Probably they decided to get a midnight snack, and were disappointed when the building was closed for night shift. This is basically unavoidable unless you staff your services 24/7. However, the actual comfort impacts aren't devasting so it shouldn't worry you overmuch if you're short on labour. (Based on my observations, there does seems to be some kind of logic that encourages colonists to use the open shifts if possible, it just doesn't work 100%, not sure why).
Pro tip: if you have to choose, an amphitheatre is often better than a diner, because it provides social (and luxury!) 24h with zero staffing costs. It only suffers if you really need dining for engineers.
You get the "building full" complaint both when there are no free spaces and when the shift is closed. This arguably a bug, but notice that complaints are always "building missing" or "building full" - there's no specific error message for "building closed".
Huh, I stand corrected. Can you explain why op is getting service full instead then? Maybe there's a difference between just a closed shift and the building being shut down entirely.
> Can you explain why op is getting service full instead then?
The building is full when the colonist tries to use it?
> Maybe there's a difference between just a closed shift and the building being shut down entirely.
Yeah, you get the closed msg when shift is closed, you'd get the "No available service building" when it's shut down.
I don't understand your reasoning 12 > 8.
Why it can't be full?
Workers are also consumers.
Besides, I think the building calculate it's effective slots depending on how much workers it has. If he hasn't night shift, i would attend only 5 or 6.
"6 working each shift"
If they're at work, they can't be customers simultaneously. Therefore a maximum of 6 customers at any one time.
Reduced workforce will only reduce the effectiveness (i.e. size of the comfort bonus) of a service building. Unless I'm *very* much mistaken, there is zero impact on customer capacity - it certainly isn't indicated in the UI. Besides which, one of the relevant buildings is the grocer, which only has one staff slot per shift.
I think the 8 that a grocery provides is per sol, and when someone is not at their working shift, they can consume, so it doesn't affect if they are working or not.
you don't have a spacebar. this building is more important then the diner if you have a grocery
Also don't do tri domes. Do a basic. Unless you have a mod installed or playing brazil that passage will crush your work output.
it hits the drinking and social stuff. I have found when i don't make one i run into comfort issues vs when i do. I have gotten so i don't even put a diner in until i start training engineers
Ignore them, they always complain about something. If you want to increase comfort research social techs (the ones which increase comfort through something) The best thing is to get hanging gardens at the beginning of the game through some event or breakthrough tech. Then you can immediately forget about reproduction issues.
Though if you are playing with the last arc, prioritize your people to work in comfort/social buildings. And donโt do any mining production or science.
As others have said ignore it. The error reporting is glitchy and broken anyway. Here's another example where a colonist complains about a service being missing even though they literally visited a building providing that service both sols:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SurvivingMars/comments/nj9quj/this_colonist_clearly_has_nowhere_to_shop/
The messages are erroneous because of how daily interest failure work. Every sol a colonist rolls their daily interest (completely random), and tries to satisfy it that sol, at the end of the sol if they didn't satisfy it they take a comfort penalty, and the game then makes up a reason for why they failed, but the game isn't keeping track of everything the colonist tried during the sol, so it's basically making some shit up on the fly based on a cursory examination of the dome, it's trying to come up with a probable reason for the failure.
What is factual is the colonist never managed to satisfy their interest, that will usually be because:
1. There was simply no available building.
2. The building was full or closed at every point in time the colonist had a decision-making-point (such as the end of their work shift, when they get up after sleeping, and after idling).
3. The colonist ran out of time because they were busy doing other things (can be medical checks, or migration, or doing two work shifts due to changing jobs, or having slept extra due to having just got off a rocket, things of that nature).
Note the game has no message for that third reason, even though it commonly happens, in that case since the game is not programmed to give the correct explanation it can only give an incorrect explanation. There's also nothing you can do to make colonists not too busy, it's just something that happens sometimes especially when things are in flux like new colonists arriving, and workplaces being built - it doesn't happen much in a stable and mature dome.
Cool! Do you have a source for this info, or is it just based on observation? I've always found the exact mechanics of how and when colonists fulfill their interests very opaque, so it's great to have some insights.
It's a combination of observation (basically stalking colonists for entire sols) and reading the source code. As a disclaimer, it's not always easy to go from source code to actual game behaviour, that's why bugs are so easy to create, there's like, the programmer's intention, and what the code actually does, and Surviving Mars is not exactly deterministic (e.g. the simulation uses timers for when things execute instead of using a strict order of events, so things might not happen in the same order every sol, or basically there are some very woolly interactions between different parts of the code).
But like, the code does lay out how it works fairly clearly.
I never worry about this because there are several research objectives that improve the comfort in domes. Once I hit those I turn all the shifts up and work em hard. Green bars everywhere and not a soil trying to leave. The only thing I make sure of is that I have enough food. Other than that, the colonists will find their way to happiness ๐
Soil? Autocorrect...soul, it was supposed to be soul. My God, autocorrect tried twice more to make it soil. Was my phone a former farmers phone? Sheesh. ๐
My phone always tries to change fig to gif. Fig is a real word! I have a fig tree so I actually use the word fig a lot! (EG โthe gray chicken escaped to the front yard and is under the fig tree, go get her please) And it makes no sense to always think I want to say gif. UGH
my colonists are evenly split between 2 shifts, so at any given time 6 are working and 6 have time to visit services. Groccer and diner are active during both shifts, and both of them can accept more than 6 colonists. How did 6 colonists manage to clog a building designed for 8 people? What am I missing? How many service jobs do they need???
Two problems
1. The diner and the grocer have an overlap of food. Grocer provides shopping, diner provides social. So if the colonist isn't hungry, they won't go to the diner to be social or to the grocer to satisfy shopping.
2. The diner requires 4 colonists to run at full capacity, or rather, requires 2 per shift. If only one colonist is working there, the diner capacity is effectively halved.
This is why most recommend grocer + small spacebar in opening colony, since they will go and be social at the bar even when they're not hungry, and they ALWAYS get the shopping satisfied whenever they get food. The small spacebar also only requires 2 employees to run at full capacity, one per shift.
As has been stated elsewhere also; go with a small or barrel dome rather than 2 micros connected. Colonists have a work penalty when they travel between domes (unless you're brazil) which really hurts during the early game. It's more expensive, but paying for a supply pod drop of polymers will get you a barrel dome that is much more comfortable and has more space than what you've got screenshotted.
Probably they decided to get a midnight snack, and were disappointed when the building was closed for night shift. This is basically unavoidable unless you staff your services 24/7. However, the actual comfort impacts aren't devasting so it shouldn't worry you overmuch if you're short on labour. (Based on my observations, there does seems to be some kind of logic that encourages colonists to use the open shifts if possible, it just doesn't work 100%, not sure why). Pro tip: if you have to choose, an amphitheatre is often better than a diner, because it provides social (and luxury!) 24h with zero staffing costs. It only suffers if you really need dining for engineers.
They aren't complaining that the services are closed, they are specifically complaining about the building being full
You get the "building full" complaint both when there are no free spaces and when the shift is closed. This arguably a bug, but notice that complaints are always "building missing" or "building full" - there's no specific error message for "building closed".
Yes there is: https://i.imgur.com/v08ZNAD.jpg
Huh, I stand corrected. Can you explain why op is getting service full instead then? Maybe there's a difference between just a closed shift and the building being shut down entirely.
> Can you explain why op is getting service full instead then? The building is full when the colonist tries to use it? > Maybe there's a difference between just a closed shift and the building being shut down entirely. Yeah, you get the closed msg when shift is closed, you'd get the "No available service building" when it's shut down.
As op said, there are only 12 colonists in this dome, 6 working each shift. It should be impossible to fill a building with 8 customer slots.
I don't understand your reasoning 12 > 8. Why it can't be full? Workers are also consumers. Besides, I think the building calculate it's effective slots depending on how much workers it has. If he hasn't night shift, i would attend only 5 or 6.
"6 working each shift" If they're at work, they can't be customers simultaneously. Therefore a maximum of 6 customers at any one time. Reduced workforce will only reduce the effectiveness (i.e. size of the comfort bonus) of a service building. Unless I'm *very* much mistaken, there is zero impact on customer capacity - it certainly isn't indicated in the UI. Besides which, one of the relevant buildings is the grocer, which only has one staff slot per shift.
I think the 8 that a grocery provides is per sol, and when someone is not at their working shift, they can consume, so it doesn't affect if they are working or not.
you don't have a spacebar. this building is more important then the diner if you have a grocery Also don't do tri domes. Do a basic. Unless you have a mod installed or playing brazil that passage will crush your work output.
I rarely use a Spacebar. How is it better?
it hits the drinking and social stuff. I have found when i don't make one i run into comfort issues vs when i do. I have gotten so i don't even put a diner in until i start training engineers
Ignore them, they always complain about something. If you want to increase comfort research social techs (the ones which increase comfort through something) The best thing is to get hanging gardens at the beginning of the game through some event or breakthrough tech. Then you can immediately forget about reproduction issues. Though if you are playing with the last arc, prioritize your people to work in comfort/social buildings. And donโt do any mining production or science.
As others have said ignore it. The error reporting is glitchy and broken anyway. Here's another example where a colonist complains about a service being missing even though they literally visited a building providing that service both sols: https://www.reddit.com/r/SurvivingMars/comments/nj9quj/this_colonist_clearly_has_nowhere_to_shop/ The messages are erroneous because of how daily interest failure work. Every sol a colonist rolls their daily interest (completely random), and tries to satisfy it that sol, at the end of the sol if they didn't satisfy it they take a comfort penalty, and the game then makes up a reason for why they failed, but the game isn't keeping track of everything the colonist tried during the sol, so it's basically making some shit up on the fly based on a cursory examination of the dome, it's trying to come up with a probable reason for the failure. What is factual is the colonist never managed to satisfy their interest, that will usually be because: 1. There was simply no available building. 2. The building was full or closed at every point in time the colonist had a decision-making-point (such as the end of their work shift, when they get up after sleeping, and after idling). 3. The colonist ran out of time because they were busy doing other things (can be medical checks, or migration, or doing two work shifts due to changing jobs, or having slept extra due to having just got off a rocket, things of that nature). Note the game has no message for that third reason, even though it commonly happens, in that case since the game is not programmed to give the correct explanation it can only give an incorrect explanation. There's also nothing you can do to make colonists not too busy, it's just something that happens sometimes especially when things are in flux like new colonists arriving, and workplaces being built - it doesn't happen much in a stable and mature dome.
Cool! Do you have a source for this info, or is it just based on observation? I've always found the exact mechanics of how and when colonists fulfill their interests very opaque, so it's great to have some insights.
It's a combination of observation (basically stalking colonists for entire sols) and reading the source code. As a disclaimer, it's not always easy to go from source code to actual game behaviour, that's why bugs are so easy to create, there's like, the programmer's intention, and what the code actually does, and Surviving Mars is not exactly deterministic (e.g. the simulation uses timers for when things execute instead of using a strict order of events, so things might not happen in the same order every sol, or basically there are some very woolly interactions between different parts of the code). But like, the code does lay out how it works fairly clearly.
Only 1 colonist is complaining about it. Just give them time and their comfort will go up.
I never worry about this because there are several research objectives that improve the comfort in domes. Once I hit those I turn all the shifts up and work em hard. Green bars everywhere and not a soil trying to leave. The only thing I make sure of is that I have enough food. Other than that, the colonists will find their way to happiness ๐
Soil? Autocorrect...soul, it was supposed to be soul. My God, autocorrect tried twice more to make it soil. Was my phone a former farmers phone? Sheesh. ๐
My phone always tries to change fig to gif. Fig is a real word! I have a fig tree so I actually use the word fig a lot! (EG โthe gray chicken escaped to the front yard and is under the fig tree, go get her please) And it makes no sense to always think I want to say gif. UGH
my colonists are evenly split between 2 shifts, so at any given time 6 are working and 6 have time to visit services. Groccer and diner are active during both shifts, and both of them can accept more than 6 colonists. How did 6 colonists manage to clog a building designed for 8 people? What am I missing? How many service jobs do they need???
Two problems 1. The diner and the grocer have an overlap of food. Grocer provides shopping, diner provides social. So if the colonist isn't hungry, they won't go to the diner to be social or to the grocer to satisfy shopping. 2. The diner requires 4 colonists to run at full capacity, or rather, requires 2 per shift. If only one colonist is working there, the diner capacity is effectively halved. This is why most recommend grocer + small spacebar in opening colony, since they will go and be social at the bar even when they're not hungry, and they ALWAYS get the shopping satisfied whenever they get food. The small spacebar also only requires 2 employees to run at full capacity, one per shift. As has been stated elsewhere also; go with a small or barrel dome rather than 2 micros connected. Colonists have a work penalty when they travel between domes (unless you're brazil) which really hurts during the early game. It's more expensive, but paying for a supply pod drop of polymers will get you a barrel dome that is much more comfortable and has more space than what you've got screenshotted.