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23a:Food
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
Food is anything Template:L eat to ward off starvation, but if they are not able to attain sustenance then they will eventually die. The most common foods are Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, and Template:L.
A healthy adult dwarf consumes 8 to 9 units of food per year.
Eating good food will make your dwarves happy, so a good Template:L is an excellent investment. Also, each dwarf has Template:L for certain foods.
For details on the different ways to obtain food, see the Template:L.
Food is essential
Food is one of the only resources that a dwarf will die from not having access to. This makes food crucial to the survival of your fortress. Before you know it, your 200 population will dive-bomb right down to 10 or even lower. Your population will go on a downward spiral because of all the Miasma and dead bodies, and of course you'll have fewer farmers/hunters to generate new food. If you're very lucky you can start again in another area, or you can get some helpful migrants.
Remember to keep a large stockpile of food. If you do not have food;
- Dwarves will become unhappy and generate bad thoughts
- Dwarves will start hunting for vermin instead of doing important jobs
- Dwarves will get upset and start breaking things
- Dwarves will get mad and start trying to kill each other
- Dwarves will die from starvation
- The new dead bodies will only make everyone even more depressed
Sources
The possible sources of food are Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, and a few exotic Template:L. Farming is by far the most reliable, plant gathering is perhaps the easiest to manage, and fishing is good early in a fortresses' life. If you are constantly experiencing problems with starvation, you are well advised to look into additional means of procuring food.
Processes
Some food is inedible raw, and needs processing first. For example:
- Template:L must be rendered (Template:L) into Template:L and then cooked (Template:L)
- Raw Template:L must be Template:L (Template:L)
- Template:Ls must be either milled into Template:L (Template:L/Template:L) or processed to barrels of Template:L (Template:L) before they can finally be cooked (Template:L)
- Template:L and Template:L must be milled into their respective flours and cooked.
- Milk has to be cooked or turned into cheese.
Unprocessed food and non-food Template:Ls will be stored in a food stockpile and take up barrel space; the Template:L can tell you exactly how much of each type of "food" you have in the Template:L screen.
Eating
A dwarf with the "Eat" task will pick up a unit of food, often according to his or her dietary preferences, but also influenced by proximity and age of the item (new first), then bring it to an available Template:L or Template:L for consumption. A private Template:L will normally be chosen over a public room; for this reason, note that a dwarf who owns a table-less Template:L but no Template:L will Template:L about the lack of tables, even if a high-quality public dining room is available[Verify]. This problem is easily solved by adding a table next to such an office-chair (like you would in a dining room). Also note that eating in a high-quality dining room does wonders for a dwarf's Template:L.
Dwarves will eat two meals per season on average, and drink four drinks. A fortress of 100 dwarves will thus consume 800 meals (food-units) and 1600 drinks (booze-units) in a single year. Plan your stockpiles accordingly.[Verify]
Types
Food comes in two main varieties: Template:L and Template:L, with cooked food possibly mixing the two.
Plants must be grown underground on muddy stone, and a single dedicated Template:L/harvester can produce enough food for all but the largest of fortresses. The advantages of plants are the infinite and readily available supply, and the versatility; plants can be Template:L, made into Template:Ling and Template:L, and also used as further ingredients for Template:Ling. Further processing plants leads to greater amount delivered as an end product. The small disadvantage is its potential for continuous growth - when you do produce more plants than your dwarves eat, food Template:Ls will eventually fill up with plants, potentially leaving no room for other foods such as meat, fish, or prepared meals. If you end up with a surplus of food, consider letting Template:L lie Template:L for some time.
Meat can be obtained from Template:L and Template:L, as well as raising livestock. If vermin are left unchecked, uncooked meat and fish will succumb to Template:L and eventually rot, even on stockpiles, and even in Template:Ls. The advantages are the additional skills raised during hunting, and there is less mass labor required for Template:Ling meat or Template:L fish than planting a seed, harvesting, eating or processing the crop, and storing the seed in a stockpile. Cleaned fish leave behind Template:Ls, and Template:Ls also leave behind Template:Ls. Animals, when butchered, leave behind large stacks of Template:Ls, Template:L, and usually Template:Ls and Template:Ls. An export industry devoted to bone Template:L can be worthwhile, and Template:L always benefit from a cheap supply of Template:Ls made from bone. Unfortunately, there is no way to make alcohol from animals, so without trading, some plants are necessary. Finally, even though livestock breeding can be unlimited, the additional units on the map required for this to work put additional strain on the CPU, slowing the game down.
Storage
Food is stored in food Template:Ls and may be placed in barrels. Template:Ls (and powders, such as flour or dye) are put in Template:Ls, which are themselves stored within barrels. Template:L and Template:L will Template:L (becoming inedible) if not placed on a stockpile within a month or so. Plants not on a stockpile will wither, which also makes them inedible but does not produce Template:L. Food on a stockpile will never rot, nor will food in a barrel even if it is not on a stockpile. Seeds will never rot no matter where they are.
According to Toady, Template:L can eat your food, even when it is on a stockpile (although the amount they eat appears to be quite minimal). Food in barrels is less likely to be eaten by vermin.
Cooking
Raw food can be Template:Led into "Template:L" at a Template:L. Cooked meals have a Template:L modifier, and a high quality meal is far more valuable as a trade item or in generating happy Template:Ls in the dwarf eating that meal. The wider the variety of ingredients that a meal contains, the greater the number of dwarves who will have a preference for that meal. Cooking destroys all seeds, shells and bones.
See Also: Template:L