Sunlamps not letting crops grow at night

Started by Girlinhat, August 17, 2014, 09:55:26 PM

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Girlinhat

It's night.  Hydroponics tables + sunlamp, and the crops have the status
Not growing now (night time).
despite making sure it is a sunlamp, they are hydroponics, and everything is powered.

Bog

Quote from: Girlinhat on August 17, 2014, 09:55:26 PM
It's night.  Hydroponics tables + sunlamp, and the crops have the status
Not growing now (night time).
despite making sure it is a sunlamp, they are hydroponics, and everything is powered.
I noticed this too, but I assumed that it was a design choice, not a bug.

I also have the feeling that the plants grow faster during the day while in hydroponics then they used to, but I haven't checked specifically. It's just a feeling.
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Girlinhat

Quote from: Bog on August 17, 2014, 11:31:39 PM
Quote from: Girlinhat on August 17, 2014, 09:55:26 PM
It's night.  Hydroponics tables + sunlamp, and the crops have the status
Not growing now (night time).
despite making sure it is a sunlamp, they are hydroponics, and everything is powered.
I noticed this too, but I assumed that it was a design choice, not a bug.

I also have the feeling that the plants grow faster during the day while in hydroponics then they used to, but I haven't checked specifically. It's just a feeling.
Well, the point of the sunlap is to provide constant sun, otherwise the only point is so you can grow under mountains.  If you wanted to grow, say, on a desert, you could just as easily not have a roof...

Crops don't seem to grow any faster during day, and if 'crops only grow at night while under a sun lamp' is a design choice, then that's a TERRIBLE design choice.

ItchyFlea

This popped up during testing. It's a design choice because real life crops cannot grow properly if they are constantly getting light. Instead of making the player have to manually switch off their sunlamps every night, the game just ignores them during night time.
Sunlamps are only required to grow crops if the crops cannot 'see' the sky. IE: Growing under a mountain or in a room with a metal roof overhead.

Basically it's a realism thing. :)
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Girlinhat

Quote from: ItchyFlea on August 18, 2014, 12:32:58 AM
This popped up during testing. It's a design choice because real life crops cannot grow properly if they are constantly getting light. Instead of making the player have to manually switch off their sunlamps every night, the game just ignores them during night time.
Sunlamps are only required to grow crops if the crops cannot 'see' the sky. IE: Growing under a mountain or in a room with a metal roof overhead.

Basically it's a realism thing. :)
In that case hydroponics need a buff.  I can barely feed 6 guys using 12 hydroponics tables with potatoes.  They seem to grow at the same rate as they do in the ground, or very nearly the same, which makes them really inconvenient.  I could way more easily just toss in a fertilizer pump and leave the roof off.  Roofs don't seem to do much practically anyways, they don't stop bandit drop pods, they don't protect against mortar at all, they prevent rain from putting out fires, and they fall on you at the worst moments.

But seriously, what is the point of hydroponics then?

ApexPredator

Quote from: Girlinhat on August 18, 2014, 12:57:01 AM
Quote from: ItchyFlea on August 18, 2014, 12:32:58 AM
This popped up during testing. It's a design choice because real life crops cannot grow properly if they are constantly getting light. Instead of making the player have to manually switch off their sunlamps every night, the game just ignores them during night time.
Sunlamps are only required to grow crops if the crops cannot 'see' the sky. IE: Growing under a mountain or in a room with a metal roof overhead.

Basically it's a realism thing. :)
In that case hydroponics need a buff.  I can barely feed 6 guys using 12 hydroponics tables with potatoes.  They seem to grow at the same rate as they do in the ground, or very nearly the same, which makes them really inconvenient.  I could way more easily just toss in a fertilizer pump and leave the roof off.  Roofs don't seem to do much practically anyways, they don't stop bandit drop pods, they don't protect against mortar at all, they prevent rain from putting out fires, and they fall on you at the worst moments.

But seriously, what is the point of hydroponics then?

Unless something has drastically changed you may want to change a few colonist to have a higher grow/cut priority. I can feed 10-12 colonist with 8 tables.

Damien Hart

Quote from: Girlinhat on August 18, 2014, 12:57:01 AM
Quote from: ItchyFlea on August 18, 2014, 12:32:58 AM
This popped up during testing. It's a design choice because real life crops cannot grow properly if they are constantly getting light. Instead of making the player have to manually switch off their sunlamps every night, the game just ignores them during night time.
Sunlamps are only required to grow crops if the crops cannot 'see' the sky. IE: Growing under a mountain or in a room with a metal roof overhead.

Basically it's a realism thing. :)
In that case hydroponics need a buff.  I can barely feed 6 guys using 12 hydroponics tables with potatoes.  They seem to grow at the same rate as they do in the ground, or very nearly the same, which makes them really inconvenient.  I could way more easily just toss in a fertilizer pump and leave the roof off.  Roofs don't seem to do much practically anyways, they don't stop bandit drop pods, they don't protect against mortar at all, they prevent rain from putting out fires, and they fall on you at the worst moments.

But seriously, what is the point of hydroponics then?

Hydroponics have a fertiity value of 3.5, versus 1.4 for rich soil. So long as you have an efficient setup, you'll have higher production with hydroponics.

ShadowTani

If considering realism I would have liked to see magenta grow-lights used in the game, it's relatively new on the marked and uses only the light spectrum useful for the plant photosynthesis - this makes the grow lights way more energy efficient than white (full light-spectrum) grow lights, they also supposedly boost plant growth and yield. Hey, we already got colored regular lights, might as well throw in magenta sun lamps into the mix. ;3