Guarding against Blight

[meieratlarger]

So, had blight spread through four connected fields, destroying plants faster than I could cut them. How do you protect yourself for total crop kill? Should I leave a gap between fields to prevent spread?

Thanks!

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

A large enough gap and have everyone assigned to plant cut should prevent the damage getting out of hand.

[Azunai]

the blight can definitely jump over smaller gaps (like 5 tiles or so) - happened to me in one of my recent colonies. don't know how large the gap would have to be to prevent spreading.

my best advice is to (temporarily) set plant cutting as #1 priority for all your colonists so the blighted stuff gets removed before it can spread further - since you mentioned that it spreads faster than you can cut.

[SwampDragon]

As Azunai mentioned, I recommend temporarily setting all colonists to plant cut (priority 1) and jumping on the problem. You should have it resolved in a minute or two.

I do leave a gap between fields and I haven't seen it spread over those gaps yet, but that could be because I deal with it so quickly...

[Malli]

Originally posted by Azunai:

the blight can definitely jump over smaller gaps (like 5 tiles or so) - happened to me in one of my recent colonies. don't know how large the gap would have to be to prevent spreading.

my best advice is to (temporarily) set plant cutting as #1 priority for all your colonists so the blighted stuff gets removed before it can spread further - since you mentioned that it spreads faster than you can cut.

I've had it jump 7 tiles, It's stupid and has killed me before, I used walls and it seemed to reduce it to 3 tiles but it still sucks. I also use fire to destroy all the crops and just use fireproof tiles around it to prevent it from spreading out of hand.

[Japzzi]

I normally try to have a 1 gap between my farms for the looks. If I remember correctly blight can spread to plants within 3-4 tiles.

[Cellar_Cat]

Cutting is tedious. Throw grenades (not molotovs) at the affected plants until they go away.

[M.K.]

3-4 tile gap between crops is enough to prevent spread of blight.
But the INITIAL blight will occur over a larger area, and can apparently "jump" a gap of even 12.

The trick is to have at least 2 areas for crops, at totally opposite sides of the base, and each need to be *barely* large enough to support your colony by itself.

[AlP]

Blight spreads at three tiles. Four tiles between crops prevents the spread.

[TotallyAverageGamer]

Start in front of it, and cut back. Otherwise I just harvest what I can if it’s close and let it run its course. I try to keep my fields long and skinny for this reason, easier to block off a section that way than have a large fat field

[Kittenpox]

Instead of assigning everyone to Plant Cutting priority1, I create a Zone for the fields, then restrict everyone to that area.
When combined with "allow sowing" disabled, the only thing they can do in the assigned area is cut plants. (Which, even on my non-farmers is an assigned job, albeit a low-priority one.)

Main reason I do this is that changing zones for everyone is simpler than reassigning job priorities, especially as your colony grows.
(Tbh, not sure if thats my mods. But this is what works for me.)

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by meieratlarger:

So, had blight spread through four connected fields, destroying plants faster than I could cut them. How do you protect yourself for total crop kill? Should I leave a gap between fields to prevent spread?

Thanks!

Blight issues are a frequent complaint, so you're not the only one... :) (That also means "There's a mod for that" somewhere, so feel free to check the Workshop.)

My advice, first off - If Blight really ticks you off every time it pops up, either edit the file, as shown below, or, better yet, get a mod that adds an additional Work order specific for Blight removal.

Spacing Grow Zones 4+tile separated from each other is a good practice, but only if it's practical. It's not always possible to do that without risking the more frequent "everyone is gonna starve to death" event... Do it if you can.

Yes, space between farm plots does help. You'll want at least 4 tiles of clear space with no planted crops there. (Native plants, etc, are immune. Mature'ish devilstrand is also immune.) https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Events (AFAIK, that's accurate for this release

There's an Incidents file that could be edited, if 1.+ has the same data formatting, that you could alter to remove it. (Backup the file, as always.) Instructions below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/5r0vij/can_you_prevent_blights/https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/5r0vij/can_you_prevent_blights/

(Never used it, can't vouch for its effectiveness, use at your own risk, may explode upon contact with "sense"...)

When you prioritize pawn's Jobs, set Cutting as a higher priority than Planting. It's just a sort of general "Best Practices" to have them cutting before they grow/sow, getting the mature plants out of the ground and ready for hauling. This will also help for later, when Blight hits. (Though, Sow should be turned off for the effected Grow plot when it occurs.)

Handling Blight requires micromanagement, like many "Events." It requires you to adjust things in order to counter it, else you'll lose many of your crops to Blight. ie: It's supposed to be a hurdle for you to jump.

Innovative ways to quickly handle it include throwing molotovs at it until it "goes away"... That's not a bad solution for quick handling of Blight, especially if you have another bad Event like a Raid that's been announced or you have something else critical going on, like "Randy" loves to throw at you...

Blight is a "Take Care of It Immediately" event. Every pawn that isn't doing something else critical like putting out a fire, performing medic duties, repairing a cooler for a fridge or fighting enemies needs to be available for Cutting duty.

As has been suggested, creating a special one-use Zone and forcing everyone to go over there to take part in the Cut Plants duty is a quick way to get it done. Don't worry about losing immature crops - Just get rid of the blight. Removing the Grow zone, selecting everything, Cut Plants, will quickly get it done.

Ordering Pawns to Cut who also have the Grow Job will also require you to deny Sow if you don't want to delete the Grow zone. Pawns who have the Grow Job may also try to Sow behind Cutters, so if you keep the Grow zone, be sure to deny Sow until you're sure all the Blight is gone.

[corisai]

Hydroponic internal farms (greenhouse-style) with power switch controlling cable feeding hydroponic basins. Flick it, wait a bit and after everything is dead inside - enable back. Rice inside growing fast enough that it will not be a problem if you have at least some food in storage.

^Opinion of player who plays in cold or freezing bioms almost always since start of beta :P

[AlP]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

(Native plants, etc, are immune. Mature'ish devilstrand is also immune.)

Devilstrand is always immune. If all you have planted is devilstrand, the event can't even trigger.

[Sigfig]

Originally posted by AlP:

Originally posted by Morkonan:

(Native plants, etc, are immune. Mature'ish devilstrand is also immune.)

Devilstrand is always immune. If all you have planted is devilstrand, the event can't even trigger.

Might be possible that, Blight can spread towards Devilstrand but not spawn.
I'd say it's unlikely though.

[AlP]

Originally posted by Mr.fănŧâsŧic:

Originally posted by AlP:

Devilstrand is always immune. If all you have planted is devilstrand, the event can't even trigger.

Might be possible that, Blight can spread towards Devilstrand but not spawn.
I'd say it's unlikely though.

It can't, devilstrand is completely immune.