Water

[Mikhail Reign]

Water

I made a post in a thread about hygiene but I felt the idea of Water of different enough to warrant a different thread. This is my proposal for a water system. It would add a new need the same as hunger obviously called thirst, as well as a new resource, also obviously, called water. Water could be stored only in specific objects, ranging from large water tanks, to personal canteens. Colonists could drink it, use it to cook, clean and water plants.

Where it comes from

Water would primarily come from rivers. Colonists could fill canteens from them, pump water from them, all the things I'll talk about. In the event that there wasn't a river on the map, the colonists could look to the water table and make, initially, wells then pump and then a 'coolnameforlargerpump'. When the map was generated, a heat map would be created. This would include areas of differing levels of water, of different qualities. There could be polluted water, water laced with difference chemicals, infected with a virus or nanobots, or any other number of cool events. All this would be unknown to the player unless the water was tested (early game=drink it; late game=research it with table) or some kind of testing was done to reveal parts of the heat map to the player (early game=colonists with 'divining' trait?; late game=research it with 'somekindawatertabletestingmachine').

How its used for people

Like I said, colonists would have to drink water, about 2 times a day seems like a goodish balance. Given a ready water source, the actual action of drinking water should be very quick, less then half the time to eat, requiring a colonist to only briefly touch a tap on a water tank, or in a sink, to drink or fill a carried canteen - canteens carrying a days worth of water, preventing them getting the 'thirsty' debuf during a days work. This time could also be rather timely - if a colony's only source of water from from a well, they would have to each haul a some water to drink - a lengthy and wasteful process. This time could be saved by making a bucket and putting it in a 'hopper' for the well, meaning the first colonist to haul water would be able to save what they dont use for the next person - I think either 1/2 or 1/4 of a bucket should fill a colonists thirst for half a day. Building a water tank next to the well would be the next step. A water tank would just be a storage place for only water, with a priority, the same as any other storage box in the game. From then on it would work like a crematorium hauling job in reverse - the colonist would go to the well, 'create' some water, and take it to the tank.

The water could be hauled in the buckets in the 'well hopper' to the tanks until the tank was full, meaning more bucket more haulers (to an extent). A tank functions as a water source the same as a river, well or any other and it has an almost instantaneous drink/fill speed, has the benefit of being where you want, but also is bulky..

The next step on from this is to use electricity to bring the water up from the ground - a pump can be researched and built. This acts as a water source, also with fast drink/fill speed. They are also loud and noisy and give some kind of debuffs being in a small room with them. Colonists will also use drink/fill from, being much quicker then from a well. Too speed it up even more you can connect the pump to the tanks with pipes, and in a similar system to the electrical system, it will fill up the tanks depending on how big the pump is, and how many are connected to the system. Anywhere on these pipes you put a tap - an access point for colonists to drink/fill from. Pumps would have a limited range, only pushing water X amount of squares.

Some benches could benefit from, or even require water connection (pipe in the back). A cooking bench hooked directly to water could up the cooking process, or water either via bucket or hooked could be requirement for fine &/or lavish meals. Brewing tables would require a water connection &/or bucketed water, but it would also be able to use lower quality water - an mid game method of dealing with a bad water source. A late game example would be pumping dirty water into tanks, pushing it through a water filter/purifier and then into clean tanks before being available to colonists. You could also connect heaters to the system and provide colonists with running hot/cold water for showers for use in Joy or Anytime, giving the 'freshly showered buff' for the first half of the day (also a 'filthy dirty' buff for those long over due for a shower)

How its used for plants/animals
(note - fetch use to distinguish between haulers hauling water, and grower/tenders fetching water for their crops/animals)

Plants would require water in addition to the right temp and sunlight to grow. Just another percentage under the growth rate. In rainy environments this wont be to much of a problem for crops out doors. When plants do have a shortage of water, colonists with the grower job will fetch water from the closest water source and use it to water their plants. They could use either a built items like a bucket, or for the fetching job, they could use only the magic welder and drop/lose the water they are carrying if interrupted. This means the early game idea is to have haulers bring water from a well to a tank near a plot, and then have growers fetch the tank water for the plants. Late game, after a piping system is in place is to research and build sprinklers under/over the farms. These could either draw exactly what was needed automatically, or require the player to turn them on/off like the power switch or something in between.

The use with animals isnt much different. A water troth would needed to be provided for animals which would be filled by either haulers or colonists set to animals initially, and then late game, connected to a pipe system. Animals would react to water differently - pigs might not mind tainted water so much, but terriers might get sick drinking anything but the cleanest water. Water sources for wild animals could be created by upping the likelihood of small ponds, lakes, rivers and swamps. Animals found in deserts would require significantly less water, and would be able to get the need covered by the small amounts in the plants they eat, and by having carnivorous animals hunt and scavenge and receive their need from mostly meat.

[JimmyAgnt007]

This really belongs in the suggestions area.  Also listed on the frequent suggestions list here https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12024.0

Its good to discuss but lets try to keep it in the same place.

[Mikhail Reign]

No worries. Be happy for a mod to move it.