Starmade Food Mechanic / System
For any food system to be considered there must be first a way to grow, gather, find, harvest, sort, and then consume the foods or products that are generated by the game, so lets think about this for a second, and go thru in depth and explore each mechanic that could possibly be.
Grow:
Growing food takes time, and energy, but we as humans know that growing food takes light,
looking at minecrafts food mechanic, you need it to be watered, it needs light, and sprinkle in a little time and poof, growing food, So what we will need wont really change from these basic needs.
Food would not decay thanks to the stasis properties of the sorting systems of our technologically advanced race.
Gather / Harvest
In mine craft you either pick it by hand, or build some complex machine to do this process for you.
In star-made I'm sure you can pick it by hand, or have a computerized system harvest this resource automatically when the growing cycle is complete, and then have the same computerized system sow the seeds or what have you to restart the process
Find:
Finding new seeds, plants, trees, and other biological interesting things will make it more fun to explore, asteroids, bases, planets, and with the galaxy being generated, and not static, would mean that many plants and seeds would be available, even possible.
Sort:
Sorting is the easy part, you would just hook your Growing/Harvest Block to the sorting system of say your station, you could sort by plant name, or seed name, or even by the color of plants.
Consume:
Consuming food would be no harder then pulling out your pistol to defend yourself from a hostile alien life form. It would take up a inventory space, and a time mechanic would be added to the game, however this is where I differ from MC, I think to balance the food mechanic with game play, you start out with a bar of 100 units of measured food, as time passed, 1 unit for 10 minutes of active game play, a food unit would be used. Starvation would not be an issue as any race of being advanced, would allow for emergency rations to be kept on hand, allowing another extra time to consume food, or get food to consume.
That covers the basics of how I would setup a food system in star made, however once you do this you open a whole can of worms, people will now want stoves, and sinks, and tables, and chairs, and then beds, not to mention pot, pans, plates, and what have you, to stimey this for the time being, I think that quarters would be out fitted with a star trek adaptation, Replicators, for the process of making the final food product, should its parts be available in the sorting system, this would allow you to make plates, and cups, but not actually have to use them as in in game model until such a system is in place, or even feasible, in closing I would like to say that I would support a system that handles a food process that makes sense, and that allows for player adaptability, and that can be turned off for who don't want to use it, or have no desire to see it in their galaxy, each person is different and plays differently, we don't need use one system, but we need a system that makes sense, and makes star made enjoyable.
Thank you!
