Environment Resistance, rendering them resistant to toxic fallout and other sources of toxins.
* 1.5.4062 - Fix: Boomalope struck by lightning causes several errors as a corpse.
Category:Animals
Category:Wild animal