I don’t know how to make a game mod, so I hope some modder from the community can pick up the idea.
The main concept is to make the food mechanics more dynamic. Focus more on continuous production instead of endless hoarding. It will also give less yield food more usage in addition to need bonus, by making them expire slower. Also, it should be somewhat based on common sense: For example, bread & fruit expire fast, while Sunflower Seeds expire slower. This can shift then end game strategy from mainly focus production on high yield food, to just maintain enough high yield food production and “backup but low yield” food. And create more dynamic between mid product and end product.
Goal:
- Nerf high yield food
- Buff low yield food and give me more use
- more dynamic for mid product, rather than just process them into food asap
- more dynamic end game food production & automation
Rules:
- Expiration time should be cycles
- item is updated/check at the end of each cycle
- Expiration food disappear from the storage, farm & factory input/output can be exempt from the expiration
- categorize them into verylong\long\medium\short, specific cycles tbd, ration can be like 36\12\6\3, verylong should be VERY LONG(backup food during drought&badtide)
- Beaver & factorys consume almost expired item first(reduce complexity)
here is my suggestion, just rough idea:
| food | expiration time |
|---|---|
| Berries | medium |
| Carrots | medium |
| Sunflower Seeds | verylong |
| Potatoes | long |
| Grilled Potatoes | short |
| Chestnuts | medium |
| Grilled Chestnuts | short |
| Spadderdock | medium |
| Grilled Spadderdock | short |
| wheat | medium |
| wheat flour | long/medium |
| Bread | short |
| Maple pastries | short |
| Kohlrabies | medium |
| Mangrove Fruits | medium |
| Cassavas | verylong |
| Fermented Cassavas | long |
| Soybeans | verylong |
| Fermented Soybeans | short |
| Mushrooms | short |
| Fermented Mushrooms | short |
| Corn | medium |
| Corn Rations | medium |
| Eggplant | short |
| Eggplant Rations | short |
| Algae | short |
| Algae Rations | short |
| coffee bean | long |
| coffee | medium |
| Canola Seeds | verylong |
| Canola Oil | none |
I'm not sure how the game handles the food input/generation, since this mod will require game to have record each cycle's food input as batch, and food eaten & processed has to cross multiple batch. But all the compute can be done at the end of each cycle, and you can do some shortcut like:
Record how much is eaten, process on that cycle. Then deduct from the earilest batch.
Fell free to discuss, I thought this idea is worth to dig deeper.