In a world besieged by swarms of infected and survival hanging in a delicate balance, ensuring an ample food supply for your people is paramount. The key to prosperity lies in meticulous planning and strategic resource allocation. Let’s dive into the intricate calculations and strategies required to sustain a thriving community in the face of adversity.
Strategies for Ensuring Food Security in Infection-Free Zone
Understanding Food Production Dynamics:
Once more, finding yourselves short of food amidst swarming attacks? Let’s endeavor to prevent such occurrences in the future.
Insights:
These calculations are based on Beta version 0.24.4.17. Given the unpredictable nature of game development, there’s a chance the developer will make changes in the next hotfix. However, for now, let’s focus on avoiding starvation. These calculations assume neutral morale, considering the challenge of providing housing for 200 survivors to maintain a +40% efficiency bonus.
Insights into Food Production:
Food production operates in cycles, so my calculations are based on cycle times. The final cycle time is determined by dividing the base cycle time by the number of workers involved. Here’s a breakdown of the base cycle times for various food production facilities:
- Farm:
- Produces 4 or 9 grain (fertilizer doesn’t affect time)
- Time required per worker: 40 hours
- Kitchen:
- Converts 2 grain into 4 portions or 3 meat into 5 portions (with technology enhancing kitchen effectiveness)
- Time required per worker: 20 hours for grain (16 hours), 16 hours for meat (12 hours 48 minutes)
- Barn:
- Converts 1 grain into 2 meat and 1 fertilizer
- Time required per worker: 14 hours
- Cannery:
- Transforms 2 portions into 3 cans
- Time required per worker: 4 hours
The work time of survivors leaving shelters or houses at sunrise and working until 1 hour before sunset depends on various factors such as the season and distances between shelters, workplaces, and warehouses. Assuming an average 9-hour workday, it’s prudent to consider that farms and canneries are temperature-dependent.
Therefore, it’s advisable to have more farms and/or more workers in canneries than the minimal calculations provided below to ensure ample food reserves for the winter. For a community of 100 people requiring 25 food units per day, these calculations are made with a slight excess to account for fluctuations in demand.
Food Production With Cannery:
Food production, particularly when centered around a cannery, demands careful planning and efficient allocation of resources. Here’s a breakdown of the required cycles and total cycle times for various buildings involved in food production, along with strategies to fit them into a standard 9-hour workday:
- Cannery:
- 9 cycles required, totaling 36 hours.
- To fit this into a 9-hour workday, assign 4 workers to the cannery, each working for 9 hours.
- Kitchen:
- With grain, 5 cycles are needed, totaling 100 hours. With meat, 4 cycles are required, totaling 64 hours.
- To accommodate kitchen operations within the 9-hour timeframe:
- For grain-based production: Assign 9 workers, resulting in approximately 8.9 hours per worker.
- For meat-based production: Assign 6 workers, resulting in 8 hours per worker.
- Farm:
- Without fertilizer, 3 cycles are necessary, totaling 120 hours. With fertilizer, 2 cycles are required, totaling 80 hours.
- To fit farm work into the 9-hour workday:
- Without fertilizer: Assign 14 workers, resulting in approximately 8.6 hours per worker.
- With fertilizer: Assign 10 workers, resulting in 8 hours per worker.
- Barn:
- 6 cycles are needed, totaling 84 hours.
- To ensure barn operations fit within the 9-hour timeframe, assign 10 workers, resulting in approximately 8.4 hours per worker.
It’s important to note that these calculations assume optimal conditions and may need adjustments based on factors such as workforce availability and seasonal variations.
Additionally, given the impact of cold weather on production efficiency, it’s advisable to prepare for lower output during such periods and consider increasing the workforce or stockpiling food in advance. With strategic planning and diligent management, communities can sustain food production even in challenging circumstances.
Food Production Without Cannery:
In the absence of a functioning cannery, ensuring food production remains efficient and sufficient becomes even more critical to prevent starvation. Let’s explore the requirements to supply food for 100 people without relying on the cannery, with a focus on maximizing efficiency through meat production:
- Kitchen:
- Producing meat-based meals requires 5 cycles, totaling 80 hours.
- To accommodate kitchen operations within the 9-hour workday:
- With current kitchen effectiveness: Assign 9 workers, resulting in approximately 8.9 hours per worker.
- With improved kitchen effectiveness: Assign 8 workers, resulting in 8 hours per worker.
- Barn:
- The barn must undertake 8 cycles, totaling 112 hours, to meet the demand for meat.
- To ensure barn operations fit within the 9-hour timeframe, assign 13 workers, resulting in approximately 8.6 hours per worker.
- Farm:
- Without fertilizer, 2 cycles are necessary, totaling 40 hours. With fertilizer, only 1 cycle is required, totaling 20 hours.
- To fit farm work into the 9-hour workday:
- Without fertilizer: Assign 5 workers, resulting in 8 hours per worker.
- With fertilizer: Assign 3 workers, resulting in 6.7 hours per worker.
Given the shorter cycle time and higher production yield of meat compared to grain, prioritizing meat production is crucial for meeting the nutritional needs of the community efficiently. By optimizing workforce allocation and leveraging technological advancements, communities can ensure a steady supply of food even in the absence of a cannery.
However, it’s essential to remain adaptable and prepared for fluctuations in production output due to factors such as seasonal variations and technological limitations.
A Quick Summary
Upgrade your technology, focusing on kitchen effectiveness, fertilizer usage, and providing housing for a +40% morale boost. Then, ensure you allocate:
- 10% of the population as Cooks.
- 12-15% of the population as Farmers in barns.
- 5% of the population as Canners.
- Implement fields using fertilizers to maximize production efficiency.
Now that you have a foundational understanding of food production for a community of 100 people, it’s crucial to remember that farms operate at maximum productivity only half of the time. Therefore, it’s advisable to have more farms than initially calculated, perhaps even double the estimate. This precaution ensures a buffer in food production to guard against shortages during critical times, such as when the community is besieged by infected, preventing squads from scavenging or going on expeditions.
It’s important to emphasize that the calculations provided are minimal and may not suffice in adverse conditions. Any disruption to the production process can quickly lead to starvation among your people. Factors like long distances between shelters, workplaces, and warehouses can impede the ability to achieve the 9-hour production cycle. Relying solely on minimal numbers is viable only if there’s a surplus of food available. Otherwise, neglecting to prepare adequately could lead to dire consequences.
In light of these considerations, it’s time to take action. Begin by gathering essential resources such as wood and iron to ensure the sustainability and resilience of your community. By heeding this advice and taking proactive measures, you can safeguard your people against hunger and adversity in the unforgiving world they inhabit.
Last Updated on April 20, 2024
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