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Dwellers' needs

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A colony's dwellers have needs that are represented by a level that increases with time. At a certain level, the dweller will try to satisfy that need.

Being unable to satisfy a need will cause an effect which severity will increase with time. Though there's no theoretical limit to a need's level, in practice the effects might force the dweller to immediately satisfy it (e.g. nature calls), incapacitate her (e.g. collapse from exhaustion) or even kill her (e.g. starved to death)

Fulfilling a need can also trigger a positive or negative effect for a period of time depending on the quality at which a need was satisfied (well rested, bad food, dirty shower, ...) though some dwellers might be more sensitive than other to different types of needs.

Effects can be both psychological and physical, and often a mix of the two.

Needs list:
- Water
- Food
- Sleep
- Nature calls
- Hygiene
- Relaxing
- Recover
- Warmth

Warmth is a need that doesn't require any specific action to be fulfilled, but depends on the conditions of the dweller (temperature of her environment, clothing, etc). At a certain level, the dweller will seek shelter from too much heat or cold.

Water

Depending on the dweller, the daily water intake must be 2.7 for women to 3.7 litres for men, using the metabolism percentage on a bell curve (median is 100% for men 75% for women, typical values vary by +/- 15 percentage point). At 100% metabolism, the dweller needs 3.7 litres, and the value is interpolated linearly.

Activity (Exercise, hot temperatures, uncomfortable circumstances, etc) will multiply the water needed, by a factor of 0.5 when asleep and from 1 (awake, fully resting) to 2 (heavy physical activity)

The need to drink increases linearly throughout the day and will trigger seeking satisfaction at 20% when awake, 50% when asleep.

If other tasks / needs take precedence or the need cannot be fulfilled, the dweller is parched.

At 75% or more, she is slightly dehydrated

At 300% or more, she is severely dehydrated

All types of shortage have negative effects:
- More hydration is needed from 0 (parched) to +50% (severely dehydrated), scaling linearly. This is called hydration inefficiency and represent the extra amount of water needed to satisfy thirst when not hydrated regularly enough.
- The general efficiency of the dweller is reduced from 0 (parched - need at 60%) to 100% (severely dehydrated - need at 600%), scaling linearly. It will say something similar to "I'm not feeling good, I need water" to "If I don't drink soon, I'm going to collapse"
- The severely dehydrated shortage can trigger the following health incidents for the dweller with linearly scaled percentage chance that increase with need level:

  • Collapse
  • Seizure
  • Death


A dweller will only attempt to satisfy thirst with a source of drinkable water. However, once slightly dehydrated, there's an increasing chance to try and satisfy the need from another source of water, which can result in various effects based on the source's water tags (waste, pollution, etc)

If available, drinkable water modifiers will be used (isotonic, sparkling, flavoured, etc) which will satisfy the need and provide a slight efficiency bonus to the dweller.

Food

The need to eat is represented by a bar that fills up with time and is reduced by eating. The bar will also show deficiencies in each food type (see below)

Basic needs are determined by the dweller's age and gender, so metabolism is a good approximation. A basic sedentary dweller will need 2,400 calories a day.

Activity increases the food required daily exponentially to 10% for moderate activity, then 25% for normal activity and continues scaling up (but linearly this time) open-endedly, though in practice there's a limit to total activity in a day.

Once the need to eat reaches 1/3 of the daily needs, the dweller will become peckish

At 1/2 of the daily needs, the dweller is hungry

At its daily needs, the dweller is very hungry

Above its daily needs, the dweller becomes famished

At 200% of its daily needs, the dweller is starving

Eating will reduce the need for food down to 0 (but never below). The food eaten must come from a balanced diet or the dweller will suffer adverse effects.

All Food in Beyond is tagged with colours : Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, Orange & Purple. They each represent types of food that must be filled up to 100% daily in order for the dweller's diet to be balanced. The types are the calorie types (Red: Carbs, Yellow: Sugars, Orange: Fats) and the trace elements (Purple: vitamins, Blue: minerals, Green: fibres)

Lack of food or an unbalanced diet will trigger negative effects:
- A shortage of calories will reduce the dweller's efficiency
- Each food colour is linked to a specific deficiency that leads to various negative effects

Sleep

The need for sleep accumulates over time and is 7 hours daily for all dwellers aged 18 or more, regardless of metabolism. A dweller can sleep when she wants/needs as the daily need for sleep is not added at midnight everyday but instead in increments at each tick of time. Time tick length is not yet decided as of this writing, but if they are 1 minute, it means that each tick the need for sleep would be increased by 7 hours divided by 1440 (24 hours * 60 minutes)

However, daily activity will increase the need for sleep if it's above normal levels, up to +30% : each tick, if activity was intense or more, the need for sleep will have a multiplier from 1 to 1.3, scaling with activity's intensity.

Dwellers younger than 18 have a separate & static modifier applied to them (to be determined), and some temporary modifiers can also change that number

Lack of sleep starts occurring when a dweller reaches her daily need for sleep (potentially with some randomness as to when the requirement kicks in) at which point she is sleepy At 150 % of daily sleep needs, the dweller is very sleepy , at 200% she is extremely sleepy, at 300% she reaches sleep deprivation psychosis.

The effects of each of those stages impact efficiency, mood, need to eat, and can trigger stress, hallucinations & collapse.

Sleeping reduces the need to sleep in a similar way it accumulates when awake : each tick reduces the need to sleep by (24-7) / 1440, 7 being the basic need for sleep (which can be modified by age and other modifiers as stated above)

Being awaken before the need to sleep has been reset to 0 will give the dweller the lack of sleep modifier, while being awaken & going back to sleep can lead to the rough sleep modifier (which is partly random - conditions to be determined)

Sleeping in good conditions (to be determined) will give the well rested modifier.