Feature Request: Add Food Rations to islands with Seasons

[Azerax]

Title: Add Food Rations to Islands with Seasons

Summary: Allow the Region Lord to adjust food rations to mitigate starvation effects: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2.0.  Lower rations would cause a decrease in morale while higher rations would cause a morale bonus.

Benefits: This would allow Region Lords to manage starvation, food surplus, and food deficits.

Possible Exploits:

• Nations who use starvation as a weapon would have to wait longer for the effects.
• Food prices may drop
• Conflict over food related issues would not be as severe

[Indirik]

None of your "exploits" are actually "exploits". They are consequences of the change. Exploits are ways in which players could game the system to achieve unfair advantage, or do things they shouldn't be able to do. For example, an exploit could be a lord swapping his region back and forth between 0.5 and 1.0 every other day, thereby feeding his region for 0.75 normal food, while suffering few or no consequences if the penalties for running short are not big enough.

[Chenier]

I'd also say that conflict over food is a myth, and as such, cannot be any less severe.

[Anaris]

I'd also say that conflict over food is a myth, and as such, cannot be any less severe.

If you mean war over food, I could buy that.

Intra-realm conflict over food, however, is very real and very frustrating.

[Chenier]

If you mean war over food, I could buy that.

Intra-realm conflict over food, however, is very real and very frustrating.

I effectively didn't mean intra-realm conflict.

[Azerax]

None of your "exploits" are actually "exploits". They are consequences of the change. Exploits are ways in which players could game the system to achieve unfair advantage, or do things they shouldn't be able to do. For example, an exploit could be a lord swapping his region back and forth between 0.5 and 1.0 every other day, thereby feeding his region for 0.75 normal food, while suffering few or no consequences if the penalties for running short are not big enough.

To combat that possibility - rations could only be changed once per x(7) days?

[Tom]

I've been against this every time it has been proposed.

I can't really explain why. Call it intuition. There's a horrible amount of things that can go wrong with this. For example, I am taking bets that it won't be 3 months before we see the first realm ordering everyone on civil work all the time so they can run half rations for whatever amount of time they think helps them (through winter, to sell the rest to buy more troops, or whatever).

The absolute least I will insist upon is that half rations will add to the starve counter. That way, you can't run on half rations for very long.

It also irks me from a simulation perspective. We're talking about medieval pesants here. There really isn't all that much that you can halve:
http://people.eku.edu/resorc/Medieval_peasant_diet.htm

"half" rations should probably be 75% rations, or production would definitely suffer as well.

[Azerax]

Based on your link: http://people.eku.edu/resorc/Medieval_peasant_diet.htm
peasants get in the least 3500 calories per day, but people can live on anything above 1200 per day, so even half of 3500 still means they are well fed.  I currently consume about 1500 calories per day and I know this because I track it.

However, let's follow this thought, Since they are used to eating 150% of a normal diet (which is 2000 calories), let's add production to that, so production would also suffer based on diet.

Your other concern is very valid - so let's say civil work has the same proportional affect based on the ration amount, perhaps even a penalty.  The goal is to mitigate starvation affects which are compounded by seasons.

[Anaris]

I am fully in support of adding some limiting factors to ensure that half-rations are not practical to maintain indefinitely. Indeed, I'd be happy to add similar limiting factors to double-rations, too (though there, I'd think it would be more in the nature of diminishing returns—when people get used to double rations, they're no longer happier that they have them!).

[Tom]

Based on your link: http://people.eku.edu/resorc/Medieval_peasant_diet.htm
peasants get in the least 3500 calories per day, but people can live on anything above 1200 per day,

Read further. There's a breakdown of what those calories are used for. Medieval peasants worked HARD and for 12 hours a day. Don't compare them to us today with our office jobs and heated homes.

Maybe you can subsist at 1200 per day, but no way can you put in field work at that level.

[Azerax]

that's why I suggested having production affected by the ration amount.

[Chenier]

I'm also not sure about whether this can be balanced well, despite how I have been frustrated over the years with population often growing out of control.