Stop Cleaning Around the Problem: Food Rot and the R4 Compost Fix
OCTOBER 12-26, 2026 / DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
Food Rot should be something a colony can move and use, not a permanent source of fresh stains while cleaners circle it. The latest R4 revision tackles a work-priority conflict found in a supplied save, while the preceding updates protect rot from failed placement and add selected bones as compost inputs.
The problem the save exposed
The investigated colony contained Food Rot on the ground and player compost bins with available capacity. The rot and bins were inside a Priority Cleaning area. Colonists were cleaning, including a stain associated with the rot, while a mixed perishable-hauling job had reserved a rot stack alongside other food.
That distinction matters: seeing Food Rot in a save proves that conversion occurred, but does not prove collection works. The earlier rules could replace compost delivery or bin-emptying work with cleaning. Warm rot could then produce another stain after the last one was cleaned, keeping the worker busy around the cause.
What R4 changes
The priority-area selector now asks the existing compost work giver for reachable Food Rot before selecting filth cleaning. Compost delivery and collection jobs are protected from priority-cleaning replacement. Emptying a bin and delivering compost material sit above ordinary perishable hauling, while explicitly urgent hauling remains higher.
Food Rot is excluded from extra pickups in mixed nearby-hauling batches. Single-stack hauling and explicit orders remain available. A full accessible bin can be emptied before rot removal continues. When no usable bin is available, the game tries normal storage selection. A stockpile or dumping zone still needs to accept Food Rot and be reachable; a zone's name alone does not make it a valid destination.
What the pawn still needs
Keep Hauling enabled. R4 respects hauling activation, incapacity, fog, allowed cells, forbidden items, access, reservations, bin ownership and carried cargo. A cleaner with Hauling disabled should not be promised automatic compost delivery by this revision. With accessible bins that have space, a separate Food Rot stockpile is not required.
Existing active jobs are not cancelled. Let the current job finish after loading; briefly drafting and undrafting a suitable pawn can prompt a fresh selection. If no destination exists, normal cleaning can continue. These conditions explain why assigning Cleaning alone or placing an unreachable bin is not a complete setup.
Preserve waste without consuming valuable bones
The .137 fix adds a saved recovery queue when spoiled-food replacement cannot be placed or inserted into a container. Once placed, Food Rot retains its existing compost value, smell, freezing behavior and warm decay. Already deleted food cannot be reconstructed from an old save.
The .138 update lets ordinary bones, tiny bones and fresh soup bones enter compost only when designated through Orders > Compost materials. Each item adds 0.2 compost units. A full 100-unit bin still produces ten fertilizer bags. Unmarked bones remain available for other uses; named ancient bones, trophies, skulls and bone tools are excluded.
What has been checked
R4's focused native test reproduces the earlier job replacement and mixed-batch behavior, installs the real hooks, and checks selection, delivery accounting and boundaries using the supplied RimWorld 1.6 assembly. It controls Unity, pathfinding, access states and storage destinations. It is not a live colony load or walking test. The next useful confirmation is watching an eligible pawn collect rot, reach a bin or accepting storage, complete delivery, and repeat after save/reload.