Minimizing dirt?

[DaLagga]

Is there a way to reduce the amount of dirt that my colonists track all over the place? I'm aware that some animals track dirt around and that's why I keep them isolated in my barn. But can I stop my colonists from tacking it everywhere? I have my doctor set to do nothing but clean if there's noone to heal but she's quickly finding herself overwhelmed by all the dirt. I mean, if I just build a floor over everything, will that help solve the problem (i.e. no place for them to get dirt on their shoes) or will this just make matters worse (more floor space to keep clean)?

[Ashardalon]

yes, dirt comes from walking over dirt, so if you floor most places they will dragg in less dirt

[Gir Fan]

If you want the most cleanest colony and only have to wory about blood it is very simple. Don't place foors down.(Exept medbay) And don't build on stone. Dirt is the best foor for building living rooms in. You can place any light and plant flowers to give each tile a 14 beauty. Never having to wory about filth and your rooms are delightfull. That and keep non-trained animals outside where they belong. Otherwise they will be crapping all over the place.

[DaLagga]

Thanks for the responses. The only problem with ignoring floors is that your walk speed is diminished and while it's not by a huge amount, it's probably more than enough to make floors worth it. In other words, I think you'd probaly save more time moving and hauling on proper floors than you end up spending in trying to keep then clean.

If anything, it seems like this whole mechanic needs a balance pass because the fact that a dirt tile only gives a -1 to beauty while dirt tracked in over a floor gives -15 makes absolutely no sense at all. Maybe they could add a doormat to the game that you can build in entrance ways that clean your colonists feet as they pass through. The doormats themselves could hold a lot of dirt before becoming staturated but would still have to be cleaned from time to time. That way, cleaning is still a mechanic you have to deal with but you can dramatically mitigate it with smart base design.

[kevinshow]

Add floors to the walking area. Eg, at some point, maybe your entire base, including the walk-ways in between buildings, is covered in some kind of floor tile, no longer having dirt.

If 1 person is not enough for cleaning, then add 2 till things get under control, then go back to 1 dedicated cleaner. Or as you've done, having medics on cleaning duty works very well since there shouldn't be a daily activity of needing to use medical skills most of the time, where as for practically every thing else, the pawns need to work daily.

Usually 2 is enough to keep the place clean enough that there aren't too many complaints about it.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by DaLagga:

If anything, it seems like this whole mechanic needs a balance pass because the fact that a dirt tile only gives a -1 to beauty while dirt tracked in over a floor gives -15 makes absolutely no sense at all.

Dirt floors are inherently unclean and hurt a room's score a lot more than a few piles of dirt. The fact that pawns don't have to sweep the dirt doesn't solve the problem. Room's aren't just scored on beauty, there's also wealth and cleanliness that play a large role, this is why smooth stone floors aren't very good even though they have a high beauty, they have no wealth.

As navorskatie mentioned all you have to do is tile over the popular walkways around the base. The less dirt your pawns are walking through the less they track over floors. If you switch over to hydroponics it's possible to create a colony that creates no dirt at all and only needs to clean blood and the occasional bit of vomit or animal filth. That's kind of excessive though, dirt usually isn't a problem and I've never had a colony where one dedicated cleaner couldn't handle it.

Originally posted by DaLagga:

Maybe they could add a doormat to the game that you can build in entrance ways that clean your colonists feet as they pass through. The doormats themselves could hold a lot of dirt before becoming staturated but would still have to be cleaned from time to time. That way, cleaning is still a mechanic you have to deal with but you can dramatically mitigate it with smart base design.

You are describing this mod:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=727309536

Mechanically it doesn't help that much, and doesn't reduce the amount of cleaning your pawns have to do, but it does allow you to keep dirt out of rooms where it will do a lot of harm, like your hospitals and kitchens.