Beds and Comfort

[Esperologist]

So, as there were a few things I was having trouble figuring out, I checked some stuff online.
Of course, I found several comments about beds actually lowering the comfort level... and the most recent being made in July (2016). I'm talking just online in general, not only on the Steam forums.
So, I figure since I'm trying a few things anyway, I'd check it out. I'm on my first run at the first (forest) world. I've got a massive base that requires 3 totems (three!) to seal it up. I've got a nearby tower to the right that has a totem as well (the left tower is part of the main base). I've got two forts deep underground with a totem in each as staging to hit the guardians. I have completed the tech tree and have a decent spread of gear options... with steel and below now longer used for weapons.
So, what does this have to do with bed? Well, my base has 13 dwarves and 14 beds... I added a leaf bed to see what it does. Nothing. My 94% comfort held up to one more leaf bed. 15 beds (second leaf added) and give it a moment to update....) still 94%
What about a less cluttered base? (As a dwarf runs her face into a wall out of boredom).
I've got a small base underground, 45 tiles of Brick Wall. A mix of Brick Wall, Stone Wall and Wooden Wall for the 73 background tiles involved. One Table with Tablecloth, three Wall Lamps, one Black and White Pennant and a Stockpile - 88% comfort. So... add a Bed of Leaves and give it some time and it is till 88%.
At this point, I believe there is some average and median math being done, so as long as the bulk of the items have high comfort then it should have high comfort. So, a bigger base with better materials means a bit of junk decor won't hurt. However, if everything it low grade then it will be low grade.
So, don't panic if you need to use a few leaf beds... it'll be fine. Even if it isn't, I've noticed that sometimes the dwarves will randomly upgrade a bed when they have nothing else to do. Don't rely on it happening... but sometimes it will happen.
Besides, as long as comfort is high enough to avoid rats (I think over 50%) then it doesn't really matter. Maybe they'll spend less time sleeping with it higher... but unless you want to micro-manage your decor by removing anything worth under 5 points and add in extra items that are worth more than 7, don't worry about it.
It looks like it is more worth it to fill empty spaces before replacing low value items.

[Adarious_Mistdancer]

I was looking at this too, tonight in fact. I've been getting seriously tired of the rats despite the meat/leather supply. I removed 3 beds from the main base (built out of the large mtn to the far west). I find this mechanic as it is implemented to be annoying.

Unlike in your case, I removed 3 beds and through testing, discerned about 3 percent comfort per bed removed was added. This sort of thing really poos on people who want to make a giant castle/base.

[Esperologist]

That is interesting. I put in two leaf beds to no impact on my comfort levels at all. Perhaps it is just a matter of clutter? How much 'free space' do you have? I have almost every item crafted placed (minus the basic chairs and a few other 1 point items as well as 10 leaf beds). My base is so much cluttered that if I wanted to push to 100%, I'd have to either expand or rip stuff out.
Okay, I've actually moved to the winter map now so I am starting over again.
Wait... rats supply leather? Oh... I'm going to set up a little rat farming hut on the winter map then. Even if they don't, meat! I'm not even 15 minutes in and I'm trying to figure out where the food supply is.
I tried taking a screen shot of my base before moving over... but I have the GOG version and no clue how to screen shot in it.

[Esperologist]

Note: my rat farm will be when I have a second totem and my main base has high enough comfort that they stop spawning. Perhaps I'll make it a little up in the air so it rains rats and my dwarves don't accidentally kill the rat hole.

[mikeydsc]

It used to be a long time ago - add up all comfort items and divide by number of beds and by number of dwarves.

So if you had 10 beds for 6 dwarves, the rating would be lower. If you had 6 beds for 10 dwarves it would go up.

Will have to do some testing to see if it still works that way. There may have been some tweaking to the formula. They could of added size as part of the equation. I have noticed it seems to take more items to make it go up than it used to.

[Adarious_Mistdancer]

I have a piece of software I use for zombasite when the steam multi fails to connect called Evolve. That also includes the ability to take screenshots in games it supports. Failing that I usually ensure I have at least one handy program for it, in this case it's called Snagit...which I also use for making videos as well.

Here's the thing though...you are talking about making a rat farm ... but that will require a building of some sort with a totem (asfaik), and likely food in it. With that said, how do you prevent the dwarves from deciding they'll head toward that when you tell them to stay inside?

[mikeydsc]

Originally posted by Adarious_Mistdancer:

I have a piece of software I use for zombasite when the steam multi fails to connect called Evolve. That also includes the ability to take screenshots in games it supports. Failing that I usually ensure I have at least one handy program for it, in this case it's called Snagit...which I also use for making videos as well.

Here's the thing though...you are talking about making a rat farm ... but that will require a building of some sort with a totem (asfaik), and likely food in it. With that said, how do you prevent the dwarves from deciding they'll head toward that when you tell them to stay inside?

The housing needs to be under 50 comfort for rats to spawn.

Add/remove beds until you get the dwarves where you want them. It would be nice to be able to assign beds but you cant afaik.

[Adarious_Mistdancer]

That's kind of annoying. See .. one of the reasons I asked, is because when I made another small sleeping quarters with a totem.....now, every time they are told to stay inside .. they 'all' pile in there instead of the main castle, which is usually well away from the portal.

My building skills, so far... aren't the greatest yet, but this is a first playthru. I found that it was far easier in terraria in terms of building. Worth noting though, that I just got access to scaffolding, which made several things substantially easier.

main building: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=802196455

[mikeydsc]

When you use the stay inside icon, they goto the closest place. I am referring to when they are injured and if you have beds in several different spots.

[Esperologist]

My rat plan is to have it inaccessible. Say a small building with about 3-5 blocks clearance so the dwarves can't just hop over or climb in. If it is above ground, they may not be able to climb up. I know underground the dwarves can climb the back-background when the background tiles are removed... so it will be an experiment to see if above ground permits them to climb the air or not. So far, I haven't seen evidence of air climbing above ground.
I didn't really convert many exterior walls past wood on the forest world. I just exanded until there was enough space to cram everything in and reach the over 90% comfort.

[Adarious_Mistdancer]

So, I added a pet house to the small sleeping building... got the comfort bonus. Add a book case for the 6 it's supposed to contribute and nothing. Same with windows, didn't matter where I placed either of them.

[stylez]

Throwing in some data:

House = 43% comfort
+ 2 Tables (1 comfort each) = 46%
+ 1 Luxury Bed (12 comfort) = 64% comfort
+ 1 Leaf Bed (0 comfort) = 53% comfort
http://imgur.com/a/toxkZ

Starting over from my "empty" house:
House = 43%
+ 1 Square Window (5 comfort) = no change... confirmed bug?
+ 1 Wall Lamp (2) = 46% (matches the change in comfort from +2 tables from above)
+ 1 Bookshelf (2) = 49%
+ 2 Tables (1 each) = 52%

So, in the case of this particular house, +2 item comfort = +3% house comfort. But Leaf Beds cause a marked decrease in comfort. If I add 7 leaf beds to my 52% comfort house, it drops to 44%.

[mikeydsc]

Every bed you add in changes the equation. The larger the house, the more items you need to up/down the rating.

[mikeydsc]

Originally posted by Adarious_Mistdancer:

That's kind of annoying. See .. one of the reasons I asked, is because when I made another small sleeping quarters with a totem.....now, every time they are told to stay inside .. they 'all' pile in there instead of the main castle, which is usually well away from the portal.

My building skills, so far... aren't the greatest yet, but this is a first playthru. I found that it was far easier in terraria in terms of building. Worth noting though, that I just got access to scaffolding, which made several things substantially easier.

main building: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=802196455

Just noticed in your screenie, you have 2 totems side by side. It has been known in the past to affect the score. They dont play nice like that. Used to be roughly 30 block separation was needed to get a truer score.

[Adarious_Mistdancer]

I'd only done that because it was complaining when I put a bed down there.

[Storm0267]

make a whole bunch of black and white pennets and the comfort will be 100% before u know it. don't forget to cover the walls in them