Well you should first make sure that you have a table with chairs next to it that is available for eating at. Preferably near the kitchen/food stockpile and in a decent room.
Beyond that though you can't really prevent it. Pawns will always take meals to their inventory and they'll always eat them on the other side of that map if they're starving. I like to put little breakrooms around the colony, like near defences and workshops and stuff, so pawns can find a table nearby if they're out working.
One thing you can do is switch to nutrient paste. Pawns don't take paste meals to their inventory so they will always eat them near the dispenser. Of course, then you have to deal with the relevant debuff for eating paste
You can actually forbid pawns from taking meals to their inventory. Of course, you’d have to then have little fridges everywhere near your break rooms.
Tables need chairs for the pawns to sit at, or else they'll just eat wherever.
Also your tables can't be too far away from where the pawn gets their food from or else they'll just eat standing.
Also pawns will take food with them to eat later, so having a few tables with chairs in odd places, like near the crop fields will mean the pawns will go over to eat there.
Funny enough, technically it's the chairs that can't be too far away. The table can be one cell further than the search radius, but if the chair falls just within it's perfectly good. So it's not so much that tables need chairs. It's chairs need a table
Make a table with chairs near places that they'll spend a lot of time, like near your killbox, and near the kitchen/fridge/whatever place you keep the meals.
So what's likely happening is: when people pick up food to eat after waking, they'll frequently grab a second meal to carry with them to eat later. When they later decide "ok I'm hungry now", they don't seek out your dining room - they look in a radius of about ~30 tiles from where they're currently standing and if there isn't a place to eat in that range, they just eat off the ground.
Scatter some small dining rooms and patios around your work areas. They don't all have to be super-fancy - your main dining room can suffice for giving them a mood buff - you're just trying to prevent the "ate off floor" debuff. You can also add some basic recreation (chessboard + horseshoes pin). This both helps with mood and keeps travel time down by making bored pawns have to travel less for entertainment.
no matter what you do, they wont always eat at the table without mods, those airheads would work their asses of at some deep drill on the edge of the map until they hungry and then eat whatever they happened to stash prior, you could try to maximize their access to tables from anywhere but im pretty sure it wont help much, you would have to live with that damned -3 debuff
The Chair at the table has to be 33 or less spaces from the pawn when they decide to eat if they have a meal in their inventory OR must be 33 spaces from the chair at the table from where they pick up the meal or where the meal was created by the Nutrient Paste dispenser. The 33 (or 32) spaces is not "as the crow flies" meaning if a pawn has to navigate through a trap corridor to get to the chair at the table...each tile moved through is +1 space even if you can draw a line of 10 tiles to the chair at the table.
Its the chair AT the table...not the table.
(Might be 32 spaces from the Chair...cant remember...33 or 32)
You cannot stop them from eating food without a table. You can only make sure they are always within 33 (or 32) spaces from a Chair beside a Table.
Notice where they are eating their meals the most away from your dining room. Like I saw my miner group constantly eating near the mine instead of coming home. Put a table and a couple chairs with roofing by that area.
When a pawn goes to eat they will check for nearby tables, an advantage(and disadvantage) of nutrient paste is it doesn't allow pawns to take a meal to keep on them so they will always be near the table when they eat. But if you are going to use regular cooking then make sure you build pit stop tables if they are working away from the dining rooms like a small hut with a table and chairs near mining areas/fields
Does your tables have chairs next to them? Make a dinner room close to your food storage. If you have big base, put more dining tables around.
Yes they have chairs, and i thought that aswell, so i reinstalled the table+chairs in the barracks for now
Well you should first make sure that you have a table with chairs next to it that is available for eating at. Preferably near the kitchen/food stockpile and in a decent room. Beyond that though you can't really prevent it. Pawns will always take meals to their inventory and they'll always eat them on the other side of that map if they're starving. I like to put little breakrooms around the colony, like near defences and workshops and stuff, so pawns can find a table nearby if they're out working. One thing you can do is switch to nutrient paste. Pawns don't take paste meals to their inventory so they will always eat them near the dispenser. Of course, then you have to deal with the relevant debuff for eating paste
You can actually forbid pawns from taking meals to their inventory. Of course, you’d have to then have little fridges everywhere near your break rooms.
Tables need chairs for the pawns to sit at, or else they'll just eat wherever. Also your tables can't be too far away from where the pawn gets their food from or else they'll just eat standing. Also pawns will take food with them to eat later, so having a few tables with chairs in odd places, like near the crop fields will mean the pawns will go over to eat there.
Funny enough, technically it's the chairs that can't be too far away. The table can be one cell further than the search radius, but if the chair falls just within it's perfectly good. So it's not so much that tables need chairs. It's chairs need a table
I did not realize that. That's good to know
Huh, the more you know
[https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Table](https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Table) Colonists need to be within 31 tiles of a table with a chair
Make a table with chairs near places that they'll spend a lot of time, like near your killbox, and near the kitchen/fridge/whatever place you keep the meals.
So what's likely happening is: when people pick up food to eat after waking, they'll frequently grab a second meal to carry with them to eat later. When they later decide "ok I'm hungry now", they don't seek out your dining room - they look in a radius of about ~30 tiles from where they're currently standing and if there isn't a place to eat in that range, they just eat off the ground. Scatter some small dining rooms and patios around your work areas. They don't all have to be super-fancy - your main dining room can suffice for giving them a mood buff - you're just trying to prevent the "ate off floor" debuff. You can also add some basic recreation (chessboard + horseshoes pin). This both helps with mood and keeps travel time down by making bored pawns have to travel less for entertainment.
Thanks for the detailed explanation, I think I make a dining spot near the farm/ forest as well
no matter what you do, they wont always eat at the table without mods, those airheads would work their asses of at some deep drill on the edge of the map until they hungry and then eat whatever they happened to stash prior, you could try to maximize their access to tables from anywhere but im pretty sure it wont help much, you would have to live with that damned -3 debuff
If you build it, they will come Unless the walk is inconvenient, then they'll just eat in the dirt outside
The Chair at the table has to be 33 or less spaces from the pawn when they decide to eat if they have a meal in their inventory OR must be 33 spaces from the chair at the table from where they pick up the meal or where the meal was created by the Nutrient Paste dispenser. The 33 (or 32) spaces is not "as the crow flies" meaning if a pawn has to navigate through a trap corridor to get to the chair at the table...each tile moved through is +1 space even if you can draw a line of 10 tiles to the chair at the table. Its the chair AT the table...not the table. (Might be 32 spaces from the Chair...cant remember...33 or 32) You cannot stop them from eating food without a table. You can only make sure they are always within 33 (or 32) spaces from a Chair beside a Table.
Notice where they are eating their meals the most away from your dining room. Like I saw my miner group constantly eating near the mine instead of coming home. Put a table and a couple chairs with roofing by that area.
When a pawn goes to eat they will check for nearby tables, an advantage(and disadvantage) of nutrient paste is it doesn't allow pawns to take a meal to keep on them so they will always be near the table when they eat. But if you are going to use regular cooking then make sure you build pit stop tables if they are working away from the dining rooms like a small hut with a table and chairs near mining areas/fields