How do you guys handle the food shortage in B42?

[Dumbledood]

Like a lot of posts I've read, I think food was a bit too abundant in B41. I, a humble noob, felt I easily had a nigh infinite food supply without ever needing to actually work on any sort of farming, foraging, fishing or agriculture. But in B42, it's the opposite. In part due to not finding generator plans or electronics books before the power went out, I was losing weight and in constant danger of becoming underweight after a while, so started working on animal husbandry, foraging, and fishing.

And I think next run I should probably start focusing on one of those sooner. Farming seems to not really provide much benefit for a long time. I'm not sure if I'm understanding the wiki correctly, but it looks like crops take between 30 and 240 days to grow? Holy crap, that's a lot of work and time. My longest run has been around 50 days. Lol.

So yeah, seems like in B42, we might want to start working on some kind of self-sustainability earlier on. Trapping doesn't seems just okay since it relies on finding other food, which is rare, unless you're growing crops, and that takes forever (but I haven't tried it, so feel free to tell me I'm wrong, I guess it only reduces the bait by -5, so it's better than I thought). Fishing seems quite strong. Hunting isn't really a viable product option, from what I've read, unless we're counting car hunting. Animal husbandry is pretty strong too (butter, eggs), and butchering is good, especially short-term. I imagine over time you could harvest some animals, and let them repopulate.

[Puppers]

I dont really find food in houses, which is realistically intended, i seem to find them in grocery stores (sometimes you can find boxes of canned food in gigafart storage), gas stations places like that, in towns. There are lots of farms around echo that have already established farms if you need but i havent really had issues with food i eat a lot of stuff from the trash cans lol, even on 12 months later runs with prelooted buildings on insane from day 1 and living for a month.

I havent got into farming yet cause i dont want to really babysit anything right now and rather see how it fairs reading peoples experiences with it

[Rincewind]

there is still foraging and trapping left for those don´t want to farm or animals

[pauloandrade224]

foraging is very good especially when u get the herbalist trait so u can know what will kill u and what wont.

super good.

you want to do animal farming a single cow and 4 sheep give me infinite milk.

especially when u can read about animal farming and literally milk the exp out of the animals. its insane. to not mention eggs i got infinite amounts of them too

[Jessian Kaanneo]

sweets, crisps and cans of anything.. lots of cans

Yes i am still looking for a fishing rod!

I have the net and can craft them now, but a rod and plans ??? Yes i have looted some bait shops

[MV75]

That's why you watch life and living, the survival fishing show gives you the make rod recipe. Also head to what is called the army barracks, one north and east of rosewood and north of fallas lake off the top of my head, they are full of hunting and fishing gear too. Also the tool warehouses can have fishing spawns too.

[Armagenesis]

Farming is a waste of time right now. Not because of the time it takes for plants to grow, but because the system is still fundamentally broken.

Trapping isn't that hard. Worm and maggot can be used to trap birds. And stick traps don't require any skill/recipe iirc. So they can still be used as your main source of calories until you can find fishing equipment.

Fish is still the best source of food. A single catch can feed you for a day or two.

Animal husbandry is sweet, but that shouldn't be your main source of meat. I feel like cows and chickens are the best livestock to raise for their eggs and milk instead.

[Finik]

Originally posted by Jessian Kaanneo:

Yes i am still looking for a fishing rod!
I have the net and can craft them now, but a rod and plans ???

when you reach lvl 3 or 4 in carving you will learn how to craft fishing rod automatically (like 3 in electronics gives you generators usage ability)

and every receipt can be learned if you get +1 lvl more in same skill

[J128MM]

In some areas of the map, you'll find gardens. Early game, if power is already out, let it grow and only take what you need, so it doesn't spoil. There's your bait for rabbits. And you can keep rabbits alive in a pen after trapping them. That way they don't spoil. If you need to eat the vegetables, use a bowl and make salad. If you find things like mayo or ranch, add that to the salads. 6 radishes is 6 calories. 6 radishes in a bowl prepared as a salad is more than 6 calories. Adding mayo pushes that up to over 250 calories. Other foraged plants and garden vegetables yield more.

Early game, every fridge has a freezer. Don't forget to look inside. Eat only the foods that might spoil when the power goes out, first. Find a cooking pot and make stews rather than cooking each item individually. Same thing with trapped meat and livestock.

Bags of dry beans, peas. Pasta. Canned goods. When it's time to eat that, again, put it in a pot and prepare a stew. It lasts longer that way, provides more calories, and satisfies more hunger needs.

If you find butter or lard, save it. Add it to those stews when you're getting low on food or need to gain weight.

Now you can eat even less yet still remain healthy. Food is actually abundant. Nearly every run for me, food hasn't been a problem. I focus on what the world offers at the start, and burn those calories preparing for the future.

It's a myth livestock takes a long time to yield food. Many animals exist on the map, some old, some young. You don't need to start from scratch. Hunting and fishing is also very effective.

Early game when fridges are full and fresh foods are everywhere. Don't be afraid to grab plastic bags or garbage bags, one for each hand, fill them up with food and get it home to your fridge when the coast is clear. Grab non-perishables later.

The red grills can be used indoors. Can forage to fuel them. Can even burn newspapers. Garbage on the ground can be picked up and used as fuel to cook with. No axe needed.

Can convert stale ingredients into fresh salads and stew.

[engager6]

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

Animal husbandry is sweet, but that shouldn't be your main source of meat. I feel like cows and chickens are the best livestock to raise for their eggs and milk instead.

That is where you are wrong buddy. You do realise that chicken eggs are only worth 60 cal? Any food item that is lower then ~300 cal is a compost, you just do not understand new meta mechanics. To not loose weight you will need like 2500-3500 cal per day if you do normal activities, and what happens when you let's say eat the egg? You got satisfied moodle telling you can't eat anymore, you gained 60 cal, but by the time this moodle disappears and you can eat again you already lost 300 cal doing activities, so you get net negative and sufficient one.

If you test this out a little you will find out that any food item below ~300 cal is worthless and detremental to your weight. You have to understand that even if you always satisfy your eat need moodle immidately every time it pops up, that does not mean that you will not starve (e.g. loose weight). Don't be decieved by eating moodle, it will not tell you what you are loosing weight and why, you will see that everything seems perfectly fine and you still somehow loose weight...

So the basic meta for you, ANY food item that is lower than ~300 cal "treshold" belongs to the compost bin, because it's useless. So, to survive for long time and endure winter and other problems you wat to stockpile high calories food only, and in current meta where aren't a lot of those food items, items that are proper: cereals, butter, fish fliets (from medium and big fish), high calorie meat cuts.

Even after nerf, cows and milk & butter are still awesome, as is the fishing and the hunting, assuming you ditch low calory meat chunks to compost and save high calorie value ones. Trapping is good too, because it allows you to utilise otherwise useless cabage and lettuce you can grow, and "exchange" those for some high calorie meats from rabits. So ranching cows, fishing, hunting and trapping are all good, as long as you understand the basics.

For god's sake - do not breed chickens, they are trash. They grow to slow to be used for meats, and their eggs are only good in filling composter.

[J128MM]

5 eggs, one potato, and some butter in a stew mix might yield about 1000 calories. Maybe one egg is worthless but since several chickens can lay more than 5 eggs each day, and one can cook several stews at once, eating that means you still have rabbit for tomorrow.

Might be more accurate to say any low calorie food belongs in the cooking pot. Not the compost.

[engager6]

Originally posted by J128MM:

5 eggs, one potato, and some butter in a stew mix might yield about 1000 calories. Maybe one egg is worthless but since several chickens can lay more than 5 eggs each day, and one can cook several stews at once, eating that means you still have rabbit for tomorrow.

Might be more accurate to say any low calorie food belongs in the cooking pot. Not the compost.

This is only true if you cook fast, if you taking your time doing that you may waste more energy than you gain by cooking items... And that is a possibility, no matter how funny this may sound. It may be wiser to just go aquire more good value food, than to try to recover something from trashy one.

Cooking is good in increasing value of bad foods, but do not forget the time it takes away, and this time costs and costs calories. Personally i found out it's better to just roast the meats/fliets and go your way, instead of wasting half of the day to kitchen, barely achieving anything net possitive.

Arguably, the big culprit here is a new cooking system, where you have to list big submenus many times to compose a proper meal to cook. This takes a much more that it should have had. So i would mostly just ignore that, sparing my time for doing somethign more useful or interesting.

[Armagenesis]

Originally posted by engager6:

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

Animal husbandry is sweet, but that shouldn't be your main source of meat. I feel like cows and chickens are the best livestock to raise for their eggs and milk instead.

That is where you are wrong buddy. You do realise that chicken eggs are only worth 60 cal? Any food item that is lower then ~300 cal is a compost, you just do not understand new meta mechanics. To not loose weight you will need like 2500-3500 cal per day if you do normal activities, and what happens when you let's say eat the egg? You got satisfied moodle telling you can't eat anymore, you gained 60 cal, but by the time this moodle disappears and you can eat again you already lost 300 cal doing activities, so you get net negative and sufficient one.

If you test this out a little you will find out that any food item below ~300 cal is worthless and detremental to your weight. You have to understand that even if you always satisfy your eat need moodle immidately every time it pops up, that does not mean that you will not starve (e.g. loose weight). Don't be decieved by eating moodle, it will not tell you what you are loosing weight and why, you will see that everything seems perfectly fine and you still somehow loose weight...

So the basic meta for you, ANY food item that is lower than ~300 cal "treshold" belongs to the compost bin, because it's useless. So, to survive for long time and endure winter and other problems you wat to stockpile high calories food only, and in current meta where aren't a lot of those food items, items that are proper: cereals, butter, fish fliets (from medium and big fish), high calorie meat cuts.

Even after nerf, cows and milk & butter are still awesome, as is the fishing and the hunting, assuming you ditch low calory meat chunks to compost and save high calorie value ones. Trapping is good too, because it allows you to utilise otherwise useless cabage and lettuce you can grow, and "exchange" those for some high calorie meats from rabits. So ranching cows, fishing, hunting and trapping are all good, as long as you understand the basics.

For god's sake - do not breed chickens, they are trash. They grow to slow to be used for meats, and their eggs are only good in filling composter.

Bla bla bla bla. You don't even read the rest of my post don't you?

[engager6]

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

Bla bla bla bla. You don't even read the rest of my post don't you?

Actually, i had. You just wrong about inciting people to raise useless trash chickens.

[J128MM]

Yeah, it takes time. So does reading. Keep a book nearby. And a chair. Or get your daily workout in as it bubbles. Or prepare another pot. Can usually prepare two or three more before the first is finished. Then take one out, split into bowls, prepare another and the next is ready. Usually goes something like that.

If possible I'll cook and prepare several high calorie stew mixes. The oven can hold more than one pot usually. Split that into bowls. Throw those in the freezer. Don't have to cook again until those are gone.

It's time well spent. I use that nutritionist trait as well and micromanage my diet. Nearly all my food goes into the pot. The bowls in the freezer yield calories and satisfy hunger. Some more than others. Creates consistency in the diet. Can take one with me on the road and it's thawed by the time I need to eat.

Chickens for example. Cooking and eating several might satisfy hunger. Can starve eating that all week. So I throw it in with some vegetables and butter, canned goods, pasta, dry beans even. Whatever I have. The chicken becomes filler while the other ingredients provide calories. Split it into 2 bowls or 4 bowls depending on the nutritional info. Basically, it doesn't make a difference what ingredients I use. The bowls become nearly identical. Creating my own rations, in a sense, out of all the things.

However, it can take awhile to get that setup. Finding cooking pots and bowls isn't always easy, for example. Regardless, no matter what I do to get food, that's where it'll end up eventually.

In that example with the 5 eggs and one potato. Substitute the potato with rabbit. Add butter. Should be around 2000 calories. And I still have rabbit and butter left over for the next pot. Wouldn't get that many calories out of the rabbits alone, which can be difficult to catch, and bait isn't always available. Best to get the most out of them. Adding low calorie foods to venison is one less bullet I need to fire, and so on.

And cooking stew is still like it was in build 41, with the right click menu. Doesn't take me long. Half day of cooking and I'm good for a week if things go right.

[96sawa3]

Eggs are important for eating butter without the grief.
Put cooked eggs in a frying pan and drizzle butter on them.
No need to reheat them.
Voila, no more unnecessary grief.
Eating 3 bowls will stop your weight loss.
They are light and have a long shelf life, so they are also useful as a temporary food to take with you.