The food poisoning system seems overly lethal to early colonies and mostly harmless to developed colonies. I'd like to propose some systems that help smooth the difficulty of nutrition across the board. So without further ado:
1) Thought: Food fatigue. A thought that stacks up as colonists eat the same meal over and over. Does nothing for the first few meals, but eventually colonist will get sick of it (ugh, corn again?!) and suffer a mood penalty. This thought stacks up with raw food, low quality meals and is drastically increased by food poisoning. Stacks are removed by having better and more diverse meals.
2) Food contamination more closely tied to bad ingredients. Food has a chance to be contaminated based on how a creature died (old/diseased animals) and dangerous types of filth (blood, vomit, etc.) Meat gets contaminated far more easily than vegetables.
3) Contaminated food may be discovered and discarded. Colonists with a good cooking skill will know what not to cook and what not to eat, at least for ordinary foods.
4) Minor food poisoning. Chiefly caused by poorly made or aged vegetable meals, high quality raw meat, or well made meals that colonists hate (human, insect). Causes unpleasant thoughts (that was GROSS), minor stat debuffs and possibly vomiting (loss of food). Causes large amounts of food fatigue.
5) Moderate food poisoning. Caused mostly by poorly made meals containing meat. Causes vomiting, reduced metabolism and sluggishness similar to cryptosleep sickness.
6) Major food poisoning. Caused mostly by meals humans should not eat (human, insect etc) but can be caused by contaminated food. Creates the severe bedridden sickness that happens currently.
So the results of these systems end up being:
- Early game colonies mostly have to worry mostly over raw food. Fresh food like berries and rations are in low supply but are safe to eat. Doing stupid things like eating sickly animals is asking to die, but ordinary maps rarely have a shortage of food to choose from. Unhappy thoughts get negated by low expectations.
- Mid game colonies have to avoid running out of healthy food. Resorting to human meat, insect meat or contaminated food is asking for trouble. Minor illnesses may stress the food supply and low quality meals will build up fatigue. Sickly raiders and animals bleeding all over your crops is a recipe for disaster.
- End game colonies mostly have to worry about food fatigue and contamination from all the blood spilled by raids. The most permanent solution is to upgrade to higher tier meals and protected food supplies, which are expensive.
1) Thought: Food fatigue. A thought that stacks up as colonists eat the same meal over and over. Does nothing for the first few meals, but eventually colonist will get sick of it (ugh, corn again?!) and suffer a mood penalty. This thought stacks up with raw food, low quality meals and is drastically increased by food poisoning. Stacks are removed by having better and more diverse meals.
2) Food contamination more closely tied to bad ingredients. Food has a chance to be contaminated based on how a creature died (old/diseased animals) and dangerous types of filth (blood, vomit, etc.) Meat gets contaminated far more easily than vegetables.
3) Contaminated food may be discovered and discarded. Colonists with a good cooking skill will know what not to cook and what not to eat, at least for ordinary foods.
4) Minor food poisoning. Chiefly caused by poorly made or aged vegetable meals, high quality raw meat, or well made meals that colonists hate (human, insect). Causes unpleasant thoughts (that was GROSS), minor stat debuffs and possibly vomiting (loss of food). Causes large amounts of food fatigue.
5) Moderate food poisoning. Caused mostly by poorly made meals containing meat. Causes vomiting, reduced metabolism and sluggishness similar to cryptosleep sickness.
6) Major food poisoning. Caused mostly by meals humans should not eat (human, insect etc) but can be caused by contaminated food. Creates the severe bedridden sickness that happens currently.
So the results of these systems end up being:
- Early game colonies mostly have to worry mostly over raw food. Fresh food like berries and rations are in low supply but are safe to eat. Doing stupid things like eating sickly animals is asking to die, but ordinary maps rarely have a shortage of food to choose from. Unhappy thoughts get negated by low expectations.
- Mid game colonies have to avoid running out of healthy food. Resorting to human meat, insect meat or contaminated food is asking for trouble. Minor illnesses may stress the food supply and low quality meals will build up fatigue. Sickly raiders and animals bleeding all over your crops is a recipe for disaster.
- End game colonies mostly have to worry about food fatigue and contamination from all the blood spilled by raids. The most permanent solution is to upgrade to higher tier meals and protected food supplies, which are expensive.