So how can they make the fridge valuable?

[dearmad]

I mean... I can't remember the last time I used one. Do you think they can buff them somehow, or will they -gasp- take away gas "permanent preservation!?"

[Gracefulmuse]

I would personally be a fan of removing permanent preservation, even with a fridge. I think food should spoil rather quickly unless kept at refrigerator temps. I think it would even be interesting to make them last indefinitely by freezing them, but removing a bit of the morale boost, something akin to "Freezer Burn". 

I think its way too easy to quickly amass hundreds of cycles worth of food, then just stop farming all together. 

[Promethien]

The ease with which we can get perfect preservation effectively negates an entire mechanic. I'd end it entirely. Make food decay the same in any gas.

[DarkMaster13]

I'd be okay with making CO2 no longer a sterile environment.  If chlorine or vacuum would be the only valid sterile environments, that would add a different challenge for maintaining that buff instead of powering fridges.  At the very least, it would no longer be as trivial as making a small pit somewhere in your base and putting your food storage in that for perfect preservation.

[Yunru]

I don't know what you're on about, of course I use fridges!

They're the food storage compactor. I just don't plug them in.

[7 and 4]

If you plug one in, you can use automation to turn off your food production.

That's valuable to me.

[Sasza22]

The fride is ok for newer players that don`t have the knowledge to build and manage sterile enviroments.

[hectorzx]

Decreasing the power cost, it is too much

[Fuzzra]

1 hour ago, Sasza22 said:

The fride is ok for newer players that don`t have the knowledge to build and manage sterile enviroments.

The (unpowered) fridge is ok for any player who wants a positive decor box to stuff food into in their properly managed sterile environment.

[chromiumboy]

I like fridges for the convenience. Compact, no fuss. I store surplus in CO2. If they changed it so that only cold or chlorine atmosphere were sterile, I wouldn't complain. CO2 is so easy to generate and remove, it makes food storage a non-issue

[SharraShimada]

2 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

The fride is ok for newer players that don`t have the knowledge to build and manage sterile enviroments.

So your dupes keep producing food nevertheless how many millions over millions of calories are still in storage?

[oosyrag]

Refrigeration and sterile environment in general are probably not really necessary at all, since your dupes will eat what they need to and extra will be extra. There are no growing seasons or other reasons to stockpile food in ONI. That said, fridges would probably get some use if sterile atmosphere were to be removed from CO2.

All that has been said before though... on the other hand, I think it would be pretty neat if fridges can store everything a compactor can! A aquatuner/regulator for solids, transferring heat inside to the environment.

[bountygiver]

just make sustaining at 4C use little power and only 120W when actively cooling the food.

[KittenIsAGeek]

7 hours ago, dearmad said:

I mean... I can't remember the last time I used one. 

I use one or two in every map I play.  Its convenient to have food close to where the dupes eat.  Sure, you can toss all your food in a room of chlorine or CO2, but fridges make it easy to stage food near where you want it.

Just because you don't use them doesn't mean they're worthless.

6 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

The fride is ok for newer players that don`t have the knowledge to build and manage sterile enviroments.

I'm not a new player, and my knowledge of the game is likely above average.  So, since I use them, I kinda feel like you're calling me a moron.  Just because you don't use them, doesn't mean those who do are new or stupid.  It simply means we have different play styles.

6 hours ago, hectorzx said:

Decreasing the power cost, it is too much

It isn't too much, really.  Though I would like the fridge to be a bit bigger.  Power is cheap on most maps, and they aren't run-away heat sources anymore.  

2 hours ago, oosyrag said:

All that has been said before though... on the other hand, I think it would be pretty neat if fridges can store everything a compactor can!

Well, maybe not as much as a compactor, but yeah.. I feel like the fridges are a bit on the small side.

[Sasza22]

10 hours ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

I'm not a new player, and my knowledge of the game is likely above average.  So, since I use them, I kinda feel like you're calling me a moron.  Just because you don't use them, doesn't mean those who do are new or stupid.  It simply means we have different play styles.

I`m not sure how did you find an insult in my post. Most posters above me agreed athat the fridge isn`t useful for them at all and suggested changes for it. I just came up saying that it`s great for new guys to set up an easy food storage. Maybe i should add that some of us use it when they just don`t care about power usage and don`t want to spend time and precious space on a chlorine room.

Anyway i didn`t intend to insult anyone. Just pointing possibilities.

[Nightinggale]

18 hours ago, Gracefulmuse said:

I would personally be a fan of removing permanent preservation, even with a fridge.

I think that would backfire big time. It's a widespread design strategy by now. Not only would it upset existing players, it would also confuse new players and we will be flooded with "I tried to preserve the food like this video says, but I can't get it to work".

[Lurve]

+1 morale for eating refrigerated food.  The cold pizza effect.

[Reynard the Fox]

2 minutes ago, Nightinggale said:

it would also confuse new players

Well there's quite an update coming soon - reworked wheezeworts, wild crops planting etc, so...

I'd like preservation to be gone but only with one important addition - dupes preferring food closer to expiration date.

13 hours ago, oosyrag said:

There are no growing seasons or other reasons to stockpile food in ONI.

There are. Most crops grow for >5 cycles, wild ones for several times more. Sure, I can plant them with intervals so one portion will grow today and other will tomorrow but I'd love my farmers and cooks not to run back and forth every day.

IMO, the best option is to revert "sterile environment" and "refrigerated" effects. Or maybe preserve food only in the kitchen room. Or only in the refrigerator placed in the kitchen.

 

P.S.: Don't suggest chlorine environment! I became attached to Chemical Burns mod and don't want my dupes severe burned every lunch...

[Artorias36]

Fridge should have more space and be a required building of the kitchen room, if it ever comes.

[beowulf2010]

For me, the fridge is useful, but not required. I personally don't like stuff sitting on the ground so I use unpowered fridges in sterile rooms. 

The 2 major improvements I'd like to see are better automation controls (I want a smart battery style percentage full control) and a power save function where I turn off the cooling but maintain the automation signal. Make the power save function somewhere around 40 to 60 watts to match the smart storage. 

[PhailRaptor]

The issue isn't so much that the Refrigerator is weak, it's that the refrigeration mechanic is redundant.  You'd have to nerf "sterile environment" or provide some significant buffs to food that is stored in a (powered) Refrigerator in order to see it used as originally intended.

That doesn't mean that people don't use Refrigerators, though -- they just don't plug them in.  Tile-per-tile, 2 Refrigerators store more than double the food in the same amount of space than a Ration Box, at the cost of ~50 more materials.

20 hours ago, 7 and 4 said:

If you plug one in, you can use automation to turn off your food production.

That's valuable to me.

Can you keep that working consistently for long periods of time?  Because this very commonly breaks down when Dupes eat partial portions.  For example, a Dupe will only eat 75% of a meal to reach their kCal storage max, dropping the remaining 25%.  That 25% of a unit of food gets put back in the fridge, and now blocks a full unit of space in the fridge.  The automation port will detect that missing 75%, and not flip the signal, resulting in your chef(s) continuing to produce food even though your storage is full.

This only grows worse over time, because those 25% portions do not combine as they accumulate, resulting in a growing stack of partials taking up an entire fridge (Dupes will take full ones instead).

[DarkMaster13]

2 hours ago, PhailRaptor said:

The issue isn't so much that the Refrigerator is weak, it's that the refrigeration mechanic is redundant.  You'd have to nerf "sterile environment" or provide some significant buffs to food that is stored in a (powered) Refrigerator in order to see it used as originally intended.

That doesn't mean that people don't use Refrigerators, though -- they just don't plug them in.  Tile-per-tile, 2 Refrigerators store more than double the food in the same amount of space than a Ration Box, at the cost of ~50 more materials.

It isn't double.  A fridge stores 100 units in a 2x1 space, a ration box stores 150 in a 2x2 space.  So two fridges stores 33% more than one ration box.  Your point stands though, fridges are more space efficient than ration boxes.

[Xuhybrid]

19 hours ago, oosyrag said:

Refrigeration and sterile environment in general are probably not really necessary at all, since your dupes will eat what they need to and extra will be extra. There are no growing seasons or other reasons to stockpile food in ONI. That said, fridges would probably get some use if sterile atmosphere were to be removed from CO2.

All that has been said before though... on the other hand, I think it would be pretty neat if fridges can store everything a compactor can! A aquatuner/regulator for solids, transferring heat inside to the environment.

Yeah i think the main reason i still prefer to use CO2 is that the frige storage is so small. If they could store more, i'd be more inclined the use them. I often have about 4 fridges full of food to maintain a safe supply and that's a lot of power burnt for no real reason.

[Sasza22]

13 minutes ago, DarkMaster13 said:

a ration box stores 150 in a 2x2 space.

Isn`t a ration box 1 tile high?

[DarkMaster13]

Just now, Sasza22 said:

Isn`t a ration box 1 tile high?

Nope, it's 2x2.  It looks like it is, but it isn't.