Creating an efficient base: a systems chart

Started by The Man with No Name, December 29, 2018, 02:41:52 PM

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The Man with No Name

I've been creating a systems chart as a guide to creating an efficient base. Here's what I have so far - anything missing?

Lines represent linked areas that one will want to minimize the distance between in order to maximize efficiency.


pllovervoltage

Nice layout for product movement. However I would recommend also optimizing for labor efficiency which in my experience has as good if not greater benefits. It would depend on how many pawns and what jobs you've assigned them tho.

dkmoo

some feedbacks:
1) butcher table should not be in the same room as kitchen - the blood will make floor very dirty, which in turn will cause a higher chance of food poisoning from the meals prepared in the kitchen
2) you can combine dining and rec room. that way your pawns will also enjoy the beauty buff while eating
3) dining location do not need to be close to kitchen. This gives you more flexibility with base design. All you need is a small (1x2, or 2x2) room chilled below 0C to use as a walk in fridge, and store food there. Haulers can restock this storage from meals cooked elsewhere.
4) hospitals also do not need to be close to kitchen - follow same set up as 3). Often times your doctor will grab food to feed your patients from whereever he/she was closest at the time "doctoring duty" kicks in, so you may not even need a food storage in your hospital
5) I don't see any "defense" system chart - your hospital should be closest to your primary defense perimeter/setup
6) Critical systems - like power generation, should not be concentrated in one area. otherwise, one unlucky pod-drop raid or mortar shell will obliterate your entire base.
7) i would assume all your "production for trading" systems would be close to your orbital beacon locations.
8) Tailor stations - i wouldnt put it close to butcher spot b/c i rarely make anything with leather - most of the time your apparels would be made out of devilstrand (near farm) or wool (near grazing area)

The Man with No Name

#3
Quote from: pllovervoltage on January 01, 2019, 06:39:26 AM
Nice layout for product movement. However I would recommend also optimizing for labor efficiency which in my experience has as good if not greater benefits. It would depend on how many pawns and what jobs you've assigned them tho.
Could you expand on this?

Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PM
1) butcher table should not be in the same room as kitchen - the blood will make floor very dirty, which in turn will cause a higher chance of food poisoning from the meals prepared in the kitchen
Good point - the kitchen can get very dirty, making the cooks unhappy. So a separate butchering room would be preferable, even just as a 3x3 sub-room of the kitchen.

Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PM2) you can combine dining and rec room. that way your pawns will also enjoy the beauty buff while eating
Yeah, they can be combined, and that would probably be more efficient, but I like to keep dining room and rec room separate.

Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PM3) dining location do not need to be close to kitchen. This gives you more flexibility with base design. All you need is a small (1x2, or 2x2) room chilled below 0C to use as a walk in fridge, and store food there. Haulers can restock this storage from meals cooked elsewhere.
Might one get an issue where a pawn will take a meal from the separate meal storage area, and then a hauler pawn will finish their job elsewhere and then go to the kitchen and take a single meal to replenish the other meal storage area's stock? If so, that would be inefficient.

I prefer a single meal-collecting area in the kitchen, near the colonists' bedrooms, so they get up in the morning, get a meal to eat in the adjacent dining room and take a meal with them to eat elsewhere during the day.

It could be beneficial to have extra tables and chairs as eating areas around the base, perhaps with some beautification for colonists to enjoy while they're eating, and thereby having them avoid the "ate without table" penalty.

Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PM4) hospitals also do not need to be close to kitchen - follow same set up as 3). Often times your doctor will grab food to feed your patients from whereever he/she was closest at the time "doctoring duty" kicks in, so you may not even need a food storage in your hospital
Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PMyour hospital should be closest to your primary defense perimeter/setup

I can see the logic of placing a hospital close to where a colonist is most likely to be injured. However, I prefer to have the hospital in the heart of the base in the safest area. If one suffers a major attack in which many colonists are injured and the attackers have breached the base, then the hospital becomes the last place of defence, while one tries to heal wounded colonists so they can hopefully get on their feet again and continue fighting. This is another reason for having the hospital to the close to the kitchen/food area as these are the base's most vital areas when it's under severe threat.

Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PM5) I don't see any "defense" system chart
Other security/defense not pictured. I'm not sure there's much of a system to make for them for the chart. Power switches are good for turning off improvised turrets when they aren't being used.

Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PM6) Critical systems - like power generation, should not be concentrated in one area. otherwise, one unlucky pod-drop raid or mortar shell will obliterate your entire base.
Yeah, I agree that power should be spread around the base. I just put them together as a group - areas without connecting lines in the chart are more flexible in their location.

Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PM7) i would assume all your "production for trading" systems would be close to your orbital beacon locations.
Yeah, orbital beacons can be placed in any storage area containing things one wants to sell, and storage areas can be combined for efficiency, thereby using less orbital beacons.

Quote from: dkmoo on January 02, 2019, 12:16:29 PM8) Tailor stations - i wouldnt put it close to butcher spot b/c i rarely make anything with leather - most of the time your apparels would be made out of devilstrand (near farm) or wool (near grazing area)
Advanced fabrics are somewhat of a luxury item, in that there are other more essential things that need to be grown, such as food and herbal medicine. So one is likely going to need to use furs and leathers for clothes, at least at the start of the game, and on higher difficulties, perhaps for much longer. Also, it's good for lower-level tailor pawns to gain experience by making clothes with less precious materials, and excess clothes can be sold for profit.

bbqftw

all production (kitchen tailor stoneworking drugs) dining and rec should be in the same room

livestock is inefficient, why even bother

QuoteMight one get an issue where a pawn will take a meal from the separate meal storage area, and then a hauler pawn will finish their job elsewhere and then go to the kitchen and take a single meal to replenish the other meal storage area's stock? If so, that would be inefficient.
I think you don't realize the incentive system of the game. This game does not reward efficiency since it scales all threats towards your wealth. The question is how efficiently you can utilize your wealth to maximize survival chance.

Even on merciless having half your pawns idle isn't even bad.

pllovervoltage

#5
Quote
QuoteNice layout for product movement. However I would recommend also optimizing for labor efficiency which in my experience has as good if not greater benefits. It would depend on how many pawns and what jobs you've assigned them tho.
Could you expand on this?

The diagram is currently laid out to minimize distance of resource to product. However it is not optimized for cooking jobs in one general region, growing jobs in another, etc. The pawn may spend less time hauling products but will spend more time switching jobs. Taking specific examples, a pawn assigned to crafting has 5 areas where it has to work in that are in different systems of the diagram. You can make small changes to incorporate this by just changing the layout/relation of the current systems so that the same jobs are closer together. Or you can do a complete overhaul and instead of having a beer/drug system and a food system have a systems based on jobs so a Growing system, cooking system, crafting system etc.

eg.
Instead of (product movement)

Dedicated Growing >> Beer/Drug Production >> Storage
Dedicated Growing >> Food Production >> Storage


do (labor efficiency)

Centralized Growing Area >> Centralized Cooking >> Storage
(same) Centralized Growing Area >> Centralized Crafting >> Storage


It doesn't have to be completely one system or another but considering both efficiencies will create a much more efficient base.

Quoteall production (kitchen tailor stoneworking drugs) dining and rec should be in the same room
Kitchens should almost always be seperate. All the production tables have filth associated with them and increase poison chance.

bbqftw

#6
You don't even know how poisoning from rooms works. The food poisoning increased chance triggers at -2 cleanliness or below which is near impossible to attain unless you are trying to sabotage your base or attempting to cook in your killbox.

For reference, a pure dirt floor is -1.00 cleanliness. 

This is the danger of theorycrafting without mechanical understanding, as it means everything you come up with will be inapplicable to the actual game.

pllovervoltage

Quote from: bbqftw on January 04, 2019, 10:45:53 PM
You don't even know how poisoning from rooms works. The food poisoning increased chance triggers at -2 cleanliness or below which is near impossible to attain unless you are trying to sabotage your base or attempting to cook in your killbox.

For reference, a pure dirt floor is -1.00 cleanliness. 

This is the danger of theorycrafting without mechanical understanding, as it means everything you come up with will be inapplicable to the actual game.
... I understand how food poisoning works and I know it starts from room cleanliness -2. Perhaps I worded my response improperly.

Production tables lower the buffer against food poison chance and potentially increase food poison chance.

bbqftw

In what actual play situation are you getting to -2 unless you get drop podded in your production room? Even if you never set anyone on cleaning.

pllovervoltage

Quote from: bbqftw on January 05, 2019, 12:34:24 AM
In what actual play situation are you getting to -2 unless you get drop podded in your production room? Even if you never set anyone on cleaning.

I have no doubt that more experienced players have no trouble managing a clean kitchen with different layouts. Most players however don't and don't play efficiently and so I would still recommend to most players having a room dedicated for a kitchen.
I personally like to maintain a perfect 0.6 cleanliness kitchen. Trying to maintain that may perhaps be unnecessarily, meaningless, and inefficient but I personally like optimizing my base like that.

5thHorseman

Quote from: The Man with No Name on January 03, 2019, 05:57:49 PM
It could be beneficial to have extra tables and chairs as eating areas around the base, perhaps with some beautification for colonists to enjoy while they're eating, and thereby having them avoid the "ate without table" penalty.
It is. I particularly like to have one near where I'm mining, a couple dotted around the outer walls for hunters, and a big one near where I tend to get into defensive battles. The defensive one is usually as big as the dining room, to accommodate everybody suddenly getting REALLY hungry after the battle.

Make sure they're not party spots, or your next wedding will take place in your granite mines.
Toolboxifier - Soil Clarifier
I never got how pawns in the game could have such insanely bad reactions to such mundane things.
Then I came to the forums.

jpinard

Nice chart, just need to do what was mentioned above.