Can someone explain food to me?

from Elemental Forums

Believe me, as a large man, I know what food is and how good it tastes!

But in the world of ELEMENTAL, food is a frighteningly confusing thing.  Unlike Gildars and Materials (which you can work to gain a steady income of), food never seems to change (except to get eaten and not get replenished.

Even when the game says something like "+5 Food/Turn", I don't see that food get added every turn.  Honestly, I haven't the foggiest idea how to create a good working food production system.  Sure, I know that fertile ground produces basic food, pumpkin patches give 60% food, and Wheat gives you mad food, but why doesn't there seem to be a way to track this?

The biggest problem I had was that in my biggest Custom Game, I took over an enemy town and I felt super-proud of myself, but my food at the top now showed -2, and I had no clue how to fix it!

Can someone explain -- in simple terms -- how to get your food up and running, and then bolster it throughout the game?

Thanks!!

elemental
11,706 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

The simple answer is that you have to research the appropriate tech such as Refined Farming.  That will multiply your food output. 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I too was gonna ask about food.

Anyone have a clue as to how the numbers add up? I still only have +5, but have 100+ people in my kingdom. Does 1 food support 50 people or something?

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Food doesn't accumulate, fridges aren't invented yet.  They're just used to increase your population capacity (huts consume one food per turn when built)

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Food is a "perishable" resource in Elemental. You can't stockpile it. +5 means that you're producing 5 more then you're using. In this regard it works different from every other resource, which you can stockpile.

When you build housing in a city, it uses some of that food. People then come to the houses and your population goes up.

Building more farms on fertile land resources as well as researching various techs increase the amount of food you get.

If you've got negative food, you need to destroy some housing or increase your food production. But there's nothing wrong with being at say zero food, that actually means you're producing and using the same amount. Nobody is going hungry. :)

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Filthgrinder, reply 2
I too was gonna ask about food.

Anyone have a clue as to how the numbers add up? I still only have +5, but have 100+ people in my kingdom. Does 1 food support 50 people or something?
End of Filthgrinder's quote

Food is used for houses, not directly for people. When building a hut/house/etc you can see on the info card how much food that house costs. Techs let you increase the number of people per house.

So it's not a direct "X food = Y people" relationship. If food is positive, you can build houses and grow your population. If it's zero or negative, you can't. Just think of it that way. :)

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Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Ah, got it. Thanks man.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

So Food is just a resource used to build houses, like materials?

 

And why isn't there a food entry in the in-game encyclopedia!!! 8|

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm a long time PC gamer 15+ years and it took me about 6 games to figure out you could click on the fertile land to insta build farms. :)

I think the latest patch put a big fat ! on resorces your not using so it brings it to your attention.

When you roll over food it should pop up and explain how to use it. An entry in the help book would be very useful for first time players.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

There is a fairly steep learning curve on this game.  Little documentation and some bugs, so that you don't always know if something is a feature or a bug.  I'm enjoying it all, because Stardock seems to be right on top of it.  It is all pretty exciting.

Anyway, this morning I notice my population was down to almost nothing - what was causing it?  Wandering monsters, food, over crowding, bug?  Turns out I had built a couple extra huts and their food requirement was starving my population.  I was thinking like I was in Civ. 

So, don't build extra huts.  Always build only enough. 

This game will truely benefit from the user generated FAQs and WIKIs which will soon start popping up all over the web.