Can anyone explain how cold storage works now? I'm totally lost :P

[Persephone]

The idea of cold cold storage is a deep, highly insulated room that keeps cold so you can store your food. But now, closed and insulated rooms TRAP heat and heat up over time?

My cold storage room built before 0.14.7 used to stay barely above freezing year-round. But now, that room is several degrees above freezing no matter what I do and my food all spoiled. I even added dozens of ice blocks with little effect. Every time my settlers enter the room they're just adding heat to the room and it has no way to escape, right?

Do I need to add ventilation to the cold room so build-up heat can escape? Wouldn't that just let the hot, outside air in and heat up my cold storage room even more? I'm just totally lost here :P

[Bloodcup]

+1

I'm having issues with this too. Not understanding just what i'm supposed to do now...

[Bethinia]

I've dug underground storage set at the deepest possible layer and filled it with shelves and ice. Then I stacked each floor above that with ice. No shelves or food at all, just completely ice, five levels of it. There should be no to very little outside heat at all going that deep underground through all those layers of ice. All the ice has already melted and disappeared on every level by mid-summer even without a heat wave and stored food continues to rot until winter. The really bad thing is that everything remains the same well above freezing temperature throughout each layer, no matter how much ice or how deep underground it is.

[Bloodcup]

my temp readings are good ..below 37 even in summer. But things keep rotting. I'm seeing stuff rot at about the 1yr mark. (i watched one shelf all year...) Not sure if its a new mechanic to make stuff rot eventually no matter the temp..or is the temp mechanic is broken.

[HauntedShadowsLegacy]

For a while now, I've taken to reducing the decomp/rot speeds to the longest possible setting. You do need tons of ice to keep the cellars cold, but stacking ice on the higher levels won't help much unless you have grated floors between 'em (or regular gaps, if you're not able to smelt yet). Makes sense that things would rot eventually, tho. 37 Fahrenheit is above the freezing point (ice stays solid at 32 Fahrenheit). What I do to compensate is just farm and forage like crazy in the early game and mellow out later. Being able to farm during winter now is good for staggering harvests (staggers when food goes bad).

It's also worth noting that flooring of any kind (even cobble or bricks) increases the temperature rather than the insulation. I've made that mistake before. It shouldn't work that way, but it does. If you do go for linking different layers for thermal reasons, stagger them back and forth with just a thin strip of grated floor connecting them on the edges so that most of the ground stays uncovered. Like this --> _-_-_

Best way, from my experience, is to rush for preserving/packaging and rely on defensive structures and mazes for defense rather than pushing for smelting/crafting. If you can, play on mountain maps for the temperature bonus. I use the seed 1402902366 because of a very defensible divot in the middle on the mountain map. Hope this helps.

[Bloodcup]

@Haunted...yeah, i agree with the eventual rotting of things. I'm fine if that is a new mechanic. (makes more sense actually). And i also, over produce farming and spend my autumns hunting/gathering. My people aren't in danger of starving..it's more just figuring out the mechanics.

[JimmyTheSaltyMelon]

+1 i would rather have the freezers fixed

[Luc]

I really like the new mechanics, specially after the last update. It's now very clear what temperatures are needed for fermenting.
@JimmyTheDeath There were no freezers in medieval times, except for outdoor storage during winter. So no need to fix this.
My underground storage rooms keep about 2-3 °C which is quite realistic. I don't even use ice blocks. Stuff rots eventually, that's the nature of things. But at 2-3 °C most food can be kept for years. Try using salt an vinegar to increase the preservation time of various vegetables. Smoke your meat. Don't over produce and all is fine.

[jessie]

I think the new system is great. I just think we need a freshness slider in the stockpile settings, and I would be absolutely set.

[moshi_boshi]

I noticed that if you build underground several layers down, and use both the wicker floor and clay brick floor, the temperatures even out.

For instance, I build all the way to the bottom, use shelves, set an area in the middle for ice, and all the layers above have clay bricks on the outside and usually a 2x3 wicker floor in the middle so that temperature can move around. It keeps my storage at a nice low temp that usually doesn't go above 38F even during summer. Make sure to use Clay Walls around, and don't make your storage room super big, because that will make it harder to lower the temp.

[FAIR]

Same issue, 3 levels down and still food rotting. Also temp is higher on 3rd level than 2nd level, makes no sense. No floors, no walls, just soil.