I've never actually had this problem myself (or at least I don't remember anything like that) so I'd like to hear everyone else's experiences with rotting food.
I find myself rather skeptical about all this so I would appreciate if you provide some evidence for your explanations if you can.
Thanks!
edit: I should have clarified that you should give information on your fort relevant to this discussion such as if you have cats, vermin, barrels, site temperature, that sort of thing.
[ May 25, 2008: Message edited by: WingDing ]
Yes, my current fortress is quite low on haulers.
...Unless....
I have barrels! Barrels and bins are my best friends now, and I'll spend hundreds of logs on building them incessantly, and my problems with that went away.
I'm also pretty sure the rain thing is true, I had a /lot/ of problems getting food to grow before I turned off weather (which also sped up my framerate a ton) - and now I have massive food surpluses.
Every once in a great while I will see xFoodx, but it's a rare freak occurence for me. Most of the floorspace for my fortress is used for storage, so even though the food gets trampled continuously I don't see it taking any wear & tear.
i dont know this for sure, but i have seen someone somewhere imply that vermin cause wear by eating stuff.
quote:
i dont know this for sure, but i have seen someone somewhere imply that vermin cause wear by eating stuff.
quote:
I'm fairly (but not 100%) sure the xXfoodXx is caused by vermin.
I've heard of this but I'm rather skeptical about it. I never actually saw any proof of these claims nor heard anything like that from Toady. I want to figure out if this is true or not because misinformation really bothers me.
That and I actually like vermin more than say, most animals in DF, because vermin don't crowd in my dining rooms or cause massive traffic jams...
And because wild vermin can't mangle my dwarves' lower bodies. :(
In my experience, dwarves will not eat such food, even if they are starving. They will instead hunt vermin.
However, such food CAN be cooked into non-spoiled meals. :) So when it goes bad, I start cooking it, and all of a sudden my dwarves will eat again.
I think it spoils faster when it's outside. And faster if it's in hot or cold weather.
quote:
Originally posted by WingDing:
<STRONG>I've heard of this but I'm rather skeptical about it. I never actually saw any proof of these claims nor heard anything like that from Toady. I want to figure out if this is true or not because misinformation really bothers me.
That and I actually like vermin more than say, most animals in DF, because vermin don't crowd in my dining rooms or cause massive traffic jams...
And because wild vermin can't mangle my dwarves' lower bodies. :(</STRONG>
I seem to remember something about some vermin damage food, and other just eat it outright it but I can't find it now so maybe I am remembering wrong.
quote:
http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=000871 has a post by Toady saying vermin eat food, though I guess they just eat it totally and not nibble it.I seem to remember something about some vermin damage food, and other just eat it outright it but I can't find it now so maybe I am remembering wrong.
[ May 26, 2008: Message edited by: WingDing ]
Any food left out of a stockpile will over time rot(plants will wither).
If food is inside a barrel this slows the rate of wear/rot.
Freezing or scorching temperatures do seem to speed up the rate of wear/rot, remember once inside they are no longer subjected to such temperatures.
Meat, prepared fish and raw fish will suffer wear over time even if left in stockpiles.
Plants, cooked meals, fat/tallow, milled plants, etc, do not suffer wear over time if in a stockpile(at least over the ten years I tested).
Vermin do not cause wear, however they will sometimes consume units of food. Their ability to do so is greatly reduced if the food is inside a barrel. It is further reduced if the vermin is inside a cat.
As for trampling, I have personally never seen evidence that this has caused wear in food, but this is one thing I've never explicitly tested for.
quote:
Originally posted by Metalax:
<STRONG>It is further reduced if the vermin is inside a cat.</STRONG>
I am very curious as to how you have accomplished that feat. My lazy felines just gut vermin, leaving a nice little miasma bomb in the middle of my fortress.
I suppose you could always make a zero barrel, prepared food stockpile in the center of your meeting hall, and forbid the food on it. After a year or so, you could compare it with a similar forbidden food pile kept behind a locked door...
Now about dwarves not eating XfoodX. Well that is utter BS. I always forbid all other food around this time so that those buggeres all get polished off before becoming XXfoodXX. And they gobble 'em up every time. I have no idea if they would eat XXfoodXX though.