EatMoreWorkMore

Eat More, Work More

Rebalances food consumption to introduce a fullness mechanic: villagers who meet multiple complex food needs (and hence consume multiple units of food) are fuller, so they work for longer before their next break (+50% to next-break time, per complex food need after the 1st).

On the other hand, villagers are less full from basic (or non-preferred complex) food; and even less so when hungry (-15% next-break time per stack).

Examples

| Ate | Time till next break |

| ------ |------|

| 3+ Hunger | 40% (capped) |

| 2 Hunger | 55% |

| 1 Hunger | 70% |

| Basic (or non-preferred Complex) Food | 85%

| 1 Complex Food | 100% (baseline) |

| 2 Complex Foods | 150% |

| 3+ Complex Foods | 200%, 250%... etc. |

Motivation

When producing multiple complex foods in vanilla, villagers eat one of every food they can, so food gets consumed twice as fast or more. The reward for this is increased resolve (plus a +5% increase to doubling yields per food, which is relatively negligible).

This means that outside of a resolve push, if you want to play optimally and not waste food, the meta is to juggle consumption control so that villagers have access to only 1 complex food at a time. IMHO, this is simply not a very fun part of the game - it's extra micro-management that isn't that enjoyable, and it runs counter to the game's loop of unlocking and making more goods available. It also breaks immersion that a villager would be equally full, regardless of whether they ate 1/2/3 units of food.

Hence the idea to buff multiple food consumption, so that villagers are able to work longer before they're hungry again - A good balance feels like 3 food twice the break time (since longer breaks also result in less clothing and service goods used). On the other hand, to balance out the new buff, we make basic food or hunger shorten work time accordingly (which also disincentivizes hunger-cheesing to save even more food).

In short: 1 Complex Food is "normal", and everything worse or better than that scales work time accordingly. You'll feel less pressured to micromanage food consumption during your mid/late game, but this is balanced by your early game being slightly harder (especially if villagers walk far for work) until you secure a supply of at least 1 complex food per race.