One table and one set of chairs?

[BladeofSharpness]

How to lay your base so that pawns tend to always eat and socialize in the same area? Surely this can be done without having only one table and a set of chairs in the same spot?

[Yaldabaoth]

Tables are the lifeblood of your colony. You cannot survive without tables.

[Jaasrg]

Impossible.
Just plop down tables and chairs everywhere you can.
Also wasn't there a 1x1 table? Was it from a mod?

[cAPSLOCK]

Put all of your tables, chairs, best art, and recreation sources in one room. Honestly it's just a -3 mood debuff for eating without a table; it's not that bad.

[crgzero]

Originally posted by cAPSLOCK:

Put all of your tables, chairs, best art, and recreation sources in one room. Honestly it's just a -3 mood debuff for eating without a table; it's not that bad.

Except for when they have a mental break and go murder someone's dog, which sets the owner off and he goes and kicks a bucket of chemfuel that takes out the entirety of your storage and heats your base up like a kiln.

[Jaasrg]

Originally posted by cAPSLOCK:

Put all of your tables, chairs, best art, and recreation sources in one room. Honestly it's just a -3 mood debuff for eating without a table; it's not that bad.

A -3 here, -4 there another -10 from pain and so on...

[TotallyAverageGamer]

I installed a mod that makes them look 120 tiles for a table. Default has them look something like 40. Helped a lot with getting them to eat in the dining hall and not in the middle of the base because they couldn’t find a table

[BladeofSharpness]

I have the same mod... But it means they will eat alone on the nearest table I guess. Unless the AI is smart enough to let them favor the most beautiful dinning area?

[grapplehoeker]

Just be sure to place your dining room fairly near the area they will collect their meals from.
Then your pawns will always eat there and receive the bonuses from the impressiveness of the dining room too.
If it is too far away, they will seek the nearest seat and table, and failing that, they'll eat standing up wherever they happen to be.

[Jaasrg]

Too far away is also subjective, apparently.
Had a pawn walk into freezer and eat their meal in the freezer and at same time other pawn comes in, picks up a meal and eats at the table.
Yes, the table had free room available.

[BladeofSharpness]

Good point grapplehoeker about the chain of supply

[Swirler]

Originally posted by cAPSLOCK:

Put all of your tables, chairs, best art, and recreation sources in one room. Honestly it's just a -3 mood debuff for eating without a table; it's not that bad.

This is fine early on but eventually you'll want to spread out the tables otherwise your colonists will be walking further to eat, wasting time they could be using on whatever job they're doing.

Originally posted by Jaasrr:

Too far away is also subjective, apparently.
Had a pawn walk into freezer and eat their meal in the freezer and at same time other pawn comes in, picks up a meal and eats at the table.
Yes, the table had free room available.

Eating food in the freezer is fairly common if your dining room is too far from the freezer.

I like to have a 1x1 stockpile of meals in the dining room on highest priority, so they don't always grab meals from the freezer.

[Bunyan]

Originally posted by Jaasrr:

Too far away is also subjective, apparently.
Had a pawn walk into freezer and eat their meal in the freezer and at same time other pawn comes in, picks up a meal and eats at the table.
Yes, the table had free room available.

As noted by Mad hatters, the distance between freezer and table makes a difference, but what ALSO makes a difference is level of hunger. If they are starving or don't have much buffer left, they will eat as soon as possible and skip the table--this can also affect what they eat, so you may see them choose a lesser quality food source (like crops from the field instead of going to the freezer).

[Amrak]

I recently put out picnic tables and have greatly improved moods and they seem to eat outside more than in.

Even when it is freezing and raining. I still have not tried one by my mining area to see if they will use it outside of the home zone.

Putting a table right outside my main entrance has also stopped caravans from invading my base. They eat at the table and no long wonder in my base. It was so frustrating that when 2 would go to eat at my dining room table all the animals would follow them and stomp around in my freezer while owner was eating. :/

note: I wish to add that I am not assuming you use mods just saying that I have not check my pawns moods after eating outside.

[Jaasrg]

Right, I forgot, the pathfinding is garbo and unless you fill in every square inch with tables, chairs and meals the pawns WILL find a way to eat raw food without a table.

[Vertibird]

Good idea putting tables outside! I'll put tables and chairs all over the forest! Maybe some cooking stove next to them so my hunters can enjoy some barbeque after hunting :)