Character get food automatically from food storage

[LostSaint6689]

A way or a place for characters to go and get food without micromanaging them.

For example, i have a farm and a healthy supply of food stored up. While i'm away messing around with a a small group exploring it would be nice if the people i have working or doing whatever back home would go get food on their own in the event they run out on their person.

[Zeal]

A way or a place for characters to go and get food without micromanaging them.

For example, i have a farm and a healthy supply of food stored up. While i'm away messing around with a a small group exploring it would be nice if the people i have working or doing whatever back home would go get food on their own in the event they run out on their person.

Would absolutely love to see something like this aswell. My main concern though is just coming back and finding all my guards huddled around the stove instead of at the front gates where they should be guarding, or anyone else i have stationed somewhere else for any other reason (autojobs excluded, since they would just return to what they were doing, which would be great! but I really wish units had a "stationing" option..)

I'd also like to see a type of trough for pets when feeding them is implimented.

[BoogieMan]

Once you start getting a decent sized squad it because much to time consuming and tedious that only gets worse as you recruit more people. People left in town to work have to be checked up on, with loading back and forth, which for me I have serious lag for 5-15 seconds almost every time "loading" pops up, even with a very powerful system. The UI stops be responsive during said lag.

At the very least:

-Designate someone as a food mule. Go get food from them (unless it's their last one) when you need it.

-Food distribution containers. Automatic retrieval.

These sorts of things have already mentioned a number of times but that's because it' is a missing but mandatory part of nutrition system, IMO. That kind of additional micromanagement isn't good.

[swillo]

I was thinking about this as well, would be nice. But I have been lately been thinking about the AI behind it. It would be a really tough thing to figure out. How much food should they take? Should they load up or just take the minimum there? If they only take a little they will have to come back more often and that would make them less productive. If they take enough to fill themselves perhaps someone else will not get any, just like the farm closest to the will gets more water then the ones farther away.

Will take some consideration.

[Y2K]

A simpel "Eat Automatic " button with a number field from 1-x behind it. They will take as mutch as you allow them. So you can manage the food usage / running efficiency.

[lucidmadness]

To do this effectively you would have to make a container that has only higher nutrition food. I need the smaller stuff to craft higher quality food, but that food goes nowhere automatically. Maybe call it "Food bar" or something?

[celade]

To do this effectively you would have to make a container that has only higher nutrition food. I need the smaller stuff to craft higher quality food, but that food goes nowhere automatically. Maybe call it "Food bar" or something?

Yeah, this topic has been on my mind a lot. The programming is non-trivial but not really any harder than the automation systems we currently use.

Abstract Solution:
Have a food bar -- characters automatically retrieve enough units just from this container to satisfy the hunger condition + have [slider value] additional items.

The additional ideas for this are:
1) Do you have to add "food bar" to the AI queue in-game?
2) Can we have additional "food bar" types that are stores (i.e., restaurants)?

In any case this is an easy FSM check -- the harder bit is tying it into existing AI checks. Either way not only could it ease play experience fatigue but could actually be a key part of game mechanics (restaurant).

[swillo]

But if they only get enough to satisfy their hunger then they will stop their jobs and return to eat in every 10 minutes.
To make it efficient they would need to take enough so that they could satisfy hunger and have some extra for later.

But how much extra?

[ceridan]

The idea of a 'food bar' is good, it could also be a job for a worker who goes around collecting 'higher' end food from storage containers automatically (as much as he/she can carry, and say '4' times a day, don't need a constant check of all containers running that would be far to cpu intensive).

It should work like this:
If a worker is 'hungry' (under 20%) he/she will try to go to the foodbar and get 2 x enough food to satisfy the 'hunger bar'. (thus reducing trips and making sure they don't waste time going to the bar when their hunger isn't critical).

Also however if the hunger bar drops into 'starving' at 80% they should try to get food from the closest owned food storage (regardless of food quality level).

I think this would work, also without adding a massive amount of AI workload as a simple number check on the foodbar level determines behaviour. I think it would also accurately simulate correct behaviour. A starving man will eat anything, a man that has just skipped lunch can be a bit more picky.

[celade]

ceridanI like your refinements. I'd like to see something exactly like that -- and in some way it would simulate a "meal schedule". The idea of splitting routine retrieval of food from an assigned source versus foraging when something breaks that (look for food in any container) is a very good idea, too.

[killerx243]

I was thinking about this and here are my 2 cents worth for expanding on the idea:

I like the food bar idea, maybe have options for food containers to set them to be used for the food bar

Then there could be a menu that lets you set how much food each person takes per settlement (This can be expanded on to set selling prices for goods, even options for helping out allies that were knocked out saving you). This would also have rules for food shortages.

Settler A takes the last two foodcubes, so when Settler B goes to get something to eat and finds nothing else allowed (the raw food containers are not allowing their contents for auto feeding) he goes to a Settler in the town with more food then they immediately need and takes some. These would work well with some of ceridan's ideas, like set a town rule that if you are starving to death and there were food that was not set for auto feeding then they would use that food but take what they need to prevent starvation (because it could be used to make better food).