Very Confusing (Eating/Food)

[hekele]

I like this game and its concept and art but I'm finding it very confusing. I can't really understand what a lot of symbols mean, and some of the mechanics (like especially eating) seem very mysterious. Do I need to do something to make my character cook? He has roots and nuts and fish and oats and legumes in inventory, but I set the cooking thing to porridge and accept that and never seem to get any porridge and he seems to have an empty eating bar (I think that's what it means that the bar is empty and says Taste: 0, Net: -9, Cooking +2, Body -1, Decay -10). Is he just so bad at cooking that he can't cook anything? In Skills it says Cooking is 4. Is this affecting his health? I can't seem to find an overall health bar that would show me how soon he's going to die if he doesn't figure out how to eat soon. When I pick different recipes I see little green plusses or minuses that I don't really understand either. I am just letting him rest but his food bar never seems to go up...

ETA: I just got a warning about starving because I ran out of legumes. I switched to porridge with oats. So I guess he is cooking and eating but the food bar never goes up?

ETA2: I gather now that it's not a hunger bar but about the quality of his food. It seems oddly hard to gain any ground here. Even switching around varieties of food never makes a difference.

[johnny maxwell]

Hi,
wanted to comment on the "taste" meter, but you figured that out for yourself already.
I want to add: Food is managed on a monthly basis. AFAIK, one Familymember eats one unit of food each month, kids eat half a unit. Example: You have husband, wife, newborn child. You need 2.5 Units of each main food (mostly bread, legumes or oats) per month. Taste is modified by the cooking skill, from what I gather.
Every month, your taste decays by 10, modified by several modifiers. To really have an impact on taste and better you taste-meter, you need to supplement your main dish with eg. vegetables, fruit, meat, drink etc. these things you can either buy in the city or produce for yourself with several upgrades to your hovel, like a larder, garden (toft) or orchard etc.
Feasts (even small ones) boost your taste meter considerably. Usually, one feast per year yields enough to satisfy taste for some time.

Hope that helps!

[hekele]

Originally posted by johnny maxwell:

Hi,
wanted to comment on the "taste" meter, but you figured that out for yourself already.
I want to add: Food is managed on a monthly basis. AFAIK, one Familymember eats one unit of food each month, kids eat half a unit. Example: You have husband, wife, newborn child. You need 2.5 Units of each main food (mostly bread, legumes or oats) per month. Taste is modified by the cooking skill, from what I gather.
Every month, your taste decays by 10, modified by several modifiers. To really have an impact on taste and better you taste-meter, you need to supplement your main dish with eg. vegetables, fruit, meat, drink etc. these things you can either buy in the city or produce for yourself with several upgrades to your hovel, like a larder, garden (toft) or orchard etc.
Feasts (even small ones) boost your taste meter considerably. Usually, one feast per year yields enough to satisfy taste for some time.

Hope that helps!

Thanks this is very helpful. I haven't figured out how to use the Toft. Am I supposed to plant things in it? I have some seeds but don't get an option to plant anything there.

[johnny maxwell]

Yes, you need to "plant Parsnip/Cabbage/Carrot/Squash/etc." in the Toft. You need to fertilize the toft first, I think. It may also be dependent on the season. The vegetables will then be ready in spring, as far as I know. You can plant up to 4 vegetables. You could also plan an orchard on a seperate plot. You just need some fruit to plant a tree - but you can only plant one tree per orchard, I guess.

[hekele]

Originally posted by johnny maxwell:

Yes, you need to "plant Parsnip/Cabbage/Carrot/Squash/etc." in the Toft. You need to fertilize the toft first, I think. It may also be dependent on the season. The vegetables will then be ready in spring, as far as I know. You can plant up to 4 vegetables. You could also plan an orchard on a seperate plot. You just need some fruit to plant a tree - but you can only plant one tree per orchard, I guess.

Ah. That makes sense. I have no fertilizer so that's probably why I have never seen the option to plant in the toft.

[Pigoletto]

Originally posted by johnny maxwell:

Yes, you need to "plant Parsnip/Cabbage/Carrot/Squash/etc." in the Toft. You need to fertilize the toft first, I think. It may also be dependent on the season. The vegetables will then be ready in spring, as far as I know. You can plant up to 4 vegetables. You could also plan an orchard on a seperate plot. You just need some fruit to plant a tree - but you can only plant one tree per orchard, I guess.

Hi, sorry to bother you in someone else's thread - but how do I access the toft? Do I need to upgrade the house to a specific size, or is there something else I need to do?

[hekele]

Originally posted by Pigoletto:

Originally posted by johnny maxwell:

Yes, you need to "plant Parsnip/Cabbage/Carrot/Squash/etc." in the Toft. You need to fertilize the toft first, I think. It may also be dependent on the season. The vegetables will then be ready in spring, as far as I know. You can plant up to 4 vegetables. You could also plan an orchard on a seperate plot. You just need some fruit to plant a tree - but you can only plant one tree per orchard, I guess.

Hi, sorry to bother you in someone else's thread - but how do I access the toft? Do I need to upgrade the house to a specific size, or is there something else I need to do?

There should be two outdoor slots in the beginning hut if you scroll to the right, similar to the indoor "furniture." You will need some tools to build it but there aren't other prerequisites. A shovel and/or hoe I think. Then as Pigoletto explained to me, you have to fertilize it once, and then you'll be able to plant in it. It looks like there are a variety of seeds and they can be planted in different seasons. I was able to plant one kind (I think parsnips?) in winter. And several more in spring. But getting more seeds after that has been iffy. They don't seem to be very common in the market and you don't appear to get any seeds from harvesting. The veggies also go bad pretty quickly so you need to sell or use them promptly. I don't seem to have to fertilize it again after the first time, and it's unclear if doing so improves yields or not. I think that's everything I've learned about the toft so far!