On the edge food help

[Rooney]

Hello,
does the DLC (On the edge) add some new game mechanics about food limitations(restrictions), I mean new laws or something to manage food more strictly or it's all about that you can't gather it and you have to find alternative source (settlements,favors, etc)? I am asking in terms of gameplay mechanics.
Thank you in advance!

[asarokk]

On the Edge requires cooperation and exchange of resources (people included) with other settlements in order to survive. That and maintaining good relations with them.

At first you're just an outpost for a larger settlement, before becoming independent. There'll be events occurring at every settlement, including yours, and you'll be asked to weigh in on what needs to be done

[Bobywan]

Ask London for food, eventually they will give you a food law instead of food and after that they only give you food for steel and cores.
You will then be asked to find a new food source, you'll have to find a settlement to trade food with.
There no mechanics to make your own food in this scenario, no hunters, no hothouse.

[Shining Hector]

Yeah, your first food request which you should make the second you establish communication with New London gets you a small amount of Raw Food. Wait until Favour is high again and you get Soup or Food Additives. It's random, so honestly you're best off save scumming until you get Food Additives, it's probably the most consequential event in the whole scenario and a little annoying it's purely RNG. The beginning of Day 5 is the earliest possible I've pulled off in Extreme, probably possible sooner if you're able to hustle away the Steel Wreckage blocking the Army Depot.

Honestly if you're careful, with Food Additives it's quite possible to make it the whole scenario on Extreme with no starvation and only sending the mandatory one shipment to New London. Basically cook the minimum amount of food to prevent starvation before Food Additives, plus put off new recruits until you're about to establish contact with Hot Springs.

[Rooney]

Thank you all, I get it , there are limitation due to scenarios and not new mechanics to manage food, sounds great to plan deeper. :)

[Nikas Zekeval]

I'll buck the trend here, and all I ask for from New London is wood with one coal request.

For food control, wait till everyone is hungry, then cook just enough food to feed everyone once. Once everyone eats, it's half rations, you cook every other day just enough to feed everyone once. Even pulling in the two groups with engineers I can keep people fed with New London's free food shipments. At least till the alternate food source becomes available.

It does require careful micromanagement of your cookhouse, but it is doable.

Too bad the Safe Route bug never got fixed, and AFAIK there is no reliable method for avoiding it, just blind chance if you get deliveries to start or not.

[Shining Hector]

Never tried it that way. Wood isn't really as big an issue as Food in OTE, though. By the time you run out of trees to chop down, you've been trading a while with Shipwreck Camp which is more than adequate for a maxed out research rate plus completing all requests from all 3 settlements on Extreme. I pretty much use all my Favours to get laws passed to get a headstart on the midgame and 1 shipment of Wood. Child Labour isn't worth the 2 Favours, but I like to get Food Additives, Radical Treatment, Corpse Disposal, and Fighting Arena. Basically 90 hours of laws passed early for 250 Wood that you'd get otherwise.

[Nikas Zekeval]

Originally posted by Shining Hector:

Never tried it that way. Wood isn't really as big an issue as Food in OTE, though. By the time you run out of trees to chop down, you've been trading a while with Shipwreck Camp which is more than adequate for a maxed out research rate plus completing all requests from all 3 settlements on Extreme. I pretty much use all my Favours to get laws passed to get a headstart on the midgame and 1 shipment of Wood. Child Labour isn't worth the 2 Favours, but I like to get Food Additives, Radical Treatment, Corpse Disposal, and Fighting Arena. Basically 90 hours of laws passed early for 250 Wood that you'd get otherwise.

I found the wood boosts useful for getting down the tech tree, especially unlocking the tiers so I have all the production speed upgrades for the warehouse by the time you get the "last chance to send us steel and steamcores" ultimatum. It also gives me a reserve of wood to use for truss upgrades for some strategic steel and steam core extras.

Also I don't really find spending favors for laws worth it, at least on normal difficulty. To get a food law you need to spend four favors worth of requests. The one coal is my preferred research means I can hold off on the steam coal mine till day 8, and get that and an infirmary set up.

Three medical posts and pulling engineers out of workshops at night to heal keeps me ahead enough to hold out that long,

[Shining Hector]

Yeah, difficulty level probably makes a big difference. Food is pretty critical on Extreme, and your research speed is slower, too, so zooming up the tech tree isn't as feasible. Even with early Food Additives and putting off recruitment, it's several days of fulfilling requests and asking for food favours from Hot Springs before you're really running a surplus. 200 Wood vs. starvation isn't really a tough choice.