Things I Wish I'd Known Sooner

MisterVertigo · September 10, 2015, 02:38:33 PM

Hello all! Sorry if something like this has been posted before, but I was just thinking about this and I thought I'd be fun. We all have been playing and will discover some feature or game mechanic that we didn't know about that makes us go "wow, I didn't know I could do that!" or "I didn't know that worked that way!". I thought it may be fun to share some of these stories with others. Who knows, maybe some of it will be helpful!

1. Growing skill and the Grow Job. I just figured this out the other day. I used to always just set all of my colonists up to do growing. I figured that when it came time to sow seeds or harvest, the more workers the faster it would get done, and it would maximize growing time. Boy, was that a mistake! I couldn't figure out why all of a sudden half of my crop was gone! That is when I learned that colonists with a low Growing Skill will fail at harvesting, and you won't get any crops. Now, I just set my colonists that have higher Growing skills to do that job, and I've had MUCH better yields from my crops!

2. Production tables and other things that require power still consume power even when not being used. If you set up a cooking stove or a tailor bench, but no one is using it, it will sit there and consume power unless you "flick" it off. I knew that turrets, coolers, and the crematorium always consumed power but it wasn't as obvious to me about things like the stove and work benches.

3. I'm sorry but I feel like a dunce for not seeing this one. THERE IS AN OUTFITS TAB! I can tell all my colonists to switch between summer and winter gear! I can prevent colonists from equipping shields and body armor! Holy cow, why didn't anyone tell me this was there!

Those are some of the ones I've discovered recently that I wish I had known about a LONG time ago. What others have you discovered?

TLHeart · September 10, 2015, 06:07:27 PM

The growing skill does not only affect harvest fail, but also how much is harvested. A low skill worker does damage the crop, and gets a smaller yield than a skilled grower.

MisterVertigo · September 10, 2015, 06:10:06 PM

It's a horrible feeling when winter is coming and all of my livestock is starting to get hungry. My hayfield is ALMOST grown! Hold on just a little longer! Then, all of a sudden, I look and half of the field is gone and NOTHING was harvested. Sorry Alpacas, looks like YOU will be dinner tonight.

Too-DAMN-Much · September 10, 2015, 08:58:41 PM

if you think that piece of farming advice is satisfying to learn, just wait until you get a hold of someone who's good at farming and has the green thumb trait.

Darkfirephoenix · September 10, 2015, 10:54:44 PM

Quote from: Too-DAMN-Much on September 10, 2015, 08:58:41 PM
if you think that piece of farming advice is satisfying to learn, just wait until you get a hold of someone who's good at farming and has the green thumb trait.

Add some bionic arms and eyes and BAM! one harvest can feed your colony for a year.

I've got a cook that is so good that I imagine he could butcher a fly and get 100 meat out of it. (Yes I play modded and my cook has ~600% on getting resources from butchering)

Too-DAMN-Much · September 11, 2015, 03:00:17 AM

Quote from: Darkfirephoenix on September 10, 2015, 10:54:44 PM
Quote from: Too-DAMN-Much on September 10, 2015, 08:58:41 PM
if you think that piece of farming advice is satisfying to learn, just wait until you get a hold of someone who's good at farming and has the green thumb trait.
Add some bionic arms and eyes and BAM! one harvest can feed your colony for a year.

I've got a cook that is so good that I imagine he could butcher a fly and get 100 meat out of it. (Yes I play modded and my cook has ~600% on getting resources from butchering)

h-h-hold up, BONUS product from harvesting skill? as in higher than before skill affected it?
nice, i love my colony of two job (more or less) cannibals all the much more now, cooking is also really one of the things i focus on too, i forget if my cook typically reaches the cap or not though.

farmer does though i'm almost positive, i mean the way i roll her up with cannibal, industrious and green thumb she's a machine and always super happy too.

zandadoum · September 11, 2015, 06:33:52 AM

Quote from: Too-DAMN-Much on September 10, 2015, 08:58:41 PM
h-h-hold up, BONUS product from harvesting skill? as in higher than before skill affected it?

i think he was talking about a modded game. i don't think it works like that in vanilla

A Friend · September 11, 2015, 07:36:31 AM

Giving a longsword to a volatile colonist is a bad idea.

MisterVertigo · September 11, 2015, 09:53:51 AM

Quote from: A Friend on September 11, 2015, 07:36:31 AM
Giving a longsword to a volatile colonist is a bad idea.

Ouch. That sounds like a story!

GramMKII · September 11, 2015, 08:45:31 PM

I wish I found out sooner that solar panels do not block wind turbines.

DeltaV · September 11, 2015, 08:48:07 PM

I knew about 2 and 3 vaguely, but I think i have a mod that does away with 2. 1 is completely new to me; i still tend to function as though this is the pre-alpha when it comes to basic things.

Lady Wolf · September 11, 2015, 09:31:15 PM

One of the things I wish I'd known back when i first started playing was that the trade beacon doesn't need power. (you can build them anywhere, and at times It's more efficient to build one next to that group of dead siege raiders in the middle of no where and sell stuff "on site" rather than drag it back to the colony first.)

Another thing I wish I'd known in the beginning is the ability to set what level of medicine a colonist (or prisoner) gets by selecting the icon in the health tab of each one. Makes it much easier to reserve the glitter world meds for the important colonists and not waste'm on the prisoners.

Too-DAMN-Much · September 11, 2015, 09:55:12 PM

Quote from: Lady Wolf on September 11, 2015, 09:31:15 PM
One of the things I wish I'd known back when i first started playing was that the trade beacon doesn't need power. (you can build them anywhere, and at times It's more efficient to build one next to that group of dead siege raiders in the middle of no where and sell stuff "on site" rather than drag it back to the colony first.)

Another thing I wish I'd known in the beginning is the ability to set what level of medicine a colonist (or prisoner) gets by selecting the icon in the health tab of each one. Makes it much easier to reserve the glitter world meds for the important colonists and not waste'm on the prisoners.

yeah that's a good one for the first, i'd wired up many many trade beacons before realizing that too.

second i thought was a somewhat recent change, hadn't really been paying attention though, it's a good thing to know about, for me it's the "stop wasting the bought medicine on things besides building medical beds" on/off switch.

Lady Wolf · September 12, 2015, 03:03:32 AM

Another handy bit I wish I'd known back in the beginning, you can change your A.I Storyteller and/or difficulty level in the options menu during play.

This is especially handy for end game when you no longer find Challenging Phoebe challenging enough and want to give Extreme Randy a go. (Or want to change to a lower difficulty for a short bit to give yourself time to rebuild after that last raid wiped out half your base and people yet you're curious if the colony endure provided the colonists have a couple weeks grace period to rebuild things.)

Daman453 · September 12, 2015, 03:23:12 PM

RAIDERS DO NOT BREAK DOWN DOOR IF YOU LEAVE A SPACE! This can mean many things, make a open trap setup with turrets. And then a door for your people. Um, right now i'm mining into a mountain and i used the trick of leaving a gap so raiders walk right past. (Using different wings, WIP)