Scheduling is a vital tool when it comes to running a colony (and the pawns therein) at maximum efficiency, allowing you to set when (and where) pawns work, play, and rest. Time is your most valuable resource outside your pawns, so you must make the most of what little you have.
1. Basic Balanced Scheduling
I like to use this personal 'default' schedule for most of my pawns. As the name implies, this method aims to give pawns enough time for recreation to maintain a high mood without giving up too many work hours.
It's best always to leave time for recreation as even though time passes quickly, working your pawns to the bone will soon bring down their mood and lead to mental breaks.
Two hours of dedicated rec time is just enough to keep them from going insane. In addition, the two hours of 'Anything' give them a chance to pull any extra duties or get some leisure in if there's not much to do.
An easy way to get the most out of recreation hours is to ensure pawns rest simultaneously. This way, pawns will be encouraged to socialize with each other, allowing them to form better relationships and gain a bonus to their recreation need.
This is a decent scheduling method for the early game as it covers all the bases without sacrificing too many of those critical early game hours.
Basic Balanced Scheduling details:
- Keeping everything balanced this way ensures everyone meets their recreation and sleep needs – but it isn't optimized for maximum output and doesn't take advantage of nighttime hours.
- This is the most basic alteration to the default schedule and is perfect for the early game as you're still getting your bearings.
- It's pretty easy to set up and is a good default option for new pawns, holding you over until you can get some more complex schedules set up.
2. Zone Scheduling
Another key feature of the scheduling system is the ability to control where your pawns work. By forcing pawns to stay within a predefined area, they will only attempt to do jobs within said area and nothing else – useful for when you don't want a specific pawn wasting time in other parts of the base.
This type of scheduling is a bit more advanced since you can finely tweak exactly where your pawns will be at any given time.
Only allowing pawns to stay within their area can boost their work output since they won't get distracted by other jobs not in their zone.
Always ensure that the area you've confined your pawn to has everything they need within it, including tables, beds, food, and recreation facilities.
If any of these aren't present in the zone, your pawn won't access them even if they're on the map.
Zone Scheduling details:
- This scheduling method can be combined with any other schedule as it only concerns where pawns live and work, not when.
- Confining pawns to zones can keep them out of harm's way if they're valuable or lack combat skills.
- As pictured above, our pawn 'Blitz' will try to stay within the highlighted area and ignore anything outside the kitchen, the walk-in freezer, the horseshoe peg, and the living quarters.
- This means he'll always be nearby to cook meals and won't wander off into the wilderness - even if there's no work to be done.
3. Shift Scheduling
Working in shifts not only gives pawns a chance to rest while others pick up the slack but also allows you to keep your industry moving 24/7 to take advantage of the later hours when most pawns would be sleeping.
Instead of everyone going to bed as soon as daylight ends, assigning a skeleton crew to work through the night lets your colony maintain production and the goods flowing.
This isn't practical for outdoor work like logging since pawns get a work penalty for working in darkness.
However, indoor jobs like manufacturing drugs or forging weapons are perfect for this schedule.
Take advantage of the 'Night Owl' trait – pawns with this trait get a +16 mood bonus for being awake between 23:00-06:00 but get a -10 mood penalty for being from 11:00-18:00. Keep in mind, pawns don't need to have the 'Night Owl' trait for this schedule to work.
Also, always make sure your night crew has adequate lighting wherever they are, or they'll suffer up to a 20% penalty to movement and work speed, as well as a mood penalty from being in darkness.
Shift Scheduling details:
- Productivity extends through the night, allowing your colony to produce goods 24/7.
- Night owls have their need for being up late met and are at their happiest.
- Allows you to keep essential facilities running, which is especially useful when under a time constraint.
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