Dups keep killing themselves

[h86374700]

Hello devs,

This game is awesome! I enjoy base building in don't starve and it's even more fun here. 

I played only hundred hours but I got some suggestion to make the beginner's life easier. 

 

The dups are problematic in some scenario 

1. I ask them to seal a room, XXX is the new construction , W is the current wall/ceiling 

WWWW  X WWWWW

                X  dups     W

WWWW  X WWWWW

 

sometimes they just move to the right side and seal themselves into a dead place

2. I ask them to dig something on the wall, M is the minerals. They just go up and then dig the bottom one and get stuck up there. This happens more often if they hold their breaths. 

    M M

    M M

M M M

3. I ask them to dig something along the way, L is the ladder and M is minerals. They dig up the the closest to the ladder and cannot dig up the far end anymore !

L

L MMMMMMMMMMM

L

 

4. Multiple dups just make it even worse, they sometimes just destroy the path for others 

 

5. Not reachable dig is hard to notice. Sometimes the dig is grey because the ladder/tile hasn't been built yet, that gives me a hint that if i see something grey, wait for it. I would suggest if it's not reachable even after all ladder/tile is built, mark it as red.

6. The mix of dup individual priority plus the build priority is too much to manage, I need to spend lots time to figure out why they are not going to do it. Especially low priority stuff like change settings and repair/sweep.

7. Pease add a way to select dups and force them to do that work, regardless the priorities/schedule. If I want to save some dups that bury themselves in somewhere, i want everyone to help instead of seeing them go to have a coffee and sleep.

 

Thanks a lot for reading this. 

 

[Sasza22]

Dupe behaviour is is predictable if you played long enough. A few simple things.
1. Dupes generally do the dig orders first. If you order them to build something and dig stuff around they will start with digging. If you don`t make proper ladders first they might get stuck.
2. Building needs resources, watch from what are you building. Sometimes they will run all the way to your base for some sandstone instead of using granite or igneous right next to them.
3. Building stuff over natural tiles will make them deliver material before digging the tile up. Another stuck cause.

Now how to prevent that? First you should always build ladders before you order them to dig up an area. Otherwise they might get themselves stuck.
Enable proximity in the priorities menu so they always do the closest task so they are less likely to get stuck.
When diggin up the floor dig up every second tile so they can still pass through, alternatively set higher priority to farther tiles so they are done first.

 

12 hours ago, h86374700 said:

6. The mix of dup individual priority plus the build priority is too much to manage, I need to spend lots time to figure out why they are not going to do it. Especially low priority stuff like change settings and repair/sweep.

Individual priority is always more important. If you get your dupes stuck often make sure you got at least one dupe with max priority in: digging, deilvering, building.

 

12 hours ago, h86374700 said:

7. Pease add a way to select dups and force them to do that work, regardless the priorities/schedule. If I want to save some dups that bury themselves in somewhere, i want everyone to help instead of seeing them go to have a coffee and sleep.

There`s the red alert button you should use when you want to force them to work in such scenarios. Just make sure you got dupes with proper individual priorities and you set the emergency task higher than anything in your base (don`t set anything in the base to 9).

 

12 hours ago, h86374700 said:

5. Not reachable dig is hard to notice. Sometimes the dig is grey because the ladder/tile hasn't been built yet, that gives me a hint that if i see something grey, wait for it. I would suggest if it's not reachable even after all ladder/tile is built, mark it as red.

A dupe is 2 tiles high and has a range of 2 tiles each way.. If you build rooms 4 tiles high that`s how high they can reach. After a while you`ll be able to tell what they can reach and what not.

[h86374700]

I am able to figure it out after hours of playing, yes. I totally understand that you could building ladder/tile first before digging and deconstruct them at the end (you need to make them deconstruct the far end first, again). But is this necessary and good user experience? I really don't feel that way. Unless it's a invalid command/move, dups should act reasonable to the tasks. 

[Sasza22]

Dupes are just dumb. Treat them like children that don`t know the consequences of their actions. For me their dumbness is a feature but i get that it can get frustrating after some time. I just threw a few things i do to make sure they don`t die beacause of their dumbness.

[he77789]

Dupes' dumbness are a FEATURE!!!