Food Spoilage and/or Methods of Food Preservation?

[PrincessNorn]

I know in the past that the mechanics of the game was edited to help prevent the growth of large tribes. I thought this plan was a nice idea since many pack animals like wolves don't normally live in groups of more than 50, and while the change worked at first, me and many other players quickly returned to having outrageous amounts of Niche-lings. After having played for quite some time now, I have thought of another solution to this ever growing problem.

 

From my personal experiences with the game, what seems to be a widely accepted strategy is to store up tons of food from generations and generations of gathering. While this is a valid plan, may I point out that most of the food that the creatures gather are berries and meat, both of which spoil fairly quickly in real life. Now, I know that humans and some other animals have methods of preserving the food, but how the Niche-lings do this in the game isn't specified. I really think that if this food that they gather is going to last 100's of days like it can in the game a reason as to why or how should be given. Or, if the game developers chose to, in hopes of assisting the problem of overgrown tribes, food spoilage should be added into the game. For example, if a berry is picked from a bush, that berry should only last so many days before that food "spoils" and disappears from the stock of food the Niche-lings have access to. This will not only help the problem of tribes growing out of control and becoming unmanageable, but will also allow the game to be more realistic, and reference how animals in the real world would have to deal with this problem.

 

As to the specifics of how this would be done, if the game can keep track of the amount of food gathered on a specific day, then some form of countdown could be set on that group of food so that after, lets say the 5th day after the food was gathered, the food spoils. If the programmers of the game would like to, the spoilage could only apply to types of food that are more susceptible to spoilage, that is just their choice though.

[Redknight910]

I think this could be simple, or complex, depending on how different foods are sorted. Could also allow for genes related to carrion eaters to extend the length of time food is considered 'good'.

Like you I have no idea how difficult this might be to implement, but it's certainly an interesting and immersive concept.