Do rooms like the dining area and recreation area need doors?

[jpinard]

I have a large dining room and it'd be more efficient to just have a 2 space opening for them to enter and lave from the hallways.  Same goes for my billiards/recreation room.  Not sure how the game see this so any advice or info would be much appreciated.  I need to get my values up for those rooms, beauty etc.

[OFWG]

You need the doors to separate the room so the game doesn't get confused about what room you intend each to be. For instance, if you have a dining room open to the hall and the hall is open to your science workshop, the game may consider the dining room, hallway and workshop all one workshop instead of what you intended it to be.

[Hans Lemurson]

You can however use doors that you "Hold Open" to connect two rooms whose identities you want to be separate, but where you don't want to slow people down or block heat transfer.

[Jimyoda]

You can however use doors that you "Hold Open" to connect two rooms whose identities you want to be separate, but where you don't want to slow people down or block heat transfer.

Wow, that's a perfect use of that feature!

[jpinard]

Do I need separate rooms for doing science vs. artwork vs. general crafting?  Does that help in any way?  Right now I have them all together in one giant room.

[OFWG]

Do I need separate rooms for doing science vs. artwork vs. general crafting?  Does that help in any way?  Right now I have them all together in one giant room.

AFAIK the only ones you really need separate (besides bedrooms) are dining room and recreation room (with chess boards, TV, etc.) because the pawns get individual mood buffs for spending time in really nice versions of those rooms.

[cultist]

Do I need separate rooms for doing science vs. artwork vs. general crafting?  Does that help in any way?  Right now I have them all together in one giant room.

AFAIK the only ones you really need separate (besides bedrooms) are dining room and recreation room (with chess boards, TV, etc.) because the pawns get individual mood buffs for spending time in really nice versions of those rooms.

Nope, you don't need to separate dining room and rec room. Pawns will get both buffs even if it's the same room. I don't know if this is a new feature but it's worked in all of my A16 games.

As for research, you want your research room to be clean. That means no stonecutter table, butcher table, machining table and similar crafting facilities that increase dirtiness. Tailor table and (weirdly) drug lab can be placed with the research table without any problems, which is what I usually do.
Essentially, you'll want a "clean" workshop and a "dirty" workshop. The "dirty" workshop should probably be quite a bit larger than the "clean" one, as there are more "dirty" crafting jobs than "clean" ones.

[SpaceDorf]

Nope, you don't need to separate dining room and rec room. Pawns will get both buffs even if it's the same room. I don't know if this is a new feature but it's worked in all of my A16 games.

Time to get the testing going what gives the higher mood modifiers
My first guess would be one room, because its one awesome, large expensive room.

I usally have on big comunal area too, which give both buffs,
because it also creates more social buffs. ( and reject buffs .. )

As for research, you want your research room to be clean.

Why ? To avoid ugly environment thoughts ?
I tend to put the research tables, Com Array and Fluffy Management Bench into the large common area anyway.

[cultist]

Why ? To avoid ugly environment thoughts ?
I tend to put the research tables, Com Array and Fluffy Management Bench into the large common area anyway.

Any room that is not clean or sterile gives a penalty to research speed at research tables in that room. Check the info tab in different environments (clean/dirty). Further penalty if the table is outdoors (not in a room).

If you want the highest possible constant research speed you isolate the research table completely in its own room (with only one entrance), so only the researcher creates dirt.

Of course, you can work around this with sterile tiles.

[SpaceDorf]

Why ? To avoid ugly environment thoughts ?
I tend to put the research tables, Com Array and Fluffy Management Bench into the large common area anyway.

Any room that is not clean or sterile gives a penalty to research speed at research tables in that room. Check the info tab in different environments (clean/dirty). Further penalty if the table is outdoors (not in a room).

If you want the highest possible constant research speed you isolate the research table completely in its own room (with only one entrance), so only the researcher creates dirt.

Of course, you can work around this with sterile tiles.

This I have to check.
And good to know, research moves to the hospital wing ..

[Stormfox]

Of course, you can work around this with sterile tiles.

Or doormats. Highly recommended mod.

I tend to put the research tables, Com Array and Fluffy Management Bench into the large common area anyway.

Yep, the com array is a very good candidate for your common room because you only need to "flick" it every now and then and want to always have someone handy for that without generating needless walking. Since using it is skill-independent, the common room works nicely for that. One small drawback is that iirc, the com console gives a small beauty penalty, but that is a non-issue in the kind of common rooms one usually builds. One more statue to offset that, I guess

[b0rsuk]

You can however use doors that you "Hold Open" to connect two rooms whose identities you want to be separate, but where you don't want to slow people down or block heat transfer.

Wow, that's a perfect use of that feature!

A tiny flaw is that you can't disconnect an autodoor. I built an autodoor connecting my main hallway and dining room which has a geothermal vent. I keep it open so heat goes towards my sleeping quarters. The autodoor keeps drawing power.

[SpaceDorf]

You can however use doors that you "Hold Open" to connect two rooms whose identities you want to be separate, but where you don't want to slow people down or block heat transfer.

Wow, that's a perfect use of that feature!

A tiny flaw is that you can't disconnect an autodoor. I built an autodoor connecting my main hallway and dining room which has a geothermal vent. I keep it open so heat goes towards my sleeping quarters. The autodoor keeps drawing power.

Then use the components for something else
This are the places where rock doors shine. If you have to close them, it's mostly because they have to stay that way as long as possible.

[jpinard]

Fantastic information and insight.  Thanks!

[SpaceDorf]

Why ? To avoid ugly environment thoughts ?
I tend to put the research tables, Com Array and Fluffy Management Bench into the large common area anyway.

54% in Dining, 60% in Prison, a 10% Difference on the modifier for a lowly standard Research Table this is really noteworthy.
Any room that is not clean or sterile gives a penalty to research speed at research tables in that room. Check the info tab in different environments (clean/dirty). Further penalty if the table is outdoors (not in a room).

If you want the highest possible constant research speed you isolate the research table completely in its own room (with only one entrance), so only the researcher creates dirt.

Of course, you can work around this with sterile tiles.

This I have to check.
And good to know, research moves to the hospital wing ..