Disabling Grain Decay

[Thrainn 2]

Could you, beloved Devs of TFC, please disable the decay of grains completely, at least for the time being? At least make it ridiculously low.

I'd like to suggest this for several reasons:

- As several users pointed out already elsewhere, grains decaying without any possible preservation method is neither realistic nor believable, nor serves any obvious gameplay purpose.

- Grains are the only food that cannot be preserved for a longer time, while it should be the one eatable thing that could be stored for ages! After all, they did find several thousand year old grains in egyptian tombs, didn't they?

The only thing you should have to worry about when storing grain should be humidity.

- From a gameplay aspect, it's a pain to manage grain until mid-end game, since you need it for so many things, especially sandwiches (which are the only 'meal' besides salads currently) and for the whole animal familiarity and breeding system, which literally 'eats' lots and lots of grain! Lets say, some of your animals are just about getting the white border on their familiarity indicator, but that pig just ate away your last 10 ounces of wheat - oh my, you just have to begin from scratch when you finally get some more grain from the harvest!

This is even more annoying when it happened because of a bug, that eats away on the grain you are holding without doing anything! I'm not even sure if it's the animal or your char biting off one more time. This happens to me frequently when feeding animals, seems to be the ages old "double-bite-bug", only with animals now.

To conclude: everything I mentioned here is more akin to annoyance and tedium than adding reasonable difficulty to gameplay.

If you disagree, please discuss

[Hubertus 29]

While there aren't any advanced grain preserving methods, I've never had the problem of not having enough grains. I just pop them in a vessel, drop them in my larder, and forget about them. Also, while grains decay faster (If you factor in preservation methods), they gain a huge amount of weight back when you turn them into bread.

[NikkyD 34]

The weight gain was meant as a counterbalance to the decay i think.

 

However this gives the immediate user a huge bonus, making grains very powerful whereas it punishes the "traveler" who has to leave his home alone for month.

 

I think the problem somehow was that all grain items are of a category and if they had to add another category it would be too much trouble or sth like that.

[Terex 108]

My playstyle is kinda cheaty. I store all my food at block height where temps are coldest year round....

 

Anyway, disabling grain decay is not on my wishlist. In the future also grains can be preserved longer so just hold on to your horses.

[Thrainn 2]

My playstyle is kinda cheaty. I store all my food at block height where temps are coldest year round....Anyway, disabling grain decay is not on my wishlist. In the future also grains can be preserved longer so just hold on to your horses.

This why I said 'for the time being', which could be easily reversed when new preservation methods are in place.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

The rate at which grains (the category) decay is an average between all the different stages of grain.

 

While it is true that grains (the individual item) decay at a very slow rate IRL, this is completely not the case for their much more perishable versions, dough and bread.

[Thrainn 2]

The rate at which grains (the category) decay is an average between all the different stages of grain.

Stages of grain? You mean the growth stages? I don't get it ...

While it is true that grains (the individual item) decay at a very slow rate IRL, this is completely not the case for their much more perishable versions, dough and bread.

That is true, but who would store dough or bread for long? Of course I meant storing the grains in seed form ...[Edit:] Did you mean that the whole category including dough and bread decay with the same rate? Does it have to be this way? Can't you seperate it?

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Stages of grain? You mean the growth stages? I don't get it ...

That is true, but who would store dough or bread for long? Of course I meant storing the grains in seed form ...

 

There are five stages of grain

• Harvest
• Refined Grain
• Flour
• Dough
• Bread

All 5 of these stages decay at exactly the same rate, for simplicity in the code.

[Thrainn 2]

Yeah, after some thinking I figured it out just now ... please see my Edit above!

The harvested item won't last too long I guess, because the plant rots much faster than the grain itself, but would "infect" it with rot in the process. Flour is also prone to rot. So in my opinion, let the rate be as it is for everything but the seed (aka the 'grain item'). How's that?

I think the decay rates of the single items differ enough to warrant a difference in the game. For simplicity's sake make it like I said above.

If you ever plan to put in grain preservation means such as granaries or something, I don't think you'll be able to avoid a difference, since you won't store dough etc. in granaries, would you?

[Reyvinn 18]

Me thinks easier way of doing it is add a way to preserve grain,like garanery whuch was suggested several times. Grains and humidity does not get along well, so lowering the global devay rate would be much less believable than a way to store it properly. I hope Devs would think about it

[Kittychanley 1,002]

I'll look into it, but keep in mind that this is how it works for all categories. I.E. Every single fruit decays at the same rate, every single vegetable decays at the same rate, etc etc. As soon as exceptions are made within a single category, there are going to be players who are not happy until exceptions are made in every single category.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Me thinks easier way of doing it is add a way to preserve grain,like garanery whuch was suggested several times. Grains and humidity does not get along well, so lowering the global devay rate would be much less believable than a way to store it properly. I hope Devs would think about it

 

There are already plans for grain-specific storage in later builds, which are not a grainery. Placing jute fibers on a loom creates currently useless burlap in 79.

[Thrainn 2]

I'll look into it, but keep in mind that this is how it works for all categories. I.E. Every single fruit decays at the same rate, every single vegetable decays at the same rate, etc etc. As soon as exceptions are made within a single category, there are going to be players who are not happy until exceptions are made in every single category.

Meh, I don't think so ...For one, no other category has as much different processing stages as grains do, in fact they can't be processed at all, so that's not the same really. Besides, every vegetable and especially fruits contain a lot of water in contrast to grains, which greatly encourages rot, so there really aren't that much differences between their decay rates. Grains on the other hand are harvested in their driest state, that's why they can be stored for so extremely long time.Finally, grains are seeds. If we would consume the seeds of fruits or vegetables rather than the water containing fruit part of the plant, we could store them for a similarly long time (nuts for instance). That's why there should be such a great difference between fruits/vegetables/meats and the grain seeds.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Meh, I don't think so ...For one, no other category has as much different processing stages as grains do, in fact they can't be processed at all, so that's not the same really.Besides, every vegetable and especially fruits contain a lot of water in contrast to grains, which greatly encourages rot, so there really aren't that much differences between their decay rates. Grains on the other hand are harvested in their driest state, that's why they can be stored for so extremely long time.

 

Looks like I have to do your title job for you.

 

http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/7037-food-decay-based-on-food-type-container/

[Thrainn 2]

Looks like I have to do your title job for you. http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/7037-food-decay-based-on-food-type-container/

*sigh*Ok, you win ...But to go back to my original post, every food except grains have their preservation method now, so if you utilize everything possible, your grains will be the first to rot away, and that strikes me just as wrong, especially considering the extreme versatility of grains gameplay wise: you need them for bread, sandwiches, luring and taming animals, breeding them, make alcohol with every single species of this category, and if you are starving even can eat them directly. Which other category could say that?So my little suggestion would solve this problem as simple as possible, until grain can be preserved with other means.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

I have changed it so that the grain item decays at the same rate as raw eggs/cheese for the next build. This is the only tweak to decay rates within a category that will be made during 79 builds. If any other tweaks are ever to be made, they will not be made until later versions of TFC.

[Thrainn 2]

Kitty, I do not know how to express how thankful I am for this!

THANK YOU SO MUCH! (and probably Bioxx for confirming this change!)

I assume most players are with me here

[Reyvinn 18]

TFC Devs showing once more their awesomeness and ability to listen to community. Thanks Kitty, you're the best PR & community management girl in Minecraft modding for sure