So how can they make the fridge valuable?

[Xuhybrid]

Just now, Sasza22 said:

Isn`t a ration box 1 tile high?

It's 2x2, physically. Visually it's closer to 2x1 though.

[rafker]

I always had a refrigerator room with 2-3 wheezeworts. Now you can still keep them in CO2, but I am not very fond of that method. I'd rather just use refrigerators

[Glassyfo]

29 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

Isn`t a ration box 1 tile high?

If you try to build a tile one block above it says the ration box is in the way.

[Lilalaunekuh]

So isn´t our problem more the effect of CO2(/other gases) on food?

My points:

• The refrigerator feels mostly like a more space-efficient way to store food.
• The automation port is worth a lot in the later stages of the game.

Why should every gas provide perfect conservation?

Spoiler

If you want to be more realistic, pure oxygen should be deadly to most germs and would be able to preserve food

 

For cold temperatures, it´s ok to provide perfect conservation. (Doing the insulation for a bigger temperature based storage feels in a good spot right now.)

 

 

Just give the gases which reduce spoilage (except chlorine) a lower reduction value.

If your early game food storage in a CO2 pit reduces spoilages just by let´s say 90%, it would take 40 cycles for something to spoil.

=> Would keep you from stockpiling food in "primitive" storage rooms and give the powered refrigerator an in my eyes right spot in the meta.

 

[Yunru]

It still wouldn't work. The fridge doesn't preserve food, it just cools it. It's the cold that's actually preserving it. Remove sterile atmospheres and people will just build cool rooms instead. 

[bobucles]

Cool rooms are a bit more difficult to build, with the test branch preserving food at -18C.

[dearmad]

I think the best suggestion has been the morale buff when eating food from the fridge, and maybe a morale debuff when it's all stale and from the gas chamber... blech.

[Yunru]

19 minutes ago, bobucles said:

Cool rooms are a bit more difficult to build, with the test branch preserving food at -18C.

Is it? The only source of heat being added is the food, and that's not got that much mass.

[Lilalaunekuh]

2 minutes ago, Yunru said:

22 minutes ago, bobucles said:

Cool rooms are a bit more difficult to build, with the test branch preserving food at -18C.

Is it? The only source of heat being added is the food, and that's not got that much mass.

It´s more about how do you get access to the food? (Duplicants / Automation)

How do you insulate your cold room and how central do you want such a room which is bleeding "cold".

=> It´s more about how easy build a CO2 pit is compared to everything else.

Dig down and done.

[goboking]

1 hour ago, Yunru said:

It still wouldn't work. The fridge doesn't preserve food, it just cools it. It's the cold that's actually preserving it. Remove sterile atmospheres and people will just build cool rooms instead. 

That's fine.  If someone wants to engineer an actual solution to the problem (cooling, insulation, heat sink, shipping, automation, etc) then they should be rewarded for their efforts.  Simply digging a pit under the kitchen or dinning room, though, is too easy and too perfect a solution, in my humble opinion.  They can take care of chlorine by making it cause chemical burns, but I'm not sure how to CO2 can be handled in a satisfying way.