Dupe efficiency in late game

[Jonathan Hoffman]

So for me the biggest frustration with the late game is how idiotic Dupes can be about getting stuff done.  It appears that in the late game, despite having 20 dupes, nothing ever gets finished, even when I bump the priority.  This is especially true with tasks that are far away from the center of the base.  What happens is that a single dupe will run for five minutes out to the point that they need to go, they'll dig one square or build one ladder, then they'll turn around and head back to some other stupid task in the center of the base.  So all 20 of my dupes are strung out in a line, spending 90% of their time walking back and forth, rather than just a few of them focusing 100% on the task at hand.  I figured maybe building outhouses, storage chests, and cots nearer to their work area would also help the dupes to stay in the region to get the task done, but the dupes for the most part didn't notice it (even though they didn't have assigned cots).  AND, on top of that, some of the dupes from the center of the base started walking 10 miles out, JUST to use the outhouses, even though there were perfectly good outhouses in the center of the base.

What it boils down to is a very fun early game experience, where everything you assign gets done with ease - and incredible frustration in the late game because the dupes can't for the life of them figure out how to stick to a task that is far away from the base.  And as the game progresses you have to extend further and further out for all the resources you need to survive.

[EpicCreeper]

This is too true. It's cycle 21 here. 9 dupes. NOT ONE has stayed on the priority 9 task (building a Microbe Musher) for more than a second over the last 4 cycles. They're now down to 1000kcal and are about to starve to death.

I thought Oxygen would be the problem, not the food.

To be fair, the oxygen situation isn't great either. It seems that they're just ignoring the priorities. I've not seen any of them do research since cycle 9. It's driving me nuts.

[Saturnus]

If you want an exploration done. Remove their cots and build new close to where you want them to be. Could just be 3-4 dupes. Build an outhouse and have a food storage close as well. And last but not least, have a storage compactor with the same settings as the ones in the base. Make sure to use local materials to make ladders and tiles from. As a final measure. Block of the path back to the base. That means they'll get the job done in a few cycles, and they don't run of to do other tasks. 

[mr_anderson]

1. Try messing around with 'jobs' menu

2. reset  all priorities to 5 and then set the life sustaining devices to 6 (like oxygen, research and food) and then set mining to the same level. After that increase priorities that you REALLY want done but dont do too many at a time. I found that the more you mess with the priorities the less work gets done in the late game.

3. Also dont make your base too big otherwise there are just too many maintenance things that are taking away your dupes from getting actual work done

[Ferula]

2 hours ago, EpicCreeper said:

This is too true. It's cycle 21 here. 9 dupes. NOT ONE has stayed on the priority 9 task (building a Microbe Musher) for more than a second over the last 4 cycles. They're now down to 1000kcal and are about to starve to death.

I thought Oxygen would be the problem, not the food.

To be fair, the oxygen situation isn't great either. It seems that they're just ignoring the priorities. I've not seen any of them do research since cycle 9. It's driving me nuts.

Watch out for things like small amounts of water on the ground or if you're making slime. They'll grab the total weight of a single "item" of it and run back and forth like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to fill up an algea farm with 100 grams of water at time.

[DrBrobotnik]

3 hours ago, Saturnus said:

If you want an exploration done. Remove their cots and build new close to where you want them to be. Could just be 3-4 dupes. Build an outhouse and have a food storage close as well. And last but not least, have a storage compactor with the same settings as the ones in the base. Make sure to use local materials to make ladders and tiles from. As a final measure. Block of the path back to the base. That means they'll get the job done in a few cycles, and they don't run of to do other tasks. 

This will be escpecially easy when the patch rolls around and let's airlocks refuse to open for certain dupes. Just block off the way back with one, then when you want the resource delivered, assign one of your exploration dupes to sweeping only, mark the resources for cleanup, tell the door to let him through, then lock it again and repeat. Now I hope hope hope that when it comes out, dupes won't just wander to a door that won't open to try and clean up resouces they can't even reach. Basically, don't try if you can't get to them.