is the Nutrient Paste Dispensor borked when it comes to eggs?

[The Stricken One]

so when I ran tests on what it does to eggs, it seems like it wastes/uses up more than necessary(up to twice the amount it's meant to). Though this is true for the Turkey egg and Chicken egg, it's most clear in the case of the Ostrich egg.

I tested it out in godmode, and the NPD swallowed a whole 0.6 nutrient Ostrich egg and gave a single paste meal, and then gave no more meals (I'm sure you already know each NPD meal is meant to consume 0.3 per meal). I imagined that it might store excess nutrients in the machine for future use, but it doesn't. 2 chicken eggs is 0.5 nutrients and it takes both of them, a turkey egg is 0.38 and it eats the whole egg.

unless there's a source, I don't believe this is some sort of obscure 200IQ balancing mechanic to ensure the true eldritch powers of eggs don't reach 5% of their maximum power level and break the game entirely. I'm 99% sure it's unintended and just an oversight, or something no one cares about except me. is there something to do about this? or is the NPD just borked when it comes to eggs?

P.S. I looked online and couldn't find anyone else whining about this, though I did find someone who had a different complaint and their proposal would fix my complaint as well.
I'll put it here:
"NPD needs a new mechanism such as 'charge system', like chem-fueled generator or fueling workbenches. Charge them with raw food source and it doesn't need to be attached with hopper anymore. If the NPD run out of food source, let colonists fill it in at that moments."

[Vintorez]

Even with the most wasteful input, the dispenser is still the most efficient way to convert nutrition into meals, so I don't think it's going to change.

[The Stricken One]

Originally posted by Vintorez:

Even with the most wasteful input, the dispenser is still the most efficient way to convert nutrition into meals, so I don't think it's going to change.

I also don't think it'll change. I'm looking to know if I've missed vanilla mechanics, or if there are mods others know about that I couldn't find that would suit my desires for this. If not then I plan to moving over to using Cows which appear to be more efficient in the context of using an NPD.

[The Stricken One]

actually after looking at the numbers again, 6 chickens beat 1 cow anyways.

6 chickens(300 wealth) is 3 paste meals per day (it would be five meals per day if NPD worked as intended)
1 cow(300 wealth) is 2 and 1/3 paste meals per day

alternatively I could use 1 of any normal raw food(0.05) to fill in for the egg(0.25) to get 0.3 for the paste meal to have it working as intended, but I don't think there's a way to organize for that to happen, I'm hoping someone corrects me on that.

[Kittenpox]

This feels comparable to a mostly-fed pawn eating either a Lavish Meal or some Pemmican.
If one Pemmican is enough to fully satiate the pawn, the Lavish Meal is going to be excessive - and you can't half-eat a meal. Similarly, the NPD isn't going to refund the unused half of an Ostrich Egg.

There are a couple ways I can see to look at this. Either:
- Don't use big eggs with the NPD.
- Do use big eggs and accept the less-than-perfect conversion ratios.
- Find a mod which turns it into sludge and hope that it converts those eggs better (it might not). This is the one which comes to my mind: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2920385763
I feel like that latter option might suit your needs better, converting raw nutrition into sludge then piping it to storage tanks / dispensers as necessary, but that's up to you. :-)


P.S. - I find that something like these two mods are useful for hoppers, to make it so they don't get refilled until they're below half, and to ensure that the contents don't get taken back for cooking. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2003354028&searchtext=Satisfied+storage https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2497907804&searchtext=Flickable+storage+ Satisfied Storage (or a similar mod), with the Hopper set to refill at 0%, might be a solution to the other person's issue as well.

[The Stricken One]

Originally posted by Kittenpox:

This feels comparable to a mostly-fed pawn eating either a Lavish Meal or some Pemmican.
If one Pemmican is enough to fully satiate the pawn, the Lavish Meal is going to be excessive - and you can't half-eat a meal. Similarly, the NPD isn't going to refund the unused half of an Ostrich Egg.

There are a couple ways I can see to look at this. Either:
- Don't use big eggs with the NPD.
- Do use big eggs and accept the less-than-perfect conversion ratios.
- Find a mod which turns it into sludge and hope that it converts those eggs better (it might not). This is the one which comes to my mind: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2920385763
I feel like that latter option might suit your needs better, converting raw nutrition into sludge then piping it to storage tanks / dispensers as necessary, but that's up to you. :-)


P.S. - I find that something like these two mods are useful for hoppers, to make it so they don't get refilled until they're below half, and to ensure that the contents don't get taken back for cooking. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2003354028&searchtext=Satisfied+storage https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2497907804&searchtext=Flickable+storage+ Satisfied Storage (or a similar mod), with the Hopper set to refill at 0%, might be a solution to the other person's issue as well.

awesome and comprehensive response, thanks!

[Kittenpox]

Tbh, I feel like the best solution for this would be to have a shelf near your kitchen for Ostrich Eggs and keep them away from the NPD hoppers - but hopefully those help. ^_^

As mentioned, I tend to set most shelves to refill at 50% with the Satisfied Storage Mod. Mostly for the same reason the cooking Bills are set as "Do Until X" with the pause feature turned on.
I don't need my haulers rushing to refill the 'meals' shelf every single time someone gets a bit peckish, after all.

[The Stricken One]

Originally posted by Kittenpox:

Tbh, I feel like the best solution for this would be to have a shelf near your kitchen for Ostrich Eggs and keep them away from the NPD hoppers - but hopefully those help. ^_^

As mentioned, I tend to set most shelves to refill at 50% with the Satisfied Storage Mod. Mostly for the same reason the cooking Bills are set as "Do Until X" with the pause feature turned on.
I don't need my haulers rushing to refill the 'meals' shelf every single time someone gets a bit peckish, after all.

yeah that Satisfied Storage mod is going right into my essential mods list. sometimes I'm surprised by how many mods aren't just vanilla content to begin with, and the "Do Until X" pause feature really calls attention to this case, because the pause feature too was once just a mod called "Crafting Hysteresis".

I don't really use ostrich eggs lol, I just found them to be a great way of demonstrating what the problem was that I was having. But Nutrient Paste Expanded seems perfect for my dystopia!

Alternatively I realized I can just have a bunch of hoppers with each set to a max stack limit of 1, alternating between 1 chicken egg and 1 rice/milk/0.05N so it uses the 1 egg and then the 1 other ingredient, maximizing nutrient efficiency. it does take slightly more hauling which sucks and sometimes they're pretty slow about it, but it's honestly just very satisfying getting it to work how I otherwise want it to. If I did my math right, 2 eggs and 2 rice crops is enough for one colonist, and in rich soil the 2 rice crops feed 1.5 colonists. so that's neat!