Make food relevant

[Bezborg]

My suggestion: Let's make all organic species take food very seriously. And its overproduction and export a bit more relevant.

1) Make it a bit more scarce, thus making agri worlds relevant

2) Food deficit makes pops decline. May or may not be based on social strata, and living standards. For example communal parity would starve all equally, while a stratified society would see only the lower classes starve.

3) Food deficit makes people desperate and rebellious. The extent of disorder is connected to point 2, above, as it depends on how society distributes the burden of the shortage. For example, communal parity distributes available food equally, and everyone takes a hit. So the decline and distress would be smaller. Meanwhile, a stratified society would take a larger population decline (seeing as the lower strata are usually more numerous, on certain planets), and there would be a bigger effect on their happiness.


Comments and ideas welcome.

 

[indalecio248]

I feel like there should be a way turn excess food into Trade Value. There are number of luxury items like wines, cheeses, truffles and caviar, which, while aren't staple foods, are highly prized and trade at expensive prices. I had a suggestion of a building called a 'Fermentation Vat' that would consume food, but produce Trade Value.

 

[Rostyk.96]

Food is already as relevant as any other basic resource, and food deficiency penalties already sufficient in scope of other deficiencies (wich need rework as a whole).

 

[GOLANX]

I feel like there should be a way turn excess food into Trade Value. There are number of luxury items like wines, cheeses, truffles and caviar, which, while aren't staple foods, are highly prized and trade at expensive prices. I had a suggestion of a building called a 'Fermentation Vat' that would consume food, but produce Trade Value.

I feel like that might be consumer goods, which could also be cash crop things and lumber, I find it rather odd that all Furniture in the Future is made of Iron and other mineable minerals.
"How'd you sleep honey?"
"Like a rock"
"That's nice!"
"No I slept on a Rock it was Awful why didn't we make beds out of things soft an cushy like Agricultural Products"
"Get Used to it kid, when you grow up it's worse you work for electricity, not to power the home that's free no they shock you with a Tazer for doing good"

 

[indalecio248]

I feel like that might be consumer goods, which could also be cash crop things and lumber, I find it rather odd that all Furniture in the Future is made of Iron and other mineable minerals.
"How'd you sleep honey?"
"Like a rock"
"That's nice!"
"No I slept on a Rock it was Awful why didn't we make beds out of things soft an cushy like Agricultural Products"
"Get Used to it kid, when you grow up it's worse you work for electricity, not to power the home that's free no they shock you with a Tazer for doing good"

I can't really see cash crops as consumer goods. Consumer good are things like your latest model repulsorcraft or tablet or refrigerator. Luxury goods are represented by Trade Value. Lumber could be slightly different. An ordinary desk made of wood would be a consumer good. A desk made of mahogany, would be a luxury item which would therefore be Trade Value.

 

[Echo Candor One]

Do you mean a deficit as in "500 food stored and losing 10 food a month," or do you mean it as in "zero food stored and losing food every month?"

Because I believe that the game should definitely have more consequences for having none of a resource and a debt of that resource to pay. Negative food should cause pop decline, like you said - negative minerals should cause alloy and consumer good production to grind to a halt - negative consumer goods should cause research and unity to stop, etc. Hopefully that could create an intra-market where players / AIs meaningfully trade resources, too.

 

[GOLANX]

I can't really see cash crops as consumer goods. Consumer good are things like your latest model repulsorcraft or tablet or refrigerator. Luxury goods are represented by Trade Value. Lumber could be slightly different. An ordinary desk made of wood would be a consumer good. A desk made of mahogany, would be a luxury item which would therefore be Trade Value.

Cotton? Wool? Furs? All farmable things we like in our beds, sofas, chairs, the seats of repulsorcraft. Could have artisans consume a mix of food and Minerals representing the Agriculture contributions to luxury lifestyles, bonus points Agricultural products are renewable, where Minerals are not. Then I would suggest the ability to convert excess consumer goods into trade value. Maybe some of the food itself, the British Empire Nearly bankrupted itself trading for tea, the Chinese Empire was nearly bankrupted by the British empire Smuggling in Opium to satisfy their Tea Habit.

 

[Bezborg]

Cotton? Wool? Furs? All farmable things we like in our beds, sofas, chairs, the seats of repulsorcraft. Could have artisans consume a mix of food and Minerals representing the Agriculture contributions to luxury lifestyles, bonus points Agricultural products are renewable, where Minerals are not. Then I would suggest the ability to convert excess consumer goods into trade value. Maybe some of the food itself, the British Empire Nearly bankrupted itself trading for tea, the Chinese Empire was nearly bankrupted by the British empire Smuggling in Opium to satisfy their Tea Habit.

Actually I had a trade goods suggestion a long time ago, where we could have some sort of "special" goods that are ties to specific planets. "We found a unique mushroom on this planet and this planet alone, that will make your genitals grow. It grows only here, and is exported in dried from". Or whatever.

Kinda like the good old special resources required to terraform etc.

Stuff like that.

It' never gonna happen, might as well stop wasting time. I hate to be this fatalistic, but I think we've gauged by now what is within the scope of the devs' capabilities (and will), and what isn't.

 

[Bezborg]

Do you mean a deficit as in "500 food stored and losing 10 food a month," or do you mean it as in "zero food stored and losing food every month?"

Well you raise a valid point. I believe those two circumstances should be different.

I think "food stores" should prioritize population (or whatever strata is getting food first, depending on civs)... So I guess population should decline at food stores" zero.

A simple monthly deficit should impact any production based on food, but as long as there's food stored...I suppose it would go to feed people?

Unsure

 

[Nerdfish]

Add a bioship line allowing warships to be built directly from planets using food.

 

[indalecio248]

Add a bioship line allowing warships to be built directly from planets using food.

Isn't this technically Catalytic Processing?

 

[Nerdfish]

Isn't this technically Catalytic Processing?

My suggestion is that adding a separate hull line that cost food instead alloy.

 

[Echo Candor One]

My suggestion is that adding a separate hull line that cost food instead alloy.

"THE WHOLE PLANET'S ON A COB, GO! GO!"

 

[Nerdfish]

LOL, It make sense for certain empire archetypes, like biological hive minds (e.g. Zerg and Tyranids) to have only biological ships.

 

[V-Metamorph]

My suggestion: Let's make all organic species take food very seriously. And its overproduction and export a bit more relevant.

1) Make it a bit more scarce, thus making agri worlds relevant

2) Food deficit makes pops decline. May or may not be based on social strata, and living standards. For example communal parity would starve all equally, while a stratified society would see only the lower classes starve.

3) Food deficit makes people desperate and rebellious. The extent of disorder is connected to point 2, above, as it depends on how society distributes the burden of the shortage. For example, communal parity distributes available food equally, and everyone takes a hit. So the decline and distress would be smaller. Meanwhile, a stratified society would take a larger population decline (seeing as the lower strata are usually more numerous, on certain planets), and there would be a bigger effect on their happiness.


Comments and ideas welcome.

Those are just "malus", but the one we currently have is already dire enough. I'd expect more usage of food, not malus.

 

[Aepdneds]

I feel like that might be consumer goods, which could also be cash crop things and lumber, I find it rather odd that all Furniture in the Future is made of Iron and other mineable minerals.
"How'd you sleep honey?"
"Like a rock"
"That's nice!"
"No I slept on a Rock it was Awful why didn't we make beds out of things soft an cushy like Agricultural Products"
"Get Used to it kid, when you grow up it's worse you work for electricity, not to power the home that's free no they shock you with a Tazer for doing good"

"Wait, isn't our postman a rock?"

 

[SirBlackAxe]

Best way I think to implement this would be a "Cash Crop" planet designation that replaces half your farmer jobs with new delicatessen jobs that convert food directly into trade value.

 

[GOLANX]

Best way I think to implement this would be a "Cash Crop" planet designation that replaces half your farmer jobs with new delicatessen jobs that convert food directly into trade value.

Not sure such a job is needed, how about an Edict or Policy that causes Clerks to consume extra food to make trade value.

 

[Bezborg]

Those are just "malus", but the one we currently have is already dire enough. I'd expect more usage of food, not malus.

Also agreed

 

[GOLANX]

My suggestion: Let's make all organic species take food very seriously. And its overproduction and export a bit more relevant.

1) Make it a bit more scarce, thus making agri worlds relevant

What if your crops were Climate Specific, if your species is from an Dry Planet then you subsist on Cacti, Cactus grows just fine on desert planets but drowns on wet planets, exploding even as they consume more water than they can store, likewise cold planets cause the water stored in the plants to freeze, especially deadly to Cactus. Thusly you need the right climate for Agriculture districts.

I'd also like to see seasonal cycles, it is doable, more events mod regularly causes bonuses and maluses to resource output, seasonal cycles would do the same thing but going up and down over the course of the year, the spiky nature of output means you need to store food for the winter so to speak.