Is It a Good Idea to Use Paste Dispenser for Prisoners? What to Do?

[joe.m.klunder]

Hi Everyone,

1. How do I make it so prisoners do not get meals, only paste dispensers?

2. Is it a good idea?

[gimmethegepgun]

1. Alter their food restrictions to only allow them to get paste.
Also, note that if you place the interaction spot of the NPD inside of the prison cell, they'll operate it themselves to get food instead of someone else needing to grab it for them.

2. Yes.

[Astasia]

The nutrient paste dispenser acts as a wall, so you can place the "nozzle" side inside of the prison and have the hoppers around back with walls on the sides, prisoners will automatically grab paste meals when hungry.

It saves time, your wardens don't have to bring them food, and you use less raw nutrition feeding your prisoners, but they have reduced mood from it which will make it slightly more difficult to recruit them. Depends on your situation whether it's a good idea or not, but it is a valid option in some cases.

[Vermillion Cardinal]

Well, there's the nutrient paste gang that advocates paste even for your own people to avoid the perils of cooked food, so choosing to feed it to prisoners isn't really that problematic. Myself, if I'm generous and my food supply is secure my prisoners get simple vegetarian meals or pemmican (but usually without a table to eat at), otherwise it's paste for them.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Vermillion Cardinal:

(but usually without a table to eat at)

You monster.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by Vermillion Cardinal:

but usually without a table to eat at

I harvest prisoners organs as a matter of course, but you scare me.

[brian_va]

It's more food efficient than meals and less time consuming than having a warden feed them assuming they can walk. There's also the resources lost building it as well as the power to keep it going. I could be wrong, but raw food will spoil in the hoppers as well, so that can take some micro to avoid spoilage.

I think it's more of a waste. If time spent feeding them is an issue, a stockpile of meals inn the room solves that, and a fridge mod can negate the spoilage. The mood sacrifices for me don't justify it when fine meals are already in production and a couple more a day isn't generally an issue.

Of course, there is the role play aspect, and at that point it being a good idea or not is all relative.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by brian_va:

II could be wrong, but raw food will spoil in the hoppers as well, so that can take some micro to avoid spoilage.

Yes, it can, but it's a simple task to make one side of the NPD into a freezer and put the hoppers there.

[Morkonan]

The mood effects there, as has been pointed out, has always my biggest concern. The means to affect positive mood changes are minimal for Prisoners already.

I don't worry about keeping Prisoners once they could leave unless I am going to recruit them. That's the only condition, other than catastrophic injury resulting in a coma, that would make me concerned about being able to feed them.

So, given that standard sort of approach, I don't capture prisoners until I know I'm ready to feed them for however long it takes. And, if I have Prisoners, I'll be pushing recruitment efforts and don't want any penalties if i can help it.

That also includes making very sure my Warden is available and up to the task. There, things can get a bit "iffy" in the very early game, but if I can't afford for the Warden to do that then something else is going very wrong.

Others, though? Many players use Nutrient Paste dispensers for Prisoners and it's a good choice if it fits their playstyle. Some players enjoy keeping many Prisoners for that sake alone, sometimes to support mods and the like. So, it's a natural fit there.

[Antearz]

Yes. You can use a Nutrient Paste Dispenser for Prisoners.
But its only worth the effort if you use a Large Prison Barrack rather than Individual Cells.

If you use Individual Cells you would need the Dispenser Seperately and a Warden always needs to grab Meals from there.
This still saves some Nutrients and Work. But is generally not worth it as you can just give them Simple meals instead. Which cost barely more.




If you decide to go for Nutrient Paste Fed Prisoners you need to use the Nutrient Dispenser as a Wall for your Prison Barracks.
The Dispenser itself Functions as a Wall. So you can simply remove 3 Piece of Wall (of course before adding Prisoners) and then Place it into that Gap.
The Dispenser Outbox into the Prison Cell. And the Back into another Room.

I Generally make the other Room a Small Cooler where I put 3 Hoppers for the Raw Food to be Placed on.
This way the Raw Food stays Frozen there.
Albeit thats more for Lategame. In early Game it can simply be a normal tiny room and you should set the Hoppers to accept Raw Veggies like Rice and Corn as they can be Stored very long even without any Cooling.




Now that you the Dispenser you can Open the Prison for Prisoners.
They will now take Food from the Nutrient Paste Dispenser themselves and Eat it.


Doing this will Greatly Help with your Wardens Work. As they dont need to constantly Carry Food to your Prisoners.
However there is also 2 Drawbacks.

1.
The Prisoners will get a Mood Debuff.
This means they will get a slight penalty to being Recruited and might suffer mental breaks if other stuff adds up to their bad Mood.

2.
As stated above. Its only useful for Prison Barracks.
And Prison Barracks mean more Prisoners in one Place which Increases the Chances for Large Prison Breaks and makes Prison breaks more Common.
It also further reduces the Mood of the Prisoners.




Generally doing this is a Valid Strategy in Lategame.
When you can sometimes end up catching 10 or so Prisoners at once.
And dont care too much about some of them being Shot during an Escape.
As you already have alot of Colonists anyways.

It can be Viable in Early Game too tough as long as you either limit prisoners or have the means to recapture them.