Ate without table

[omittimo]

Don't you hate it, when you wake up, grab your simple meal and eat it on the ground, walk 5 Minutes to the table to relax socially and grumble 12 hours about not having a table to eat?

[cultist]

39 pages of posts when you search for "ate without table".... just sayin'

[TheMeInTeam]

Wouldn't mind 40 then.  It'd be a nice QoL change and whatever the reason is in-game, it's not working well right now.  This is nearly a 10 point mood swing compared to bonuses you can get from comfort/impressive room even early game.  It's very punitive for something that's beyond tedious to micromanage and should have some easy workarounds (scheduled eating, blocking pawns carrying food, increasing default table search range are some examples).  Some of those workarounds are even standard when it comes to other mechanics, despite that said mechanics don't punish you severely when pawns arbitrarily don't use them.

[Wheatley]

Provided the dining room is located near the dining room they're pretty good at pathing. I dot lesser dining rooms near other projects to ensure they have somewhere to go too.

[mumblemumble]

it IS a pretty dumb thing : colonist should seek tables with more gusto than right now, as pretty much everyone would want this, particularly for breakfast in the morning

I can understand lunch in the mines, or when super far away, but its a bit much right now

[Vlad0mi3r]

I just use outdoor settings. A small square table 4 stools and a roof over it. Place it near where I am growing crops (which is the most likely place to cop the ate without table). So around 150 wood to avoid a mood penalty is not to much of an ask IMO.

[Aerial]

An easy fix to all of this is to not penalize pawns for not eating at a table.  Instead, give pawns who do eat at a table a small "sit-down meal" buff.

[Wley]

I found the best way to deal with the "Ate-my-breakfast-without-a-table" debuff is to build a table and a chair in each bedroom (and prevent them from being a gathering spot)

[skullywag]

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=33372.msg346403#msg346403

This mod saved my sanity (and that of my pawns), works perfectly.

[TheMeInTeam]

I just use outdoor settings. A small square table 4 stools and a roof over it. Place it near where I am growing crops (which is the most likely place to cop the ate without table). So around 150 wood to avoid a mood penalty is not to much of an ask IMO.

You're still taking a several hour 5+ mood penalty relative to using a good dining/rec room.

+5 level dining rooms (or more) are not 150 wood.  They're more on the order of thousands of resources and an important part of high level mood management.  Having pawns ignore it to slap down -8 because reasons is annoying, and so is that mods are the top suggestion to fix the issue that works.

[erdrik]

I haven't check this so Ill ask here if anyone has noticed.
If they eat without table, does the debuff last long enough that it would still be there for their next meal?
If so does the debuff go away if they eat at a table during that second meal, or is it purely an "expires after X amount of time" deal?

Because if its purely a time based expire, it may be a good idea for it to be overridden by a positive boost when they do eat at a table. Kind of like a smaller version of the catharsis they get after a break.

...
+5 level dining rooms (or more) are not 150 wood.  They're more on the order of thousands of resources and an important part of high level mood management.  Having pawns ignore it to slap down -8 because reasons is annoying, and so is that mods are the top suggestion to fix the issue that works.

I don't think that is an issue to begin with since they can enter the dinning room at any time and still get the impressive dinning room buff, even without the purpose of eating. Especially if you've combined the dinning room with the rec room. If they have ANY free time at all, and your dinning rooms tables are the only gather spot in the colony then they are almost guaranteed to get those mood buffs at least once(usually multiple times) during the day.

[Gohihioh]

Let's just all agree that 'ate without debuff' is annoying and needs work.
You either have to build dining rooms everywhere on the map - and still they sometimes decide to eat on the floor.
If you put tables in each bedroom then pawns will sometimes go eat there while someone is sleeping giving them disturbed sleep debuff.

I don't even thing it should be a thing. Give them mood bonus if they eat at the table, but eating on the ground shouldn't give them debuff. Not sure about others but I sometimes find myself sitting on the floor eating and it doesn't taste worse and I enjoy doing it. And our colonists are fighting for life, I don't think that eating on the floor(as long as it's clean) should bother them.
If it's for balance then find another way to give them -5 debuff which we have to try to fight. I don't think anyone likes this debuff being in the game.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Let's just all agree that 'ate without debuff' is annoying and needs work.
You either have to build dining rooms everywhere on the map - and still they sometimes decide to eat on the floor.
If you put tables in each bedroom then pawns will sometimes go eat there while someone is sleeping giving them disturbed sleep debuff.

I don't even thing it should be a thing. Give them mood bonus if they eat at the table, but eating on the ground shouldn't give them debuff. Not sure about others but I sometimes find myself sitting on the floor eating and it doesn't taste worse and I enjoy doing it. And our colonists are fighting for life, I don't think that eating on the floor(as long as it's clean) should bother them.
If it's for balance then find another way to give them -5 debuff which we have to try to fight. I don't think anyone likes this debuff being in the game.

Hate to be 'that' guy, but I like the debuff, as long as it is working correctly. That mod Skullywag mentioned makes it more than fair I believe, it's probably even a bit OP, but that is the good thing about the configurable nature of the way it was made, it can be tuned to whatever you feel is fair.

To me the debuff makes total sense.

[Bozobub]

Provided the dining room is located near the dining room they're pretty good at pathing. I dot lesser dining rooms near other projects to ensure they have somewhere to go too.

I don't reca;ll ever seeing a dining room that WASN'T near...  A dining room o.o .

[erdrik]

Hate to be 'that' guy, but I like the debuff, as long as it is working correctly. That mod Skullywag mentioned makes it more than fair I believe, it's probably even a bit OP, but that is the good thing about the configurable nature of the way it was made, it can be tuned to whatever you feel is fair.

To me the debuff makes total sense.

I agree.
I think it is intended to work with the varying "Low Expectations" buff.
Im not 100% but if the "Expectations" buff is directly tied to colony wealth it would make sense.
Especially with the description of my colony's current "Expectations" level:

Moderate Expectations +6:
This place isn't quite rich. I can't expect to be totally pampered.

This suggest to me that as my colony gets richer, the colonists are going to expect to be pampered.
And if they do get to that point then I can definitely see the "Ate without table" debuff being not only reasonable, but actually have an impact since by that point the "Expectations" buff will be super low or flat out non existent.

EDIT:
Basically I think the mechanic is less "make your colonists happy" and more "Work around your colonists expectations".