Get rid of Nutrient Paste Dispenser?

[Benny the Icepick]

Assuming that the billing and food storage systems are improved for Alpha 3, is there really any need for a Nutrient Paste Dispenser anymore?

First of all, for the sake of realism, how believable is it that three crashlanding colonists can whip up a fancy cheese-whiz machine from scratch?  Isn't it more likely that they would build a crude stove (a few sheets of metal with a fire inside) and forage for whatever they might find?

Secondly, from a gameplay perspective, it adds a layer of complexity.  From the get-go, you need to make sure that at least one of your initial colonists has the stats to provide food for the colony - a pretty basic survival skill that currently doesn't make an appearance until later on in the game.  Plus, requiring that colonists take the time plant,forage, and cook their food - instead of letting a machine do all the work - means that you have to appropriately prioritize another task.  This places greater importance on acquiring new colonists through trade, capture, etc.

And finally, from the standpoint of base design, a nutrient paste dispenser is a 3x4 machine, which balloons to 5x5 if you put hoppers on all three sides.  That's a beast to plan for, especially if you're worried about cave-ins.  A 1x3 cook stove, with an adequate stockpile adjacent, is much more reasonable.

I suppose Tynan could just leave the NDP in the game and give people the choice, but I have a feeling a new and improved Alpha3 cookstove will be the clear choice over an NDP.

Thoughts?

[SlimeCrusher]

I suppose Tynan could just leave the NDP in the game and give people the choice, but I have a feeling a new and improved Alpha3 cookstove will be the clear choice over an NDP.

... Nutrient dispenser paste? lol
I think really, the NPD is kind of useless, but some people may like playing with it, even when its a worse alternative to cooking, some challenges may include only NPD, for example.

[Blitz]

I look at it the other way. I like the NPD and think the cooking is complicated. Space travelers probably wouldn't be using open fire on their ship. They would have a NPD on board to process their meal supplies. They would understand how it works and how to repair it. They probably could build it from random scrap metal and probably wouldn't know how to cook food over an open fire.

What I think should be done is that the NPD would gain an internal refrigeration unit instead of the hoppers that would work as a bigger stockpile. The foods in the refridgeration units would provide the quality of the meal. A lavish meal would be produced by having 3 different foods in the NPD's internal storage. If you only had 1 food source available - mashed potatoes or raspberry jam. The NPD would then act as the cook - which would free up another colonist for other tasks.

It still works fine in a prison, even if it is big and clunky...

[Benny the Icepick]

... Nutrient dispenser paste? lol

Gha.  I'm going to say I was talking about the New Democratic Party of Canada, or National Drug Policy, or Neutron Depth Profiling, or Nifty Dance Party.

[Luckless]

I wouldn't mind seeing an 'advanced tech' feature added to the game. Things like the NPD would require one or more 'advanced tech modules' which would be expensive, but one or two would crash with you at the start.

The NPD would make life far 'easier', but the food it makes wouldn't be nearly as good as a skilled cook could produce. It could however be upgraded over time with research unlocks and skill based improvements to the machine to lessen the negative effect, but even the best upgrades would only offer a very minimal bonus if any.

An unskilled cook would have a chance of producing rather bad food or even waste food, while a reasonably skilled cook would give a decent bonus to, and a very skilled one would grant a very nice bonus, but of course at the cost of the time and labour needed to dedicate someone to the job.

[Monkfish]

I've never liked the size of the NPD and especially so now it requires hoppers. Not sure what to think of its removal though, I think something should sit between eating raw food and cooking a meal that's preferable in the interim due to a lack of resources and/or higher priorities elsewhere. Perhaps the NPD could be reduced in size and resource requirement (both metal and power) whilst the cooker simultaneously is increased in resource requirement. This would mean that a cooker would be a relatively luxury item that's not high on the priorities list initially, whereas a small NPD that doesn't use much power would suffice until you have enough resource to build the cooker (and everything else that supports it).

[theSovietConnection]

...or Nifty Dance Party.

I wholly put my support behind more Nifty Dance Parties in RimWorld.

On-topic, I do agree, I wouldn't mind seeing the NPD appear later in the game. It would be better to see their be a step or two between crashing on the planet and creating Cheeze Whiz style potatoes.

[Thunder Rahja]

The nutrient paste dispenser doesn't require someone to spend most of their time cooking and it allows your colonists to work on other tasks.

In the meantime I propose a disco ball for the nifty dance parties everyone is talking about.

[Benny the Icepick]

Soooo I decided to remove my NPD and see how well I can do with a cookstove alone.  Yeah.  Cumbersome micromanagement all the way.  I hereby retract my suggestion and instead propose a mod to convert turrets to disco balls, inspiring raiders to throw down their weapons and engage in a nifty dance party.

[Bunnie]

I could turn it into a disco ball... and make them drop their guns to... but they would drop with the guns... :<
"Everybody do the flop!"
If you count that as dancing XD

[Coenmcj]

I could turn it into a disco ball... and make them drop their guns to... but they would drop with the guns... :<
"Everybody do the flop!"
If you count that as dancing XD

DO IT NOW

Someone needs to mod in a second turret if it does this so we can set up rave's aswell, one that fires lasers in random directions, mod in a stereo or something. should be pretty nice.

[ApexPredator]

I like keeping one in my prison. Saves my cols time and helps fatten up my Christmas goose, or whatever the raider is named this year.

[Architect]

I could turn it into a disco ball... and make them drop their guns to... but they would drop with the guns... :<
"Everybody do the flop!"
If you count that as dancing XD

DO IT NOW

Someone needs to mod in a second turret if it does this so we can set up rave's aswell, one that fires lasers in random directions, mod in a stereo or something. should be pretty nice.

Change the texture of the bullet which the turret gun fires to something more laser...y..., change the accuracy of the turret gun to something truly abysmal, and you have an easy and slightly hacky way of doing just that

[Bunnie]

Change the texture of the bullet which the turret gun fires to something more laser...y..., change the accuracy of the turret gun to something truly abysmal, and you have an easy and slightly hacky way of doing just that

That was how I would do it

Please find attached a disco ball that shoots lazers.
I made them do no damage so it just spams at the raiders XD

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