Empirewide Food

[laptor]

As we saw in Teaser 7th Feb there will be empirewide food - like minerals and energy.

Will there be new modifiers for planets to "create" agrar worlds?
I thought of something like:
+30% food production
-30% mineral production

What do you think / want?

 

[mighij]

I thought global food would be added later on?

 

[laptor]

Look next to minerals

 

[Alblaka]

I thought global food would be added later on?

It's not 100% certain.
Here's the facts:

• It was stated that global food is something that will be looked into, albeit without being a focus for 1.5
• There was no global food in the devstream, which (supposedoly) bases upon the/a hot codebranch
• A global food icon was visible in the teaser referenced in the post above.

I therefore conclude the following possibilities (from best to worst)

• global food is a secret feature of 1.5, which was excluded from the dev stream, but now (unintentionally) revealed by wiz
  
• global food wasn't intended to come in 1.5, but someone did it anyways, but only pushed the change after the dev stream
• global food wasn't intended to come in 1.5, but someone did it anyways, and the devstream does not actually use hot code (or well, not the main branch of it)
• global food is not yet ready for the 1.5 release and won't be, but wiz made the teaser screen (unintentionally) whilst on a branch that includes the unfinished mechanic
• global food wasn't even started on and Wiz photoshopped the teaser to include that icon just to troll us

I will not provide any probabilities.

 

[Ilanin]

I'll add another one:

• Global food is being worked on as a medium-level priority, and will get into 1.5 if it actually works (and the AI handles it properly) by the time Banks hits code freeze.

Since I think we're still some way from that based on Wiz's comments on last week's stream.

 

[Kilmantor]

I hope global food is a thing in 1.5 - gives us more room for tactics. You can specialize your planets or you can starve out a superior enemy by specificly attacking his "corn chambers".

 

[Xoatl]

My prediction is either next week or at the latest the week after that will have a dev diary for global food. I highly doubt they accidentally left global food in their teaser. You'd be naive to think that if you've been following the dev diarys and teasers.

 

[Vitovt]

It's also possible that global food isn't available from the game start, but can be opened by technology.

 

[Bayes]

Im gussing that we will see global food next patch. ^ Nice profile portrait btw.

 

[Leonick]

I'll add another one:

• Global food is being worked on as a medium-level priority, and will get into 1.5 if it actually works (and the AI handles it properly) by the time Banks hits code freeze.

Since I think we're still some way from that based on Wiz's comments on last week's stream.

The stream also had a detail that might increase the priority of global food.

The colony center building produces food, if playing with caste system the initial settler is enslaved, becomes unhappy, and has to be supressed. This is weird, colony center probably shouldn't produce food but until there is global food it has too.

 

[faljen_isus]

wiz stated he didnt see any logic in the capital producing food, but was necessary because there was no global food

as far as i see, when wiz doesnt see logic he tends to change stuff

 

[The Nothing]

Also, for orbital habitats, having global food would make more sense than producing all food directly in a giant space station. The dev diary told us orbital habitats were good at producing science/energy but quite bad for food and minerals.

 

[IceCoolTea]

Trading between owned planets would be nice. Like, trading outposts in orbit, used to equalise food around the empire.

 

[safe-keeper]

It's also possible that global food isn't available from the game start, but can be opened by technology.

That would make sense, since hauling massive amounts of food many light years between star systems is quite an undertaking.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I've historically not been fond of the idea of a global food stat. If anything, I think more resources should be calculated locally, with a trade mechanic to let you ship them around where they're needed.

 

[Dr. B]

You can not simply implement food transfer and be done with it. It must be integrated into the game in a rewarding way, or it will be cheesed so hard against an unwitting AI.

Some features of Master of Orion 2 that should be in if food transfers are considered:

-Must build freighters, that also cost money to operate when transporting food, creating a payoff-situation where local production is much cheaper

-Blockades. Whenever enemy fleets are in a system, no food can enter or leave. Imagine the work needed to make the AI even a bit adept at understanding and using this tactic in a game of Stellaris' scope.

 

[Roobster88]

I think they may be toying with the idea of eventually devoting a patch to creating a transportation/trade system where stuff actually gets transported from producing planet/station to a consuming one. A first step towards this is making the three main resources be treated the same way by the game and AI so that they can all be turned over to the trade/transport system smoothly.

I'm imagining we may eventually have shipping lanes that form organically and that may be pirated abstractly like in EU4 and must be supplied with convoys like in HoI4 (these will cost mineras to build and have the usual ship maintenance). You'll probably be able to assign escort ships like in EU4. Ships in shipping lanes would perhaps only be visible in an abstract way to keep the lag down. There are many details they need to figure out to make this work right, though.

They may also decide it's too complex for the scope of the game and keep global production and consumption as it is (with global food).

 

[Strager]

• global food wasn't even started on and Wiz photoshopped the teaser to include that icon just to troll us

Knowing @Wiz this is the most likely scenario.

 

[Drakonn]

They may just be adding in global food now and the ability to trade it between planets (or other empires) or something more interactive later. Either way, happy to have this. Now my sectors won't starve planets because there aren't enough tiles and the AI won't build over other resources without say so.

 

[Mitchz95]

I've historically not been fond of the idea of a global food stat. If anything, I think more resources should be calculated locally, with a trade mechanic to let you ship them around where they're needed.

I agree. Global food, assuming it is coming in 1.5, will hopefully just be a stopgap on the way to a dynamic trade system.