Changes to drying racks, smokers, meat jerky and smoked meat

[Tiamo]

You still can take care of half your food needs for free, that is pretty good, i think. The new values are nicely balanced, other food sources now become a viable (even necessary) option. Characters will have to find a new optimum way food.

But i agree with tiddy ogg, this drastic change should have been given a seven days' notice, so people could adapt.

[Ice-Man]

I think the time has come to to starve to death...

[Pilot]

Think about it for a moment: 25g a day WITHOUT working on it is still a very good rate.

And there is another plus: Cooking as a profesion will be taken seriously from now on.

The fun part of Cantr is to find out new things in game so there's no need for a 7 days notice.

I am really glad changes like this are being done.

[schroederjj2003]

you have to see how this will kill of the forest towns. the mountain towns are now even harder to live in, its cheater for the forest folk to go and gather salt in another town and come back and salt all the meat to make it last forever, i have characters in all walks of life and this will hurt several of them, once the point of working so hard to make the drying racks or walking to the forest for wood for the smokers on ships. YOU have to see how this is going to effect just certain regions and not the game as a whole.

[Doug R.]

Wow, I was pretty pissed off about this change. I even wrote a nasty post that I decided not to send. It had the F word in it. Then I thought about it a bit. Sure, I don't agree with zero notice. The last time nutrition values were changed, they gave us plenty of notice (possibly too much). Given that meat jerky has become pretty much the most ubiquitous food in the game, I think advance notice would have been wise. But that's beside my point.

I got to thinking, who/what will this actually affect?

Sailors, but not just any sailors. Explorers specifically. Regular sailors can port and get more food. However, exploring's a dangerous profession, so if they starve because of this, it's an occupational risk that they accepted when they left land. Sure it sucks, but hey, how do you know you wouldn't have starved anyway?

Forest/mountain towns, but not just any forest/mountain towns. Only towns that have no viable trade options. I remember when you could take carrots to Kirinn Forest and get a premium amount of wood for them. I bet you can't get a deal like that now. What kind of towns have no viable trade options? Towns that are in desolate locations, or towns surrounded by other towns with the same resource. If my town only has wood, and so do the other 8 towns in the same forest, then my trade options are slimmer. However, in real life, forest living is subsistence living. If you can't now survive where you are with these food changes, perhaps you shouldn't be living there. I have always maintained that part of the decline of the game is character dilution. If some charries are forced from the wilderness back to civilization because of this, it can help the game.

Bakers! Suddenly being the person designated to feed everyone becomes important! We need more viable important roles for characters.

Trade! Trading food for resources becomes a viable option again.

Players. Obviously, this affects everyone. Some have made carefully crafted plans around our meat jerky, and now it's made things more difficult. I planned a 60 day trip that I have to cut short by 30 days because of this. We could all pussy out like Ice-Man and quit, or we can adjust to the changes as best we can. @ Miri - During my first account, food was harder to get, drying racks and smokers didn't exist, and I considered it "the Golden Age of Cantr" (my personal Golden Age), so your fears of busy work food gathering ruining gameplay don't seem founded.

[Sunni Daez]

to just keep making survial harder and harder?

No, nothing of the sort. It just that those two were the most unbalanced, so we did those first. It won't all be made less efficient either, some things needs to improve too.

I've seen lots of communities where everything revolves around meat jerky, basically a food for free. We're not against that per se, but being able to feed 18 people with 4 drying racks and no work at all is insane.
I do realize that such a drastic reduction has consequences, but I hope this will be for the best in the end. Sailors being lost for 30 years can't be the norm, if so we could never change anything. You had no way of knowing that rot even inside buildings wouldn't have been implemented for example, so I'm not buying into that argument.

If you only have meat and need to feed a lot of people I suggest cooking meat in a large pot

1. Changing the rate of the rack was extreem enough..you eighth'd the amount you can make and doubled what you eat! so now, if I am correct, meat is the worse thing out there to cook with and eat... so along with those mounding piles of useless bones..... there will be rotting meat..... yes , you can still put it on a drying rack.. and those that have them may still use them... but why go through the trouble of making string to build the rack to make a food that 'cooks' at half the rate you eat it...

2. So you fixed it good... instead of feeding 18 people you feed 2! I understand logic in large communities... but there are places that have no other food source than meat... and struggle to survive as it is... you probably killed off a portion of cantrains... if you make half of what you eat in a day... or even the equal amount.. how would you ever stock enough food to travel elsewhere to get another source?

3. It wasn't an argument by anymeans.. just a statement.. that I was glad this wasn't implimented a month ago...or she would have died just before she docked...

4. What about just feeding 4? You suggest cooking in a pot... but you need IRON to make a chisel to make the pot!! We had enough newspawns die because life was to hard for survival.... ((We.. are 2 people who have inhabited a spot for almost 40 years.. there are now 3 of them there.. the rest die from animal attacks or starvation as the only healing food is hard to gather and ate also as a food source... so by the time you gather enough to heal... you've ate half...))

5. i know my opinion is worthless, and you will do what you see fit.. but I don't think this change was thought through well enough..

[schroederjj2003]

Well Said Sunni

[Sunni Daez]

Sailors, but not just any sailors. Explorers specifically. Regular sailors can port and get more food. However, exploring's a dangerous profession, so if they starve because of this, it's an occupational risk that they accepted when they left land. Sure it sucks, but hey, how do you know you wouldn't have starved anyway?

If some charries are forced from the wilderness back to civilization because of this, it can help the game.

Bakers! Suddenly being the person designated to feed everyone becomes important! We need more viable important roles for characters.

Trade! Trading food for resources becomes a viable option again.

1. Explorers are careful in their planning, yes, it is a risk.. with the eating disease that eliminates days and days worth of food in one eating... they take extra food.... but you double the meat they eat... so cut the supply in half that they may have taken. May as well get those whales to attack the ships to, while you are at it... even though we are yet able to fight nor even see them.

2. how does this help the game? You push all the people into large piles... hence eliminating settlements in small areas... this opens that resource there(in the small settlement) back up to a free gather... ooops trade is now eliminated!

3. I have had a baker, making all sorts of food.. long before drying racks were ever made... it was useless then and still is....

Lets do something productive,,, make clothing useful.... why not implement some of the accepted suggestions...

I am not voicing my opinions against the change in the drying rack as much as I am about the change in eating rate... that was just....harsh

[Doug R.]

2. how does this help the game? You push all the people into large piles... hence eliminating settlements in small areas... this opens that resource there(in the small settlement) back up to a free gather... ooops trade is now eliminated!

My point, was that if you can't survive in an area because of this change and have to move away, then there were no resources there worth trading for, so there was no trade to begin with.

Places that have something worth trading will trade it for food, among other things, keeping life in those places entirely viable.

[SekoETC]

How come this wasn't discussed on RD forums, at least not lately? It may have been bought up earlier but why this sudden change?

[Sunni Daez]

2. how does this help the game? You push all the people into large piles... hence eliminating settlements in small areas... this opens that resource there(in the small settlement) back up to a free gather... ooops trade is now eliminated!

My point, was that if you can't survive in an area because of this change and have to move away, then there were no resources there worth trading for, so there was no trade to begin with.

Places that have something worth trading will trade it for food, among other things, keeping life in those places entirely viable.

You are wrong.... where I am has things worth trading...some unique things also... but.. rarely anyone comes through.... sooo how can we trade for food? hmmm? or trade for anything for that matter. A forest with wood timber or resin... all worth trading for.. but if I cannot feed myself nor anyone else there... then we leave and the resources are free to gather, thus destroying trade .... There are many sides that apparently were not discussed before this change per Sekos' post... so am I to understand that someone in RD can just decide something and change it at will?

[viktor]

there is a solution which requires as little effort as making the drying racks. make some carryable storage and ration your food!
do you know how long you can make food last? tis better to be hungry every other day and recover than ot eat all your food and be strapped to find more at an inconvenient moment.

[Pilot]

C'mon people! Cantr existed long before drying racks and meat jerky were created and will survive with the new rates. There are always options to pick up from... it's not like meat jerky is the only way to prepare meat, is it?

[viktor]

i was doing some checking and the value of SALMON on the smoker is the same so if you're a sailor, it would be good to have a fishing net on a smaller vessel to make lil stops to pickup salmon to smoke though f yu havent one or the materials and area lready out there then yes you have reason to get bent out of shape lol

[Chris]

I think that resource slots were badly implemented. It makes sense that any area would have limits on how much resource gathering it can support, but the number of slots is absurdly low. Low-tech societies in RL have almost 100% of the work force engaged in food production. That's just not possible in a big Cantr town.