New Food ideas


Cyclone35

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There are multiple food options to acquire in-game, but I figured there could be more added to include more variety and strategy towards survival and planning. Below I listed some ideas for new types of food that would make a great addition to the game. Disclaimer: I'm aware there are mods that add new food variants, these ideas are meant to fit with the base game if they ever decide to add more food in the future.

1. Packaged Pasta: A very simple dish campers can make out in the wild is pasta. All you really need is a pot, some water to boil, and a campfire to cook it. After 8-10 minutes the pasta softens and is edible for consumption. For gameplay purposes, you can find a small box of macaroni in a shelter. You can't eat it dry because its hard and crunchy, so you'll have to get a fire going, boil some water and cook the pasta yourself.

2. Preserve Jars (Fruit Jam & Pickled Veggies): To keep fruit and veggies from getting rotten in the winter, people place fruit and veggies inside of glass jars to preserve them. It would make sense to find some of these jars inside of kitchens and storages. For simplicity, we'll say there's 2 jars containing multiple crops. 1 for fruit, and 1 for veggies. Because there well preserve, they don't spoil and are usually safe to eat. Lets say they are as rare as finding a jar of peanut butter.

3. Carton of Eggs: Most people who camp bring some eggs with them for the protein. Since its a apocalypse, most eggs will be rotten and unsafe for consumption, but if your lucky, you can find a carton containing 6 eggs that can be eaten. You can either eat them raw, or boil them for more nutrition.

4. Vitamin drinks: Its important to keep your immune system strong to avoid catching illnesses. 1 helpful solution is a small drink (the size of a Go-energy drink) containing lemon, ginger, and honey. it doesn't provide much hydration, but it does offer a new positive affliction called "virus immunity". For a short time, you will be able to consume food below *50% without getting food poisoning because your bodies immune system is strong enough to fight the affliction. If your in a situation where you have to resort to eating low quality food, this drink will help you avoid the consequence.

5. MRE variants: So there's only 1 type of MRE you can find in the world, but since airline food as different variants, I thought it would make some sense to have MRE variants out in the world. You can find them in different color packaging to help identify what type of food your eating. If we want to go more in depth mechanic wise, there's also a MRE that requires the person to boil water, pour it into the package, wait 10 mins and then consume. It may be a bit complicated for the game's design so we can leave that as optional.

These are just some of the ideas to add some variety to gameplay and fit the world of survival.

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5 hours ago, diggity said:

Did you mean not eating a variety of foods can lead to scurvy?    But interestingly it appears that all-meat diet can provide adequate levels of Vitamin C, at least according to carnivore.diet:

"It has been known for well more than 100 years that meat, particularly fresh meat, both cures and prevents scurvy. This evidence was well documented among many nineteenth-century Arctic explorers. Fresh meat is the key difference in a modern carnivore’s diet compared to the diets of the British sailors, which was dominated by dried, salted meat."

No, the scurvy I mentioned is an example of one type of penalty for encourage the malnutrition system, and I'm not advocating that "player should get scurvy if he/she eats only meat".

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On 3/10/2023 at 10:49 PM, diggity said:

Fresh meat is the key difference in a modern carnivore’s diet compared to the diets of the British sailors, which was dominated by dried, salted meat."

Beef Jerky is awfully plentiful on the island... And only a few foods actually give Vitamin C... Scurvy would be incredibly likely, especially for very late game survivors.

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The vitamins present in the animal can be passed on if you eat their offal, I believe, including vitamin C (sweetbreads are best for vit C). This is why scurvy was a problem for sailors, who had (muscle) meat, but not other parts of the animals to eat, but not for communities with hunting-based diets who had access to the whole carcass.

A more common problem for our survivors might be protein poisoning, which was historically known as rabbit starvation as it is caused by a lack of fat in the diet, and wild rabbit meat is very lean. Avoid this by eating fatty parts of the bunnies like the brain, and of course fish.

But please don't add this level of cooking detail into the game, Hinterland! It's a bit icky! I'm happy to keep it as headcanon for why a hunting-only diet is not harming my survivor's health.

Cattails are apparently good for vits A and C, also. And the upcoming burdock root has vit C among others.

(Caveat: nutrition sources on the web are a hothouse for woo and junk science, so I am taking all of this with a hefty pinch of salt, but the broader point about the availability of vitamin sources remains.)

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What about aged cheese, the kind of cheese you find in thick plastic wraps. Sure it can become spoiled after some time, but generally speaking some cheese can even stay edible for almost 10 years (Don't eat 10 year old cheese, it smells and is not good for you). On the topic of scurvy & eating a balance diet, TLD doesn't really have much in terms of dairy products. So adding item in the dairy food group would be beneficial and realistic.  

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7 hours ago, Leeanda said:

There's still condensed milk .  

and chocolate bars. Some of the other processed food might have trace amounts of milk powder as a preservative (a surprising number of foods do, ask any vegan who scours the ingredients lists!)

Agree that cheese in the right conditions would survive a long time. Traditionally made in caves anyway, and there's plenty of caves. Imagine going through a cave system and stumbling on literal tonnes of cheese there... 😮😋

(To be clear, I'm happy with the food we have and I'm not looking for Hinterland to change things up, but this is a fun intellectual exercise :))

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On 3/14/2023 at 6:52 AM, JackTrysGames said:

Beef Jerky is awfully plentiful on the island... And only a few foods actually give Vitamin C... Scurvy would be incredibly likely, especially for very late game survivors.

If scurvy became a reality in late game, vitamin C rich foods such as peaches, or new items, could have to be strategically saved for when the condition kicks in. 

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