Thirst System

[Lonely Rogue]

Who's to say there isn't water in the food? I mean, it's a meal, and why wouldn't you put a drink with your food?

[skullywag]

potato juice.....mmmmMMMmmmm

[Lonely Rogue]

Vodka is made from potatoes, right?

[kingtyris]

I'd like the idea of adding water to the game, but there have been lots of discussions on the suggestions forums and so far no one has come up with a system where water is adequately necessary, whilst not being a huge micromanagement hassle. You're basically adding another arbitrary Need that adds really very little to the game.

[Toggle]

Actually I like adding water, I just don't want colonists having hydration bars, or anything really requiring water. I just want waters for sprinklers cus of fires.

[Matchstick]

Who's to say there isn't water in the food? I mean, it's a meal, and why wouldn't you put a drink with your food?

Makes sense for the pre-packaged survival meals, I suppose, to give a starting colony an early boost, but I like the idea of needing water purification in certain biomes (jungle) and not others (in the colder biomes, just collect snow).

It might help distinguish them a bit more... currently, other that heating/cooling, all the biomes pretty much require the same things from a colony (to a different degree, perhaps, but still).

I'd like the idea of adding water to the game, but there have been lots of discussions on the suggestions forums and so far no one has come up with a system where water is adequately necessary, whilst not being a huge micromanagement hassle. You're basically adding another arbitrary Need that adds really very little to the game.

That argument could also apply to the joy system.

A "thirst system" on the other hand, could help differentiate biomes more.  That would always add to the gameplay experience (although it would have to be balanced against the difficulty of implementation--there may be cheaper ways of doing it).

For instance, I like the desert biome a lot because its scarcity of certain key resources makes for a different feel than the others: wood, meat, and arable land for crops are at a premium, unlike any other except perhaps for the ice sheet (haven't played that one yet).

But these scarcities aren't a big deal compared to having to source water on a desert map with no water tiles on it.

Interesting alternative sources could include cutting down cacti to extract drinkable water from their pulp, using fog catchers (fine nets mounted on poles to allow fog to condense on them and collect) or even a different use for steam geysers (build a collection "still" on it to condense out the water).

That in itself would make for interesting choices: use a steam geyser for power or water (can't do both).

[Kaballah]

I'd like the idea of adding water to the game, but there have been lots of discussions on the suggestions forums and so far no one has come up with a system where water is adequately necessary, whilst not being a huge micromanagement hassle. You're basically adding another arbitrary Need that adds really very little to the game.

The whole game is about assigning things to do for your colonists, I think mechanics for gathering and storing and treating water to make it drinkable would be no more or less engaging than gathering and storing and treating food to make it edible.  It would add an interesting layer of difference between biomes (does my map have any water? yes? where is it? no? hmm this will be harder!) and all sorts of crafting and production activities.

[skullywag]

trust me when i say you may think you want this, but your colonists will not have time to do anything else in the day, so you end up scaling back to the point where its just something they do for a second a day and isnt really engaging at all, trust me, ive built it, it doesnt work.

[kingtyris]

The whole game is about assigning things to do for your colonists, I think mechanics for gathering and storing and treating water to make it drinkable would be no more or less engaging than gathering and storing and treating food to make it edible.  It would add an interesting layer of difference between biomes (does my map have any water? yes? where is it? no? hmm this will be harder!) and all sorts of crafting and production activities.

Fair enough. Although if we are going to add a water requirement, I think the best way to do so would be for water to be a need that takes next to no time at all to fill -unlike food, which takes time to eat- and the challenge would come into the building and maintenance of your water collection/purification/storage systems, and the consequences of that system failing. After all, when I'm thirsty it takes mere seconds to fill and chug a glass of water, whereas my indoor plumbing and well/filtration system weren't cheap or quick to install, and I'm in trouble whenever my power goes out and I have no water.

[Jaxxa]

I don't think we need a thirst system, I feel it is safe to assume that if colonists can eat, they are also taking care of thirst.

Now I think that water could still be a helpful resource, possible a hygiene system with showers / baths, irrigating crops to give a boost to how quickly they grow (especially in the desert), as a counter to a new drought event or as cooling for industrial / high tech systems.

[1000101]

My position is almost the opposite from Jaxxa, hunger and thirst are two totally different animals.  Also, water without thirst is like food without hunger.  Desert biomes would be harder, oceanic coastal would be harder, tundra would have the opposite problem, easy to melt snow but food is scarce (as it is now).

Simple mechanics driving it similar to the power net with an additional "potability" (quality) and possibly "salinity" so unclean/salt water can make pawn sick as well as two new pawn stats "thirst" and "cleanliness" with the obvious affects.

Items and buildings to deal with water could include:

• Bucket of water (one-use, can drink directly, wash using, etc)
• Cisterns (à la batteries, filled by pipes or manually with buckets of water)
• Pipes (à la power nets)
• Sinks (only pipeable, pawns prefered drinking source, washing)
• Surface wells (not pipeable, creates buckets of water, can only be built n tiles from water tiles)
• Deep wells (only pipeable, can only be built n tiles from water tiles)
• Pipe inlets (only pipeable, can only be built in water tiles)
• Water Treatment Plant (pipeable, improves water networks potability (quality)).
• Desalination Plant? (pipeable, improves (lowers) water networks salinity)

Additional buildings could also include:

• Showers (joy/cleanliness)
• Water features (fountains, etc, purely joy)

When I first started playing RimWorld and building my first colony I was sort of surprised by the lack of water.  "Food, check.  Shelter, check.  Water...water...?  One of the three basis for life is missing from a survival game, odd."

I do agree with people that drinking shouldn't take too much time and that some AI improvements should be made, specifically that colonists travelling further than n tiles for work should first stop to bring a meal and some water with them in their inventory.  Personally I hate mining one-two tiles a day because my pawns are too busy running back to eat, then sleep, [repeat] or having to build temporary mining colonies to actually get any work done.

[Johnny Masters]

The personal canteen has been suggested here and in older threads and, in my opinion, is the most sensible approach given the current system and possible system follow-ups. It's elegant, simple, credible and still opens all the possibilities that thirst and water could give to a more complex game. If people don't like complex then fine, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it either.

Most of the criticism thirst/water/hygiene gets could be applied to most if not all of the needs. As must be regularly noted, this game is mostly about managing pawn needs, not building or fighting (although its a major plus), so yeah, i'm all down for thirst/water/hygiene.

That said, there is a just concern with overwhelming micro. So, since pawns already start with an embedded multi-tool that can build and destroy on a molecular level (mine, build, repair,etc), they could all come equipped with a personal survival canteen that holds x amount of water. Every few hours they'd take a sip, possibly taking a second or two for the "animation", reducing a water amount and recovering thirst meter.

When empty or below a threshold, they'd move to a source of water, like buckets, sinks, taps, whatever and refill it. The canteen could be a slot item like an apparel or door key, or "built-in" like the omni-tool they got. Right click on water source could force a refill or a sip for longer trips or because of (and there will be) events related to water quality or contamination. Probably could lock a source of water so you can ration it in a biome where drinking water is scarce, like you can with food and anything else.

[Guga_321]

Could have an option to find digging water



Sorry, my english is Brazilian.

[b0rsuk]

The Thirst System would be like the Hunger System

Sounds boring.

[Limdood]

thirst need is just "hunger v2." Another need that acts and is satisfied exactly the same way an existing need does wouldn't enhance the game.