Raw Food versus Rations

[Cyba]

Which is better to stockpile? I had assumed raw food was better cause 2 can be used to make 4 rations and the storage gain is the same with depots, but I cant shake the feeling that raw food isnt stockpiling anywhere near as fast as rations, even if its at half the speed of rations.

Is there some buried mechanic where people perfer the raw food for meals or it goes bad after so long or something or am I just crazy?

[Skirlasvoud]

There's no hidden mechanic. It's at least -20 outside, so it doesn't spoil in your badly insulated storage depots.


As you've said, 1 raw food turns into 2 food rations, so whenever you see your food rations being okay but your raw food somehow vanishing, than that simply means that your rations are being consumed quickly enough, and that your cookhouses processing raw food into rations quickly enough, that you simply need to create more raw food.
The problem is that your ration consumption is very high.


I always try to max my food rations. If my raw food then disappears, that means I need to build more raw food producers.
If my food rations disappear, but I still have spare raw food, that means I need more cookhouses.
If my food rations are maxed and the amount of raw food is slowly climbing or also maxed, then that means food isn't a problem and I can focus somewhere else or choose to create more storehouses.


And yes, storing raw food is the wisest, at least until the cookhouses freeze during the storm.

[Skirlasvoud]

Ah, and also be aware of the fluctuation you'll get from relying on your hunters mainly.

Hunters bring back raw food in one big glut at 6 am every day. They don't produce it by the hour. If you find your raw food disappearing during the day, then this is normal. All the food that the hunters brought back in the morning is slowly being converted into food rations during the rest of the workday.

If you REALLY want to get a sense of what your raw food situation is, compare 6am on the previous day, with the 6am the next day, just when the hunters get back.
That, or check the food tab in the economy menu. It does a good job of tracking your general situation on average.

[pieterdepieter]

Originally posted by Skirlasvoud:

... I need more cookhouses...

I never needed more than 1. and only in the end game it needed 5 people working there..

[Skirlasvoud]

Originally posted by pieterdepieter:

Originally posted by Skirlasvoud:

... I need more cookhouses...

I never needed more than 1. and only in the end game it needed 5 people working there..

I've had situation where an extra was required.

The Faith path gobbles up a LOT of extra food. I've had playthroughs where it amounted to 450 food rations a day. 50 more than what a single cookhouse on ordinary shifts can give me. My people were eating some 300, I LOVED giving the sick extra rations and I had more than 10 Field kitchens.


I've also had a situation on hard difficulty where the storm came. Everything was fine, but I still needed to double the amount of food rations I had within just 5 days.

I just about managed by installing a second cookhouse.