Hungry hungry colonists

[Lerxst]

Sorry if it's already been stated/asked - Has hunger been changed over the past few updates?

I've been away from the game for a few months and haven't followed every change log. My typical strategy of catering to the colony's looks/comfort first though, seems to have failed me 3 times in a row. People were crazed with hunger and started murdering each other each time. My crops were also never mature in time to feed them prior to the breakdown.

On the fourth try, I paused the game before the pods even landed and outlined a huge garden and marked a few animals for hunting. Then I built a butcher's table and a stove. Built solar panels and a freezer... squeezing in a few beds in a small cave I dug out. Had to cram all this in within the first few days otherwise... berserk rampages ensued.

Success!

But that's the first time I've had to use that tactic; I remember hunger being kind of a secondary problem but it was never a disaster like this!

[NetPirate76]

When you have a look on the map you will find a few extra instant meals that you can allow the team to eat, on most biomes there are a few plants that you can harvest and animals you can kill. make your the hunter has a weapon and the grower has that as a priority. Sometimes it's a bit of a trial and error, but food is deffo doable. Make sure that you have a freezer room or it will spoil before you can transform it into meals


Net

[Lerxst]

Yeah. Th last time around I managed it, but it took about 110% of my time and planning to rush every food related structure I could and I got my freezer up and running 1 day before my Muffalo meat spoiled.

[Songleaves]

Be sure to put sunlamps down so your crops grow faster. They will short-circuit and catch fire in the rain, but the rain subsequently puts the fire out, so it's not an issue. The transition between initial food supplies and stable food income is definitely more pronounced, but as NetPirate76 says there are additional packaged survival meals around the map as well as harvestable plants and huntable animals which should help during that transitional phase.

[NetPirate76]

You should be able to have a field big enough (or some more smaller ones 7x7 or so) to get you supplied for the time while you research hydroponics and move the production inside.

[lt_halle]

Be sure to put sunlamps down so your crops grow faster. They will short-circuit and catch fire in the rain, but the rain subsequently puts the fire out, so it's not an issue. The transition between initial food supplies and stable food income is definitely more pronounced, but as NetPirate76 says there are additional packaged survival meals around the map as well as harvestable plants and huntable animals which should help during that transitional phase.

Or you can do what I do and build a structure like this (o - empty; O - wall):
o O O
O o O
o O O

and then remove the leftmost wall. This leaves you with a small roofed alcove to tuck your sunlamps into. Repeat as necessary to cover the entire field.

As for the OP, the game isn't SUPPOSED to be something that you can build beautiful fortresses out of in the first day. If you crash landed in the jungle, would your first impulse be "I've got to find some food and some shelter," or would it be "Well'p, looks like it's time to start working on my two-story hardened clay mansion! I'm sure the food situation will sort itself out."

[Lerxst]

I didn't mean it as a complaint. I was actually happy to see that I had to switch tactics! It just wasn't something I was expecting to do and didn't notice outright until the 3rd time it came up.

So, yeah, my tactics now are to assign anyone with a gun to hunting duty. Build a butcher's bench solar panel and food dispenser. Then I scavenge berries and other food, grow a huge crop, add batteries and a couple more solar panels and build a small shack as my cooler. Did that twice in a row and ended up with a 4,000 food surplus by the next year   (Let's not talk about that ice-sheet colony I started for masochistic reasons...)

[NetPirate76]

hehe love a good ice sheet challenge, as see on my channel