Beauty

Beauty is a stat: How enjoyable an object is to be around and look at. Its minimum allowed value is -1000. Its maximum allowed value is 1000. Its default value is 0.

Beauty refers to one of the following, depending on context:

• Environmental beauty: cumulative beauty of a map tile
• Perceived beauty: environmental beauty as perceived by a pawn
• Beauty need level (of a pawn): the need to live in a beautiful environment (similar to rest and comfort)
• Beauty stat (of certain objects): stat of some map object determining its environmental beauty

Environmental beauty

Each map tile has an integer value that expresses its beauty. The value is the sum of the beauty values of all objects on that tile. In this case, objects include filth, clutter, flooring, furniture and other objects.

See also: Environment

Perceived beauty

A pawn constantly perceives the beauty of its environment in an 8-tile radius (possibly blocked by objects that cut line of sight, such as walls and doors). The average of these beauty values is the effective beauty of the environment as perceived by the pawn at this moment.

This icon of the mini toolbar toggles the beauty display. It shows the environmental and perceived beauty for the map tile under the mouse cursor while enabled. This is what a pawn would "see" if standing on a map tile.

Beauty need level

The beauty need level of a pawn rises and falls with the perceived beauty. This is a delayed effect; an increase in beauty is registered much faster on the need level than a decrease.

The beauty level, unless close to neutral, generates a positive or negative thought, influencing the pawn's mood (eg. "Unsightly environment -5" or "Pretty environment +5"). This is why it improves overall pawn mood to provide them with a beautiful environment to live and work in.

Beauty need works similarly to comfort need, but can only be fulfilled while the pawn is awake (while comfort need can also be fulfilled while sleeping on comfortable furniture).

Physical beauty

Physical beauty is a stat of many structures (normally pieces of furniture or artwork) and plants. In the case of pawn-made structures, the beauty stat is usually calculated from a base value and the quality level of the item, and possibly other factors.

The exact value and calculation of the beauty stat can be discerned from the item's stat section in the item information window.

Here, an example is given for a small marble sculpture of "good" quality: (base value of small sculptures) 50 * (material modifier for marble) 1.35 + (material offset for marble) 1 * (quality multiplier for "good quality") 2 = (final value) 135.

This sculpture adds 135 of environmental beauty to the tile it is installed on, a fairly high value.

It is possible to create artwork with beauty values of several thousands.

The formula for pieces of furniture is much simpler, and their beauty values are usually lower than those of works of art, whose primary purpose is to provide environmental beauty.

Strategy

• Satisfying the beauty need of your pawns is one of the best ways to improve the mood in your colony. A beautiful environment can provide constant, substantial mood buffs practically everywhere, with zero required maintenance.
• Bedrooms only need enough beauty to keep their impressiveness at the desired level. The beauty level of a pawn does not change during sleep, so excessively beautiful bedrooms do not have a strong effect on the pawn's mood in most situations.
• Because the beauty need level rises a lot faster than it falls, it is acceptable to have very ugly areas in your base, if the pawns do not spend long periods of time there. Short or intermittent trips into ugly zones have almost no effect on pawn mood, as long as the beauty level is kept high enough elsewhere.
• Naked floor (rough stone or soil) does not take dirt from foot traffic or animals, as long as nobody is bleeding or vomiting. This can offset the -1 beauty value from the naked floor. Your cleaners will then also not have to clean those areas. Do not do this in places where cleanliness or walk speed matters.
• Dirty floors tiles have -5 beauty, blood and vomit are a lot worse (-30 and -40). You need to clean regularly if you want a beautiful base. Because of these high negative offsets, dirty floors rapidly lower room impressiveness.
• Strive to decorate all rooms, as well as outdoor areas that are heavily frequented, or where pawns spend extended amounts of time. Examples are the hospital, most workspaces, the recreation area, and the main walkways of the colony. A cheap and easy way of outdoors decoration during the growing season is to plant roses. Decorate larger rooms by spreading the decoration evenly in the space.
• Smoothed floors and carpets can effectively raise an entire room's average beauty by 2 points, a substantial increase. Use these floors in frequented areas, if you can afford it.
• Walls should be smoothed (+2 beauty) or made of marble (+1 beauty). Jade walls have +10 beauty, but it is usually better to craft jade sculptures instead, unless you have excessive amounts of jade and no capable artist to use it.
• A single grand sculpture of very high quality ("masterwork" or "legendary") made of jade (or gold...) can turn even a large room full of rotten corpses into a "beautiful" environment. If you can get your hands on one of these, usually from an inspired master artist in your colony, place them strategically for the best possible impact.