Food rationing

[blash365]

Every once in a while i run into a shortage of food. This will in some cases result in some of my duplicants starving. In a few of those cases there would be sufficient food to keep them from starving (to death), but some other dupes are simply quicker at fetching the food.

This forces me to the tedious task of disabling all food for all dupes, individually assigning starving dupes to eat food, waiting for them to eat, disabling food for them once more.

It would be great if there was some automatism (or a mode similar to red alert) that prioritizes starving duplicants over non-starving ones, saving me the hassle of microcontrolling the food rations.

[Smithe37]

2 minutes ago, blash365 said:

Every once in a while i run into a shortage of food. This will in some cases result in some of my duplicants starving. In a few of those cases there would be sufficient food to keep them from starving (to death), but some other dupes are simply quicker at fetching the food.

This forces me to the tedious task of disabling all food for all dupes, individually assigning starving dupes to eat food, waiting for them to eat, disabling food for them once more.

It would be great if there was some automatism (or a mode similar to red alert) that prioritizes starving duplicants over non-starving ones, saving me the hassle of microcontrolling the food rations.

Or just don't let your dupes starve. Foods not too difficult early game and won't be a problem later if you plan correctly.
Seems like a waste of effort and clogs up the HUD compensating for a minor problem that can be dealt with by producing enough food.
 

[blash365]

Sorry, there are different playstyles to play video games. While some might be alot about planing, others might as well be about reacting to stuff. luckily that does not bar me from suggesting stuff.

once you get hit with a slimelung wave, you will quickly notice that your base is no longer running the way you planned it.

 

[Smithe37]

Slimelung waves aren't unexpected. You can see them with the overlay and put measures in place to prepare and prevent disaster.
If you're struggling with food then it's either because you're not managing resources correctly or more likely it's because you're not prioritising jobs correctly.

[blash365]

Thank you for your input. It is greatly appreciated.

 

However this thread is not about how to not get into slimelung, it is about how to get out of a pinch when food resources are low.

[Kasuha]

I think it wouldn't hurt if the game handled that situation. Even experienced players get to that situation once in a while and the amount of micromanagement the situation requires is truly uncomfortable. Eating is already interrupt level task, so the least the game could do is to assign the food to the most hungry duplicant that can eat it instead of whatever strategy it uses now (closest hungry duplicant?).

 

[DyingCrow]

Looks like first come first served basis to me. Its been a long time since i had any food issues, but i can see how this would help new players. I would even go a bit further and not give the ration to the hungriest dupe, but split whatever is left between all dupes in equal portions. I believe this wouldnt be too hard to implement. 

[ImpalerWrG]

Agree with Kasuha here, no reason the game can't do this for us, their is no interesting choice being made in the typical attempt to avoid starvation.

That said I think the games handling of starvation, death and food is a bit poor and inflexible. If anyone is familiar with how people actually starve or handle being malnourished would expect a slow withering away not a sudden death.  I'd say dupes should lose skills, lose HP and become stressed and lethargic from lack of food.  So at zero calories a dupe doesn't die they begin this wasting away process.

The consumables control option I would find most interesting would be something like the ration system in Oregon Trail, you can set rations for individuals (or everyone) to meager to conserve food at the cost of health and happiness, or gorge on it in some kind of Wall-E parody for added happiness and ALSO reduced health.

[blash365]

Thanks for the input. I had a "reduced rations" approach in mind as well (for all the reasons mentioned by @ImpalerWrG).

But this would be more like a new system, which might be a design choice already taken by the developers. Maybe they reconsider that choice.

In any case selecting which duplicant eats first is viable in any system, which is why i suggested "most hungry eats first".

[Ambaire]

After a dupe starts eating, if you manually move them once their calories rise above 2000, they won't try to resume eating until their calories fall below 2000.

 

edit: I suppose if one wanted to micro, they could assign a dupe high quality food, wait for them to get to 0 stress then move them and reassign them to regular quality. haha

[Oozinator]

But to make sense for me, the "half ration" has to have some sort of negative impact.
Reducing stamina / athletics. Double rations reducing athletics but raising productivity/creativity?
There is still much micro in this game (jobbased, luring, building), i don't really need additional micro, based on food..

[DyingCrow]

16 hours ago, Oozinator said:

But to make sense for me, the "half ration" has to have some sort of negative impact.
Reducing stamina / athletics. Double rations reducing athletics but raising productivity/creativity?
There is still much micro in this game (jobbased, luring, building), i don't really need additional micro, based on food..

Yes to both, absolutely. Experienced players will easily have a surplus of food later on, which could be used for something, as extra food storage can become something silly. Eventually allowing them a bit more for some small buff would be a way to balance that, without having to slow down food production.

As mentioned in another thread, extra seeds could be used for food or something else as well. Makes me think of dessert. Mushroom seed goo pudding, doesnt that sound delicious? Maybe a bit of dirt to spice it up.