how many crops do you need to sustain yourself?

[Sichimus]

Started as rich explorer, pretty new to the game but I can definitely get some ♥♥♥♥ done. My problem is food. I have a prisoner I recruited and he spends most of the day cooking, goes to sleep, then repeats the next day. I assume when his cooking skill gets up from beginner it will be a lot faster, but it's still a problem because my other guy is researching. Anyway, I always farm out patches of land, but how big are you supposed to do it? Do you typically sustain only on farming? is that possible? or is it just supposed to be a supplement to hunting?

[KalkiKrosah]

2 meals a day per person. I like to keep 6 meals in storage per person until I have a freezer up and running.

2 meals a day per animal too. But the size of the animal dictates how much food they eat. Smaller animals may be better off eating the raw ingredients.

As far as crops go, it depends on the crop. Rice yields 6 ingredients per tile, corn yields 14 (I think) but corn takes longer to grow. Each meal requires 10 of an ingredient so 5 tiles of rice is 3 meals. I would say 10-20 rice tiles per person. Maybe more if you want a surplus to build up.

[Nightmyre]

There's not a huge advantage to trying to micromanage the exact number. I usually just use whatever fertile ground is near my base, and if it's not enough, then I build more. A lot also has to do with your growing seasons.

The problem with trying to micro is that you'll inevitably get scenarios like toxic fallout which will throw everything out the window.

As for crops vs hunting - you'll definitely want the mood buff from fine meals. It's 100% worth it.

[stevasaur]

As with almost anything in Rimworld, the answers to your questions depends on the biome:

-In Ice Sheet/Sea Ice, you're going to have to rely on either cannibalism or hydroponics for 90% of your nutrition.
-In Tundra, you're probably going to have to rely on veggies slightly more than meats, unless you're willing to risk the dreaded Caribou/Elk Revenge.
-In Boreal Forest/Temperate Forest, you'll have access to large numbers of non-herd animals, so you can sustain a medium-sized colony on meat alone.
-In Desert/Extreme Desert, you're going to have to rely on large amounts of relatively-inefficient growing.
-In Tropical Rainforest/Arid Shrubland, you have access to both enormous quantities of meat and lots of soil, coupled with a fairly mild growing season.

But yeah, your basic arithmatic is 2 meals/pawn per day. Each meal is 10 meat/veggie or 2 eggs. If you can equalize your meat/veggie income, you can get a reliable +5 mood boost from Fine Measl.

[Chibi Life]

So just look at the map you're landing in and do the math.

Let's say you have a map where 30 days out of the year you can't grow crops and animals will be reduced to basically snow hares cuz of winter.

You'll need 70-80 food per person. That's 2 per day which is 60 and an extra 5-10 days of food to give you a chance to replant some fast growing crops like Rice after the non-growing season ends.

If things do get tough, you can store corpses in a cold room and have your colonists fill up on human meat whenever their food meter is drained. Even if they aren't cannibals, mental break downs are better than game over.

[Defektiv]

I just spam crops until I run out of room then sell the extra. At some point when I've recruited a colony I try to settle in on something more autonomously stable for my situation. But the biome and events play a pretty big role in how much you need to overstock and for how long. Only way around that is growing indoors. In the few cases I've done that I've been able to sustain a population of around 18 pawns using 3 indoor plots. 5 I think is far more comfortable because then you can grow devilstrand, cloth, healroot or whatever without worrying about events killing those off.

[Jaasrg]

Originally posted by Nightmyre:

you'll definitely want the mood buff from fine meals. It's 100% worth it.

Always felt like whole lot of trouble for next to no benefit, but not enough for me to look for mods to make pawn food logic better.
But now with vanilla implemented food restriction, I might give them another go.

[Overread]

My approach has been to plant two decently sized potato plots right at the very start of the game. Set one character to just doing that (assuming you start with the standard 3) and let the others focus on building the shelter and moving resources into cover and harvesting wood.

That way right at the start you've already got a nice growing field setup. By nice sized I never really measure, but at least 10*10 or so. Again its by feel more than demand.

In general always aim to produce excess. You won't always harvest everything; you might lose some to disease or disasters; you might get a major series of events that shuts down your growing or production for a year - one fire at the wrong time can wipe out your crops!
Excess also helps because you might start planting, then a few months in recruit new people (wanderers joining, escapers escaping to your side, prisoners converted); so if you only aim to produce what you "need" then adding to your pool of people and disasters can both cripple you come winter.

[TheMaster1]

I started a 3 survivor colony on tundra (and highest difficulty). I did around 500 farm field size to last me 1-2 years because I know theres a high chance something will ♥♥♥♥ up the next year's crops and I didn't want to die. Also because its likely 1-2 colonists will join you in that amount of time. I also hunted the near wildlife and can do some fine meals instead of simple meals.

I could've done hydroponics but I didn't wanna spam windfarms or use chemfuel/wood for a gen.

[TheMaster1]

I started a 3 survivor colony on tundra (and highest difficulty). I did around 500 farm field size to last me 1-2 years because I know theres a high chance something will ♥♥♥♥ up the next year's crops and I didn't want to die. Also because its likely 1-2 colonists will join you in that amount of time. I also hunted the near wildlife and can do some fine meals instead of simple meals.

I could've done hydroponics but I didn't wanna spam windfarms or use chemfuel/wood for a gen.

[Overread]

I try to cite my settlement near to as many gysers as I can - to my mind they are the best source of power even though you have to research a fair bit to get there; but its worth it since if you've already got a core of your base there its easy to just add them into it.

As for wildlife I often base my response to that on the map and character skills - if I've got characters early on with a high animal skill I set them to taming the wildlife - better to tame and breed then have to rely on stock migrating through. However if I've only got a low animal taming score then the wildlife is fair game to come ot the cook pot.

[Sichimus]

Originally posted by TheMaster1:

I started a 3 survivor colony on tundra (and highest difficulty). I did around 500 farm field size to last me 1-2 years because I know theres a high chance something will ♥♥♥♥ up the next year's crops and I didn't want to die. Also because its likely 1-2 colonists will join you in that amount of time. I also hunted the near wildlife and can do some fine meals instead of simple meals.

I could've done hydroponics but I didn't wanna spam windfarms or use chemfuel/wood for a gen.

do you mean like 500 squares of crops? thats a ♥♥♥♥ ton for sure, how do you make sure they dont all die in the cold and that you are able to harvest them in time?

[TheMaster1]

Originally posted by Nevada Six:

do you mean like 500 squares of crops? thats a ♥♥♥♥ ton for sure, how do you make sure they dont all die in the cold and that you are able to harvest them in time?

Yes, 500 squares approx. It sounds like a lot but its only like two 15x17's. The game usually starts in the growing season. Plant potato's asap and then harvest as soon as they are ready. You don't need to worry that much for actually hauling them, just harvesting them. Use all 3 colonists to do it !

[Chibi Life]

Originally posted by Nevada Six:

Originally posted by TheMaster1:

I started a 3 survivor colony on tundra (and highest difficulty). I did around 500 farm field size to last me 1-2 years because I know theres a high chance something will ♥♥♥♥ up the next year's crops and I didn't want to die. Also because its likely 1-2 colonists will join you in that amount of time. I also hunted the near wildlife and can do some fine meals instead of simple meals.

I could've done hydroponics but I didn't wanna spam windfarms or use chemfuel/wood for a gen.

do you mean like 500 squares of crops? thats a ♥♥♥♥ ton for sure, how do you make sure they dont all die in the cold and that you are able to harvest them in time?

He makes a new game if he gets a blight.

[TheMaster1]

Originally posted by Mistress of Boredom:

He makes a new game if he gets a blight.

No I don't? Blights don't immediately destroy your crops. Just treat ASAP.

[Chibi Life]

Originally posted by TheMaster1:

Originally posted by Mistress of Boredom:

He makes a new game if he gets a blight.

No I don't? Blights don't immediately destroy your crops. Just treat ASAP.

Was joking lol