Electronics and Art stores benefits?

[Тривиум]

Could someone please explain in detail what is the point of electronics and art stores besides comfort and restoring sanity - as there are cheaper ways to achieve good enough values for births.

I've tested and the only use I see is in the morale boost for people who visited art store.
However no such boost is present on people who visited electronics store (which is more expensive). Also it costs so much to support the two stores you might as well spend the polymers/electronics elsewhere. I just don't see the point in this mechanic. It only seems to be good for some objectives like reaching 90 comfort for 10 founders etc.

Also morale boost doesn't mean performance boost if your colonists don't have the enthusiast perk and generally most of your colonists won't have it anyway...

Are there some hidden modifications to the performance I don't seem to find?

[Aturchomicz]

Originally posted by Тривиум:

Could someone please explain in detail what is the point of electronics and art stores besides comfort and restoring sanity - as there are cheaper ways to achieve good enough values for births.

I've tested and the only use I see is in the morale boost for people who visited art store.
However no such boost is present on people who visited electronics store (which is more expensive). Also it costs so much to support the two stores you might as well spend the polymers/electronics elsewhere. I just don't see the point in this mechanic. It only seems to be good for some objectives like reaching 90 comfort for 10 founders etc.

Also morale boost doesn't mean performance boost if your colonists don't have the enthusiast perk and generally most of your colonists won't have it anyway...

Are there some hidden modifications to the performance I don't seem to find?

Some colonists need it so that they can give birth.

[Pondera the Radio Angel]

The way that I understand it, colonists randomly select a leisure activity to fulfill that Sol after their shift. Their preferred activity (i.e drinking for colonists, luxury for botanists, etc), has a much stronger weight on their decision making. Each service building also has a service quality score. Bigger numbers provide larger boosts to comfort. Which is why a dome full of farmers and art stores can have a larger comfort average than a dome full of geologists and mega malls.

[Blake Walsh]

They are for the end game when resources do not matter, kind of like workshops. If you are trying to survive they are detrimental to the colony.

[SkiRich]

Art stores fulfill shopping desires and luxury desires. Electronics stores fulfilll gamming desires and shopping desires.

If you have colonist wanting to generally shop either store works. If you have a colonist that has a gamer trait and no electronics store they get upset.

[Pondera the Radio Angel]

Though, there might be a trick that one can use with this. Electronics stores offer, AFAIK, the highest service comfort of any vanilla building. One could import a ton of electronics, set up a few of these stores, and use the resulting population boom to fill your own electronics plants.

I think I'm going to try this in my next game

[FrostDust]

I like the Art and Electronics stores because they're the only normal building that satisfies Luxury / Gaming interests besides a Casino, which needs more space, more employees, and more electricity, and you don't have to worry about Gambler colonists using the dome. Also, the Art store requires polymers, while the Casino needs electronics for being built and it maintenance, so Art stores can help satisfy the Luxury interest for Medics and Botanists relatively early when you can get a polymer factory running easier than a rare metals extractor and electronics factory.

[Blake Walsh]

Except it doesn't actually matter if gaming/luxury colonists get upset provided there are basic services (diner, grocer, infirmary, playground), and the Casino provides Luxury and Gaming much more economically (it doesn't provide the same level of service, but often avoiding the -10 penalty is the bulk of the benefit anyway). The basic service trio is probably a bit OP because it makes everyone - even "hard to care for" colonists like loners, whiners, gamers-without-gaming and so on - into functional colonists.

[Hate Bear]

More specialized services in general are more efficient with larger domes, a larger economy, and more infrastructure. You don't have to, but it definitely helps speed/score runs to take colonists mostly without expensive preferences and such at the beginning, especially if you start as a poor faction. Otherwise, you have to assess how many resources you have. I have used many an art store shortly after the evaluation period for a colony, but turned it off sometimes if I need the polymers to expand or whatever. This is fine, and you can turn it back on later.

Oh, and the reason why you do these things is you have a higher birthrate that promotes a more positive growth model, an offset for problems (less likely to get renegades after a problem, which tons of people have problems with after skimping on things for their colonists) in general, AND a boost to all production and services, which in turn makes everyone a bit more satisfied even more.

So yeah, there are reasons to do it, just like there are reasons to have art or game in real life. This game is pretty solid overall when it comes to mechanics like that.