self sustaining food?

[Garrow]

Really confused on how to self sustain my town on food, i keep having to run out and buy expensive food from towns.

i built a xl wheat farm (arid) i have the silo well and stove and i have everyone assigned to everything but the pace is way too slow and all my people are starving

what should i do from here?

[Morphic]

Build more farms? Have enough Water? Have enough flour? If your farm is giving enough wheat, then you'll need more silos/grinder for flour so you can make more bread. Also you need a Bread Oven to make bread, not a Stove.

Though bread by itself kind of sucks as food, you'll want to grow Greenfruit or Cactus so you can make Foodcubes or Dustwiches since those have higher NU values.

You'll probably still need to buy food until you get the situation under control and you start producing more food than what you are eating.

[bunny de fluff]

It's easy for new players to get more people than they can feed. And the most important thing affecting food production is water table and soil fertility.

[=]

Arid has limited wheat fertility, you are better focusing on cactus initially and make chewsticks (you will need the desert cooking research). If you are in an area with a lot of wildlife you should also go on hunting trips to stock up on meat.

You should aim for foodcubes or gohan production eventually although this will require hydroponics for most of the map..

[Bomb Bloke]

Along with turning cacti into chewsticks, or wheat into bread, you can also hunt for meat. Wild animals spawn every now and then, and you'll need their skins for crafting purposes anyway.

Like cacti, meat can be combined with bread to make "longer lasting" food once you've got enough grain fields going. I figure adding one farmer for every four fields works out about right.

[Fryskar]

Its all a numbers game.
How many people do you want to feed on 1 what level fertility field?
Race matters too, not all eat the same amout.

You didn't build a field and think you don't need food until after the first harvest?

Do you have light? Darkness ruins the harvest even with high skill.
That is if you have good farming skills to begin with. If yours is low, they'll ruin most of the harvest with their lacking skill.

I know that someone made a good lists for such calculations.

[Jhoson14]

Build more farms, also plant other crops (if in arid get some cactus amazing for dust sandwich: Bread+ Cactus)

Keep only few guys assigned to harvesting. Low skill means they will mess up and you wont get much from the harvest.

[Noma]

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Along with turning cacti into chewsticks, or wheat into bread, you can also hunt for meat. Wild animals spawn every now and then, and you'll need their skins for crafting purposes anyway.

Like cacti, meat can be combined with bread to make "longer lasting" food once you've got enough grain fields going. I figure adding one farmer for every four fields works out about right.

This ratio is what I also found out by playing.
I settled in the Okran's Plains, or whatever the name is, near Blister Hills, so I first trained my farmers by harvesting the fields from the Holy farms. Now in my base, with 3 L wheatstraw fields and all the meat I gather from the river raptors, I can make more than enough food for about 20 not-Skeleton guys, about 1/3 being Sheks.

I'd say, for starting, stealing from farms lets you gather the ressources to build your first farms and train your farmers at the same time

[Cuddle_Rat]

Just hunt beak things for an hour and bring home like 1k meat. Meaty goodness, put those gutters in the gut!

[Amogus]

honestly buying food aren't that bad into mid game, i have a base fully stocked up on food with just ONE WHEAT FARM. it's a town primarly focused on weapons, armor, hashishi and cactus rum, so i end up having tons of money and i can empty out he store of food while still make a profit from selling all the high grade weapons, armor, rum and illgal drugs.

[Amogus]

Originally posted by =:

Arid has limited wheat fertility, you are better focusing on cactus initially and make chewsticks (you will need the desert cooking research). If you are in an area with a lot of wildlife you should also go on hunting trips to stock up on meat.

You should aim for foodcubes or gohan production eventually although this will require hydroponics for most of the map..

i think he should just focus on making cactus into cactus rum and use that money he makes to buy food instead, because chewsticks get eaten up way too quick and they don't provide a lot of nutrion so characters go hungry soon after they ate that crap. while buying food cubes can last a lot longer. plus distling rum also increase cooking skills so if he does want to make his own food later, he now has people who can cook very well.

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by Garrow:

alright i'm gonna build more farms and make sure they're well lit, i have a xl wheat and cactus so ill focus on sandwiches. I only have two skilled farmers (40-50), should i find more in taverns or just train some humans/hive

Dedicated farmer recruits seem to be pretty rare - I've only found one, and she was a unique. Doesn't take all that long to train a new recruit to a workable level yourself, though. Just don't get too many, or they'll all gain too slowly due to a lack of work.

You do need to keep buying food while you wait for them to git gud, but eventually you'll be making more nomnoms than the vendors can provide. In the meantime, training weapon and armour smiths will get you a ton of excess equipment to trade.

[Bomb Bloke]

Now you've got me wondering how many people you're trying to feed - I didn't think it'd be that many, given that you've only just started to tackle food production, but it's starting to sound like you've overextended and may need to dismiss some of them.

Beds may help. Sleeping team members drain their hunger bars much more slowly than standing ones.

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Now you've got me wondering how many people you're trying to feed - I didn't think it'd be that many, given that you've only just started to tackle food production, but it's starting to sound like you've overextended and may need to dismiss some of them.

Beds may help. Sleeping team members drain their hunger bars much more slowly than standing ones.

Probably.
While a full backpack isn't exactly accurate (size and food used), it sounds like quiet some chars.

[Unturned]

Originally posted by Garrow:

alright i'm gonna build more farms and make sure they're well lit, i have a xl wheat and cactus so ill focus on sandwiches. I only have two skilled farmers (40-50), should i find more in taverns or just train some humans/hive

The guy who mentioned that darkness ruins the harvest, I think what he really meant to say is that your characters who are actively harvesting the crops suffer a large penalty if they are working in darkness. This is true for all crafters whether its an armor smith, medicine crafter, etc. The way to get around this for farming in early game is to just make sure you harvest the crops during daylight. If you have around 10 guys or so you will need a lot of farms it can be difficult to try to light it all during early game.

Its been awhile since I played but if I recall its about 3 XL farms of each type per 10 characters for steady production. If in a climate where the crop yield is less than 20% then you probably want at least double that. It will take a lot of water. It also takes a few cycles for the skill gets decent to where you aren't losing a ton of crops. Start with just 1 or 2 guys on farming then when their skill gets high mix in one new guy at a time.

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by Garrow:

29

Ah. Right.

So the game's non-modded maximum is 30, and it's balanced accordingly. You want a high level of food production already. It's a bit late to start thinking about it now.

So instead of "a xl wheat farm (arid)", you really want about five or six of those, and nearly as many cactus farms. Throw in a few hemp (since cotton won't grow, and you need fabric), and that'll be around enough to keep about four farmers busy. Stop turning plants into food until you've got those extra plots built - you'll just have to rely on meat and purchased eats until then.

Upgrade your wells if you haven't already - one won't cut it, and you don't want a bunch of workers stuck on them, so you need the automatic pumping versions. Build a few, assign a hauler to a water storage, and to storages for each of your crop types. One hauler can typically keep up with a bunch of destinations.

A lot of other jobs are periodical. Your researcher could also be an engineer, medic, and corpse hauler, for example, and would probably still spend a lot of time idle. Having characters that're "just" medics is terribly wasteful.

Likewise, start thinking of everyone as a fighter. When you go out campaigning, there's no need to leave people behind at your base.