food level

[pawzisme]

at present I have less than 50 Bannies in my game and the food max is set to 5000, which is fine, but am thinking of allowing Nomads, and anyway the numbers will increase quick enough, so am thinking of raising the food max to 10000. Is there any reason I should not do that this early in the game do you know?

[mbutton15]

You always want to have some reserve for bad winters and tornado disasters. I keep my food limit at about 3 times annual usage.

The only thing to consider when storing excess food is just that - storage space. All that food has to go somewhere, whether it's a storage barn, market or Trade Post. These all take space from your map so you need to find the right balance between storage, production buildings and houses !!

[Claybot]

Not at all I usually raise mine early game to either 15000 or 25000 then as you approach those levels raise it again.
In Banished there is no such thing as to much food.
But you need storage

[pawzisme]

ah, had not thought about the storage aspect - thank 'ee kindly folks. :)

[maiden4meldin]

50 people, x 5000 food, is dead even, One more baby, one more addition, puts you into the negatives. Then you will experience the full weight of the starvation cycle of doom. As others have responded. No such thing as too much food.

In reply to adding in Nomads.

Nomads, come Hungry
Nomads come with diseases.
Nomads have children with them.
Children Eat, Wear Clothes, and Produce Nothing at all. Total Drain on Resources.
Students, Need Clothes, Produce Nothing either. Eat Plenty.
Nomads Have no clothes or Tools.

In order to bring in Nomads, you should have Boarding Houses, At least One Centrally located Hospital. Or I prefer to put my hospital beside the Boarding house, and the Town Hall. You need Extra Food. 30 Nomads will Immediately take from storage. 3000 Food. Regardless of what other Citizens want or need. They will Take, Tools and Clothing as well.

[pawzisme]

umm, thank you m4m..... :(

[28rommel]

Definitely store more. After you build a number a barns, store excess in (one or more) Trading Posts. You can then trade it for other food items. For example ... something many new players don't understand is that one of the four items of food citizens require for maximum health and happiness, is grain in their diet. In vanilla Banished, grain is only corn or wheat. If you grow neither, trade some of your other excess food for both of these.

https://banishedinfo.com/wiki/Diet

[HiFive]

Originally posted by 28rommel:

In vanilla Banished, grain is only corn or wheat. If you grow neither, trade some of your other excess food for both of these.

I've been wondering about this. I thought, perhaps, potatoes would also be considered grain? Because in real life potatoes and grain are pretty much interchangeable for that part of a person's diet. I've been using them that way, and haven't seen a problem with my bannies' health, I don't think. Nevertheless, on this game pumpkins serve as an alternate for squash, which is not as common in real life. I keep wishing the game would give me a way to sort inventories by food category so I'd know for sure what it considers to be what, but I suppose that might make things too easy. :)

I agree with everyone else, more food is better. I just check my barns and markets every so often to see if they are near full. If so, I build more barns.

You can also store extra food in your Trading Posts. You don't need to sell the extra food. It's just there for emergencies, but will not be counted in the "available food" shown by your Town Hall lists, and your bannies will not take it to their use in their homes. When certain food items in your barns and markets get too low, you can lower the amount to be stored in your Trading Posts, and the Traders or Vendors will put that extra back into the available food supply.

[Claybot]

Originally posted by 28rommel:

Differently store more. After you build a number a barns, store excess in (one or more) Trading Posts. You can then trade it for other food items. For example ... something many new players don't understand is that one of the four items of food citizens require for maximum health and happiness, is grain in their diet. In vanilla Banished, grain is only corn or wheat. If you grow neither, trade some of your other excess food for both of these.

https://banishedinfo.com/wiki/Diet

I'm still on the fence on this, I've played vanilla and modded without crops and had full health. As for happiness as others have found church/cemetery get you to full happiness, I've never seen food do that.

[Didz]

As far as I was aware in the vanilla game Food+Herbs = Health whilst Church+Cemeteries = Happiness.

I think Wells might have some impact on happiness too, but that's purely based on the observation that Bannies like to hang about near wells as well as cemeteries. But the main reason I build Wells is to provide local water sources to put out fires. So, I tend to build them close to important survival critical buildings like Warehouses. If they also make the Bannies happy that's just a bonus.

[mbutton15]

Food+Herbs = Health.
Church+Cemeteries+Taverns+Wells+Graveyards = Happiness.

Houses near mines/quarries = unhappiness. Also having no graveyard means unhappiness for relatives of people who die.

[Claybot]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Food+Herbs = Health.
Church+Cemeteries+Taverns+Wells+Graveyards = Happiness.

Houses near mines/quarries = unhappiness. Also having no graveyard means unhappiness for relatives of people who die.

I also disagree that houses near mines/quarries = unhappiness.

[Didz]

Originally posted by Claybot:

I also disagree that houses near mines/quarries = unhappiness.

I can't say that I've seen any evidence of this in the vanilla game and I've always built miners cottages close to the mines. But obviously the overall happiness of the settlement is an average so perhaps my miners are less happy than the others but I just haven't noticed. There are variations with individual happiness anyway.

[Ready2produce]

Originally posted by Claybot:

Not at all I usually raise mine early game to either 15000 or 25000 then as you approach those levels raise it again.
In Banished there is no such thing as to much food.
But you need storage

Yeah, I raise the limits on everything ... despite advice counseling to keep limits low.

The reason why I do it is the designer mounts lots and lots of distractions.

I can only focus on a few things at a time ... I really don't like micromanagement play.

Banished, for me, is a challenge needing explanation ... source of my fun.

[maiden4meldin]

Originally posted by Didz:

As far as I was aware in the vanilla game Food+Herbs = Health whilst Church+Cemeteries = Happiness.

I think Wells might have some impact on happiness too, but that's purely based on the observation that Bannies like to hang about near wells as well as cemeteries. But the main reason I build Wells is to provide local water sources to put out fires. So, I tend to build them close to important survival critical buildings like Warehouses. If they also make the Bannies happy that's just a bonus.

Providing a Variety of Food, will also boost happiness slightly. Not just the four food groups. But a full Varied diet, so bringing in all of the food available to the people will increase happiness slightly, and will keep your Health High. Without Herbs.

I never build Herbs. Ever. They are time wasters, for a half heart of health, not worth it. My people don't lose their health, when I provide all four food groups, as soon as possible. I can provide a reasonable variety with the Gathering Post, Hunter and Fishing, until I can build the Trading Post, and add in Grains, and the rest of variety of foods.

Wells, provide a small boost to happiness, and makes the people feel less insecure, thus going idle less frequently. They will however congregate around Wells, Churches and Cemetaries when they do go idle.

Churches are only needed when you building Mines and Quarries, otherwise, not necessary. Keeping the full variety of food without the "happiness" buildings, does the trick just fine.

[Ready2produce]

28rommel, Thanks for the Wiki link ... useful.