Thirst System

[Brutetal]

Yeah I also thought about that.
But mire in terms of watering crops which got mentionend already often.
While it would increase the challenging aspect, more so in deserts, it would quite quickly become a "fire and forget" thing - just one more thing to maintain.
Sooo I'm a bit on the edge there.
But Thirst as a separate need - no. Why?
We already have hunger and meals. Just add up "clean water" as part of meals. As an ingredient. That would on one side require water, but you wouldn't need a separate bar to satisfy it.
This would also increase the complications with meals. Meals with water cannot be frozen - because logically the water would freeze and would need to defreeze befire eat... Okay, meals don't have that problem either. But you could still freeze your meals, add a water source and "complete" the meals on demand.
This would also mean that meals without water will give either a debuff or won't fill the hunger bar fully.
And, quality of water plays a role. Dirty water will certainly give food poisoning, unfiltered water will increase the chance of food poisoning and clean water bears no chance of it (exceot of the other ingredients/cooking skill).

Just a few thoughts

[Dorian]

I don't think it requires a separate bar.  Just add some negatives into the NEEDS and HEALTH tabs.  Like "Thirsty" in the NEEDS tab if you don't have water around, then "Very Thirsty", and then you start getting things in the HEALTH tab like "Dehydration (trivial/minor/major/extreme)" which affects how you act, makes you walk slower, research slower etc.

You should also get more thirst during extreme heat, which triggers heat stroke faster.  Have lots of water available can make a colonist fight off heat stroke for longer.  There's lots of ways to make it work, but that's just ideas.

[Jstank]

Are you sure you need a resource to make something? I know in the Medieval mod you can make ice blocks out of an ice tile, and you don't need anything to make it.

Or maybe you can make a bucket out of a bench, and when you take it to the water gathering spot the bucket changes from a empty bucket to a full bucket, and when you use the bucket to make a meal or drink it, it turns back to a empty bucket.

What if you turned the food processor into a water storage unit.... The colonists would go and get the bucket and dump it into the hopper. The hopper will only accept water. Then the storage unit can be connected through pipes to the cook stove. The cook stove will use water the same way that items use power. Use a parallel but separate system. Intake pipes can later connect pumps to underground water sources later in the game when you research water pumps. Water pumps can be placed either by surface water sources or underground water sources. Underground water sources needs a water scanner to reveal. Water scanner works like ground penetration scanner except it is much cheaper to research and build. Add a resource on the map called Natural well to all maps. Natural wells work like Geothermal vents but can produce natural water when a well is built on it. In the desert this is necessary to survival, so pawns will have to transport water to the hopper from the well using buckets. Buckets would then need to be made from either steel or wood, or you would never have buckets in the desert or tundra. Later pawns can build a pump by the well to pump the water through pipes. Again, water pipes work identical to power lines except the resource transported IS water. Also, when it 'rains' the water storage unit will automatically start filling up by itself if it is unroofed. For ice maps, have melt ice snow to water bench. Use collection spot from medieval mod, to collect blocks, have blocks = water buckets, pour water into the storage unit. When it snows have water fill but at a reduced rate.


So therefore I think that having pipes and a requirement that the cook stove be hooked up to a constant water supply to use would make more sense if you could create a ground water resource to attach a pump to. I think that is the best solution if it was simple to do from early game. Neolithic cultures could make a well and aqua ducks or something. It does start to sound pretty complicated once you start to try and wrap your head around it.

And don't forget beer, beer = water because DF!

[SpaceDorf]

@jstank
First of : Alcohol = Life and Happiness in DF ; Water = Death !

Second :
I like the sound of that suggestion, would you mind reposting it in B0rsuks
"Water Discussion" Thread ?

it is simple and sensible. It could easily be enhanced to work with agriculture and hydroculture ( which should need a constant water supply )

For added FUN the quality of the water ties into the health system.
So for drinking and hydroculture water there is a requirement for cleaning and filtering. Which also comes in different Tech Levels.