A more fluent gameplay

[Frannck]

I found that when I get a bit far on the game I have to be on the lookout of each individual so it doesn't goes crazy.
For example: The colonist is urgently hungry but won't eat until he finishes doctoring the patient, wardening, mining, etc.
I find that this needs between their tasks become problems that i have to be micro managing and gets tedious and boring.
It is as easy as the colonist making a pause for eating and then continue their task, so i don't have to manually stop what they are doing and in sometime they go to eat, sleep or whatever they need.
Also I can't tell them to eat or sleep so i have to quit all their jobs on the overview tab so they can cover their needs.
Again, it gets tedious and not fun at all to quit their tasks so they can cover their need and again setting their jobs again, and this with each colonist. it breaks with the flow of the gameplay that can be much more enjoyable.
Also what is the purpose of conduit walls if you can just place cable on top of any wall? Maybe something that i don know?

[Playbahnosh]

I found that the layout of your base has a LOT to do with making things efficient and keeping your colonists happy without compromising productivity. See, pawns prioritize jobs based on many factors, mostly based on their assigned priority, their current status, distance from the job, the existence of other jobs that might override it (urgent needs, fires, etc), and a few other things. Designing your base with easy access to food, rest and their work areas goes a long way. The lesser the distance they have to go, the faster things get done.
The other thing is routine. In my experience, the AI tries to settle all the colonists into a schedule. Sleep at night, wake up, eat breakfast, go about their day, rinse, repeat. If you just let them do their thing (without you obsessively trying to micromanage them with constantly changing their priorities in overview and handing them one "prioritize this" after another), they will settle into their little routine by themselves after a while. While certain events might disrupt this routine (raids, accidents, resource management, etc), the system is always working to correct itself given time. Also, keep in mind the AI is still very much a WIP, so improvements are made every update. Have some patience.

AFAIK conduit walls are for conveniece, so you don't have to build the wall and lay the cable in two separate jobs. Saves on time if nothing else.

[Asero]

* Designing your base with easy access to food, rest and their work areas goes a long way.
* If you just let them do their thing (without you obsessively trying to micromanage them... <snip>)

This, +1

Designing a colony isn't just about plopping stuff down everywhere hoping that in the end, it will all work out somehow. Even if micromanagement are unavoidable, you should still try and adapt your end design to fit in with colonists 'schedules' and 'duties' so to speak.

Maybe if you have played games like Caesar; or even Sim City you will get a better feel how initial planning can ultimately affect your entire colony and how it functions.