WARNING: Total noob question

[mrtattoohead]

Hey, as the title implies I'm new at this. Go easy. I'm finding it hard to play unless I resort to using the debug menu after getting the basics done to get through more cycles. I can usually accomplish setting up a home base (basic food, water, restroom, power, research completed) but after that things nosedive fast without remedies "magically appearing".  Anyone else had this issue? What was the answer for you? I'd like to know it's possible to play a fair bit longer without having to artificially inflate my faltering planning. Not infinitely, but I'd like to get to the point where I'm using the high end of the research tech tree.

TIA for reading and maybe answering a very vague and silly question.

Mrtattoohead

[tk421storm]

That's normal! Don't be afraid to restart, using what you learned on one playthrough to make you better next time. You won't see the end game until 4-5 restarts, most likely, but each time you'll get further with what you learned from the playthrough before.

[BT_20]

Just a few things that might help you find your way use geysers look into what foods are sustainable ie berries not mealwood look towards eletrolyzer oxygen try to make use of wheezewarts be careful around slime biomes mabey look into these very forums for inspiration.

good luck

[The Plum Gate]

It would probably help to know what you mean by 'nose-dive', since there's so many different ways that this can happen.

[ColBBQ]

If you can post a savegame or a screenshot with status update shown, we can help.

[mrtattoohead]

Nose dives usually end up being compounded issues. Overheating plants and overloading circuits causing renal failure in dupes (they nuke, stress wise) from the lack of acceptable decor. Running out of water and the attendant processes that stop. Running out of space in Home Base and having to re-layout the entire thing in order to take advantage of available resources which results in neglect/sabotage of most systems with ends in a nose dive. These are what I've experienced recently and I'm just wondering if there are folks that fare better or is that standard. If they found a knowledge resource that got them through it. Or is it just that I'm a dimwit and don't know it. Here's the latest "getting started" base I'm working on, are there any glaring errors that I'm just not aware of? 
 

19 minutes ago, ColBBQ said:

If you can post a savegame or a screenshot with status update shown, we can help.

I found a daily report, is that what you mean?

 

The savegame of early stages.

 

The Great Pit Cycle 13_4them.sav

[The Plum Gate]

Looks to me like too much digging going on - I keep things pretty tight the first 14 cycles - and you can generally skip planting mealwood in farm tiles - if you've gotten that far in research use them for bristle blossoms. That mess they make is what's stressing them out so much - so take a cycle break and sweep up the mess around beds and work areas. ( I usually do this cycle 4 ).

If I have to dig that much, I will end up dropping the dig-out space down two tiles more than I need to and flooring over the gap ( basement ), this moves the bad decor into unused space. ... If it's that big of a mess sitting on my floors, I'll deconstruct the floors and reconstruct them to drop all the sweepable objects to the lowest level and just set storage up there. This isn't always an issue though...

I generally don't try to set up nice and neat water basins simply on account of them getting hypothermia or soaking wet debuffs, I'll just wait on that till later. Water pits are a big obstacle, but when you have so few dupes in the early game, it's not the best idea to try to make it look perfect until later.

[mrtattoohead]

Well, the stress explosion is usually up around round 50-60 after the coal plants and high watt wires are in. I ave the "4 high" tile rooms in case I need paints over the low stuff. And yeah the farm plots are for the loose bristle berry seeds I have lying around (learned to use them last night). I was going to pull the water from the big cistern at the top of the base to them directly down the middle of the base. Is that how you all would do it?

[Kabrute]

dont use terrariums

[The Plum Gate]

And on the issue of the bathroom - you will have germ problems at some point considering the compost heaps are down the primary ladder..

On the wire problems, you might want to sprint for high conductive wire and just limit yourself to 2Kw circuits - these have no decor effects.

I usually go for this now - I haven't needed heaviwatt for a while, I've stopped using that until much later.. I'm not afraid to just add coal generators whenever I need reliable power.

I only use terrariums in places I rearely visit but need to create a band of breathable air after maybe 8 cycles or so in places where work is going to be done - then it's a power free O2 source, but I end up deconstructing them. They're relatively useless for removing co2.

[mrtattoohead]

Use the Algae Deoxydizer from the get go?

For the Record, I consider myself to still be in the base building section of the campaign. Should I be smaller and farther along by now? That is, is that a better plan of  attack? Would you consider this base "rescueable" or would you scrap it and start again?

[The Plum Gate]

have you got a screenshot of this base in question?

[mrtattoohead]

up the thread, I attached it to a previous post.

[The Plum Gate]

deconstruct your compost heaps and move them to the right of the toilets. deconstruct two tiles near that oxylite so Co2 can move down into the farm ( sideways door ) or just leave it open.

Get rid of the terarriums and build a deoxidizer next to the sideways door near the farms. that's the best place for one in such an open area.

Youy poluted water pit is in a bad spot, If you can mop it up, move it to the other side of the toilets.

This is a somewhat stable base. That bathroom and PW pit hasn't moved since I started that base. All the plumbing drains into a few thimble reed plants.

One dexoidizer is enough for ~5 dupes.

The toilet and related buildings are a number one issue with food poisoning.

And you can use the printing pod as a light source.

[mrtattoohead]

Well! this is certainly enough food for thought for one evening's play. Thanks for the assistance folx. I very much appreciate it!

Regards,
Mr Tattoohead

[mrtattoohead]

I went ahead and started fresh. Thanks for the skinny.

Impenetrable Dystopia Cyl 5.sav

[mrtattoohead]

Yeah, they starved to death. I'm doing something wrong.

[TheScaryOne]

Watch some streams. The early game for me was pretty easy, it was the mid-game when heat was a killer that ruined me. I build cold high, then hot higher. Cold will fall down into your base, heat rises.

[The Plum Gate]

6 hours ago, mrtattoohead said:

Yeah, they starved to death. I'm doing something wrong.

New start or old?

Unusually put down about 8 or 10 planter boxes of mealwood, then disable meal lice as food - processing it into liveloaf as they get harvested.

Any complications and I start deep frying mush bars. Usually about 20 bars does the trick.

As for heat though - as long as you've got the plants out of the way, there's not much that can be done about heat unless you're making some effort to get tons cold biome and grabs wheeze wort or two.

Seems likenInalways end up putting one between my researchbstations.

I build everthing else a good distance away - usually stick my batteries somewhere its already hot - like the jungle biome or near to it.

[mrtattoohead]

I'm not sure how to disable mealwood lice as a food item. Set it to a 1 on priorities list? I tried shooting straight to bristle berries and I kept having the  pump block up right at the first pipe section. Infuriating when it happens 3-4 times in a row. Looking for an answer to that right now.

[PhailRaptor]

44 minutes ago, mrtattoohead said:

I'm not sure how to disable mealwood lice as a food item.

In the top right, there's a button titled "Consumables".  There you can restrict certain foods to certain Dupes, or straight up disable a particular food by clicking on it directly.

[mrtattoohead]

Well, now. That IS fancy. I guess I should have RTFM before I dove in.

Thank you!

[Lacost]

Okay, here some advice from what I`ve seen from you:

 

1. No Algae Terrariums! They are currently not worth it since they consume a ton of water and need to be constantly refilled. On top of that they remove valuable CO2 and they don`t overpressurize which can lead to >4000 g of oxygen. This will give your Dupes a debuff called popped eardrums which adds to stress growth.

2. Simply use Algae Deoxydizers from the start. The natural Oxylite ore should last you long enough to research and set up coal generators.

3. Clear out debris lying around at the floor. Each debris adds -5 to decor which will stress out your Dupes. Early game especially the sleeping area must be sweeped.

4. From what you wrote here you use heavy watt wires in living areas? Because that is a huge mistake! Heavy watt wires have a massive decor penalty! Do not use them unless it is absolutely necessary. Instead only use normal wires but create multiple circuits. Try to hook up one circuit per coal generator. This way you can`t overload it. If you suffer from too little energy produced, split up the circuit and add a second coal generator.

5. Don`t promote your Dupes to better jobs unless you can provide the required food for them. Eating worse food than expected adds +150% stress growth per cycle! You want to block them from eating muckroot once you produce higher quality food.

6. Add a door to your toilets so you create a bathroom "room". The nice bathroom modifier gives -5% stress for a decent amount of time. Creating a mess hall also adds to a significant stress reduction. If you need further stress relief be sure to build recreational rooms for -85% stress/cycle.

7. Start setting up your farm at cycle 2. Plant as much mealwood as you can and dig specifically for buried objects (cracks in natural tiles). They will give you mealwood seeds and muckroot which can be eaten by your Dupes. Process your meal lice into Liceloaf and forbid them from eating the meal lice.

8. Place your ration box/fridge in a CO2 pocket for infinite shelf live.

 

The only resources that will run out quickly are coal, algae and water. You wil need to dig exploratory tunnels relatively soon. Favour the caustic biome which can have huge amounts of algae and coal without the risk of a slimelung contamination. This will also be your midterm goal to become independent from those resources. Especially algae will run out faster than you might want to. For this you have to find a steam geyser and set up an oxygen production (there are a lot of designs floating around in the forums). The coal you can either continue to mine or you set up a Hatch farm. Water needs to be cooled down to be useful in farms. Again, search for some water cooling designs on the forums.

[CthulhuCultist]

15 hours ago, The Plum Gate said:

deconstruct your compost heaps and move them to the right of the toilets. deconstruct two tiles near that oxylite so Co2 can move down into the farm ( sideways door ) or just leave it open.

Get rid of the terarriums and build a deoxidizer next to the sideways door near the farms. that's the best place for one in such an open area.

Youy poluted water pit is in a bad spot, If you can mop it up, move it to the other side of the toilets.

This is a somewhat stable base. That bathroom and PW pit hasn't moved since I started that base. All the plumbing drains into a few thimble reed plants.

One dexoidizer is enough for ~5 dupes.

The toilet and related buildings are a number one issue with food poisoning.

And you can use the printing pod as a light source.

That free light sources for farming are ... magnificent  xD