Caravan Food Consumption

[Fried Noodles]

So, I was going to do my first caravan mission to do some quest that popped up that looked interesting...

After choosing who was going to go: A Human, an Ent (who I purchased from some slavers for just 50 cents), and an animal (Warg), it came time to gather up supplies.

The game projected that my 3-person caravan would require 210 units of Pemmican and 17 Salted Insect Meat for their 2.3 day journey to their destination. And even then, it was supposedly only 3.4 days worth of food. Not enough for the round trip without foraging.

That feels like a huge quantity of food.

Is something wrong? Or does this seem about right?

[Jigain]

Originally posted by Fried Noodles:

A Human, an Ent (who I purchased from some slavers for just 50 cents), and an animal (Warg),
210 units of Pemmican and 17 Salted Insect Meat for their 2.3 day journey to their destination.

Seems insufficient. A colonist eats about 32 pemmican per day, meaning 32 x 2.3 = 73.6 pemmican for the pawn alone. The warg eats 0.4 nutrition per day, which is 0.4 / 0.05 = 8 pemmican per day, which is 8 x 2.3 = 18.4 pemmican for the trip, totaling 92 pemmican. For the return trip. another 92 for a total of 184. And I have no idea what an ent eats or how much, as that's from a mod, but you're already cutting it short.

Personally I'd sent them 1.5 to 2 times the pemmican, just to be sure.

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Seems insufficient. A colonist eats about 32 pemmican per day, meaning 32 x 2.3 = 73.6 pemmican for the pawn alone. The warg eats 0.4 nutrition per day, which is 0.4 / 0.05 = 8 pemmican per day, which is 8 x 2.3 = 18.4 pemmican for the trip, totaling 92 pemmican. For the return trip. another 92 for a total of 184. And I have no idea what an ent eats or how much, as that's from a mod, but you're already cutting it short.

Personally I'd sent them 1.5 to 2 times the pemmican, just to be sure.

Is that just food consumption for caravans though?
It doesn't feel like I burn through nearly that much pemmican (or whatever other meals I've prepared) back at home.

[Jigain]

Nutritional need for a pawn doesn't change whether they're in a caravan or on a map. Pawns need 1.6 nutrition per day, pemmican gives 0.05 nutrition per unit. 1.6 divided by 0.05 is 32 units of pemmican per day.

If it seems like they're eating less in your map, it's probably either because you're constantly making pemmican or they're eating a more nutritious meal (all cooked meals provide 0.9 nutrition).

[Astasia]

Pemmican is not like meals and is smaller individual items. 18 pemmican is equal to 1 simple meal, usually colonists will eat 16 pemmican at a time as a "meal" but if they are exceptionally hungry they might eat 18.

Keep in mind wargs only eat raw meat. I don't know if salted meat counts.

[Midnight_Toker247]

My suggestion would be to always send more food than what it suggests. Just because it says it will take 2.3 days doesn't mean it will, just because it says it will last 3.4 days doesn't mean it will. Anyone with even a tiny bit of skills in plants will be gathering berries and agave along the way, the game often suggests sending NO food with my people that are high skilled with plants citing food amount as (unlimited), the game will factor in gathering skills in it's suggested food amount. Just because it suggests sending no food doesn't mean I am going to do that. This all changes in the winter, grazing animals will need hay whereas before they would likely be okay with none, people good with plants will gather little to no berries and agave in the winter, seasons changing in the middle of a trip will have an effect on things.

Another thing, I'm pretty sure the game counts food on hand when sending out a caravan, your people will often carry a meal around on them, they may or may not eat that meal before they even leave. Just always bring more than you need, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

[Sotanaht]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Originally posted by Fried Noodles:

A Human, an Ent (who I purchased from some slavers for just 50 cents), and an animal (Warg),
210 units of Pemmican and 17 Salted Insect Meat for their 2.3 day journey to their destination.

Seems insufficient. A colonist eats about 32 pemmican per day, meaning 32 x 2.3 = 73.6 pemmican for the pawn alone. The warg eats 0.4 nutrition per day, which is 0.4 / 0.05 = 8 pemmican per day, which is 8 x 2.3 = 18.4 pemmican for the trip, totaling 92 pemmican. For the return trip. another 92 for a total of 184. And I have no idea what an ent eats or how much, as that's from a mod, but you're already cutting it short.

Personally I'd sent them 1.5 to 2 times the pemmican, just to be sure.

You're forgetting about forage. Caravans automatically forage food when possible. The exact amount depends on their skills and other modifiers. Normally, it's not enough to sustain them by itself but it does mean that they use less (brought) food per day than they would on your home map.

Also my advice, if your game settings and mods allow it use packaged survival meals instead. The time saved just bringing them to the caravan alone makes them worth it, since your pawns can carry 9 nutrition worth of meals but only 3.75 worth of raw food/pemmican per trip. If you need more than a trivial amount, 1/3rd of the trips could mean in-game days, which in turn could mean avoiding getting stuck in a loop of waiting for one pawn to eat/sleep/wander until another one needs to do so and so on, all while the poor animals starve to death.

[Jigain]

Originally posted by Sotanaht:

You're forgetting about forage. Caravans automatically forage food when possible. The exact amount depends on their skills and other modifiers.

Less forgetting about it and more making calculations based on the numbers that are known. The OP specifically talked about food used before foraging comes into effect, so I responded in kind. Just as you mention, the amount depends on Plants skill and (to be more specific) Manipulation and Sight. Since we don't know the stats of the pawn in question, it may very well be a pawn with 0 skill in Plants, resulting in no forage. We just don't know, hence why I couldn't do any math on it. :)

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Sotanaht:

You're forgetting about forage. Caravans automatically forage food when possible. The exact amount depends on their skills and other modifiers. Normally, it's not enough to sustain them by itself but it does mean that they use less (brought) food per day than they would on your home map.

However, in order to take advantage of this, the pawns sent on the caravan need to have the foraged raw food (unmodded, it's berries in most places and agave in arid or desert) set to allowed. Otherwise they'll just carry it along instead of eating it.

[failsafe]

Use packaged survival meals - it doesn't detteriorate, so u can use it even for longer journeys.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by failsafe:

Use packaged survival meals - it doesn't detteriorate, so u can use it even for longer journeys.

Careful with what term you use. Deterioration is an entirely different mechanic from rotting, and PSMs do deteriorate (albeit extremely slowly)

[failsafe]

Yeah, okay. Left outside storage it will deteriorate, true, while it never spoils when stored properly.