v0.34:Food

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v50.12 · v0.47 · v0.34.11 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Dwarves may be raging, tottering alcoholics, but it's the energy they get from the food they eat that physically sustains them through their activities. Hungry dwarves are indicated by a flashing brown arrow; unfed hungry dwarves will progress to starvation and, ultimately, death.

Mechanics

Dwarves that go without food will do the obvious: become increasingly hungry, working more slowly, becoming more and more unhappy, and eventually die of starvation. Interestingly, hungry dwarves that cannot get at fortress resources will steal food from any caravans that arrive; the merchants do not particularly care, but it is an added expense when the caravan leaves the map. Additionally, when starving, dwarves will catch and consume vermin to survive, resulting in an unhappy thought.

Dwarves require 2 units of food each season. Dwarves will forgo food, drink, and sleep for a while to complete any tasks they are currently performing; how long they will totter by depends on their personality. If they have a number of tasks to complete (and they usually do), dwarves will simply take a break to chow down, jug some beer, or power nap. Dwarves without a current job will perform these maintenance activities if they are even a little thirsty, hungry, or drowsy, and will only snap to "No job" once they have done so. Dwarves will preferentially eat before starting a task, but will try to finish their active task to the point of starvation once actually started; luckily, no tasks they can perform can actually lead to such a situation (with the exception of a mother finding her infant, although the circumstances in which this would be an impossible task are few and far between).

Dwarves who eat large amounts of food and don't get enough exercise will quickly become fat, a change that can only be seen by examining their thoughts and preferences screen. Not surprisingly, fat dwarves are slower at moving around, but the extra fat provides additional insulation from extreme temperatures, a small amount of additional protection against attacks, and longer "burn time" when exposed to fire. Additionally, fat can provide emergency nourishment to a dwarf who is otherwise about to die of starvation; also not surprisingly, going without food for a while will shrink the dwarf right back down to skinny. Fat dwarves can be made fit by giving them more physical and less intellectual things to do; a hauling regimen works wonders, for instance, and leaves the player wondering why it's so hard for people to shed weight in real life, when all they have to do is move stone from place to place.

Thoughts

Dwarves consume about two meals per season, and there are a number of good and bad thoughts associated with food. High quality food will give them a happy thought, making a good cook a very nice investment. Dining in a high-quality setting will also bring a happy thought, making a legendary dining room is a very, very easy way to bring up happiness; for this reason it is recommended to create large, well-furnished, centralized dining areas.

Food cooked or consisting of ingredients the dwarf likes will also generate a happy thought. Both starting dwarves and immigrants only have preferences for "dwarven" food (basically underground crops and meat the dwarven caravan brings). They will however gain new favorites if you present them with human and elven products (above ground crops e.g.) If you want a colorful game or need any food you can get, fire away. If however you want to optimize happiness from food but still keep stock menues small and tidy, be cautious about what you trade with caravans. For example, presumably, expensive meat makes your dwarves happier than cheap mule meat, but any plants the elves bring are not more valuable than your own.

On the other hand, eating the same gruel over and over again will make the dwarf tire of it, and they will crave new dining. Having a particularly limited dining selection will cause this thought to manifest, especially early in a fortress's life. For this reason, it is important to get as many food industries as you can running, to provide more of a selection to the hungry dwarves; at least two food groups are recommended. At the worst, additional food of all categories can be purchased from a caravan.

Food groups

Food can be divided into several food groups; the state of the fortress's food reserves can be seen on the status screen, although any sort of accurate count will require a bookkeeper. All food groups can solicited by trading with a caravan.

• Plants can be farmed or gathered, and are also the only food group besides honey that can be processed into drink. Farms are reliable and (usually) easily extendable sources of food, and generally form the backbone of most fortresses' food production.
• Meat can be sourced from livestock, hunted, caught live and then killed for military training, or stripped from siege mounts. Meat is more difficult to procure, but comes with important secondary resources (leather, fat, bones) and provides more variety than plants at a significantly easier rate.
• Fish can be caught, either via fishing or fishing chambers. This is the most dependent of the industries, requiring a body of water (be it an ocean, a lake, or a river). Larger fish caught via fish traps are slaughtered, and their parts counted as part of the meat industry.
• Eggs can be sourced from a hatchery. Any tame female animal capable of laying eggs will do so occasionally when placed in a pasture with nest boxes, including very exotic animals like alligators and barn owls. These can then be cooked.
• Milk can be milked from a tame female mammal, and like egg production, can be done off of any tame mammal, including more exotic ones like bears and kangaroos. Milk can be cooked or processed into high-value cheese.
• Honey and royal jelly can be produced via beekeeping, and can be eaten, cooked, or processed into mead.