Difference between revisions of "Recreation"

Recreation is a stat: Recreation is the need to have fun. Repeating the same kind of activity makes it less fun, so variety is necessary. Its default value is 100%.

Recreation is one of a colonist's needs. Prisoners, visitors, enemy pawns, animals, and slaves do not have the recreation need.

Colonists gain recreation in two ways:

Consuming something pleasurable, such as chocolate or beer.
Doing an activity, such as playing horseshoes or watching television

Colonists may do recreation activities when their schedule allows. Some activities require nothing more than an allotted time while certain activities require the relevant building or item. Certain items can only be purchased from traders. Some activities have an added benefit of improving skill experience points. Colonists develop an increasing tolerance, or resistance, to a kind of activity the more it is done. Tolerances are shown in the Recreation tooltip (hover the mouse over the recreation meter) and are listed by kind and percentage. A variety of kinds of activities should be made available to avoid tolerance buildup. Currently there are 9 types of recreation - solitary relaxation, social interaction, television watching, cerebral play, dexterity play, music, telescope study, chemical consumption, and food consumption.

Injured colonists will only ever engage in recreational activities that can be done in bed, such as watching television. A television is therefore a good investment for every hospital.

Colonists on caravan gain recreation while stopped at a rate of 10% per hour, of the Solitary type if they are alone, or a mix of Solitary and Social if two or more colonists are on the same caravan. Tolerance is gained at an equivalent rate to Extremely Low Expectations, regardless of the expectations at the colony or the amount of wealth taken on the caravan.

Recreation needs

Recreation thresholds

The recreation meter has thresholds that trigger mood-altering thoughts. No thoughts are triggered from 30% to 69%.

Threshold	Label	Mood Effect	Thought
85 - 100	Recreation fully satisfied	+10	I've been enjoying myself so much, I love it!
70 - 85	Recreation satisfied	+5	I've been having a great time doing various things I like to do.
15 - 30	Recreation unfulfilled	−5	I could really use a break for something enjoyable.
0 - 15	Recreation deprived	−10	We need more variation in recreation activities, and i need time to enjoy them. This place is really dull.
0	Recreation-starved	−20	It's been so long since I did anything for fun on my own time.

Recreation tolerance

Colonists develop an increasing tolerance, or resistance, to specific types of recreation the more it is performed. Tolerances are shown in the Recreation tooltip (hover the mouse over the recreation meter) and are listed by kind and percentage. A variety of kinds of activities should be made available to avoid tolerance buildup.

Recreation tolerance reduces recreation gained proportionally. Recreation tolerance gained is 2/3 of the recreation value increase from the activity. For instance, A colonist consuming 4 units of chocolate at 0% gluttonous tolerance would gain 40% recreation and 26.7% gluttonous tolerance. Eating another 4 immediately would only provide 73.3% of 40% or 29.3% recreation gain and 2/3 of 29.3% or 19.6% gluttonous tolerance. Recreation tolerance only increases when an action increases recreation.

Recreation tolerance decreases while awake at a rate dependent on the wealth of the colony, with higher wealth colonies needing more recreation variety to combat the lower rate of tolerance decrease. It has 6 stages at different wealth values.

Additionally, conceited nobles have Noble and Royal Expectations at the ranks of Baron and Count respectively. These expectations replace the effects of regular expectations. Note that despite only being seen in-game with the Royalty DLC activated, these expectations are defined in the Core game.

Finally, Ideoligious Roles can increase the expectations of the pawn by two levels, so a pawn that would normally have Low Expectations would then have High Expectations. To prevent these "going off the scale", at High and Sky-High, Elite and Supreme are used instead. Note that despite only being seen in-game with the Ideology DLC activated, these expectations are defined in the Core game.

Name	Wealth Limits	Recreation Tolerance Loss/Day	Num. of Recommended Recreation Types
Extremely low expectations	0 - 15,000	18%	2
Very low expectations	15,000 - 31,000	13%	3
Low expectations	31,000 - 81,000	11%	3
Moderate expectations	81,000 - 182,000	10%	4
High expectations	182,000 - 308,000	8%	5
Sky-high expectations	308,000 - 1,000,000,000	7%	6
Noble expectations	N/A	7%	6
Royal expectations	N/A	7%	6
Elite expectations	See above	7%	6
Supreme expectations	See above	7%	6

Recreation fall rate

Recreation drops at a steady 2.5% per hour, slowing down once below 30% and once more once below 15%.

Recreation Loss(%)/Hour	Threshold	Thought active	Effect	Real time in state^[1]	Game time in state^[2]	Real time since 100% recreation^[3]	Game time since 100% recreation^[4]
2.5%	85% - 100%	Recreation fully satisfied	+10	15,000 ticks (4.17 mins)	6 hours	N/A	N/A
	70% - 85%	Recreation satisfied	+5	15,000 ticks (4.17 mins)	6 hours	15,000 ticks (4.17 mins)	6 hours
	30% - 70%	None	0	40,000 ticks (11.11 mins)	16 hours	30,000 ticks (8.33 mins)	12 hours
1.75%	15% - 30%	Recreation unfulfilled	−5	21,425 ticks (5.95 mins)	8.57 hours	70,000 ticks (19.44 mins)	28 hours
1%	1% - 15%	Recreation deprived	−10	37,500 ticks (10.42 mins)	15 hours	91,425 ticks (25.4 mins)	36.57 hours
N/A	0%	Recreation starved	−20	N/A	N/A	128,925 ticks (35.81 mins)	51.57 hours

↑ Real time spent in the state before crossing the lower threshold, assuming no recreation is gained
↑ Game time spent in the state before crossing the lower threshold, assuming no recreation is gained
↑ Real time spent before entering the state, assuming no recreation is gained and the starting recreation is 100%
↑ Game time spent before entering the state, assuming no recreation is gained and the starting recreation is 100%

The loss rate is halved if a pawn is forming a caravan and is further affected by recreation fall rate. The recreation loss is fully stopped if a pawn is actively gaining recreation, is asleep, is suffering from a mental break, or is inside certain buildings like a cryptosleep casket or biosculpter pod.

Activities table

Activity	Duration^[1]	Gain Rate	Recreation kind	Interaction	Improves Skill	+XP Per Tick	Doable in Bed	Required Capacity	Base Chance
Building snowman	8,000 ticks (2.22 mins)	1	Solitary relaxation	Solitary	–	–	No	Manipulation, Enjoys Outdoors, Assigned Construction, Snow	0.75
Going for a walk	8,000 ticks (2.22 mins)	1	Solitary relaxation	Solitary	–	–	No	Moving, Enjoys Weather	1
Meditating	5,000 ticks (1.39 mins)	1	Solitary relaxation	Solitary	–	–	Yes	-	1
Praying	3,000 ticks (50 secs)	1	Solitary relaxation	Solitary	–	–	Yes	-	1
Skygazing	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1 or 5	Solitary relaxation	Solitary	–	–	No	Sight, Enjoy Outdoors	1
Cheering up patient <NAME>	1,500 ticks (25 secs)	1	Social interaction	Social	–	–	Yes	Injured	3
Relaxing socially	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1	Social interaction	Social	–	–	No	-	4
Viewing art	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	Varies	Solitary relaxation	Building	–	–	Yes	Sight	1
Visiting grave	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1-1.4	Solitary relaxation	Building	–	–	No	-	1
Playing hoopstone ring^[2]	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1	Dexterity play	Building	Shooting	0.003	No	Sight, Manipulation	2
Playing horseshoes^[3]	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1	Dexterity play	Building	Shooting	0.003	No	Manipulation	2.5
Playing chess^[3]	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1	Cerebral play	Building	Intellectual	0.002	No	Manipulation	2
Playing the game of Ur^[2]	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	0.8	Cerebral play	Building	Intellectual	0.0015	No	Manipulation	2
Playing billiards	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1.3	Dexterity play	Building	Shooting	0.004	No	Sight, Manipulation	4
Playing poker	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1.3	Cerebral play	Building	Intellectual	0.004	No	Sight, Manipulation	4
Watching television	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1.2	Television watching	Building	–	–	Yes	Sight	3.5
Watching flatscreen television	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1.4	Television watching	Building	–	–	Yes	Sight	3.5
Watching megascreen television^[4]	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1.6	Television watching	Building	–	–	Yes	Sight	3.5
Using telescope^[4]	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1.2	Telescope study	Building	Intellectual	0.004	No	Sight	2
Reading	8,000 ticks (2.22 mins)	Varies^[5]	Reading	Book	Intellectual	0.1	No	Sight, Manipulation	3
Meditating royally at grand / meditation throne	6,250 ticks (1.74 mins)	1	Solitary relaxation	Building	–	–	No	-	-
Playing harp	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1	Music	Building	Artistic	0.0015	No	Manipulation	2
Playing harpsichord	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1	Music	Building	Artistic	0.0015	No	Manipulation	2
Playing piano	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1	Music	Building	Artistic	0.0015	No	Manipulation	2
Playing with a baby	4,000 ticks (1.11 mins)	1 or 1.25^[6]	Social interaction	Social	-	-	No	Manipulation	-

Note: the above Recreation gain rates are based on normal quality buildings when applicable.

↑ Duration refers to the amount of time the pawn will do this activity for purely recreational purposes. Joy and skill xp are granted per tick, so no payoff is lost for assigning the pawn to do something else before the maximum duration is reached.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Only craftable when playing as New Tribe. Can still be acquired from traders otherwise.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Only craftable when playing as New Arrivals. Can still be acquired from traders otherwise.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Only acquired from traders.
↑ Reading joy gain rate is typically 1x, but if done in a room it is multiplied by the room's Reading Bonus stat. Reading a novel multiplies joy gain rate based on quality: 1.2x at awful, 1.4x at poor, 1.6x at normal, 1.8x at good, 2x at excellent, 2.25x at masterwork, and 2.5x at legendary.
↑ Baby Play gain rate is 1x if not using a toy box, or 1.25x otherwise.

Consumables table

Item	+Recreation (%)	Kind
Chocolate	10	Food Consumption
Insect jelly	8	Food Consumption
Ambrosia	50	Chemical
Beer	17	Chemical
Smokeleaf joint	80	Chemical
Psychite tea	40	Chemical
Go-juice	40	Chemical
Wake-up	40	Chemical
Yayo	80	Chemical
Flake	70	Chemical

Buildings

The following can be built from the Architect - Recreation menu.

Building	Recreation Spots	Recreation Power (%)	Recreation Type	Improves
Horseshoe pin	12	100%	Dexterity play	Shooting
Hoopstone ring	12	100%	Dexterity play	Shooting
Chess table	2	100%	Cerebral play	Intellectual
Game-of-Ur board	2	80%	Cerebral play	–
Billiards table	2	130%	Dexterity play	Shooting
Poker table	8 (Max 4)	130%	Cerebral play	-
Telescope	1	120%	Telescope study	–
Tube television	15	120%	Television watching	–
Flatscreen television	30	140%	Television watching	–
Megascreen television	42	160%	Television watching	–

Activities

Building snowman

Any colonists for whom the outdoors temperature is within their comfortable temperature range may build a snowman in a reachable cell that 1) has a snow depth of at least 50%, 2) the pawn can reserve the use of, 3) all adjacent cells (diagonals included) can be stood in, and 4) is at least 12 cells away from any other snowmen. To be able to build a snowman, the following conditions must be true:

The total depth of snow on the map must be at least 20000%.
The current amount of rain must be less than 25% the maximum amount that occurs during rainy weather
None of the following conditions are occurring: toxic fallout, volcanic winter, or acidic smog.

Cheering up a patient

Colonists may visit sick in-bed colonists. Preferentially, the colonist will move to a chair that is both facing the patient and within 2.2 cells of the patient; if no such chair exists, they will move adjacent to the patient.

There are three unique properties of this activity:

Cheering up a patient satisfies the patient's recreation need as well, at 1x joy gain rate.
Every 320 ticks, the colonist will attempt to talk to the patient; this is a chitchat 80% of the time, and a deep talk otherwise. This makes cheering up patients excellent for building positive relations with non-Psychopaths.
Unlike other recreational activities, colonists with a fully satisfied recreation need will continue performing the activity, until either its duration runs out or the patient is also fully recreationally satisfied. Patients who are extremely bored of social recreation can thus waste your other colonists' time.

Patients must satisfy all following conditions to be eligible for a visit:

Patient isn't on fire
Patient is capable of social interaction
Patient has a non-zero food need and a rest need higher than 33%
Patient really needs cheering up: their recreation need must be below 30%
Patient really is sick: is downed, would seek medical rest if removed from bed, has an immunizable illness which they have not yet developed immunity to, OR is bleeding from at least 8 damage worth of untreated injuries (if the patient is somehow a non-human, required damage is scaled by the patient's race's base health scale)
IdeologyIcon Patient is not a slave

Going for a walk

Colonists 'going for a walk' aimlessly path around the area they started from at half their movement speed.

Meditating

Meditation is heavily influenced by whether or not certain DLCs are active.

Colonist behavior: without the Royalty DLC, colonists require a bedroom to meditate; colonists 'meditating' will stand motionless somewhere in their bedroom. With Royalty active, meditation preferentially occurs at whatever the best meditation focus for the colonist would be.
Activity name: with the Ideology DLC, recreational, non-scheduled meditating is labeled as "praying" when performed by a colonist who believes in an ideoligion with at least one deity.

Playing billiards

A billiards table can only be used if all adjacent cells (diagonals included) can be stood in. Up to two colonists can use a billiards table at once. They will wander in the cells adjacent to the table at half speed, taking shots. Slowly trains Shooting skill, albeit slightly faster than a hoopstone ring or horseshoe pin.

Playing chess

A chess table can only be used by a colonist if there is an available, horizontally or vertically adjacent chair. Up to two colonists can use a chess table at once. Slowly trains Intellectual skill.

Playing hoopstone

Hoopstone rings can only be used from very specific positions - there are four 1x3 rectangles, one centered in each cardinal direction 5 cells away from the ring, with their long sides perpendicular to a straight line between the rectangle's center and the ring. Colonists can only use a hoopstone ring if at least one of these positions can be stood in and isn't already reserved for use. Up to three colonists can use a hoopstone ring at once, throwing stones through it. Slowly trains Shooting skill.

Playing horseshoes

Identical to playing hoopstone, except done with a horseshoe pin; players throw horseshoes at the pin.

Playing poker

A poker table can only be used by a colonist if there is an available, horizontally or vertically adjacent chair. Up to four colonists can use a poker table at once. Slowly trains Intellectual skill, albeit twice as fast as a chess table.

Playing the game of Ur

Identical to playing chess, except colonists do not require chairs to use the board, and it trains Intellectual skill even more slowly.

Praying

Colonists 'praying' will stand motionless somewhere in their bedroom. If the Ideology DLC is active, colonists will preferentially pray in rooms of worship that are not other pawns' bedrooms. Prisoners will also preferentially pray in rooms of worship that are accessible to them, although such a room must also double as a prison cell in order for them to do so.

Only 40% of pawns are 'capable' of spontaneously choosing to pray for recreation, pseudorandomly determined using their ID number as a seed.

Relaxing socially

A gather spot or gathering spot works like a loosely defined social "zone", allowing your pawns who are idle or seeking Social recreation to gather together in a specifically centered area. This also can keep them from getting lost when they're not doing anything productive.

If you have a "gather spot" enabled, colonists will gather here to socialize for recreation, especially when idle. Colonists will stand in the vicinity of the campfire, or sit at a chair or stool beside a table. If beer is available, a colonist may carry a bottle while relaxing, without actually consuming the item. This action has been shown to occur among colonists with the Chemical Interest trait, the Teetotaler trait, and no trait in regards to alcohol.

Tables and campfires (only) can be designated as gather spots, and are so designated by default when constructed. You can have more than one gather spot, in which case an idle/social pawn appears(?) to choose the closest one when the mood to gather hits them. This should be toggled off on all tables/campfires except for one in your preferred rec/dining room. Not toggling can cause people to gather and have parties at any table (or campfire), perhaps in the middle of an ugly, dirty, dangerous abandoned mining site, making everybody unhappy. Gather spots can be turned off by toggling a command while that object is selected (bottom of the screen).

Contradictory to its name, colonists can carry out this activity when alone, while still gaining Recreation at the same rate.

Skygazing

Skygazing is the act of your colonists simply laying on the ground in an outdoor (area without a roof) area and facing upwards. It requires clear weather. The game has a few flavor text names such as "Cloudwatching" and "Stargazing", and all (besides aurora) are functionally identical (the name will change dynamically if the conditions change). This activity is the same length of time as most others are and the same tolerance gain rate.

The name is determined in this order:

Watching eclipse

Eclipse: beautiful precept does not affect this activity in any way, and the mood bonus does not require a pawn to watch the eclipse.

Watching aurora

During an aurora, recreation gain is 5 times higher and this recreation type is 8 times more likely to be chosen as a recreation source (which will apply even if an eclipse is happening at the same time).

Stargazing (light provided by the sun is less than 10%)
Cloudwatching (light provided by the sun is 65% or more)
Watching sunrise (between midnight and noon)
Watching sunset (between noon and midnight)

Conditions required for a pawn to consider skygazing:

There's any space outside the pawn can reach that's not water/marsh/mud
Current weather is not rain/snow, or the rain/snow is about to clear
Outdoor temperature is within the pawn's comfortable temperature range
No acidic smog
No toxic fallout
No volcanic winter
No unnatural darkness

Using telescope

A telescope can only be used if it is in an unroofed cell. Telescopes can be placed indoors or outdoors, and do not degrade due to weather or being inside. A colonist can only use a telescope if its interaction cell can be stood in; oddly, telescopes are usable during daytime. Users stand motionless behind the viewfinder.

Viewing art^{[Usability in bed?]}

The pawn will stand next to an installed art piece (small sculpture, large sculpture, grand sculpture, IdeologyIcon terror sculpture, AnomalyIcon void sculpture, or cube sculptures) for an extended time. Colonists choose which art piece to view randomly, favoring those with higher beauty. Art pieces must meet the following criteria to be considered:

The art piece is indoors
The art piece belongs to the colonist's faction, or is not owned by a faction
The art is either under a roof or none of the following are true: the outdoors temperature is outside the colonist's comfortable temperature range, the current amount of rain is at least 25% the maximum amount that occurs during rainy weather, or the outdoors climate is hazardous (due to Events#Toxic_fallout|toxic fallout]], volcanic winter, or acidic smog)
The art piece is not housed in a hospital, prison, or used bedroom or barracks lacking a bed owned by the colonist

Recreation gain rate is multiplied by the ratio between the current beauty of the sculpture and base beauty of the sculpture (ignoring material). In case the art piece has negative beauty, the recreation gain rate will become negative - in which case, the pawn will not gain (or lose) any recreation. This also means that, since the pawns is not actively gaining recreation, they'll be losing recreation due to natural decay.

As an example: A grand sculpture has base beauty of 400. A legendary quality marble grand sculpture has beauty of 4330. The ratio between the two is 10.825, meaning that the recreation gain rate of that specific sculpture would be 10.825 times the normal (a 1082.5% recreation gain rate bonus).

Visiting grave

Colonists will visit a filled grave or sarcophagus. They both have an effective recreation power of 100%.

Recreation gain is increased by impressiveness of the room that the contains the grave or sarcophagus, regardless of whether the room is classified as a tomb. This bonus starts +0% recreation power at or below 0 impressiveness and scales linearly up to +0.4x, or a total of 140% recreation power, at 150 room impressiveness. Graves and sarcophagi that are not in a room receive no bonus.

Watching television

Televisions can only be used if powered, and only from very specific positions:

Tube televisions can be watched in a 3x5 rectangle which starts 2 cells away from the television in its screen's facing direction; the long side is perpendicular to a straight line between the rectangle's center and the television. Cells which do not have line of sight to the television, or which are in a different room, are not usable.
Flatscreen televisions are similar, but the usability rectangle is 5x6 in size.
Megascreen televisions' usability rectangles are 6x7 in size.

Colonists not in a bed can use a television if at least one position in its usability rectangle can be stood in. They will preferentially choose positions with chairs that aren't facing directly away from the television.

Colonists in a bed can also use a television without getting out of the bed, provided that their head position is in the usability rectangle.

Version history

0.10.785 - Added as Joy with Skygazing, Meditating/praying, Social relaxation, Horseshoes game, Chess, Billiards, Television, and Telescope as the initial sources.
0.11.877 - Added new joy activity: build snowman.
0.12.906 - Added grave and sarcophagus visiting as joy activity.
B19/1.0 - Doing passionate work now affects mood instead of recreation.
1.1.0 - Pawns no longer engage in recreational activities when injured, unless the activity can be done in bed.

Status levels

Needs: Beauty • Chemical • Comfort • Drug addiction • Food • Indoors • Outdoors • Recreation • Rest • Deathrest • Energy • Kill satiety • Learning • Play
Related: Hemogen
Other: Mood (Mental break • Mental inspiration)

Architect

Recreation: Horseshoes pin ^(Colony) • Hoopstone ring ^(Tribal) • Game-of-Ur board ^(Tribal)
Complex Furniture: Billiards table • Chess table ^(Colony) • Poker table
(research): Tube television • Flatscreen television • Harp • Harpsichord • Piano
(trade): Megascreen television • Telescope
Related: Books (Novel • Schematic • Textbook • Tome) • Snowman

[1] Real time spent in the state before crossing the lower threshold, assuming no recreation is gained

[2] Game time spent in the state before crossing the lower threshold, assuming no recreation is gained

[3] Real time spent before entering the state, assuming no recreation is gained and the starting recreation is 100%

[4] Game time spent before entering the state, assuming no recreation is gained and the starting recreation is 100%

[DurationExplanation-5] Duration refers to the amount of time the pawn will do this activity for purely recreational purposes. Joy and skill xp are granted per tick, so no payoff is lost for assigning the pawn to do something else before the maximum duration is reached.

[TribeOnly-6] 2.0 ^2.1 Only craftable when playing as New Tribe. Can still be acquired from traders otherwise.

[NewArrivalsOnly-7] 3.0 ^3.1 Only craftable when playing as New Arrivals. Can still be acquired from traders otherwise.

[TradersOnly-8] 4.0 ^4.1 Only acquired from traders.

[BookJoyGainRate-9] Reading joy gain rate is typically 1x, but if done in a room it is multiplied by the room's Reading Bonus stat. Reading a novel multiplies joy gain rate based on quality: 1.2x at awful, 1.4x at poor, 1.6x at normal, 1.8x at good, 2x at excellent, 2.25x at masterwork, and 2.5x at legendary.

[BabyPlayWithToyBox-10] Baby Play gain rate is 1x if not using a toy box, or 1.25x otherwise.

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Difference between revisions of "Recreation"

Revision as of 22:53, 3 April 2025

Contents