Ludeon Forums

i have been wondering about this since alpha 14 as to why my pawns still are still eating without table

untill i found this

it doesn't matter if i empty their inventory, they keep adding stuff
Its looks like they are afriad they wont get a next meal, so they stock up on it. While there is plenty in stock

This is also the way they still get Gut Worms while there is enough meals in stock, because they carry Meat
so please fix this so wont get this negative mood "Ate without table"

tnx in advance

Urgently Hungry is a worse mood penalty than Ate without Table. It's also a whole lot easier to build a couple of extra tables around the colony than it is to build multiple freezers.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=28625.msg288572#msg288572

I feel your pain.  This has been an issue for a long time.  It must be an issue with the variable checks.  "If this guy is hungry and has food now, eat it RIGHT THE **** NOW!" when he should be willing to take the extra ten steps to get to a table.

I'd love to have a "packed lunch" food item that pawns will prioritize taking into inventory before anything else.  Then if a pawn eats a "packed lunch" they don't suffer the lack of table penalty because, presumably, they were planning to eat their lunch on the job site or otherwise away from base.

Aerial: That's actually kind of a great idea. Maybe make it take a little time to convert a meal into a packed lunch, and this time is the balance to removing the penalty.

@Sola Thats exactly how i feel about, and if they bring a lunch package with them then it shouldn't be a negative mood "Ate without table"

@Aerial That would also be perfect.

Ate without a table is pretty awful, but eating habits in general are pretty messed up. Complaining about eating raw meat they've pocketed for animal training is much worse, and moreso if that meat happens to be human (you know, there was ... a caravan, yeah a caravan ... and you didn't know it was human when you bought it). This brings up another pet peeve of mine with the eating in the field, because the instant they've pulled it out of their magic pocket, they're considered hauling it and you cannot get them to put it back. The only options are to let them consume it, leave it there on the ground, or have them haul it to a stockpile.

I propose three possible improvements, and they're not necessarily exclusive of eachother.

• What if humans could hold more than 1 nutrition (say 1.25?).
  
  
  
  • Between 0.5 and 0.25 they could repeatedly try to insert a meal at a table into their jobslist, similar to going to bed to rest.
  • Between 0.25 and 0 they could repeatedly try to eat acceptable meals they're carrying in the field, and if no suitable meal is available go and get one, and if none can be found ding a "colonist needs food"
    (because perhaps you had a stash of the good stuff forbidden so that somebody wouldn't throw it away on prisoners in the hospital freezer for emergencies)
  • Nutrition should have to reach 0 and start causing malnutrition before they would even think of resorting to (unwanted) cannibalism or rotten corpses
    (not just because the exact instant they got slightly peckish at 0.25 was also the exact moment a full stack of 10 meals was being hauled from the kitchen floor to the freezer)
• Second suggestion: right under the max best meds in the Health tab, a food slider with min and max, so that fine (or lavish!) meal your Warden grabbed for later doesn't get pulled out of his pocket (see rant above) to be hauled to the prisoner the very instant the prisoner psychically projects to the warden that they could use a top-up. How come colonists can't automagically respond with this same efficiency to a prison break?
• A meal plan, similar to drugs or clothes, where you could setup your own custom rules on food. Checkboxes for what foods are acceptable, max range to walk to a table, whether or not to carry a spare, etc. There could be some personality traits that would ignore these plans (think teetotaler/strict regimen and chemical interest/glutton).
  
  
  
  • Greedy would always carry two of the best meal types
  • Jealous would be upset if somebody else ate better
  • Ascetic would get mood debuffs from fine or lavish meals
  • Pyromaniac would light theirs on fire first I dunno, this could go on forever, haha

Quote from: Frisk on May 03, 2017, 04:33:34 AM
@Sola Thats exactly how i feel about, and if they bring a lunch package with them then it shouldn't be a negative mood "Ate without table"

@Aerial That would also be perfect.

My worst scenario is that when they haul food into their pockets they look for fine(r) meals inside, and keep holding on to that food. I usually force them to drop it since it is useless especially if you are in a pickle.

@OP, food they're carrying in their inventory doesn't rot or deteriorate. It doesn't contribute to gut worms either. They're just trying to not starve. ;)

Nutrient paste solves all these problems, they cant reserve items that dont exist. ;)

There is also a food scheme mod avail on the workshop that allows you to force your colonists to eat specified meals, so worst first, best first, raw etc.

Quote from: tyriaelsoban on May 10, 2017, 12:07:12 AM
Nutrient paste solves all these problems, they cant reserve items that dont exist. ;)

There is also a food scheme mod avail on the workshop that allows you to force your colonists to eat specified meals, so worst first, best first, raw etc.

Only thing I HAVEN'T seen them haul is nutrient paste. I guess that figures when you live in harsh place with your upper commander makes you eat slime sandwiches.

While it would make sense to expect players to notice that pawns will take food to eat while in some remote work site (say, mining) it would be cool to be taught about it. :V Pawns randomly taking food with them (I still don't know when they do that) is very confusing.

I'm getting from it that it is here to incentivize people to put more furniture around (you know, like most households will have at least one table... lol). That would be cool, if not for pawns random tendencies to eat these packed meals everywhere. I mean, I'm willing to put more furniture around, but pawns have to actually use it. I'm, however, unwilling to put table with chairs every 10 meters because this one idiot has to eat his food RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. lol.

It's really just meant to increase pawn productivity. If a pawn had to return to the colony freezer every time they were hungry, none of the work scheduled further away would ever get done, because that pawn spends all day walking back and forth for food :P

Quote from: O Negative on May 10, 2017, 04:46:15 AM
It's really just meant to increase pawn productivity. If a pawn had to return to the colony freezer every time they were hungry, none of the work scheduled further away would ever get done, because that pawn spends all day walking back and forth for food :P

Thats basically it, sometimes i wonder if it would hurt or not to let them be able to do it with nutrient paste ... by the way, one of the functions in the mod i mentioned earlier, allows the player to dispense meals either 1, or 5 at a time.

Quote from: tyriaelsoban on May 10, 2017, 12:07:12 AM
Nutrient paste solves all these problems, they cant reserve items that dont exist. ;)

Just don't forget that it causes new problems: No food when the power goes out.  Solar Flare = hungry pawns.  (So keep some survival meals locked away for emergency.)

Quote from: milon on May 10, 2017, 12:14:04 PM

Quote from: tyriaelsoban on May 10, 2017, 12:07:12 AM
Nutrient paste solves all these problems, they cant reserve items that dont exist. ;)

Just don't forget that it causes new problems: No food when the power goes out.  Solar Flare = hungry pawns.  (So keep some survival meals locked away for emergency.)

I've always got spares of something somewhere :D

Quote from: tyriaelsoban on May 10, 2017, 01:04:25 PM

Quote from: milon on May 10, 2017, 12:14:04 PM

Quote from: tyriaelsoban on May 10, 2017, 12:07:12 AM
Nutrient paste solves all these problems, they cant reserve items that dont exist. ;)

Just don't forget that it causes new problems: No food when the power goes out.  Solar Flare = hungry pawns.  (So keep some survival meals locked away for emergency.)

I've always got spares of something somewhere :D

You never know when they hide munchies under their beds.

Putting more tables around the map would be ok if it weren't for the fact that pawns love to "relax socially" at the table that's halfway across the map instead of the magnificent dining/rec room just steps away. It's a huge waste of time and puts them far away from where they should be when they finally get back to work. It's such a headache I often prefer to take the "didn't eat at a table" hit.

Maybe a way to define acceptable "joy event areas"?

Quote from: arcweldx on May 12, 2017, 07:28:37 AM
Putting more tables around the map would be ok if it weren't for the fact that pawns love to "relax socially" at the table that's halfway across the map instead of the magnificent dining/rec room just steps away. It's a huge waste of time and puts them far away from where they should be when they finally get back to work. It's such a headache I often prefer to take the "didn't eat at a table" hit.

Maybe a way to define acceptable "joy event areas"?

I did an interesting "social experiment" in one of my savegames, connecting dining room with bedrooms so it would be easier for them to come eat directly; placed 2 connected tables into the dining room, also placed many joy creating objects. The other tables were quite far away in a small park/lounge area where I didn't allow food stored near and the freezer was connected with only the dining room. Turned out that the people started eating over 50% more times in the dining room than in the lounge/snacking somewhere far. It also cured their stress more cause they looked at the nice room and ate at the same time so got a mood boost straight in one pack.

Quote from: arcweldx on May 12, 2017, 07:28:37 AM
Putting more tables around the map would be ok if it weren't for the fact that pawns love to "relax socially" at the table that's halfway across the map instead of the magnificent dining/rec room just steps away. It's a huge waste of time and puts them far away from where they should be when they finally get back to work. It's such a headache I often prefer to take the "didn't eat at a table" hit.

Maybe a way to define acceptable "joy event areas"?

Select a table. Toggle "Gather spot" to off. Done.

A "solution" (in that it helps to remove the "ate without table" but doesn't really address the underlying issue) is to place tables around the map.  several small dining rooms in your base, especially if it is a large base, is better than 1 large opulent dining room in the center (unless it is a very compact base).  A few extra tables sitting out by mining nodes or cliff chokepoints for when your pawns are out mining, hunting, or gathering can help too.  This dramatically increases the odds of the set-distance-table-check finding a table in range when the pawn decides to eat.

Pros:
virtually eliminates "ate without table"
dining rooms are actually fairly easy to get to a positive level of "impressiveness" for mood buffs

Cons:
Raiders will occasionally just NEED to kill one of your tables...I heard it insulted their mother.
Each table/chairs/room will add to colony wealth, which will increase raid sizes, especially in early/mid game and if you're actually making nice dining rooms.
Each table/chairs/room will add new homezones that colonists will fiddle around with cleaning/firefighting, whether you want to or not.

I suggest using stone tables and stools, NOT in a room, with homezone removed.  This makes them eat at a table, but it isn't in a room, so they don't get positive or negative effects from room stats, and your pawns won't bother to clean.  Stone furniture means you ignore fires too.  Only problem becomes insult-sensitive raiders.

Quote from: Aerial on May 02, 2017, 03:37:34 PM
I'd love to have a "packed lunch" food item that pawns will prioritize taking into inventory before anything else.  Then if a pawn eats a "packed lunch" they don't suffer the lack of table penalty because, presumably, they were planning to eat their lunch on the job site or otherwise away from base.

100% agree with this.  either 1) pawns should go to a table when one is available (or a toggle), or 2) allow eating pemmican on the road with no ill effects.

Quote from: Mehni on May 12, 2017, 08:02:05 AM

Quote from: arcweldx on May 12, 2017, 07:28:37 AM
Putting more tables around the map would be ok if it weren't for the fact that pawns love to "relax socially" at the table that's halfway across the map instead of the magnificent dining/rec room just steps away. It's a huge waste of time and puts them far away from where they should be when they finally get back to work. It's such a headache I often prefer to take the "didn't eat at a table" hit.

Maybe a way to define acceptable "joy event areas"?

Select a table. Toggle "Gather spot" to off. Done.

And people shall eat like royals?

Because of this thread, I am now working on a packed lunch mod. ;)