Food

[JPierreD]

It really sounds as if this change has made EVERY realm start to starve...

Please, if you want to be taken seriously stop overreacting/exaggerating. No realm is starving, they are simply running deficits and sitting on piles of food.

[Velax]

How is this issue going to affect stable when the new systems are implemented within a week? We don't have massive stockpiles and most realms in FEI are already struggling with food.

[Chenier]

Please, if you want to be taken seriously stop overreacting/exaggerating. No realm is starving, they are simply running deficits and sitting on piles of food.

Starvation is the inevitable result when everyone's running deficits.

I do tend to exaggerate and use hyperbole, but this isn't what I did now. If the top food producers are now running deficits, I deem it safe to assume that the vast majority of realms are also running deficits. And unless food production is increased once the food stocks run out, it will mean massive continent-wide starvation. And that will not create any conflict, because basically no one will have any food.

Starvation is the inevitable consequence of everyone running deficits. Peasants aren't dying, yet, but it's pretty clear they will.

[JPierreD]

How is this issue going to affect stable when the new systems are implemented within a week? We don't have massive stockpiles and most realms in FEI are already struggling with food.

Initially it will decrease consumption, thus increasing the amount of food available. Later I suppose that Tom will rework it in the same way it is reworking Dwilight.

I do tend to exaggerate and use hyperbole, but this isn't what I did now. If the top food producers are now running deficits, I deem it safe to assume that the vast majority of realms are also running deficits. And unless food production is increased once the food stocks run out, it will mean massive continent-wide starvation. And that will not create any conflict, because basically no one will have any food.

Do you honestly believe Tom will leave the global deficit standing, and have not read him telling how much food surplus there currently is stocked? If you did, do you really think he'll take RL years to fix the situation? If not, what is your point again?

Starvation is the inevitable consequence of everyone running deficits. Peasants aren't dying, yet, but it's pretty clear they will.

In RL years. Thus, your alarmist attitude is not only annoying, but also pointless and perhaps even insulting to the Dev Team.

[Perth]

In RL years. Thus, your alarmist attitude is not only annoying, but also pointless and perhaps even insulting to the Dev Team.

Considering the game has been around for over 10...

[^ban^]

The previous number of a deficit of 18 for Solaria did not taken into account the current drought. With the drought, Solaria has a deficit of 26 bushels a day.

Also, where are you getting the "real life years" from, Tom? Because no one else on the team has come up with estimates even close to that when rot is included... :/

[Tom]

Simple. Average food stored in non-rogue regions on Dwilight as of right now: 1120 bushels. The deficit seems to be on the order of 1-2 bushels per region. That's about 600 days until stores run out.

It's a very rough calculation. Wildly off, but the order of magnitude matters, not the exact number. Basically, I could cut food stores in half and people would panic with no need to.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Did you forget to take into account outliers? Say... the one odd region that just happens to have an exponentially large amount of granaries and food stored?

[Tom]

Did you forget to take into account outliers? Say... the one odd region that just happens to have an exponentially large amount of granaries and food stored?

There aren't really any outliers. Sure there are some that have much more food stored, but the difference between the top 20 is less than a factor of 10 and most of it is within a factor of 3.

[Galvez]

So by a rough calculation based on the average food stores on Dwilight, you are in a terrible, terrible position, as your stores will last you less than three real-life years. :-)

We just lost almost 5000 bushels because a Lord betrayed us, and even increasing our deficit to 17 bushels a day.

That was almost half of what we had stored in total. Meaning that we will run out of food in 317 days, not taking weather condition into account. But even if we will have a small surplus over the course of a game year, we were one of the largest net producers of food (in percent). So I fear not for my own realm, rather for our neighbours who we used to sell our surpluses to, D'Hara.

[D`Este]

Currently at -175 bushels a week, if you include rotting this doubles.

The food stores are still large enough to cover this, but if surrounding realms start to have almost no surplus then we got a small problem. Unless I'm expected to buy food from the other side of the continent. But by the sounds of it, they don't have much production spare either.

[Gustav Kuriga]

There aren't really any outliers. Sure there are some that have much more food stored, but the difference between the top 20 is less than a factor of 10 and most of it is within a factor of 3.

A factor of ten? You mean a whole order of magnitude?

[Chenier]

Simple. Average food stored in non-rogue regions on Dwilight as of right now: 1120 bushels. The deficit seems to be on the order of 1-2 bushels per region. That's about 600 days until stores run out.

It's a very rough calculation. Wildly off, but the order of magnitude matters, not the exact number. Basically, I could cut food stores in half and people would panic with no need to.

Whoah. No way that the average deficit is 1-2 bushels per day. The most rural realms are reporting deficits of greater importance, like Solaria's of 18 despite it being one of the realms with the best food supply ratio. If the realms with the best food output not have a -20 deficit or so, how on earth can the average be -2?

And that is certainly not considering rot and soldier consumption. And rogue attacks.

If everybody runs a deficit, then no trade is possible, because no one will be able to export. That doesn't encourage war either, because you know your neighbors situation is just as bad as your own.

Initially it will decrease consumption, thus increasing the amount of food available. Later I suppose that Tom will rework it in the same way it is reworking Dwilight.

Do you honestly believe Tom will leave the global deficit standing, and have not read him telling how much food surplus there currently is stocked? If you did, do you really think he'll take RL years to fix the situation? If not, what is your point again?

In RL years. Thus, your alarmist attitude is not only annoying, but also pointless and perhaps even insulting to the Dev Team.

If the plan is to regularly increase and decrease production to fit the dev team's desires, then I find this a rather poor policy. Realms can't spend this much effort on adapting to their food situation all the time. Every change requires important adjustments, which are fun for no one. If there are going to be food balances 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,  9, 10, and 11, then it means that it is all just arbitrary and that good performances are likely to be compensated to prevent anyone from being too well off as soon as they adapt? If the plan was to have a one-time decrease in food stores to make the deficit be felt, I would have much rathered a one-time deletion of stocks than a long period of decline, without knowing when it will change and what it will change to.

Also, I don't believe at all it will take RL years to run out with these new numbers. Perhaps, in the most  optimist scenario, the top 3 rural realms will last a year. Others will most definitely not. Especially since I'm told that food rots even within warehouses now?

[Anaris]

Especially since I'm told that food rots even within warehouses now?

This has always been true. (Except during the transition period where rot was disabled entirely.)

[Velax]

Whoah. No way that the average deficit is 1-2 bushels per day. The most rural realms are reporting deficits of greater importance, like Solaria's of 18 despite it being one of the realms with the best food supply ratio. If the realms with the best food output not have a -20 deficit or so, how on earth can the average be -2?

He did say -2 per region, but still. Seems a little extreme.