Meal priority?

[MisterRed]

Basically, I'm coming back to the game after a few months, and I can't remember if theres a way to prioritize meals. Namely, I want my colonists to not eat Survival meals unless every other meal type has run out. I wanna save them for caravans since they don't spoil

[Narrowmind]

I tend to do it by simply disallowing the stacks.

[MisterRed]

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

I tend to do it by simply disallowing the stacks.

A pretty roundabout method, but I assume thats because the game doesn't just simply allow you to. Thanks, I'll probably begin doing that so my caravans stop leaving with spoilable food

[Gresh]

You can disallow the stacks if you want, but for a more malleable option you can go into the Assign tab at the bottom of the screen and manage your food/clothing/drug options from there.

Your colonists are set to "Lavish" meals by default, which includes Survival Meals. If you switch your colonists to "Simple" they should be excluded. Then when you send a caravan, you can switch them back to Lavish to include the survival meals. You can also fully customize any of the preset options or make new ones through the same Assign tab.

[whatamidoing]

If you have better food (fine/lavish meals), they should prefer eating those instead.

Originally posted by Dulce:

You can disallow the stacks if you want, but for a more malleable option you can go into the Assign tab at the bottom of the screen and manage your food/clothing/drug options from there.

Your colonists are set to "Lavish" meals by default, which includes Survival Meals. If you switch your colonists to "Simple" they should be excluded. Then when you send a caravan, you can switch them back to Lavish to include the survival meals. You can also fully customize any of the preset options or make new ones through the same Assign tab.

I'm pretty sure survival meals should be allowed under simple, and it'd restrict better meals too. You could make a copy of the lavish restriction, for use in caravans, and forbid survival meals in the normal one (or the other way around, but editing the defaul policy would make it apply by default to new pawns).

[Wasted]

what i do is go to assign tab set all colonists to fine. then i go into fine and disable survival meal and pemmican so i can stock pile it.

I use a nutrient paste dispenser so when the power goes out I re enable survival meal then so pawns don't eat raw food if no meals are stockpiled.

also when sending caravans i manually set food and medicine. you can add the survival meals, it will say you have 0 days of food, but then you can just reenable survival meal then they will eat those.

similar to what dulce said

[MisterRed]

Originally posted by Dulce:

You can disallow the stacks if you want, but for a more malleable option you can go into the Assign tab at the bottom of the screen and manage your food/clothing/drug options from there.

Your colonists are set to "Lavish" meals by default, which includes Survival Meals. If you switch your colonists to "Simple" they should be excluded. Then when you send a caravan, you can switch them back to Lavish to include the survival meals. You can also fully customize any of the preset options or make new ones through the same Assign tab.

I have begun doing this, and i feels way more convenient. Don't gotta deal with the chef starting new stacks constantly, and all I have to do is remember to switch food restrictions. Thanks for the heads up, this seems better overall

[Narrowmind]

I'm curious as to why. They can still pick up disallowed stacks for use on the road and you don't have to change their permissions. You'll only have to remember to disallow again when you get back.

[Nerdygamer1]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2899127245

You might try this mod; I used to use it, then one update it started spiting out massive errors, so I stopped, but I feel like I saw the author said they had resolved the issue?

[MisterRed]

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

I'm curious as to why. They can still pick up disallowed stacks for use on the road and you don't have to change their permissions. You'll only have to remember to disallow again when you get back.

For me the big difference maker is that forbidding them left more stacks overall sitting around. Trying to shuffle without anyone eating them is a pain, so I see the whole permissions angle as easier to pursue

[Gresh]

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

I'm curious as to why. They can still pick up disallowed stacks for use on the road and you don't have to change their permissions. You'll only have to remember to disallow again when you get back.

I think it's just a good idea to familiarize yourself with the Assign tab in general for solving pawn behavior things like this.

It helps with automating things like not wearing tainted/threadbare/poor quality clothing, allowing use of psychite tea every few days instead of free use of addictive drugs, managing which pawns can eat fancy meals for royalty needs while the others eat cheaper meals, etc.

IMO, disallowing the stack is the micro solution. The Assign tab is the macro solution.

Originally posted by whatamidoing:

I'm pretty sure survival meals should be allowed under simple, and it'd restrict better meals too. You could make a copy of the lavish restriction, for use in caravans, and forbid survival meals in the normal one (or the other way around, but editing the defaul policy would make it apply by default to new pawns).

I must have changed "simple" in my current playthrough and forgotten about it. Thanks for the clarification.

[Narrowmind]

While I somewhat agree, those things are just different.

When it comes to tainted, threadbare (? Mod?), poor quality clothing, you can set it and forget it for the rest of the game with the assign tab. If you have alternative wear, the pawn will simply put it on as default behavior. Have some extra in the stockpile. If you have have a melee outfit, create it and set and forget. Very simple.

The drugs like the psy is the same. The stats plainly tell you now how often you can safely use it and not risk addiction. You simply set it once every two days and forget it.

The meals situation is the only one where you are suggesting that going back and changing it repeatedly is the best way to manage the process where I argue that if you disallow the stack, you'll never get the starvation notification on the road and have to dig into the unwieldy caravan menu to change allowed meals.

Nevertheless, the game allows many ways of playing. Thank you for sharing your opinion.

[Gresh]

Yeah fair enough. Either way you're managing the resource, either by allowing/disallowing the stacks or by switching from a "Travel" behavior to a "Normal" behavior.

I meant threadbare like... low clothing health. I don't actually recall what it's called in the game. Tattered clothing maybe?

[Алег бездарность]

ok