Farming balance

[Darkfine]

I think something is wrong here.  I can have all of my colonists farming/hunting/cooking and still am running out of food.  I don't mean not able to stock pile I mean actively running out and starving. 

The last setup I tried was 3 farms, everyone growing and hunting.  Literally all they did was farm and hunt and starve.

[Kinakin]

The farming most likely needs a little tweaking, but I dont feel it is as bad as you describe. There clearly has to be something more to your spesific situation making it come out that extreme.

Either your colonists have some really bad combination of traits/skills  or you are operating in hostile biome setting with bad growing conditions.

The most common cause of starvation in the game for me is by a breakdown in food chain.

Farming(planting)/Hunting --(hauling)-> Slaughter/harvest --(hauling)-> Storage --(hauling)-> cooking/pasteing --(hauling)-> Storage --(hauling)-> Consume

Now depending on where in the chain I see trouble I can work my way back to find the cause. Usually it is related to job priority, stockpile priority, Spoilage or overreaching. But If you give some more spesific feedback on excatly where you are having issues I might be able to help you pinpoint it.

[GWMurel]

Up until quite recently I used exclusively farms but I faced the same issue where a blight would ruin my crops and then all my hydro and outdoor crops would die. But I find if you luck out and land near a half decent sized herd of anything the hunting is much more reliable. In my current game I`m like a week in and I haven`t established a proper growing zone yet.

Also I`d say slap manual priorities on if you want to do the farming, have one person with like growing priority one someone with cooking priority one and then someone who has both growing and cooking priority 2 that way there`s a bit of rotation and extra hands in the field when things are quiet.

[Darkfine]

I think it is a mechanic issue more than user error at this point.  Colonists are harvesting when they can, I have a cooler next to my farms, butcher table and stove, so spoilage isn't an issue.  Does freezing food reduce its nutritional value?  That could be it.

Any how, have started a new colony.  Maybe I need to recruit more, though not sure how adding more mouths to feed will help.

[Arigas]

I'd say screenshot, or even upload the save, let people take a look and hopefully give tips on whats going on.

[Kinakin]

Freezing basically elimnates stuff rotting. be sure the temprature is actually set to freezing and not just cold.

Once the raw material is made into basic meals you will want to store the meals inside the freezer so they dont rot aswell. Ideally in a stockpile zone marked critical and and with only meals set as storage.

What you want to do is is having multiple grow zones on different timers if the biome allows for it. So your food maker is always making food or harvesting raw food to be made into food.
Offcourse the issue is that the job of moving the harvested food is not tied to the growing skill but to hauling. Which is crap IMHO.

Note you can store dead animals in a  freezer. This lets you store meat while saving time by not having to butcher it unti lyou have to.

But I still cant see how you can be starving with 3 colonists.
I know hauling food can become an issue with higher populations, but farming even small scale should cover you food needs easily for your first 4 or 5 colonists atleast.

More colonists make it easier to move food around. Ideally you will have lots of raw food in storage. That can be made into food when needed.

But it takes alot of time to plant, harvest, haul to storage, Then move to processing. With fewer colonists everytime the cook is making food he is not planting or harvesting or hauling. Reducing your food production. So there is a balance. You need enough to make it effective.

As long as you are not at your meal storage cap the cook should be making food or eating or sleeping. If he isnt able to produce enough but you have the raw materials then get another cook bench and cook. If hes not able to produce because of lack of raw food you are  not producing enough raw food. Either because you are not able to harvest and plant fast enough, its rotting or you are not able to move it fast enough.

Now with a population of 3 it should be impossible to starve indefinitely unless you have some really bad job priority settings,  a tiny grow field or a task backlogg.

A blight will only destroy crops and not harvested raw food. Thats why now with the ability to create freezer rooms you want alot of stored food. Prefrebly in the form of basic meals, but atleast in the raw food department. Your storage of raw food is a good way to notice if you need to increase food production.

If you are not able to keep an excess amount of raw food you are doing something wrong. Think of it as a grain storage. It should be large enough to handle several failed crops. Either due to blights, attacks or other events.

Job priority is essential. Remember that the growing jobb Is related to planting and and harvesting. But he will only harvest plants when they are full grown by himself. Theese are tasks that happen periodically. But when they do require attention they are important.

So early on everyone should have it as their main priority. Untill you get enough people to specialize. This will minimize the time spent planting and harvesting. Meaning your growing zones will produce food faster.

An early cook is as much a farmer as he is a cook.

Also note be carefull not to create a hauling backlogg. You dont want that food sitting around longer then it has to but also remember that getting that 2nd batch planted is more important. Your pawns can dilly dally after the crops are planted.

[mega]

Make sure you have someone hauling those potatoes into a freezer. They will just rot in the field otherwise.

For even more efficient processing, put the butcher table AND stove in the freezer. Cook works fast when they follow Six Sigma.

[Barley]

A find a lot of these problems come from poor colony planning. Make sure:

Your freezer is connected directly to the kitchen.
The Kitchen and/or Freezer are connected directly to the growing areas
The Medbay, dining Hall, and Prisoner area are all VERY close to your kitchen
The Colonist's rooms are all very close to the dining hall.
Set the air conditioners to 30 Fahrenheit, -2 Celsius, or 271 Kelvin. The extra 2 degrees Celsius accounts for temperature variations over the day/night cycle. Have a second air conditioner on standby for heat waves.
Everything is paved for fast travel.

[evrett33]

I was going to make the opposite argument. Farming is too easy. All you need to grow year round is build a building around your zone and use sun lamps. Plus there is never a shortage of animals to shoot. hydroponics is pointless.

I think a good solution is the removal of simple meals. Thats the spot for nutrient paste. Then the more complex meals use up more ingredients but give happy buffs. cooking skill under 7 loads and maintains the dispenser, and you really will value the people who can actually cook.

[REMworlder]

With food being discussed, thought I'd point towards a post of mine that looks at the numbers behind food. Though I haven't updated it yet for this patch, the methodology should still be similar (will probably update in a week). Just double the required plant numbers to roughly account for plants resting at night too.

Specifically regarding the OP, make sure you're preparing food to get max nutritional value out of it. Feeding colonists raw food is really inefficient. Though I never use paste, it was buffed for alpha 8 so it's definitely the most nutrition-efficient food out there.

Manually assigning 1+ growers and plant cutters at highest priority is also an easy way to ensure food is in supply.

Cook works fast when they follow Six Sigma.

I like my food prep practices lean

Keep in mind changes to food are coming, with rice and corn being introduced and fertilizer pumps being cut. A9 also will feature a debug for balancing plant growth stuff. All stuff to look forward to!

[Scotty]

I normally find food growing quite easy at the start. Just remember to make sure all your colonists have their abilities ticked at the start. By default some of them aere unticked at the start

[Drahkon]

And hopefully you don't have a colonist bugged out while eating and having the food vanish as they sit down to eat it >.<
Stocks empty fast that way.

[nuschler22]

I don't have any issues once I get it going. 

I think there might be two problems.  First, your food might be rotting before you can get it to a freezer.

Second, animals might be eating your crops.  There is a mod that has a fence which is handy to solve this problem.

I have one approximately 9 x 20 farm, sometimes two, and rarely have issues with food after the first year.  In the first year, I usually supplement with the bulk traders and get about 1000 potatoes or whatever they have is cheap.  Sometimes I don't need it. 

I have a room sectioned into 2 9x9 freezers and have about 3300 potatoes and something like 2500 strawberries after the first winter. 

[nuschler22]

Make sure you have someone hauling those potatoes into a freezer. They will just rot in the field otherwise.

For even more efficient processing, put the butcher table AND stove in the freezer. Cook works fast when they follow Six Sigma.

I didn't think of this.  It's genuis!

[milon]

Make sure you have someone hauling those potatoes into a freezer. They will just rot in the field otherwise.

For even more efficient processing, put the butcher table AND stove in the freezer. Cook works fast when they follow Six Sigma.

I didn't think of this.  It's genuis!

I've been keeping my Ice Sheet colony at a toasty -15.0C (Outdoors is around -70C [-110ish F]), so my raw food & simple meals & cookstove & cook all stay in the same room.  No more 'Do until you have X' bills, just cook forever!