Late game crawl

[Tobruk]

I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but when I looked at my 1000 hours playtime I realised, not without some sadness, that this figure doesn't really give justice to the experience of playing ONI.

Maybe the proportions vary, but I feel like 700 hours of that were spent doing literally anything other than playing (making coffee, listening to music, reading articles) and only 300 hours actually on managing the colony. I won't deny that my playstyle is kind of cautious and the colony's kept pretty stable throughout, without big leaps of progress that could endanger it.

But still, the 60% walk time hits me like a bag of bricks in the head and whatever I do at countering it, late game feels like an still enjoyable crawl. I order a very simple build, stand up, go make whatever else at home, come back 10 minutes later to see how dupes are doing, and act accordingly.

How much could have I achieved in this game if it had been less slow-paced?

Do you agree to any degree with me?

[Tanmorik]

For me it is the opposite. I mean, i literally spend time on ONI while not playing ONI. And when i play ONI i am totally immerged into it. ^^

[Zarquan]

If you make your colony in a certain way, then yes.  However, you can make your projects happen a lot faster.  In order of importance:

If your dupes can't breathe on the worksite, they will work very slowly because they stop to breathe then another dupe takes over the job, meaning the dupe that is there will often find a job somewhere else and the new dupe have to get there and build.  Make sure they can breathe (e.g. exosuits, oxygen masks).

Spoiler

If you can not make it so your dupes can breathe, you can also lock them in to the non-breathable area for a time using door controls.  If they can't get to oxygen, they won't stop working and will be far more efficient.  But you do need to let them out regularly or they will suffocate and die.

If you make sure there are materials nearby, then they will be less inclined to go get the materials from far away.  Imagine a construction crew building a house, but every time they need a new piece of drywall or wood, they have to run to the store to get it.  They would build very slowly.

If you make it so that only designated workers are allowed to build in the building project, the tasks won't be picked up by other dupes.  If you make sure the only jobs your designated workers are allowed to do are the project-related jobs, they will build faster because they won't get distracted.

If you set up basic livable areas near your worksites and temporarily move some workers in and lock the workers in and lock non-workers out, then they will only work on that project, thus speeding up the project because they can work without interruption.  Of course, this is a building project on its own, so it often isn't worth the investment.

I usually stop short of making livable areas for any non-permanent task.  I build permanent living areas for jobs like ranchers and farmers.  For temporary tasks, I will sometimes effectively lock a dupe in the room and not let them out until their downtime starts.

 

Basically, in my experience, there are three major things that decrease dupe efficiency:  Commute times, job stealing, and distracting tasks.  If the dupes have to run around a lot to get the jobs done, they will not get as many jobs done.  If a dupe from across the colony claims a job, the other dupes won't do it and they will get distracted and run off somewhere else to do an unrelated task.  If a dupe decides it is more important to do another task somewhere else in the colony, then they will run off and do it rather than the task right next to them, thus not making progress.  

Perhaps I should make a scheme where dupes can choose their designated work area and are stuck there until their downtime starts.

[Fradow]

This might seem obvious, but at some point you have to automate things so that Dupes have less errands to do, in addition to everything Zarquan explained. A few examples:

• anything that requires materials coming from the same source should use shipping rather than having Dupes move materials
• an Oil Refinery can be replaced by a Petroleum Boiler, which doesn't require any labor (in addition to other benefits)
• a Desalinator can be replaced by boiling the salt water (it saves on power too if built properly)
• there are ways to prevent Dupes for making small errands, for example by locking a door until the supply job is large enough
• Glossy Dreckos can be replaced by a Polymer Press, which don't require any labor once setup
• Polluted Dirt can be off-gased for Clay/Oxygen rather than composted for Dirt

[Tobruk]

17 hours ago, Zarquan said:

If a dupe from across the colony claims a job, the other dupes won't do it and they will get distracted and run off somewhere else to do an unrelated task.  If a dupe decides it is more important to do another task somewhere else in the colony, then they will run off and do it rather than the task right next to them, thus not making progress. 

That's a valid point.

I did:

• exosuits
• storage compartments with build materials
• tubes
• specialised dupes
• priorities

But I didn't think I'd have to restrict access to a building region, for example to only a handful of builders.

Shouldn't this be solved by proximity work setting that I have enabled? Since that was exactly my understanding of this option.

[Saturnus]

18 minutes ago, Tobruk said:

Shouldn't this be solved by proximity work setting that I have enabled? Since that was exactly my understanding of this option.

Don't use proximity setting. It removes overjoyed reactions.

Yes, it's another bug that's been aropund for a while.

[Tobruk]

1 minute ago, Saturnus said:

Don't use proximity setting. It removes overjoyed reactions.

Yes, it's another bug that's been aropund for a while.

Do I need to restart for the fix to apply?

[Saturnus]

6 minutes ago, Tobruk said:

Do I need to restart for the fix to apply?

I don't think so, the bug report doesn't mention it.

EDIT: oh, noticed it's still "pending" over a year later. And I should have clarified some overjoyed reactions, not all, which is even weirder that it's inconsistent.
 

 

[Zarquan]

7 hours ago, Fradow said:

• Glossy Dreckos can be replaced by a Polymer Press, which don't require any labor once setup

This is actually the opposite.  The polymer press takes no dupe work if you have a petroleum boiler or petroleum stockpile, whereas glossy drekkos require shearing (and grooming if you want decent meat)  Nevermind, I misread it.

[Saturnus]

8 minutes ago, Zarquan said:

This is actually the opposite.  The polymer press takes no dupe work if you have a petroleum boiler or petroleum stockpile, whereas glossy drekkos require shearing (and grooming if you want decent meat).

That is what he wrote though...

[Zarquan]

1 minute ago, Saturnus said:

That is what he wrote though...

Oh, you are right.  I misread it. 

[Sasza22]

It almost feels like you need to use an even faster speed lategame to see progress at time. This is a problem as the fps are already low at that moment and increasing speed just adds to the issue.

I think that the ultra late game would benefit from some tech that gives a huge boost to the basic stats of dupes or some sort of exo suits that make them build and dig stuff more efficiently. I`m talking about a huge boost like tripling their efficiency but for a high cost like large power amounts, space materials and maybe the radbolts fromt he dlc. Something you can only afford lategame but is actually worth it not just for exotic projects but for regular base management and construction projects.