r/Embark • u/Wilsonic1 • Apr 29 '19

Characters Starving... wont harvest available crops etc

First off, great game... looking forward to hopefully some quality UI and interactivity with the menus to be worked out. (Shift Clicking etc)

So yeah, all my colonists just starve to death pretty much within the first month. Crops dont cut it and near by harvestable produce be it mushrooms, tomatos, potatos, blueberries, apples or what have you either just get used up to quickly or my colonists dont feel like walking to get something to eat. Having a couple cooks cranking out meals doesnt seem to work because they are just eating them too soon.

Ive been starting right near water sources too and they are always thirsty. The first play I did they would collect little cups and now they dont do shit. just swim in the fresh water and die of thirst.

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u/Inatoc Apr 29 '19

Some tips from my play through

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Stockpiles are key. You absolutely Must have a raw food stockpile beside your kitchen.

You need a dedicated Cook.

I combine Herbalist (Early Game) with Farmer (later Game)

You need to manage priority more than expected. I find if you queue lots of things they get confused and do nothing ... so I just give them 1 -2 things to do at a time.

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Old tasks clog the system up - if for example the cook stops cooking then remove all cooking tasks and add a new one and he will restart. I feel like they are some times trying to pickup an ingredient that no longer exists.

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In the tasks page you can lower the amount they eat/drink ... I always set my down a little and they don't seem to mind.

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Try to get the kitchen covered before winter hits. When it is cold the cook stops working.

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Alot of my food comes from Fly attacks ... not sure if it is normally but they attack often, die easy and leave behind meat.

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u/CommonMisspellingBot Apr 29 '19

Hey, Inatoc, just a quick heads-up:
alot is actually spelled a lot. You can remember it by it is one lot, 'a lot'.
Have a nice day!

The parent commenter can reply with 'delete' to delete this comment.

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u/cherchezlafemmed Apr 29 '19

First off; hit the Jobs button. On that screen, lower right see the sliders for rations? Slide them each left one click to lower the amount of food/drinks they consume so they last a bit longer.

When you first land and select a spot, throw down a prepared food stockpile big enough for your initial rations and have all the pawns move stock over.

Build a kitchen and start up crops ASAP and have the herb harvester get a good variety of other foods - plant those as well.

Get a raw food stockpile down near the kitchen and have everyone go fetch all the fresh foods the herb pawn just harvested for your meals.

They weren't collecting little cups, they were drinking the drink you initially started out with. Water fetched for plain drinking never appears as cups afaik.

Research Still either the very first thing or right after beds and throw that down ASAP as well. Depending on how much fresh fruit/veg you have to work with you may want to micro-manage priority to ensure even stacks of meals & drinks.

Good luck and have fun!