Best way to handle colonists early on

[Slayrix]

idk but it seem that once I get colonists that when all my bases start to go downhill, idk what I should focus on, should I try and get comfort up to make babies, should I go for self sufficient or what should I focus on doing?

[BGR]

You need to be more specific. When you get your first load of colonists what happens?

[Slayrix]

Originally posted by BGR:

You need to be more specific. When you get your first load of colonists what happens?

It goes fine for the first few, it's when they start getting old and jobs start becoming open and applicants pool is empty is when I have problem, what do I do when that happens

[BGR]

The first couple of loads of colonists I try to get the youngest colonists I can so I filter out everything but youths and adults. If that means I will have to take more non-specialists than I need so be it because i can always put them to work and train them once I get a Martian University.

That gives me time to gather resources to build a small seniors only dome and set filters to force them to move into their that dome so they don't take up residential space in my work dome. In that seniors dome I build an apartment, a few gardens and a grocer. If I am feeling generous and have the resources I might build a few other buildings or let them visit the work dome to use it's services as long as my workers don't complain about services being full.

[Slayrix]

Originally posted by BGR:

The first couple of loads of colonists I try to get the youngest colonists I can so I filter out everything but youths and adults. If that means I will have to take more non-specialists than I need so be it because i can always put them to work and train them once I get a Martian University.

That gives me time to gather resources to build a small seniors only dome and set filters to force them to move into their that dome so they don't take up residential space in my work dome. In that seniors dome I build an apartment, a few gardens and a grocer. If I am feeling generous and have the resources I might build a few other buildings or let them visit the work dome to use it's services as long as my workers don't complain about services being full.

Ok cool, so I should just ship in a lot of unspecialized people to take up all my workspaces and thne train them in the university once I get it unlocked?

[BGR]

Originally posted by dragonslayer7531:

Originally posted by BGR:

The first couple of loads of colonists I try to get the youngest colonists I can so I filter out everything but youths and adults. If that means I will have to take more non-specialists than I need so be it because i can always put them to work and train them once I get a Martian University.

That gives me time to gather resources to build a small seniors only dome and set filters to force them to move into their that dome so they don't take up residential space in my work dome. In that seniors dome I build an apartment, a few gardens and a grocer. If I am feeling generous and have the resources I might build a few other buildings or let them visit the work dome to use it's services as long as my workers don't complain about services being full.

Ok cool, so I should just ship in a lot of unspecialized people to take up all my workspaces and thne train them in the university once I get it unlocked?

Get as many young specialists as you need to staff your work places and as many young non-specialist to staff your service buildings. If you need more then start selecting adults. Once you get the University the need to get people from earth diminishes as long as you have births. Just make sure you control those births so that you don't over populate your dome.

[Blake Walsh]

The key to colonists is getting value out of them.

First up, provide colonists with basic services only: Diner, Grocer and Infirmary. This is the "food and medical care" regime and it's all colonists need to be functional and even do some breeding. Build a Diner, Grocer and Infirmary in every Basic Dome, in a Medium Dome double them up, in a Barrel or Trigon dome you might just add an extra Diner. That's just rules of thumb for how many you need. (later on, the Medical Center makes for a very nice Spire, and can substitute for 3 Infirmaries in terms of healing while offering much superior comfort).

Run all shifts in all buildings, the infirmary will take care of the sanity damage. It's also a good idea to run Heavy Workload on colonists who aren't doing outdome work or nightshift, but it is okay to double up the sanity penalties if it's for something important.

Decorations (parks and stuff) are optional, feel free to if you have unused space in the dome, feel free to later tear them down if you need the space for something else. Playgrounds are important for children, as well as providing children with comfort and sanity if a child gets to visit a playground at least once in their childhood they get a chance of a nice perk.

Now that we've taken care of the basic needs of the colonists we want to get actual value out of them. There are basically two jobs which are really worth doing: Rare Metal Extractor and Lab. You can sell the rare metals, and science is pretty much the point of having colonists. Try to get at least one rare metal extractor going asap and 3 labs - running all three shifts of course, with Heavy Workload at least on the day shifts: if you're paying for a building, may as well get as much productivity out of it as possible.

The less important jobs are growing food, metal extractor and factory workers - because that stuff you can scavenge or buy. If you have guys kicking around doing nothing, feel free to put them to work in factories, but it's not a high priority. Probably the first factory to get is Polymer, then Machine, then finally Electronics. But generally you're better off mining rare metals, selling them, and buying the advanced resources, unless you actually have spare workers.


Now I want to briefly cover what's NOT important:

Fancy services: especially Art Store or Electronics store, they just waste labor, space in domes and resources (of course once you've "won" the game feel free to add all the services you want, but until then colonists can do without their Casinos and Art Stores).

Proper specialization: it's nice to have but it ain't important, any worker is better than no worker. For example manning 3 labs requires 27 scientists and for many sponsors you won't be able to bring that many. No worries, put no-specs, engineers, botanists etc to work in the labs.

Flawless colonists: as per above, any worker is better than no worker, pretty much even a lazy alcoholic is better than nothing. Bring everyone regardless of flaws, though some people like to not bring Idiots because they can break buildings and increase maintenance costs. The only real "flaws" you don't want is Senior and Middle Aged (aka a Senior tomorrow), you might eventually bring the Middle Aged but they're not a high priority because they git old way too fast.

Education: breeding more warm bodies is more important than educating them. Educating earthborns is extremely slow meaning you get no value out of them for ages, they'll probably spend half their life getting educated and the other half as a useless senior. Martianborns educate faster and you can get them when they're youths to get a longer useful life out of their education. Try and avoid educating earthborns entirely, and don't bother educating your martianborns until you have nothing better to do with your electronics.

[Slayrix]

Originally posted by Blake Walsh:

The key to colonists is getting value out of them.

First up, provide colonists with basic services only: Diner, Grocer and Infirmary. This is the "food and medical care" regime and it's all colonists need to be functional and even do some breeding. Build a Diner, Grocer and Infirmary in every Basic Dome, in a Medium Dome double them up, in a Barrel or Trigon dome you might just add an extra Diner. That's just rules of thumb for how many you need. (later on, the Medical Center makes for a very nice Spire, and can substitute for 3 Infirmaries in terms of healing while offering much superior comfort).

Run all shifts in all buildings, the infirmary will take care of the sanity damage. It's also a good idea to run Heavy Workload on colonists who aren't doing outdome work or nightshift, but it is okay to double up the sanity penalties if it's for something important.

Decorations (parks and stuff) are optional, feel free to if you have unused space in the dome, feel free to later tear them down if you need the space for something else. Playgrounds are important for children, as well as providing children with comfort and sanity if a child gets to visit a playground at least once in their childhood they get a chance of a nice perk.

Now that we've taken care of the basic needs of the colonists we want to get actual value out of them. There are basically two jobs which are really worth doing: Rare Metal Extractor and Lab. You can sell the rare metals, and science is pretty much the point of having colonists. Try to get at least one rare metal extractor going asap and 3 labs - running all three shifts of course, with Heavy Workload at least on the day shifts: if you're paying for a building, may as well get as much productivity out of it as possible.

The less important jobs are growing food, metal extractor and factory workers - because that stuff you can scavenge or buy. If you have guys kicking around doing nothing, feel free to put them to work in factories, but it's not a high priority. Probably the first factory to get is Polymer, then Machine, then finally Electronics. But generally you're better off mining rare metals, selling them, and buying the advanced resources, unless you actually have spare workers.


Now I want to briefly cover what's NOT important:

Fancy services: especially Art Store or Electronics store, they just waste labor, space in domes and resources (of course once you've "won" the game feel free to add all the services you want, but until then colonists can do without their Casinos and Art Stores).

Proper specialization: it's nice to have but it ain't important, any worker is better than no worker. For example manning 3 labs requires 27 scientists and for many sponsors you won't be able to bring that many. No worries, put no-specs, engineers, botanists etc to work in the labs.

Flawless colonists: as per above, any worker is better than no worker, pretty much even a lazy alcoholic is better than nothing. Bring everyone regardless of flaws, though some people like to not bring Idiots because they can break buildings and increase maintenance costs. The only real "flaws" you don't want is Senior and Middle Aged (aka a Senior tomorrow), you might eventually bring the Middle Aged but they're not a high priority because they git old way too fast.

Education: breeding more warm bodies is more important than educating them. Educating earthborns is extremely slow meaning you get no value out of them for ages, they'll probably spend half their life getting educated and the other half as a useless senior. Martianborns educate faster and you can get them when they're youths to get a longer useful life out of their education. Try and avoid educating earthborns entirely, and don't bother educating your martianborns until you have nothing better to do with your electronics.

Ok thank you for this, this has taught me a lot, so thank you