Refined foods lose calories

[Bloxxed]

Every four days, a bristle blossom produces one bristle berry. At a hearty 1,600 calories, the only downside to this is its sub-par quality: -1.

Now let's see what happens if we actually care for the well-being of our inhabitants. We can grill the berries at a cost of 60 watts, duplicant operation, and an output of 22.5 watts of heat. The result? A 1,000 calorie, 0-quality gristle berry.

Notice the 600 calorie drop. Why I waste my colonists' time, only experience such minuscule gains?  Where did those 600 calories go? Remember that duplicants only need 1,000 calories per cycle, so that's 60% of another meal you're losing out on.

[Lifegrow]

Would you prefer to gnaw on the rear end of a cow, or eat a beautifully prepared steak ?

I daresay the cow has more calories as a whole...

[Bloxxed]

11 minutes ago, Lifegrow said:

Would you prefer to gnaw on the rear end of a cow, or eat a beautifully prepared steak ?

I daresay the cow has more calories as a whole...

1

You should be eating several high-quality cuts of that cow, such as brisket, rib, and sirloin. Notice how almost the entire cow is cut and sold to butchers.

With bristle berries. you throw away a whole 37% of the fruit!

[TheGCat]

If u cook a gristle berry, u need 2 of the bristle blossoms if i am right. The most receipts need 2 of the ingredients. Twice the same or  two different ingredients.

2x1600 = 3200kcal - 1000 after the cooking = 2200kcal wasted!

I cook all the good stuff, because in late game,  u have 500.000 in your freighters. Who cares how much kcal u lost ?

[BenVo]

I think the quality of mushroom and bristle berry shall be switched, and also the cooked. 

[suicide commando]

Basicly, you're throwing away all the icky bits and only using the juicy bits of the berries to make the food, so you lose out on calories to increase the quality.

The cow analogy is fine, while yes, lots of the cow is used, what about it's intestines, it's bones, it's brain, eyeballs, etc.? MOST of the cow is used but not everything.

[NurdRage]

On the flip side of the coin some foods get *more* nutritious with cooking. Some straight examples include carrots, tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms. Mushrooms in particular have very little nutrition available until cooked. 

Cooking (through the invention of fire) was one of the great evolutionary drivers since it partially "digested" the food for us. Our stomachs/livers didn't have to waste considerable energy making the highly potent enzymes needed to digest the food raw. Cooking solved that by breaking down the tough proteins and carbs into simpler ones and this meant that we could eat less food and/or get more useful nutrition. With this extra energy and nutrition to feed our brains and do work we were able to spend less time hunting/gathering and more time learning, socializing, cooperating, building civilization and beating each other with sticks and stones. Compared to other primates, we are on perpetual crack with how much work we do compared to what we eat. All because of cooking.

But in Oxygen not included the decrease in calories is probably just a game mechanic. It forces you to make a decision of whether you want to feed more dupes with less food, or expend more resources to keep them happy with higher quality food.

I do agree the balance is off and probably needs an overhaul.

 

[AlexRou]

31 minutes ago, suicide commando said:

The cow analogy is fine, while yes, lots of the cow is used, what about it's intestines, it's bones, it's brain, eyeballs, etc.? MOST of the cow is used but not everything.

Actually .... in that list the only thing people don't eat are the bones and brain. But there are some places that do eat the brain, no amount of cooking will rid the brain of mad cow disease so almost all countries ban them. Hell even bones are used in cooking tho you don't technically consume bone.

I think pretty much the whole cow can be eaten or used in cooking in some way.

[UristMcKerman]

Intenstines have several uses too. E.g. zeppelin gas envelopes were made of their outer layer (called goldbeater skin).

[TheGCat]

I am for more plants and ingredients