Food Distribution - Rules of Thumb?

[Darkaiser]

Food distribution is the one thing that keeps gigging me no matter how I slice it. I can have 1k food and still have people starving because I don't have enough Diners or Groceries.

Is there a good proportion for this that people have discovered like 1 Diner and 1 Grocer per 50 Colonists? I'd rather build my infrastructure well in the beginning than scramble around tearing stuff down to build them later.

Thanks in advance.

[Ericus1]

The typical service slice, before adjusting based on dome specialization and colonist type specific needs, is a grocer, diner, medical building, and rec building per about 60 colonists. Then, you should always keep a food depot directly outside each dome so drones can easily restock them.

[Phoenix]

I would say Diner is rather essential building to every Dome, since, along with the food itself, it covers the most common wishes, Socializing and Dining. So, unless, there's very low headcount in the Dome (I'm literally talking about, like, 1 living complex), I would put it into each one. They're usually pretty busy even in small domes.

Grocer, on another hand, is not very essential. About 1 for two connected Domes usually looks like enough, until we come into large domes stage. In my games, grocers serve mostly to cover Shopping necessity, not the food distribution. In any case, my rule of thumb is to keep ONE of this two in every dome.

In general, it looks that, if your colonists are actually starving, it might be a problem with food distribution/availability, not with buildings quantity itself. As far as I remember, a colonist will still pick up food from, say, a diner, even if there's no place to seat. That's what is called "took an unprepared meal". So, as soon there's even a single building within its reach (so, in his dome or domes directly connected to his), they shouldn't starve.

So if they're starving, maybe some of them just don't have access to ANY of those at all? Or there's just not enough bots to keep the food stock up in those which are available?

[NotThatHarkness]

I have one grocer and one diner in every basic and barrel dome, 2 in medium domes, etc. But I routinely check the capacity numbers of the buildings and add more if needed, I'll also keep in mind the population in the dome, and what the comfort complaints are. If I have a lot of engineers in the dome then I'll usually build an additional diner on the assumption that engineers are more likely to visit one. One diner and one grocer per 50-60 colonists sounds about right. I also put a food depot next to each dome and set a minimum desired amount of 10+ so that there's always food nearby.

[Ericus1]

Originally posted by Phoenix:

I would say Diner is rather essential building to every Dome, since, along with the food itself, it covers the most common wishes, Socializing and Dining. So, unless, there's very low headcount in the Dome (I'm literally talking about, like, 1 living complex), I would put it into each one. They're usually pretty busy even in small domes.

Grocer, on another hand, is not very essential. About 1 for two connected Domes usually looks like enough, until we come into large domes stage. In my games, grocers serve mostly to cover Shopping necessity, not the food distribution. In any case, my rule of thumb is to keep ONE of this two in every dome.

In general, it looks that, if your colonists are actually starving, it might be a problem with food distribution/availability, not with buildings quantity itself. As far as I remember, a colonist will still pick up food from, say, a diner, even if there's no place to seat. That's what is called "took an unprepared meal". So, as soon there's even a single building within its reach (so, in his dome or domes directly connected to his), they shouldn't starve.

So if they're starving, maybe some of them just don't have access to ANY of those at all? Or there's just not enough bots to keep the food stock up in those which are available?

A lot wrong here. First off, shopping is by FAR a more common/universal need.[survivingmars.paradoxwikis.com] Non-specs, Botanists, Engineers, Geologist, and Medics all have shopping. Only Engineers have dining as a specific need, and social is provided through other services that tend to be better for specific specializations: geologists have the space bar, officers have the gym, scientists have the casino, and then there's always the superior Hanging Gardens spire.

You should absolutely have grocers as a key service in basically every dome, it's the diner that is far more situational and you should have fewer of. Additionally, diners take twice the manpower to run for only a 20% increase in capacity.

Second, colonists can take food from food depots outside the dome for the "unprepared meal" penalty, but AFAIK they cannot take from a service stockpile unless they are using that service. Plus, if they are needing to do that in the first place it's because you don't have enough service buildings to start with. Neither is a good situation.

Third, relying on connected domes is just kicking the can down the road without actually solving the problem. You'd just be spreading your starvation out to multiple domes, unless you're making a "service"-focused dome. However, that's just inherently a bad idea compared to simply balancing each dome correctly to start with, because all you are doing is adding a 10 comfort penalty to your services for no gain (unless Brazil). Build good, specialized, self-sufficient domes.

[SkiRich]

My go to formula is two diners and one grocer for every mega dome.
I'll watch the diners.
If both ever get 100% occupied for any length of time, I'll build two more diners and a grocer.
Doing this I never worry about starvation.

[Darkaiser]

I was not aware that different types of colonists preferred different ways to socialize etc.

I think I can also see another source of the problem: I had a barrel dome with 2 different Spires but one was an Arcology that could hold like 50+ people by itself. So my pop density was likely higher than I thought.

Also, while I had a Food pallet right by the door with the min set to 10, I tend to build everything at once when setting up a new done. That means that if the buildings all go up at once (or close to it), then they might all be calling for Food at the same time. Since most of them can store 10 or more, it's possible that what happened was that 3-4 food outlets called for food at once. 1-2 didn't get enough and so had none to distribute. All 6 of the starving colonists were on the same side of the dome so I'm thinking they were fine until the deli didn't get a shipment and they were too far to get food from somewhere else.

I'll have to be more careful. Thanks everyone.

[Ericus1]

It's not precisely they the prefer different ways to socialize, it's that there are multiple services that can fulfill the social need, and those service align better with certain colonist. Geologists for example have drinking and social as a need - that pairs up nicely with the space bar service, which provides relaxation, social, and drinking versus a diner which provides social and dining, which they don't need.

[Ralean]

If you are running into starvation issues with total food and not food availability (ie diners and grocers), check your stockpiles. Make sure each drone hub has a dedicated stockpile - any kind works - and set the minimum to 30 or 50.

[chic.aeon]

Originally posted by Ericus1:

Then, you should always keep a food depot directly outside each dome so drones can easily restock them.

THIS. SUPER IMPORTANT!!!!!!! And make sure you change the amount you want on the pad as my drones seemed to ignore them until I asked for more goods.

[YertyL]

I would also advise placing food depots with a 10+ minimum close to the entrance of each dome. Colonists will go to them to feed themselves when no grocer/diner spots are available.

When you have a low average comfort (i.e. below 60), food service can be very good, as colonists will visit it each day, and thus any colonist below their service comfort will get a +10 every day.

But when you have higher comfort services, it is not that important to have grocers or diners. -3 comfort every day is actually less than a "normal" service missing, which is roughly -10 every 3 days -- but you have to employ colonists for food service, whereas you can get unmanned social and relaxation service via open air gyms and parks.

[Stubbs]

Hello. I had the same problem of starvation for quite some time. I don't build a dome now until my infrastructure is perfect. Lots of power, air and water. I get my Mohole and Space Elevator up and running. I only use Mega domes. My 1st dome is crammed with seven farms. Those towers. By the time I can get more colonists, I have plenty of food. My Colonists are fat. The elevator is nice. If you get in a tight situation, just buy more resources. I put a small food storage outside each dome. The drones and shuttles take it from there.