Easy Early Game Morale

[Xenologist]

Ever needed that bit of extra morale in the early game to support that one extra skill? Here's what you do: Turn the first sleep block of the night into recreation time, and all of the sudden you get +2 morale every cycle instead of +!, and it doesn't even mess up their sleep schedule much, cots even make this significantly more sensible. Sure, this does come with less sleep and therefore less stress relief, but +1 morale is more than enough to make up for that.

[Nxf7]

Sure. Although I find that I can have a great hall before a dupe gets their 2nd skill point. Plant pot > mirth leaf, water cooler, done. Might be a misconception that a great hall requires a skilled artist dupe. I think there's another early game plant that can do it too.

[Demalis]

What he said, room bonuses are where it's at.

[KittenIsAGeek]

You can get some quick early morale by making rooms, as stated above.  Outhouse, sink, door -- bonus!  Cots in a room with doors -- bonus!  Mirth Leave + Water Cooler + Table + Door - super bonus!

I mean, there's nothing wrong with @Xenologist's idea.  It does work and gives an extra morale point.  But early game morale really isn't a problem because its so easy to max your dupe's morale during the early game.  On the other hand.. when you're well into the mid-game and you haven't set up good downtime facilities yet, that one extra point from expanding the recreation bar might make all the difference in preventing your dupe from getting stressed out.  So its worth keeping in mind.

[QuQuasar]

Now that I've done a few forest starts, I'm a fan of nature reserve ladder shafts. With pips around I find that I end up with at least 4 wild plants in or near my ladder shaft anyway, so that's an easy +6 morale on top of the great hall bonus.

[SakuraKoi]

10 hours ago, Xenologist said:

and it doesn't even mess up their sleep schedule much

not much, but it does~

Care should be taken that they don't fall asleep during work after getting ever more tired. 50 seconds of sleep should in theory result in 1030% (900% Base Sleep+100% Cot+100% Barracks-70% Base Reduction) divided by 12 (24/2) => 85% Regenerated. More than enough to counter the -70% lost over the day (well 64%).

The problem in practice is that they do not instantly teleport to their bed, meaning that with each second lost means 1,83% less difference and as such 12 seconds result in a Stamina loss. Mind you, ingame seconds, 4s for you on triple speed. That time is easily lost when the dupes end up talking too long and go to bed. Woe you when the barracks are on another floor. You might not make the mistake but others will or perhaps you end up forgetting (due to trying out new designs), for ONI is a complex machine where anything that can go wrong, will go wrong~

So, I simply conclude.. why not replace a block of work with recreation instead, you demon!

(I don't do what you do, early game I cut sleep short for more work) 

Also, Showers are divine!

[Saturnus]

12 hours ago, Xenologist said:

Ever needed that bit of extra morale in the early game to support that one extra skill? Here's what you do: Turn the first sleep block of the night into recreation time, and all of the sudden you get +2 morale every cycle instead of +!, and it doesn't even mess up their sleep schedule much, cots even make this significantly more sensible. Sure, this does come with less sleep and therefore less stress relief, but +1 morale is more than enough to make up for that.

Actually you do the exact opposite. Turn the last sleep slot into a downtime slot so you only have one sleep slot. They'll still sleep 2 time slots (assuming you have cots in a barracks) so it's a completely free morale bonus and it doesn't mess up anything at all (again assuming you have enough downtime slots for them to actually make it to their cots in the first place).

[psusi]

5 hours ago, Saturnus said:

Actually you do the exact opposite. Turn the last sleep slot into a downtime slot so you only have one sleep slot. They'll still sleep 2 time slots (assuming you have cots in a barracks) so it's a completely free morale bonus and it doesn't mess up anything at all (again assuming you have enough downtime slots for them to actually make it to their cots in the first place).

Yes, as long as they make it TO bed before the recreation slot, they will sleep through the recreation and you still get the +1.  If they don't though, they fall asleep on the floor during work.

[Sasza22]

22 hours ago, Nxf7 said:

Sure. Although I find that I can have a great hall before a dupe gets their 2nd skill point. Plant pot > mirth leaf, water cooler, done. Might be a misconception that a great hall requires a skilled artist dupe. I think there's another early game plant that can do it too.

I hate how this gives +6 when upgraded bedrooms that require plastic and often rearranging of your room layout just gives +2. It just feels wrong. And you can just leave the watercooler hanging on the ceiling. Makes us not even consider half of the morale mechanics like the schedule stuff.

[Mastermindx]

12 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

I hate how this gives +6 when upgraded bedrooms that require plastic and often rearranging of your room layout just gives +2.

I totally agree with you. I think as far as moral goes, a nice bedroom should be at the top of the list. And the bedroom makes barely any difference on the recovery rate (It's like 1200% instead of 1000% IIRC).

And for a great hall, it would make more sense to me to have it apply a multiplier to the food moral value rather than giving it a flat value. After all, it doesn't matter all that much how pretty a dinning room is if you're eating a mush bar. And doing so would maybe make getting better food a higher priority early game instead of running on mealwood.

[TheMule]

On 12/5/2020 at 11:14 AM, SakuraKoi said:

The problem in practice is that they do not instantly teleport to their bed, meaning that with each second lost means 1,83% less difference and as such 12 seconds result in a Stamina loss.

Check your dups. They don't wake up only because it's work (or bath) time. What really matters is that they make to the cot within the sleep slot. Once they start sleeping, they don't wake up untill 100% stamina is recovered. So there's no stamina loss.

 

On 12/5/2020 at 1:11 PM, Saturnus said:

Actually you do the exact opposite. Turn the last sleep slot into a downtime slot so you only have one sleep slot. They'll still sleep 2 time slots (assuming you have cots in a barracks) so it's a completely free morale bonus and it doesn't mess up anything at all (again assuming you have enough downtime slots for them to actually make it to their cots in the first place).

TIL something new, thanks! It makes sense.

My current setup is 8 shifts, 3 hours apart. N-downtime slots, 1 sleep slot, 2 bath slots, work. N is chosen to make sure they can make it to the bed, so usually it overshoots, leaving dups hanging out in the recreational room (which is very close to the barracks of course).

But, if N is chosen that way, moving one slot after sleep isn't totally free. Since the time a dup takes to complete everything (reaching the washroom, grabbing food, sitting at the table, eating) isn't neither fixed nor predictable, it's a game of chances. If you play conservatively and have enough slots before sleep time to cover 99% of the cases, then adding 1 slot after sleep time is a good idea, since adding it at the beginning gains nothing. I play more aggressively, and leave enough slots to cover only 90% of the cases. If I decide to add one slot, I probably add it at the beginning of downtime to increase my coverage, so to speak. Keep in mind I already have 1 sleep slot only.