Can someone explain the Shelves?

[I AM TRANSCENDENT]

It's description states item inside will never deteriorate, yet when I put meals or food inside of them, it still says they will spoil after x amount of time.

[Glerk]

Originally posted by The Lord thy God, Big Bird:

It's description states item inside will never deteriorate.

you answered yourself.
it doesn't stop spoiling, only deteriorating.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by The Lord thy God, Big Bird:

It's description states item inside will never deteriorate, yet when I put meals or food inside of them, it still says they will spoil after x amount of time.

Shelves are for items such as apparel or weapons, not food or meals. It is apparel or weapons that will deteriorate over time if left on the floor.

[Bueno Stainz]

Food must be frozen to ensure "shelf" life hahahaha get it?

[1001001]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by The Lord thy God, Big Bird:

It's description states item inside will never deteriorate, yet when I put meals or food inside of them, it still says they will spoil after x amount of time.

Shelves are for items such as apparel or weapons, not food or meals. It is apparel or weapons that will deteriorate over time if left on the floor.

Being on the floor doesn't cause deterioration, being outside (as in unroofed) does. Shelving indoors is to prevent the beauty loss of having items on the floor (as well as general organization).

[cstoneburner]

Basically they provide shelter from rain and sun, but no temperature control. If you don't mind mods and want something the same size that does and which will prevent food spoiling look into Rimfridge http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1180721235
It does have a power requirement but is very handy for things like storing meals in the dining room so folks aren't always running into and out of the main freezer and letting out all the cold air.

[GamesSweatShop]

Shelves are very useful for storing things in quick access areas outside, for example some meds by your killbox, everyone else explained spoilage pretty good.

[Sithis]

Just to clarify a bit.

Deterioration =/= spoilage.

An item has its own 'health', which is another word for 'integrity'. A freshly-manufactured sword would have its Health at 100%, and when stored in a dry room at regular temperature, not exposed to any sorts of corroding agents, can rest there almost indefinitely; leave it on the grass out in theopen, and it starts degrading, corroding, rusting - effectively, losing Health. The longer it is out in the open, the less durable or useful it becomes, getting less and less effective and more frail, until finally it eventually rusts into dust. This is called Deterioration in-game - item's degradation, loss of integrity and effectiveness, until it completely vanishes upon reaching 0.00 'Health'.

Spoilage, however, is a different thing, from the gameplay's standpoint. It doesn't matter where the item is, as long as it's an organic piece of food that is not completely sealed (like Rations are) or properly refrigerated, it will be perfectly edible only for some time, until it starts spoiling, becoming 'bad' and rotting. Once it's at least a bit rotten, it's no longer 'fully' safely edible, which the game shorthands by making the item disappear. As long as there is 1 minute of in-game time left before the item spoils, it can be used for cooking or eaten fresh; the moment it reaches the 'spoils' state, it is destroyed in-game to not have you also manage rot.

The effects of both are somewhat similar, but Spoiling items never behave 'worse' than their fresher versions, while some Deteriorating items can be less effective than new, but as any item reaches the Spoilage time/0.00 Health, they vanish into thin air.
As such, it doesn't matter where you keep food, it won't be spoiling faster/slower unless you put it into the fridge, while a metal sword would still corrode and Deteriorate eventually even if you refrigerate it to -50*C somewhere on the Northern Pole.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Sithis:

An item has its own 'health', which is another word for 'integrity'. A freshly-manufactured sword would have its Health at 100%, and when stored in a dry room at regular temperature, not exposed to any sorts of corroding agents, can rest there almost indefinitely; leave it on the grass out in theopen, and it starts degrading, corroding, rusting - effectively, losing Health. The longer it is out in the open, the less durable or useful it becomes, getting less and less effective and more frail, until finally it eventually rusts into dust. This is called Deterioration in-game - item's degradation, loss of integrity and effectiveness, until it completely vanishes upon reaching 0.00 'Health'.

Items that decompose naturally in the open should also decompose when under the grass too. But they don't in this game.
Which is why bizarrely, it might be a good idea just to bury items you do not wish to deteriorate ;)

[Sithis]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by Sithis:

An item has its own 'health', which is another word for 'integrity'. A freshly-manufactured sword would have its Health at 100%, and when stored in a dry room at regular temperature, not exposed to any sorts of corroding agents, can rest there almost indefinitely; leave it on the grass out in theopen, and it starts degrading, corroding, rusting - effectively, losing Health. The longer it is out in the open, the less durable or useful it becomes, getting less and less effective and more frail, until finally it eventually rusts into dust. This is called Deterioration in-game - item's degradation, loss of integrity and effectiveness, until it completely vanishes upon reaching 0.00 'Health'.

Items that decompose naturally in the open should also decompose when under the grass too. But they don't in this game.
Which is why bizarrely, it might be a good idea just to bury items you do not wish to deteriorate ;)

Or to keep them indoors, as the game does not simulate humidity or temperature-related damage, unless we're talking about flammable materials and temperature ranges of above a 100*C.

[I AM TRANSCENDENT]

Originally posted by Sithis:

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Items that decompose naturally in the open should also decompose when under the grass too. But they don't in this game.
Which is why bizarrely, it might be a good idea just to bury items you do not wish to deteriorate ;)

Or to keep them indoors, as the game does not simulate humidity or temperature-related damage, unless we're talking about flammable materials and temperature ranges of above a 100*C.

Huh, very enlightening. I had already kind of assumed/knew that if food wasn't frozen it would spoil. I was just confused on the difference between Degradation and Spoilage. In any case, I now understand much more due to your post. Thank you. Right now I am trying a tribal playthrough, and man is it hard. (I do have it on Rough difficulty and Permadeath). Not being able to have good technology is what is really difficult.

[Sithis]

Originally posted by The Lord thy God, Big Bird:

Originally posted by Sithis:

Or to keep them indoors, as the game does not simulate humidity or temperature-related damage, unless we're talking about flammable materials and temperature ranges of above a 100*C.

Huh, very enlightening. I had already kind of assumed/knew that if food wasn't frozen it would spoil. I was just confused on the difference between Degradation and Spoilage. In any case, I now understand much more due to your post. Thank you. Right now I am trying a tribal playthrough, and man is it hard. (I do have it on Rough difficulty and Permadeath). Not being able to have good technology is what is really difficult.

Yeah, Tribal start is problematic - though,if you're playing Vanilla, a time would come (assuming your tribe lives long enough to see it) when you'll effectively catch up to regular Spacer-era colonies, just with every research taking seasons-to-years instead of days-to-weeks, and it's all the 'old routine' from there.

However, if you're into modding, there is an entire set of mods that disables advanced technology and even things like firearms, and also tons of mods adding properly 'tribal', early oriental, or even medieval appliances, furniture, technologies, and other objects/items/weapons/factions. All that can make a tribal/medieval run enjoyable enough you wouldn't want to advance further.

[TSense]

Originally posted by The Lord thy God, Big Bird:

It's description states item inside will never deteriorate,

Deteriorate is when a item has no roof about it, it loses HP at gets lost.
Spoil is non-frozen food that goes bad.

It's not the same thing.

Food can both Deteriorate and Spoil at the same time. One has no effect on the other.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by TSense:

Originally posted by The Lord thy God, Big Bird:

It's description states item inside will never deteriorate,

Deteriorate is when a item has no roof about it, it loses HP at gets lost.
Spoil is non-frozen food that goes bad.

It's not the same thing.

Food can both Deteriorate and Spoil at the same time. One has no effect on the other.

That is about as clean and concise as it gets!

[Legion]

I love how everyone is explaining as if they're the first person to explain it. The question is answered already even without being tagged. Do people actually not read comments before posting?

[Glerk]

Originally posted by Nomadic:

I love how everyone is explaining as if they're the first person to explain it. The question is answered already even without being tagged. Do people actually not read comments before posting?

most of the time it seems to be so.