Mess Table

Mess Table is a furniture building that lets Duplicants eat at a proper table instead of on the floor. A Duplicant will prefer to dine at a table, and eating at one is part of what makes a dedicated Mess Hall or Great Hall useful for stress relief and morale.

A Mess Hall must be at least 12 tiles in area and contain at least one Mess Table, though adding more tables is fine. Once built, tables are assigned automatically to unassigned Duplicants, and each Duplicant can only be assigned to one table. They will eat only at their assigned table, and they will refuse to eat until they reach it unless the assignment is removed manually. This can create awkward situations where a Duplicant carries food, drops it, or even keeps traveling back to the original food source instead of eating the food they already have, so table placement matters.

Practical use is straightforward: place Mess Tables near food production or in a central dining area to reduce travel time, then improve the room around them with lamps, art, and other high-decor objects to increase morale gains. A Ration Box or, ideally, a Refrigerator nearby helps with food storage and saves time. Building the Mess Hall close to the kitchen or food source is especially efficient because it reduces how far Duplicants must haul meals.

A few useful points:

• A nicer dining room makes the stress reduction from eating more effective.
• More decor in the room supports a better morale setup.
• A Mess Table can also be supplied with salt, either manually or via an Auto-Sweeper, to season food and grant additional morale when the meal is eaten.
• Duplicants strongly prefer using a table over eating from the floor, so even a basic Mess Table is a major quality-of-life improvement.