Is Pemmican useless?

[Sylvanisdemon]

I gave my caravan consisting of 4 guys over 150 Pemmican, yet it only gives me 2 days of food?
Is this a bug or am I missing something?

[Astasia]

Pemmican is only 0.05 nutrition and colonists will eat ~18 at a time for a meal. You didn't make/bring nearly enough.

[Immortalits]

Have to add, that pemmican is the best food nutrition-wise, because of it's portions, humans max nutrition lvl is only 0.85, they start to grab food and eat it around 0.25-0.35 food lvl and meals are all 0.9 nutrition (1.0 for lavish), so you baseline waste 0.05 even if pawns eat at zero food lvl and you lose even more nutrition, when they automatically eat daily.
Fine meals are not that wastefull, since you also get mood boost, but other meals are more wastefull. Pemmican is created in batches of 16 (16*0.05 = 0.8) with same ammount of material, as a simple/fine meal, but the pawn will always consume just as much asit needs to fill it's food lvl to max, not wasting more, than ~0.05 nutrition value at max.

So through some math and practicality, pemmican is best food for pure nultrition value and great for traveling, just bring more (~12-15 times more), than you would bring regular meals.

[Gamefever]

So the obvious is that Pemmican doesnt spoil quickly and can sit out for long periods of time. I think you can leave it out in 30-50 C range for about 2 seasons before it goes bad, other meals besides raw veg go bad inside a week. When you are on a trail you can be out for a season or more on the road so its very useful. Also pre-fridge its a staple food source.

My current game getting out to a quest area is about 7 days there and 7 days back. So then there are other things to consider on the trail...Can your caravan pick berries on the road? A lot of Pawns are not good "planters" and then the area might not support veg so then its what can you carry.

[vurt]

Originally posted by Gamefever:

Can your caravan pick berries on the road? A lot of Pawns are not good "planters" and then the area might not support veg so then its what can you carry.

yes they pick berries, but yes it depends on plant skill.

i use the mod Set up camp, set up camp anywhere, hunt animals, pick berries etc..

[Bozobub]

Thanks, Astasia and Immortalits, I wasn't aware of that aspect of pemmican.

[cool skill]

Originally posted by Immortalits:

Have to add, that pemmican is the best food nutrition-wise, because of it's portions, humans max nutrition lvl is only 0.85, they start to grab food and eat it around 0.25-0.35 food lvl and meals are all 0.9 nutrition (1.0 for lavish), so you baseline waste 0.05 even if pawns eat at zero food lvl and you lose even more nutrition, when they automatically eat daily.
Fine meals are not that wastefull, since you also get mood boost, but other meals are more wastefull. Pemmican is created in batches of 16 (16*0.05 = 0.8) with same ammount of material, as a simple/fine meal, but the pawn will always consume just as much asit needs to fill it's food lvl to max, not wasting more, than ~0.05 nutrition value at max.

So through some math and practicality, pemmican is best food for pure nultrition value and great for traveling, just bring more (~12-15 times more), than you would bring regular meals.

So it's better to just make pemmican? I made a bunch, and it sits in storage for emergency. But usually, I make sure to have enough simple meals to feed them normally. I'm not sure how nutrition works.

So guess opt for pemmican when both meat and veg is available. And use surplus for simple meals?

[Bozobub]

Well, no. Remember, there's no mood bonus for eating pemmican. The fine/lavish meal bonus is much more useful than you seem to be aware of. Simple meals, however, are directly comparable.

I generally save meat for nice meals =).

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Immortalits:

Have to add, that pemmican is the best food nutrition-wise, because of it's portions, humans max nutrition lvl is only 0.85, they start to grab food and eat it around 0.25-0.35 food lvl and meals are all 0.9 nutrition (1.0 for lavish), so you baseline waste 0.05 even if pawns eat at zero food lvl and you lose even more nutrition, when they automatically eat daily.
Fine meals are not that wastefull, since you also get mood boost, but other meals are more wastefull. Pemmican is created in batches of 16 (16*0.05 = 0.8) with same ammount of material, as a simple/fine meal, but the pawn will always consume just as much asit needs to fill it's food lvl to max, not wasting more, than ~0.05 nutrition value at max.

So through some math and practicality, pemmican is best food for pure nultrition value and great for traveling, just bring more (~12-15 times more), than you would bring regular meals.

This isn't actually the case. A colonist's food bar requires 1.0 nutrition to go from 0 to 100% and a starving colonist will eat 20 pemmican in a sitting. The minimum a colonist will eat as a meal is usually 16 pemmican, they don't snack on it to keep their saturation full. This means at best during everyday use pemmican and simple meals are nutritionally equal, but if a colonist is allowed to get very hungry (which can happen if they are working away from the base) simple meals are better. This is also ignoring the nutritional discrepancy between vege and protein. 1.0 of vege is not equal to 1.0 of protein, vege is free and unlimited on most maps so being able to make simple meals out of pure vege just shoots them way ahead in food efficiency. If you have the protein you are better off making fine meals, they are again more efficient, provide a mood boost, and take much less time to prepare, they just don't last as long as pemmican.

If every last scrap of nutrition is vital for survival, like on say a sea ice map, then you'd want a nutrient paste dispenser.

The role of pemmican really is just as an early travel food or meat preserver. It's not efficient, provides no mood buff for the protein, and takes a very long time to prepare compared to meals.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Astasia:

... and takes a very long time to prepare compared to meals.

^-- This is why I no longer make it. Only if the need is dire would I travel far enough in the early game to have to make pemmican.

I'd rather have the meat for meals and the time to do something else. I would travel with pemmican for certain artifacts/specials, but not for much less.

PS - Btw, just in case, it's always advisable to order your pawns to carry a meal with them and make sure they do. They'll also (or used to) eat regular meals over rations if they're available with the caravan. So, adding some simple meals to go along with their survival rations will give them something to eat later and before they have time to spoil.

[AlP]

Originally posted by Astasia:

This is also ignoring the nutritional discrepancy between vege and protein. 1.0 of vege is not equal to 1.0 of protein, vege is free and unlimited on most maps so being able to make simple meals out of pure vege just shoots them way ahead in food efficiency.

There is no such nutritional discrepancy in RimWorld. 1.0 of "vege" is exactly equal to 1.0 of protein.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by AlP:

Originally posted by Astasia:

This is also ignoring the nutritional discrepancy between vege and protein. 1.0 of vege is not equal to 1.0 of protein, vege is free and unlimited on most maps so being able to make simple meals out of pure vege just shoots them way ahead in food efficiency.

There is no such nutritional discrepancy in RimWorld. 1.0 of "vege" is exactly equal to 1.0 of protein.

You can farm vege infinitely, protein requires either hunting limited/RNG food sources or converting vege into protein through animals which is most certainly not 1:1. This inherently makes protein more valuable than vege, ignoring the fact that meat literally has twice the market value of vege. One unit of vege is 1.10 silver, one unit of meat is 2.00 silver, ergo one unit of vege is not equal to one unit of meat. Simple math.

[ZippyTheWonderMoonrat]

One more thing for new players to keep in mind is that some animals can't forage (like wolves) so eat a lot of people food vs many animals, like pack animals, that can eat off the land.

[Jaasrg]

Originally posted by Immortalits:

humans max nutrition lvl is only 0.85

0.85 is for kids, 18+ have 1.0

[cool skill]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Originally posted by Astasia:

... and takes a very long time to prepare compared to meals.

^-- This is why I no longer make it. Only if the need is dire would I travel far enough in the early game to have to make pemmican.

I'd rather have the meat for meals and the time to do something else. I would travel with pemmican for certain artifacts/specials, but not for much less.

PS - Btw, just in case, it's always advisable to order your pawns to carry a meal with them and make sure they do. They'll also (or used to) eat regular meals over rations if they're available with the caravan. So, adding some simple meals to go along with their survival rations will give them something to eat later and before they have time to spoil.

So then it's better to just keep making regular meals with some pemmican for travel? Rather than pemmican all the time?

[Bozobub]

Generally, yes. The meat for pemmican is often best used for better meals.