Beginner looking for help with food

[Optimality]

Hello Klei community. I'm sort of new to this neck of the woods(base building, survival simulation games, etc..)

I'm understanding most of the electrical stuff but I keep hitting a road block with food.

I'm mainly just starving to death and relying on new duplicants being printed and starving. I'm basically stuck and can't seem to get further into the game due to this issue. It seems I don't have enough plants or I'm not understanding something correctly.

If you have any tips or advice you have to offer, I'll happily accept and hopefully make good use out of it.

Thanks,

your friend the starved.

[Czeraphine]

Here's the thing with food, you can either use a food musher, or you can use plants. Both have downsides, however. Though the function of the food musher is to make food, it ultimately uses a large amount of water, which is what you ultimately need to long base sustainability. The best alternative (also known as the only alternative) is to create planters which is researched at the top of the research section. You can plant either mealwood or blossom. Personally, I've never tried farming blossoms since their seeds are fairly rare to come across. At current moment in time, farming mealwood is the best method to get food. However, there's a catch. They consume oxygen at the same approximate rate as a dupe does (this may need some science to verify, it's just a wild gander, though they do in fact consume oxygen). A work-around this is to place them in a room full of carbon dioxide since all they really needed is decent pressure and ambient temperature.

If any of this helped at all, then I've done my job  If you need any more help or information, just ask away. Make sure you either quote me, or reference me if you reply to this reply (so I get a notification).

[Optimality]

17 minutes ago, Czeraphine said:

Here's the thing with food, you can either use a food musher, or you can use plants. Both have downsides, however. Though the function of the food musher is to make food, it ultimately uses a large amount of water, which is what you ultimately need to long base sustainability. The best alternative (also known as the only alternative) is to create planters which is researched at the top of the research section. You can plant either mealwood or blossom. Personally, I've never tried farming blossoms since their seeds are fairly rare to come across. At current moment in time, farming mealwood is the best method to get food. However, there's a catch. They consume oxygen at the same approximate rate as a dupe does (this may need some science to verify, it's just a wild gander, though they do in fact consume oxygen). A work-around this is to place them in a room full of carbon dioxide since all they really needed is decent pressure and ambient temperature.

If any of this helped at all, then I've done my job  If you need any more help or information, just ask away. Make sure you either quote me, or reference me if you reply to this reply (so I get a notification).

Thanks for the tips.. I just have that issue.. I can't seem to find enough seeds to sustain my colony. They basically eat what's grown and then stave off starvation. It seems I can't grow it effectively where I can find a balance and I only tend to have 4 duplicants before they all start to starve.

Maybe it has something to do with my calorie intake? Should I tweak it?

[Czeraphine]

Just now, Optimality said:

Thanks for the tips.. I just have that issue.. I can't seem to find enough seeds to sustain my colony. They basically eat what's grown and then stave off starvation. It seems I can't grow it effectively where I can find a balance and I only tend to have 4 duplicants before they all start to starve.

Maybe it has something to do with my calorie intake? Should I tweak it?

 

Optimally, you need at least 3 mealwood plants per duplicant you have. Additionally, they need to be under the proper conditions to grow well enough. If you simply don't have enough plants, look from cracks in the undug tiles in your world -it almost always contains seeds (usually mealwood). This lets you bump your food production early on pretty quickly. If you still have a problem there, you should reduce your calorie intake per day down to 1kcal until you have your entire rig set up. You can't always keep them at 1kcal though; they will starve eventually.

[Optimality]

1 minute ago, Czeraphine said:

Optimally, you need at least 3 mealwood plants per duplicant you have. Additionally, they need to be under the proper conditions to grow well enough. If you simply don't have enough plants, look from cracks in the undug tiles in your world -it almost always contains seeds (usually mealwood). This lets you bump your food production early on pretty quickly. If you still have a problem there, you should reduce your calorie intake per day down to 1kcal until you have your entire rig set up. You can't always keep them at 1kcal though; they will starve eventually.

Ahh okay.. I guess my problem is just inexperience. I haven't been playing for very long. Try to read a little more. Just wish there was a bit more tool tips. But I understand it's still in early development so I'll survive.

[Czeraphine]

Just now, Optimality said:

Ahh okay.. I guess my problem is just inexperience. I haven't been playing for very long. Try to read a little more. Just wish there was a bit more tool tips. But I understand it's still in early development so I'll survive.

 

Though, not once did I allude to you being very experienced as you mentioned in the OP that you were relatively new to the game. From how I explained it, I felt that it was in a way that it is simple to understand for someone new to the game. And, if not, I apologize.

[Optimality]

4 minutes ago, Czeraphine said:

Though, not once did I allude to you being very experienced as you mentioned in the OP that you were relatively new to the game. From how I explained it, I felt that it was in a way that it is simple to understand for someone new to the game. And, if not, I apologize.

I know, it just seems I have the right idea from the advice you've given me. I think it's just my execution with said strategies is my main problem. Thanks for the advice, at least now I have something to refer to.

[applebottom]

2 hours ago, Optimality said:

Hello Klei community.

Hi OP! I was having the same problems as you since I jumped into this game without having watched the previous streams. I was also hitting starvation at 4 dupes.

What solved it for me is cooking the food. Eating raw always gives less kcal. So if you have mealwood plants, cook the harvested meal lice into liceloaves (in the same station where you make mush bars).

Meal lice is 100 kcal each
Lice Loaf is 1000 kcal each, made from 5 meal lice + water

You will use up water but you also double the kcal of your food if you turn them into lice loaf. I have gone from starving at 4 dupes to overproducing food with 7 dupes just from this change alone.

[Bizzel]

Dear Person i personally noticed that lowering he food compsution in the vitals tab to about 1200 Kcal helps out A Load

Further i Scearched for the nearest wild food that was avalible so i wasted less water (as i have been very unlucky with water) It also helps if u refuse the first dube u get in the printer (Unless its a good one you need) and just stick with 3 for a litthe while

I myself try to get to cycle 10 with the least amount of dube's i can have just to spare food and oxygen untill i get a decent set up ready after.  Afther Cycle 13 orso (Or if you have a steady food suplie ready) get them all more calories to feed and live on