Food preservation

Started by Mathenaut, March 05, 2015, 04:50:47 PM

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Mathenaut

We have a way to refrigerate food to keep it from spoiling. It's nice, though in my experience this doesn't really add the 'depth' as advertised to the nuances of food management.

I'm curious about whether we can use the traditional non-freezing means of preserving food. Grain silos, salting meats, etc.

b0rsuk

Would you enjoy designing a unique preserver room for each type of food ? I mean, it's just food preservation. How far do you want to take it ? Why not introduce a new system instead, for example water which can be acquired from melting snow, treating surface water, digging wells or windtraps in the desert ? Water could also be used to power sprinklers to douse fires.

If anything, I'd rather have a food type that never spoils. How about making the nutrient paste never spoil ? With -8 mood penalty, a potential 18 point difference from lavish meal, one could hardly call it a no-brainer. It's my impression that nutrient paste needs a little something to bother. Currently I just skip directly to cooked meals. There's enough starting survival rations to wait for a proper kitchen.

Vagabond

b0rsuk,

I'm pro-water management/hygiene/waste management.

I think Mathenaut is on to something, though. I think it'd be nice to have non-electricity using methods of  food preservation. Canning/Jarring. Salting/smoking. This would be one more step towards allowing me to roll a tribal-no electricty colony, and a way for my electricity colonies to pack away a bunch of food in a dark storage room type cellar for emergencies.

I do agree that the nutrient paste dispenser needs an overhaul. There should be benefits and drawbacks for things such as that. Unless you wish to argue that it's automated nature is benefit enough, which I don't agree with.

Cheers,
Michael

b0rsuk

#3
Fair point about electricity. Rimworld would be more enjoyable if you could get around the lack of electricity too. You can get around most obstacles. You can wear parkas and suffer a 20% global work penalty, but then you learn you don't have to put a heater in colonist's room ! A jacket might not pull that off. You can create a campfire in your hydroponics to save your crops from freezing to death if there's a solar flare. Creativity is nice.

But for limiting micromanagement, I suggest that electricity-free food preservation should be
a) limited to a single kind of food, or
b) apply to ALL kinds of food.

However....

1. If it's the growing season, you can grow food !
2. If it's the cold season, you can put food outside, and it won't spoil.

So could you elaborate how lack of preservation is a problem ? I would think cooking stove requiring power would be a bigger issue.

Kegereneku

QuoteSo could you elaborate how lack of preservation is a problem ? I would think cooking stove requiring power would be a bigger issue.

You can potentially use the campfire to cook food, but food spoil in far less time than it take to grow it. It mean you have to build enormous farm and harvest juuuust before it freeze and destroy your crops, or have a food type that take naturally very long to rot.

If you want to survive winter without a cooling chamber or a nutrient paste dispenser you need some sort of low-tech food preservation technique, something that at least increase to several month rotting time

I tried to discuss this sort of thing here before. I guess it's low priority which I can understand.
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Keychan

I've always liked the idea of making drying racks or smoking for meats and such.  Make jam out of berries and turning your potatoes, corn, and rice into flour.  It would keep each type of food preserved longer and would make cooking a lot more diverse, but then again it would be an unwanted chore for some people to just preserve their food with an existing freezer mechanic. Maybe adding some benefits to cooking prepared ingredients would be a way to make it useful and desirable. Also, it would be nice for a backpack system, like visiting pawns have, and your pawns could carry around dried meats to satisfy their hungry a little longer.

Vagabond

+1 to Kegereneku and Keychain

Cheers,
Michael