Grain is only food that matters??

[Ele]

So I have a lovely little village of about 120 going on, when I suddenly notice people are leaving. Reason? No food. Wait, what? There are over 60 Fish, 60 grapes, 60 greens and 25 apples, but zero grain, so my people have no food? This seems a bit out of whack if they have other foods. Sure, bring down the overall food coverage, but make them leave over no grain? Ok, darn, no bread, no gravies, no cakes, no cookies, no muffins. That's the sum of flour and grains and what they are used for (and I won't add that the dietary effects on the human body are absolutely horrendous, but I still eat them anyways hehe), but they account for the entire food portion to cause people to leave? In actual dietary sense, breads add nothing to our real caloric needs, but fish and fruits and veggies do for a fact.

[remethep]

At least fish should count as a food. I started out making grain and fish, because that RL makes a ton of sense. And then, same as you: Famine.

[Ele]

Or some sort of cumulative count of foods based on the vitamin requirements. I'd be ok with that, but the flat out "must have grain as only food" is kinda silly.

[Logicon]

I think bread or whatever is basic staple food, where as the other food adds to health/wellbeing and stops people getting ill.

[Ele]

That wasn't my point though. The point was that with all the other foods, if you run out of grain, your people leave. Nevermind how much fish, lettuce, grapes and apples... OMG we ran out of grain! If you run out of fish, you have vitamin deficiency, and they don't go to work, same with apples and grapes and lettuce. Not sure about you, but just because I can't get bread or some form of grain doesn't mean I'm leaving a place. If I don't have fish, lettuce, grapes or apples (ok, simplify this, no meat or veggies or fruits alongside) then yeah, we got an issue. But bread is not a mainstay of my diet in RL or anyone else that I know. But it makes them leave if they don't have that one particular item.

[BermudaTri]

I would normally agree with this kind of unintuitive system harming the experience, but this is kind of a slippery slope of realism. If we start complaining about the exact details of food realism versus calorie/nutrient accuracy, the solution would be micromanaging a half-dozen major grain crops and a dozen or more minor crops to match the needs of a mere thousand or so cliff dwellers.

But let's approach this from the gameplay angle. If you have failed to provide the most basic grain to your population, do you deserve to keep the population just because you're over-producing other goods? I would argue the game is about juggling more and more resources, but you shouldn't move forward until you've balanced out the resources you absolutely need off the bat.

Whatever substitute you have to grain in your diet, I have trouble believing it's not part of a large farming effort that requires seasonal harvests and long-term storage. That is the fundamental aspect of "grain", but feel free to swap it with whatever you've got that delivers 2-3 thousand Calories per day per person.

[Ele]

No, my main point is to take all the foods, balance them out, and give it a percentage value. So if you drop below let's say 60% in food reqs, then people start to get antsy and may ponder leaving. If it drops further, under 50%, then they definitely start leaving. This way, there's no "one magical food" that's being used as a marker, but a value you see, that is already existing, just needs a bit of reworking to include the other foods.

[BermudaTri]

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I'd love to see goods consumption change as a function of your city's affluence, where happier cities start consuming more food, while worse-off cities will ration and complain.

[Minoes]

Sounds like how other city builders work as well, like anno series for instance. Only if you give your tier 1 citizens what they get, you can upgrade them to tier 2. Same with 2 to 3 etc. If you miss basic goods, some people leave there as well.They only leave if your total requirements get too low. So kinda what Ele proposes, although I think in Anno if you miss one basic good, a few people do leave already, just not many.

[Zhul]

Originally posted by Ele:

Not sure about you, but just because I can't get bread or some form of grain doesn't mean I'm leaving a place. If I don't have fish, lettuce, grapes or apples (ok, simplify this, no meat or veggies or fruits alongside) then yeah, we got an issue. But bread is not a mainstay of my diet in RL or anyone else that I know. But it makes them leave if they don't have that one particular item.

Bread (grain) is the mainstay of humankind and the builder of civilisations.

"Around 10,000 BC, with the dawn of the Neolithic age and the spread of agriculture, grains became the mainstay of making bread."

"Throughout recorded history it has been a prominent food in large parts of the world and is one of the oldest man-made foods, having been of significant importance since the dawn of agriculture."

"In many cultures, bread is a metaphor for basic necessities and living conditions in general."

"In Slavic cultures bread and salt is offered as a welcome to guests. In India, life's basic necessities are often referred to as "roti, kapra aur makan" (bread, cloth, and house)."

[CaroShio0083]

Grains yeah its used in all the games but think we break down everyone we use grains for granola, cereal bar, grains could be used to fatten fish, But my question is why is grain used to grow but why is always mass exodus and drones never pick up crops you have check mark priority one farms all the times or priority make three farms in beginning so famine is no issue.

Processing plant should be made, grains become used into something more, bread for fish, bread for humans, grains don't turn into anything nor get stored away in cold storage. Which have higher shelf life. Unless you build a mall..or research things.