I like this, becaus then it adds not only a obstacle to normal chores, but another issue to take into account when under siege ,or sieging.

you could also build a fridge with snow or ice like it was done
like it is now you cant even put snow into barrels for style^^

Well Salting and drying meat and fish will probably be the most used method of preservation.
I do hope they make it so every region in the map has its owns pros and cons, with weather, and local materials.

I feel like spoiling should be faster in the inventory, so it rots off in like 1 hour and a half maybe, so that armies would need a trade cart, as a baggage train, while regular troops maybe carry a bit of bread

If this were to be implemented, perhaps the rate food would spoil might depend on the quality of the container.

Spoiled food could also be a resource for alchemists to create poisons.

Only is it is a setting for the server like the decay rate, Having to deal with spoilage when your a solo player without gm mode or mods on the server trying to build a full town you have enough to worry about already
As for when it is implemented, it should take into account how items are stored. If they are preserved or not (salted or otherwise) and what the time of year is ( I expect seasons..)

Well, you have a point, it should be optional like the decay rate. Everybody wants a different experience.
But i don't think it would be too much to worry about. It is easy enough to gather food at the moment, find apple tree with q < 75, gather sprouts, plant a few trees and you are good, including all your animals.

In my opinion it is way too easy to survive in this game. And i am currently playing solo building up my own small town. 20 apples a day keeps the hunger at bay ^^
I would even make it impossible to live on apples alone. Malnutrition should have an effect on the Character. Cooking would actually be usefull with this idea.

It would also make multiplayer far more interesting, keyword: Siege. People behind walls would have a hard time when food supplies run low and besiegers would have to sustain their troops. They would have to bring preserved food or to gather and hunt around the siege camp or even to bring along cattle.
Another idea of mine is 'Thirst' and 'Containers for Liquids'. All together they would make it pretty interesting to survive and to fight each other.

One idea I had in terms of realism was the amount of food you would need to eat. If we don't need to eat much or don't eat much of a variety it should impact us. So maybe have the skill multiplier go down as your hunger level increases. I usually don't wait until I'm 10/100 to eat in real life. It would also mean that farmers would be important, which should be the case. If one farmer can feed a village, it would be too easy.

bump

In former time, you preserved your food in different ways (I use a big Letters for every single way): Drying (Apples, Fruits and so on), Salting, Smoking, Preserving via Thickning by Boiling/Confecting in Glascontainers (in Germany there is the word: Einmachen), Sugaring (like jelly, would give the glasmaker some options), Vinegar (would give the grapes some meaning, except eating and Wine), Fumigating (also Fruits), and yeah, even Ice, in Europa it was normal to take Ice from a Lake and bring it to a "Icehouse" (Stonebuilding with a deep cellar) where it cooled things for a long long time. The thing is... is this really practical? Eventually there could be implemented a simple Secondary Skill like Cooking, the higher the Skill, the more complex food you can cook (1 Ingrident (Skill 0), 2 Ingridents (Skill 20) and so on) and the more things you can preserve (Starting with Drying/Salting and then in the Order of above except the Icehouse, if this (Icehouse) should/could be implemented depends on the season discussion). What could be preserved how (through which preservation technique), what is needed for preserve food and how long it keeps the quality or slows down the Qualitydowngrading, is something for discussion (I have some ideas, but I like to only write them down, if my above sugesstion is even considered a good idea or i save my time for playing ).

All the collected ideas above mine are allready good, how about putting them all togehter?

Sorry, I saw that my first posting could be misunderstood. I meant, adding preserving as a secondary "function" to the allready existing cooking skill. My bad.

absolutly necessary for better survival feed. now you just gather a ton of apples and you're good to go for a week, same with meats and vegis.

would improve the need for farmers and cooks.

Went seasons function properly the next logical improvement is spoilage of food and preserving it.

Since this is not a direct EARTH world may I suggest we also get away from the 365 day year and maybe have a 100 day year so 25 day cycles make a season and 300 IRL hours a year. This will make spoilage, seasons and the whole concept easier to work with and I think will make a workable in game season cycle.

aheeia wrote:

absolutly necessary for better survival feed. now you just gather a ton of apples and you're good to go for a week, same with meats and vegis.

would improve the need for farmers and cooks.

With all the hours I've put into the game, food is something that's almost never traded and I feel that it has a lot to do with the lack of spoilage. I thought decay had something to do with it, but I was wrong. Food is supposed to be a necessity, but it currently isn't.

tent with food

but that would mean that the 400+ fish we cook on day 1 would go bad! and us warriors don't have time for crops! but in all seriousness, i think in YO its not a good idea, but i think it is a really good idea for the MMO, but the decay rate would have to be low, as farming takes a LOT longer time at MMO rates then what most people are used to.

u96 wrote:

Decay of food. Even after a few harvests or slaughterings one has very large quantities of food. A decay rate for food would counteract this. A fast rate for meat and cabbage for example, a slow for potatoes and cereals. When stored accordingly.

-> http://lifeisfeudal.com/discussions/question/decay-of-food

Other historical correct methods of storing food are these buildings:

Using glass jars, ceramic pots, tin cans etc. Barrels with salt, preserving with vinegar, by drying, by smoking ...