Debuff of low quality food.

[BenVo]

Compared with automation devices improving the life quality, I would like to feel more stress during surviving.

Meal-lice really makes starvation impossible. 

Possible worse debuff after low quality food, compared with expected quality:

1 level lower, 75% Kcal;

2 levels lower, 50% Kcal, stress increasing;

3 levels lower, 25% Kcal, stress increasing, chance of vomiting immediately;

4 levels lower, 15% Kcal, stress increasing, chance of vomiting immediately, change of making a mess immediately;

5 levels lower, refuse to eat.(-3 quality vs +2 exception)

Another one: switch the quality of bristles berry(and gristle berry) with mushroom(fried). Mushroom is much easier to plant than blossom.

[Oozinator]

Your points 3-5 would kill early bases...

[BenVo]

2 minutes ago, Oozinator said:

Your points 3-5 would kill early bases...

Yeah, that's another reason why early bases should not recruit too many high skilled experts.

And this could be a selection in custom game, like immunity and stress. For regular game, we may remove the vomit & other debuff, but keep the low absorbing rate. And in late phase, to remain or improve efficient work, dupes shall eat better.

[Coolthulhu]

Vomit and mess chances would be rather annoying. There is no "automop" option, so it would mean the mess hall would need a mesh floor. Plus, it would look weird to have dupes happily chew disgusting food next to other dupes vomiting the same exact type of food up.

Caloric penalty could work, though they go against the idea that higher grade food is less calorie efficient.

Some other possible effects:

• Immunity change - vitamin chews could be just a supplement, or maybe even counter-intuitively, their effect could be multiplied by food grade (+/- constant)
• Chewing speed - I'm pretty sure everyone has a memory of eating some particularly un-tasty food and taking it so slowly it gets all cold
• Health bonus - some minor passive regeneration on good food
• Stat bonus/penalty - bad food could lead to sluggish work, similar to hypothermia

[WanderingKid]

I disagree with caloric content being abused.  Just because I don't LIKE an MRE doesn't mean it didn't feed me.

I do however like the idea of altered stats or other adjustments under the hood.  Things like @Coolthulhu mentioned above are good starts.  Another alternative is that they wait until they're absolutely starving before they'll eat something they detest, forcing some moments of 'oh lord!'  ... things like that. 

Just because I hate Jalepenos and they make me live in the bathroom doesn't mean I won't eat them before I'm dead!

[BenVo]

To dupes with higher demands, they would choose the part they thought could be ate from low quality food, like "I could the body of meal lice, but  absolutely not the head, legs, eyeball, or organs". Then caloric penalty come out.  For regular game, dupes could always survive with just caloric penalty, but for a better & more efficient life more efforts must be made. 

4 hours ago, Coolthulhu said:

 it would look weird to have dupes happily chew disgusting food next to other dupes vomiting the same exact type of food up.

That reminds me a really old game: Bullfrog's Theme Hospital. If someone start vomiting around others, it might start a vomiting competition/rally race. Similar thing could be added in hard mode. I totally agree with other possible stats. Buffs for easy mode & debuffs for hard mode could be an independent selection in custom game which could be the topic in next updating.

 

[BlueLance]

I can get behind it taking them longer to eat the food they do not like, Like a fair amount longer, this way the debuff they get lasts for a longer time which in turn puts up their stress, it also wastes time because they eat for so long.

Right now the time they eat and have the debuff is so short XD