Indecision loops

[Gus Smedstad]

In my current colony, I'm in the second isle of stability - water supply is a cool steam geyser, food is fried mushrooms, oxygen is electrolysis, power is primarily petroleum (with some auxiliary from a natural gas geyser), self-cooling polymer press is up, critical areas are cooled by steam turbines, including of course a metal refinery / steam turbine setup. It's not stable indefinitely, but it's going to be a long, long time before slime gives out, and everything else is renewable.

I've got a bunch of projects I'd like to do. A drecko ranch for fiber, a pacu ranch for lime, exploiting a copper volcano, a drecko ranch for plastic (though honestly I've got plenty from petroleum), exploiting a salt water geyser to set up a lettuce ranch for a steady supply of mushroom wraps, and conversion to bristle berry / pincha farming for stuffed berries.

When I've got a lot of options on the table like this, I end up spinning my wheels a lot without actually doing anything. I kinda know which projects I should do first, but I dither over where to place them, and I end up overcomplicating things. Like, I kinda like a particular spot for the Drecko fiber ranch, but it's got a pool of polluted water in it with a Pacu I feel I should move first, and maybe I should do the Pacu ranch first, etc.

Often, really, there are simpler solutions. Instead of starting the Pacu ranch first, I should really just move that pool of water (and the resident wild Pacu) down a few levels and out of the way. But instead of doing it the simple way I end up  thinking of a cascade of secondary projects and pretty soon I've forgotten what the heck it was I was doing in the first place.

 

[Lilalaunekuh]

Don´t worry, this time I my lazyness found a new high:

 

Cycle 1500: First eatable plant placed in a farm tile.

[No "infinite" pacu farm or pip made "natural" farm utilized to this point.]

 

Spoiler

Mush bars, mush fry, mush, mush and more mush is the key to delaying decisions.

 

 

[ruhrohraggy]

Happens. Takes a ton of focus to do one thing at a time. It's worth practicing though...Might be helpful to use a notepad and write down a priority list...don't move on to the next thing until you've done what you want and can cross it off your list.

Also, it's good to practice just going through with something, and not worrying about whether it's optimal or not. Sometimes it's good to just go ahead and do it.

It can also be frustrating designing systems in live playthroughs...it doesn't hurt to have a sandbox playthrough setup, where you can design your systems before hand, and then incorporate those into your playthrough. Having a go-to list of templates that you use to handle certain tasks saves on some brainpower, so you can focus on doing new things.

 

[mathmanican]

3 hours ago, Gus Smedstad said:

When I've got a lot of options on the table like this, I end up spinning my wheels a lot without actually doing anything.

Sounds like you've played long enough that you started thinking like a dupe.

I'll name my next dupe after you.

[Denisetwin]

10 hours ago, Gus Smedstad said:

hen I've got a lot of options on the table like this, I end up spinning my wheels a lot without actually doing anything.

I do this all the time.  All.The.Time.  I load the game thinking I've got an hour to play, I'm gonna get that XXX done!  And then I start optimizing, noticing little issues that I want to fix etc and before I know it, my time is gone and I didn't even start my projects. 

[Gus Smedstad]

8 hours ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

Don´t worry, this time I my lazyness found a new high:

 

Cycle 1500: First eatable plant placed in a farm tile.

That's really amazing. I don't know how you subsisted that long on mush bars. I'd see it as being doable with a very low population and lots of foraging of wild food, but mush bars and mush fry? I'd think you'd be out of dirt and water in short order.

[Lifegrow]

29 minutes ago, Denisetwin said:

I do this all the time.  All.The.Time.  I load the game thinking I've got an hour to play, I'm gonna get that XXX done!  And then I start optimizing, noticing little issues that I want to fix etc and before I know it, my time is gone and I didn't even start my projects. 

 This is ONI in a nutshell

"Oh hey - todays a good day, I'm going to get my (insert glorious idea here) build sorted today! Oh noes - an flood has occurred, why did that happen? Oh, it seems this little piece of ice has melted - i'll just sort this out right here...."

<7 hours later>

"Ok let's get to the buil... oh it's morning already..."

[Gus Smedstad]

6 minutes ago, Lifegrow said:

 This is ONI in a nutshell

A while back - not this colony - I fully intended to build an oil -> sour gas -> natural gas converter based on your video, and I just never finished it. All sorts of stuff got in the way, and then the QOL III release happened, and I abandoned the colony in favor of starting a new one to explore the new disease and skill system that replaced the job system.

[avc15]

This is an ocd behavior of mine. With any large build I'll get stuck on small subsystems, build them over and over until I get somewhere efficient & also that satisfies my aesthetics.

 

The overall build might never get done.

[Mariilyn]

11 hours ago, Gus Smedstad said:

When I've got a lot of options on the table like this, I end up spinning my wheels a lot without actually doing anything. I kinda know which projects I should do first, but I dither over where to place them, and I end up overcomplicating things. Like, I kinda like a particular spot for the Drecko fiber ranch, but it's got a pool of polluted water in it with a Pacu I feel I should move first, and maybe I should do the Pacu ranch first, etc.

Happens to me all the time. Last colony I started to build a sleet wheat farm right behind the very temporary metal refinery setup because I didn't want to compromise on location. 

[Lilalaunekuh]

1 hour ago, Gus Smedstad said:

10 hours ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

Don´t worry, this time I my lazyness found a new high:

 

Cycle 1500: First eatable plant placed in a farm tile.

That's really amazing. I don't know how you subsisted that long on mush bars. I'd see it as being doable with a very low population and lots of foraging of wild food, but mush bars and mush fry? I'd think you'd be out of dirt and water in short order.

 

Is 15 duplicants on ravanging hunger a "low population" ? [They consume 30.000kcal each cycle^^]

=> If duplicant time and not resource efficiency is the goal: mush bars/fry are better than meal lice.

[Gus Smedstad]

I was imagining 5-6 Dupes on normal hunger, not 15 at double hunger.

The first time played I had no idea what I was doing, and I ran out of dirt around cycle 100 because I'd been eating mush bars. I have no idea at all how you'd make it to cycle 1500.

[Junksteel]

14 hours ago, Gus Smedstad said:

When I've got a lot of options on the table like this, I end up spinning my wheels a lot without actually doing anything. I kinda know which projects I should do first, but I dither over where to place them, and I end up overcomplicating things. 

You just described my experience playing the game. Obsession with simmetry, cleaning, optimization, OCD in general makes it worse.

The wild planting mechanic was another strong hit as preserving natural tiles is another thing to be considered in base planning. 

[Derringer]

7 hours ago, Junksteel said:

The wild planting mechanic was another strong hit as preserving natural tiles is another thing to be considered in base planning.

You can create plantable natural tiles by inducing a phase change in suitable materials. That might even be more OCPD-friendly since you can make those tiles consistent rather than being stuck with whatever random materials spawned into those locations.

[Lifegrow]

@Junksteel Shameless self promoting malarkey :

Spoiler

 

 

[cpy]

I use this:
Pip -> arbor trees (lot of them) -> ethanol -> free CO2 +PW -> slicksters + fertilizer

You have 2 options, either industrialize arbor tree farms to pickup wood, or place nature reserve signs all over the place for constant +6 buff.

[Denisetwin]

9 hours ago, Lifegrow said:

Shameless self promoting malarkey :

Oh that is the best way I've seen, thanks so much!  BTW, love your new graphics!