Drinking water/thirst/wells/Etc//

[Perq]

I've made arguments for water as well. I want a water need, but I understand that it would be a hard system to design and balance in such a way that it doesn't become annoying.

Pawns are already pretty inefficient in their day-to-day lives, and this game demands performance from the few people you have at your disposal. A water need would have them stopping to drink water at least twice per day. It doesn't sound like much at first, but it adds up pretty fast given how the AI tends to behave.

Still, maybe one day...

Well, nothing stands in the way of adding another element while retaining the efficiency. In my mind it is pretty simple (correct me if I'm wrong).
Lets say that pawn can output X amount of work (walking, carrying, crafting, whatever) per day. If you want to add another need that pawns have to take care of, while retaining the amount of work they can do, you can simply... give them more time.
Se lets say that adding drinking would make pawns need to do 1,2*X work per day to remain as efficient as before adding it.
Then lets just make days 1,2 times longer and other needs drop 1,2 times slower. Now pawns have more time overall, but need to do more things per day.

The balance remains the same, but you have another element which can potentially add depth to the game. Which then breeds tons of scenarios in which those mechanics cross each other creating unique experience.
I think the biggest hurdle as for now is the fact that hauling/building AI is too dumb to be able to efficiently do tasks. Adding another one will make it even worse, so before anything can be ever done in terms of adding other needs/tasks that pawns need to do in order to survive, these systems needs to be vastly improved.

EDIT:

First, "hydration" need. It should be quite general bar for liquids and span over 2 or 3 game days. While water is critical to humans, you can go few days without drinking, especially if you get your H2O from food and don't work hard.

It is actually the other way around. You can easily not eat for 2-3 days (you can survive for around 1-2 month(s) without eating, depending on your health). Not drinking for 2-3 days will exhaust you greatly. Not drinking for about 7 days will most likely kill you, no matter what.

[InCreator]

I *did* say "few days".

[Perq]

Sure, but you seem to be suggesting it should be less important than eating, which pawns have to do around twice a day.
From what I'm reading, it takes around 3 days for pawn to die from malnutrition (from 100 nutrition to death). Making it few days (lets make it 2) would mean they will be half way to death from malnutrition, but only will slowly begin to get dehydrated. :-@

On the other hand, making it more severe than malnutrition would make it extremely dangerous (and therefore random and annoying).
We, of course, don't have to be realistic here and go with any approach we want, since there are bunch other things that are nowhere near realistic (power generation, heating and so on).

[InCreator]

It's just a matter of balance. Need for food right now is a bit overestimated, even though pawns do hard work.
Starvation should be just longer process, and that's it. In real life, if you don't eat for 2 days, you do get weakness, shaky hands, hunger and whatnot.
You just don't die. Also, Rimworld doesn't run in real time - a season is 15 game days long, not 90. Perhaps adjusting this would make needs more manageable. Although it would take forever then to grow crops.
But who really knows how long days are on mysterious planet or how long do potatoes grow there?

I'm also thinking that water would give more use to beer and milk, and perhaps introduce fruit trees (crop you don't have to resow!) and juice making.

[Perq]

Beer is actually dehydrating your body... Altho, others are nice touches.

[milon]

Personally, I play combat-lite games of RW, so I really like having more variety of non-combat stuff in the game.  I'd really enjoy a water mechanic (I think), and as others have pointed out, it would fit in well with other existing systems/products.

[InCreator]

Beer is actually dehydrating your body... Altho, others are nice touches.

That's also arguable. Depends how strong beer is and how much do you consume. A bottle of light beer or two, (which is 95-96% water) can hydrate a person very well.

Six or ten or whatever bottles of beer work vice versa, body gets too busy pounding out alcohol (by losing water), which leads to kidneys overworking etc. So problem rises when blood alcohol content gets too high.

Of course, that doesn't apply to stronger liquor.

[Alien :)]

I love the water, and I want this.

To imagine
A system of tubes similar to that of the electricity... water pumps to make circular.
Sprinklers for the irrigation garden of potatos?
Water masses under the ground? waiting to be extracted also and is loaded when it rains?
Containers of water and wells...

It is now very easy to cultivate, with this it should be more interesting... and we all know that when the water touches a device on what happens. The need to drink adds another point.

[Rimrue]

I'm all for adding water to irrigate crops and possibly even for hygiene purposes, but don't think adding hydration as a separate need from food is a good idea. Most people have a drink with their meals anyway, so as long as colonists are getting food they should be getting water. Add some glasses to the cafeteria tray graphics and I'd say it's good. Lol

But irrigation would add a whole new aspect to the game. New research, new stuff to build (wells, pumps, water pipe, irrigation ditches, etc.), and rain and the new rivers would become an important part of the game.

[Perq]

That's also arguable. Depends how strong beer is and how much do you consume. A bottle of light beer or two, (which is 95-96% water) can hydrate a person very well.

Six or ten or whatever bottles of beer work vice versa, body gets too busy pounding out alcohol (by losing water), which leads to kidneys overworking etc. So problem rises when blood alcohol content gets too high.

Of course, that doesn't apply to stronger liquor.

Quite sure (which doesn't mean absolutely sure, tho) the amount of water needed to get rid of the alcohol (even those 5%) is higher than the amount of water that beer provides.

[ArguedPiano]

I think water is going to win the hearts of a lot of people with A17, and the new aesthetic. I love the way water looks right now.

I don't think all of those things have to be added. I just really think it would add a lot of potential to the game.

I mean...

• Rain, as a weather event of sorts, would have true meaning and feelings associated with it.
• Droughts, as a potential storyteller event, could strike just as much fear as a toxic fallout would.
• Rivers (although recently implemented) could offer some serious benefits and increase that sense of immersion.
• Growing/cultivating plants could be made so much more interesting with the need for plant care with water.
• Dehydration, as a consequence of water deficiency, would more than likely be a thing.

+1 to everything said here.

I like the addition of rivers. It's great to see the game evolving with each new Alpha. Maybe this is the start of something bigger? If we're lucky we can look forward to see it implemented in future versions.

[milon]

Quite sure (which doesn't mean absolutely sure, tho) the amount of water needed to get rid of the alcohol (even those 5%) is higher than the amount of water that beer provides.

Yup.  Same goes for coffee & most teas/juices/sodas/etc.  But I'd still love water to be a thing in RimWorld. 

[juscites]

By what I mean drinkable water I mean that the chareters would need to drink water multiple times per day just like eating food. I Believe that would make a extra layer of realty to the game for alpha 18 or 19 I'm I the only one who thinks or would that be to hard? also soory if my gramer is bad English is my second languenge

[BetaSpectre]

Add a way to make it so caravan pawns don't die of dehydration in 4 minutes and still be able to carry stuff to sell.

And add a no weight solution to allow pawns to carry water on their person while wandering maps.

Honestly I'm not against this or sanitation mods. But it's already annoying as is to keep pawns fed and happy.

[LouisTBR]

I feel like adding more needs on top of what we already have is ranging into the Sims territory. It's better to keep it simple rather than spending hours each day fulfilling needs.