Textbook

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Revision as of 11:27, 16 March 2024 by Turnovus (talk | contribs) (→‎Acquisition: Fix formatting)
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Textbook

Textbook

A book which focuses on teaching skills.

Base Stats

Type
Exotic itemBook
Market Value
160 Silver
Stack Limit
1
Mass
0.5 kg
HP
60
Deterioration Rate
5
Flammability
100%
Rotatable
True
Technical
defName
TextBook


Acquisition

Textbooks, like all books, can be purchased from exotic goods traders and faction bases, or earned through quests.

When starting a new game, there is a chance for your starting colonists to carry books as possessions based on their traits or backstory.

Summary

Textbooks can be read by colonists as a recreation activity.

Each textbook has one or more associated skills. Colonists who read the book will gradually gain experience in those skills. The rate at which experience is gained and the maximum level to which the skill can be improved are both determined by the quality of the textbook.

Effects of Quality on Reading
Quality XP Rate Max level
Awful 125 / Hour 2
Poor 188 / Hour 5
Normal 250 / Hour 8
Good 312 / Hour 10
Excellent 375 / Hour 12
Masterwork 438 / Hour 14
Legendary 500 / Hour 16

All books can be efficiently stored in bookcases, allowing them to provide a bonus to any reading and research activities taking place within the same room. Each book stored in a nearby bookcase will increase the rate at which XP is gained from reading textbooks.

Analysis

Textbooks are generally an excellent way of raising the skills of your colonists. In this regard, it easily outclasses other forms of recreation for training purposes. For reference, a billiards table will provide 0.004 shooting XP per 1 tick (0.02 secs), for a learning rate of 10 XP per hour.

However, it should be noted that textbooks are the only recreation source with a maximum skill limit. An awful-quality textbook will train shooting faster than a billiards table only if the reader has a skill level below 2, and is utterly ineffective otherwise.

Textbooks that teach the shooting and melee skills are highly valuable, as colony defense remains an important concern for all colonists at all times. Textbooks teaching other skills are also valuable for training up new recruits with low skills, or re-specializing colonists with nothing better to do.

However, since colonists appear to select books at random when reading for joy, it may be useful to pick and choose which books you use to stock your library.