Food and clothing balance issues

[evrett33]

!) I noticed in a LP that one can just ignore the growing seasons by building a building around your field and adding sunlamps. This seems unbalanced.
@) Is there a reason for the nutrient paste dispenser anymore beyond extreme colonies? I think it deserves a rework maybe as a converter for human meat. The incentives to butcher bodies and sell the meat needs a counter as its too painless atm to discard the profit.
#)The effort that goes into crafting parkas is a complete waste when every winter invader comes equipped with a parka. They also sell so well that the coats outvalue everything else in the game and borks the economy.

[mega]

Personally, I thought that parkas with gunshot holes and blood stains wouldn't sell very well. Boy am I glad this game taught me otherwise!

[evrett33]

Perhaps give clothing a chance to be destoyed when hit by gunfire? Its not like fleeing pirates are going to use it after they despawn in the event they escape.

[Noobshock]

I never build the nutrient paste dispenser if I have a choice at all.

Negative thoughts, lots of space (walled-in inside space is actually a scarce resource early game), and rather ugly by the game's own standards. It just has too many downsides! Either buff the paste dispenser so there's a choice involved or make proper cooking harder so the dispenser feels more like a necessary step.

And I can't overstate how just the space requirement makes it a very "ugh" option.

[kingtyris]

Maybe all clothing should have a chance to be rendered 'Ruined' after taking damage. Would make tailoring a bit more useful.

[Playbahnosh]

Maybe all clothing should have a chance to be rendered 'Ruined' after taking damage. Would make tailoring a bit more useful.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. Clothes should have a health counter like weapons do, and deteriorate over time as people are wearing them, and get damaged by weapons, fires, inclement weather, etc. As they lose integrity, they should also lose usefulness, like armor/temperature protection and give negative moods to colonists for wearing tattered clothes. The tailoring bench would actually be useful, to patch up clothes and make new ones. The Smithy bench could be used to repair armor, helmets, etc.

!) I noticed in a LP that one can just ignore the growing seasons by building a building around your field and adding sunlamps. This seems unbalanced.

Building greenhouses were a thing as far back as ancient Rome, so it's not so far fetched our colonists know how to build one. The energy usage of the sunlamps and the heaters required (not to mention the quality indoor real estate wasted) balance it out somewhat.
I do support a rework to something similar to DF. Remove sunlamps from the game, or drastically reduce their usefulness (plants grow only max. 50% speed for example), and implement a Glass Roof, that you can construct like flooring. It acts as a normal roof (so it counts as indoors, keeps temperature, etc), but lets sunlight through, but it should be fragile (destroyed by explosions/mortars/etc).

[Mihsan]

I noticed in a LP that one can just ignore the growing seasons by building a building around your field and adding sunlamps.

Greenhouse, man. Very weird, but still greenhouse.

Main oddity is that we are sheltering plants with nontransparent roof (which has no point unless we are in the cave) and then we give them artificial lighting.

Possible good idea: TRANSPARENT ROOF FOR GREENHOUSES (possible with large temperature leak, but with additional heat generation under sun light).

P.S.: I am sure that the solar lamp was balanced for the old settings of hydroponic beds (when they was much better than soil). IMO now it could be good for hydroponics to not require lamp (assuming it is already built into it), and solar lamps should be removed/rebalanced.

[Jameak]

Nutrient paste is still handy to have when you are just not growing enough food for all of your colonists to eat cooked meals. It's far more efficient to have them use what is grown for nutrient paste than to have some people go hungry.