Choosing one interest over three interest?

[hedition]

Hi I am a new player. I am trying to slowly understand each aspect of the game and this interest thing caught my attention.

Is getting 1 interest better than getting 3 interests?

Getting 3 interests gives more morale it seems as there are more skills I can learn that provides the moral bonus. However I am not sure how important the initial +7 bonus from a single interest is against the +1/+1/+1 if there are any skill caps and if these bonuses exceeds said cap.

[Melodist]

Most if not all of the time, it is more beneficial to get 3 interests.

The way interest affect morale requirement is as follow, each panel within the job panel screen cost certain amount of morale depending on tier.

 

Instead of having +7 bonus, you could have instead:

+1 Bonus Only, howeverrrrrrr

20% Speed To All Skill Learning. (Research Tier 1)

+2 Strength and 400k Additional Carrying Weight. (Supply Tier 1)

 

If Duplicant are interested, it will saves 1 morale per job panel. Example, Duplicant with Mining interest whom acquired all three job panel in Mining will have 3 less morale requirement versus a Duplicant whom does not possess the Mining interest.

Most skills if not all can be trained indefinitely or until cap. (I'm unsure if science can be trained after all research is completed since live update)

Research interest is usually taken if skills points is your desire, each Science point gives your Duplicant +10% in all skill learning rate. So 20% learning rate (from researcher job, which will be free 0 morale if you have research interest is a big incentive for some)

Astronaut Duplicant needs Research + Supply + Suit Wearing for efficiency.

Mechanical Engineer needs Supply + Operate

[RonEmpire]

3 interest is better long term.   The morale reduction on a different skill path results in more morale savings. 

Also as mentioned by previous poster.  Picking researcher and rolling 3 interest that has a researcher as one of the 3  means you can gain those skill points faster in the end    7 pts vs 3pts  but u will end up making up for the missing 4 pts fairly quickly   with morale bonus long term. 

 

[metallichydra]

before the launch update, instead of a 1 morale bonus from skills that the dupe is interested in, they would get 1 less morale expectation.

that's still how it is, but instead of reducing morale needs by 1, the dupe will get 1 more morale. (its basically the same, skills a dupe is interested in requires less morale.)

[hedition]

That sounds really good with further thinking. In my first colony I had 3 starters with +7s and a corresponding positive trait (e.g mole hands for digger).  Howwever as I advance the game it feels like there is no reason why the dupes cannot be proficient in multiple things and enjoy more morale.

I just started a new colony with reseacher + quicker learner and 2 other interest in digging, farming, decor and others. The start is slower for sure without my +7 excavation guy and +7 science. Hope it pays off soon.

This route sure requires more experience though as the start is slower, thus food and oxygen are spent more before I can generate them.

[RonEmpire]

The early game isn't that big of a deal.  Long term pay off for 3 skills is significantly better for morale.   I usually spec 1 point in researcher. 

 

If u can roll the 3 interests to have researcher and mining that helps. 

[Gurgel]

It comes down to whether you want more specialized dupes or more allround workers. I want the second, so I always chose 3 three interests. But for, say, a specialized farmer or tidier or cook, this makes little sense. There you would go 2 or 1 interests.

In the end, morale is the limiter and you just need 4-6 morale less with a 3 interest dupe, compared to a one interest dupe. Of course, if you go full out, at the end you will likely have morale to spare. But for most of the game, you do not and it becomes a limiting factor. 

[KAJ3D]

The one I'm not seeing anyone mention here is ranching. You ALWAYS want to get a +7 rancher if you intend to do any sort of medium to large ranching base. The reason being is that currently the only way to level the ranching skill is by incubating eggs, a process which takes like 10 seconds and only once a day per egg, so it levels pretty slowly. Since your ranching skill affects how long the 'groomed' buff stays on, you want that as high as possible to save on dupe labor. 

[bobucles]

3 hours ago, KAJ3D said:

The one I'm not seeing anyone mention here is ranching. You ALWAYS want to get a +7 rancher if you intend to do any sort of medium to large ranching base. The reason being is that currently the only way to level the ranching skill is by incubating eggs, a process which takes like 10 seconds and only once a day per egg, so it levels pretty slowly. Since your ranching skill affects how long the 'groomed' buff stays on, you want that as high as possible to save on dupe labor. 

But would it be better to get +7 science, to make far better gains from the limited XP?

Duplicant interests count as starting with free XP to level up some skills. Maximum skill levels are changed by the red/green traits, and I don't think ranching has any dupe traits.

[beowulf2010]

For the most part, 3 interests is superior to 1 interest.

The two exceptions for me are Ranchers and my initial Researcher. 

[KAJ3D]

4 minutes ago, bobucles said:

But would it be better to get +7 science, to make far better gains from the limited XP?

Do you mean in general? Or do you mean specifically for the starting 3 dupes?

For me, I prefer to start with a specialized researcher so I can push early science quickly. My current run I was going for carnivore and was planning on ranching quickly so I got a specialized rancher as well, but normally I wouldn't pick one as a starting dupe. 

[Chthonicone]

5 minutes ago, bobucles said:

But would it be better to get +7 science, to make far better gains from the limited XP?

Duplicant interests count as starting with free XP to level up some skills. Maximum skill levels are changed by the red/green traits, and I don't think ranching has any dupe traits.

Lets see on the +7 ranching. Lets do the numbers.

A rancher without ranching interest has guaranteed 1.2-1.4 cycle groom time, and no bonus to morale.

A rancher with +1 ranching interest has guaranteed 1.3-1.5 cycle groom time, and +1 to +8 morale. ~7-8% less grooming from the first.

A rancher with +3 ranching interest has guaranteed 1.5-1.7 cycle groom time, and +1 to +5 morale. ~13-15% less grooming than the second.

A rancher with +7 ranching interest has guaranteed 1.9-2.1 cycle groom time, and +1 to +2 morale. ~24-26% less grooming than the third.

There is another hidden bonus to ranching. If you have fewer ranchers taking care of the critters, more skill ups are spent on those few ranchers. How many more though? It's pretty slow. In 100 cycles with 16 incubators, I think I had 4 total.

Looking at this, taking only +7 ranchers does not seem to greatly reduce the number of ranchers you need. Only 40% less than one with +1 interest. That means for every 5 +1 interest, you could replace them with 3 +7 interest ranchers. I also see that a +3 ranching interest isn't meaningfully different from +1 interest.

To me, the main benefit here to +1 ranching interest is you have more possible morale to spend on skills, allowing for a more flexible population, rather than going for a specialist population.

[ChickenMadness]

I usually make sure every duplicant has supply as one of their 3 interests and also divers lungs when I first start the game. Every 4 duplicants with divers lungs you can have 1 extra duplicant for free (oxygen wise) since duplicants need 100g/s but duplicants with diver's lungs only need 75g/s

And at some point I reload the game over and over again until I get an astronaut dupe (supply, research, suit wearing) if I didn't start with one already.

That and a mechanotronic engineer (supply, operate, optional: builder) are the only really important duplicants imo.

[suxkar]

It's fairly simple: it's up for your own preference, multiple interests are good for morale, science is good in the medium term, specialized is better for the late game, as, for example, a +7 construction will allow a dupe to reach 27 contruction, while a +3 construction +3 science will get a dupe to 23 construction much faster, but won't improve further.
It is important to say that unless you want dupes to have pretty much EVERY skill maxed out, morale is very easy to manage considering the amount of ways there are to increase it (decor bombing, food, shower, natural reserve, dancing.....)

[Gurgel]

4 hours ago, KAJ3D said:

The one I'm not seeing anyone mention here is ranching. You ALWAYS want to get a +7 rancher if you intend to do any sort of medium to large ranching base. The reason being is that currently the only way to level the ranching skill is by incubating eggs, a process which takes like 10 seconds and only once a day per egg, so it levels pretty slowly. Since your ranching skill affects how long the 'groomed' buff stays on, you want that as high as possible to save on dupe labor. 

Well, good point. Although I have not done ranching for ages and may not do it ever again (unless some DLC makes it interesting again). With Pip planting, my long-term food solution is wild plants now. 

[Tonyroid]

10 hours ago, hedition said:

Hi I am a new player. I am trying to slowly understand each aspect of the game and this interest thing caught my attention.

Is getting 1 interest better than getting 3 interests?

Getting 3 interests gives more morale it seems as there are more skills I can learn that provides the moral bonus. However I am not sure how important the initial +7 bonus from a single interest is against the +1/+1/+1 if there are any skill caps and if these bonuses exceeds said cap.

I always go for the one interest. I want to eventually specialize my dupes for specific tasks. (Although, it seems I tend to never get around to that.)

[kerosene]

I think 1 or 2 interests are better. Starting with a +7 digger and +7 researcher makes the early game a breeze. Morale isn't hard to get once you have a proper base and industry set up and the fastest way to do that is with +7 dupes.

 

It is tempting to go for a +3 research +3 suit wearing future astronaut but it's not really needed.

[wronny]

10 hours ago, hedition said:

Is getting 1 interest better than getting 3 interests?

Early Game the raw stats provided by single interest duplicants are certainly far superior, especially for the most common early game tasks: Digging & Research. Additionally Ranching only gains additional attribute points from using the incubator. If you're planing on ranching more than just a handfull of critters, you certainly want your Ranchers to start out with +7 Husbandry.

Long term the interests matter even less. Unless you're trying to create jack-of-all-trades duplicants (that can do everything, but nothing well), you're better off looking for a high learning stat and solid traits rather than multiple interests.

Quote

It is tempting to go for a +3 research +3 suit wearing future astronaut but it's not really needed.

Especially if they never leave the Command Capsule, but even if they do they only need 21 points of morale. That's provided as a baseline via break times and the room bonuses (6 Nature Reserve, 6 Great Hall, +3 Showered, 2 Washroom, +1 Barracks, +2 Three Shift Break, +1 Duplicant). Between food, decor, an extended break and recreational activities there are another ~39 points of morale to grab.

2 hours ago, suxkar said:

for example, a +7 construction will allow a dupe to reach 27 contruction, while a +3 construction +3 science will get a dupe to 23 construction much faster, but won't improve further.

Nope, that's not how the starting attributes work. The starting attributes count towards their normal skill level, which is capped at 20. They only get a head start in that attribute. The bonus from positive traits (e.g. Grease Monkey → +2 Machinery), the bonus from learning the corresponding Skill(s) (e.g. Improved Tinkering → +2 Machinery) and the daytime based bonus from Early Bird / Night Owl allow them to exceed that cap.

(The +10 Excavation bonus from wearing an Atmo Suit also doesn't count against the skill cap)

[beowulf2010]

4 hours ago, Chthonicone said:

That means for every 5 +1 interest, you could replace them with 3 +7 interest ranchers. I also see that a +3 ranching interest isn't meaningfully different from +1 interest.

2 more dupes to build instead of ranch? Sold! 

[suxkar]

13 hours ago, wronny said:

Nope, that's not how the starting attributes work. The starting attributes count towards their normal skill level, which is capped at 20. They only get a head start in that attribute. The bonus from positive traits (e.g. Grease Monkey → +2 Machinery), the bonus from learning the corresponding Skill(s) (e.g. Improved Tinkering → +2 Machinery) and the daytime based bonus from Early Bird / Night Owl allow them to exceed that cap.

(The +10 Excavation bonus from wearing an Atmo Suit also doesn't count against the skill cap)

Whoa you are totally right, really sorry for spreading misinformation!! Apologies!