Nutrition Changes and Dietary Considerations

[FalseIncarnate]

 

I'm gonna try and keep this pretty short and concise, so please ask for any clarification on anything that is confusing.

 

The suggestion is the division of nutriment into 3 different reagents: Protein, Nutriment, and Plant-matter. These would be best categorized as "meat", "neutral" or "unhealthy", and "plant-based" foods. In terms of nutritional value, Protein and Plant-matter would be equal in terms of how much nutrition they restore when consumed, and pure nutriment would likely be a slightly poorer nutritional source (still very close).

 

Current foods would have their nutriment re-distributed across the three types, keeping them largely the same as before. Vending machine foods would mostly be pure nutriment, with the exception of the protein-rich jerky and plant-matter raisins, to ensure there is always at least some of each available should it be wanted and the chef has fallen face-first into a cryodorm sleeper.

 

To make the changes meaningful, each race would gain a new flag to denote their racial dietary considerations. The three diet flags would be DIET_CARN for carnivores, DIET_OMNI for omnivores, and DIET_HERB for herbivores. Every race would be able to metabolize every type of the nutrients, however only those denoted by their racial diet would have any nutritional value. For example, a race with DIET_CARN would be able to safely metabolize plant-matter, but would only receive nutrition from pure nutriment and protein. This would ensure that the body doesn't become filled with reagents that cannot be metabolized, while maintaining an incentive to be mindful of what you eat.

 

Details of each diet flag:

DIET_CARN: Gains nutrition from Protein and Pure Nutriment. Does not benefit from Plant-matter.

DIET_OMNI: Gains nutrition from Protein, Pure Nutriment, and Plant-matter.

DIET_HERB: Gains nutrition from Pure Nutriment and Plant-matter. Does not benefit from Protein.

 

As mentioned above, each race would be assigned a diet flag.

Humans: DIET_OMNI

Tajaran: DIET_OMNI

Unathi: DIET_CARN

Skrell: DIET_HERB

Diona: no diet*

Kidan: DIET_HERB <== Changed yet again after ponies pointed out that they are a vegetarian warrior race in Paradise lore

IPC: no diet*

Grey: DIET_HERB (no vegan diet, no vegan powers!)

Slime People: DIET_CARN (slimes sure do love monkey flesh)

Vox: DIET_OMNI (who knows what they eat, we barely know what they are aside from loud)

Plasmamen: DIET_OMNI

 

* Diona and IPCs don't have a set diet since they have alternate methods of gaining nutrition. This means that even pure nutriment will have no benefit if they manage to ingest and process it.

 

Since food typically inherits the reagents of it's ingredients, many prepared foods would consist of multiple types of nutrients, so there should be no problem locating a food that fits in your diet. As previously mentioned, vending machine food would typically be pure nutriment-based, so any crew can benefit from them.

 

Gameplay-wise, there would be little impact on the player that would give any race a measurable advantage over others, as there is little downside to eating something outside your diet. Moreover, it would encourage players to prepare a wider variety of dishes from the kitchen to satisfy a diverse crew and to seek out more effective food choices for their own consumption to ensure they receive the maximum benefit of what they are shoving down their throats to satisfy the hunger indicator.

 

EDIT: This could also be potentially expanded upon later by adding virus symptoms that interact with hunger and nutrient metabolizing more directly. Perhaps a symptom that causes nutrition to deplete faster and deals damage when nutrition drops below a threshold, or perhaps a symptom that causes toxin damage if a certain type of nutrient is consumed (forced veganism?). Just ideas/examples of how this could be integrated further in the future, but not part of this suggestion

 

Thoughts? Suggestions? Concerns? Please leave feedback and questions and I will attempt to answer them as quickly and effectively as possible. If the general opinion seems favorable of the idea, I will begin working on implementing this personally.

 

Edited May 19, 2015 by Guest

[necaladun]

I think it's a great idea, for a bit more of a unique feel to the race. Tying virus stuff into seems cool too - auto brewery syndrome perhaps?

[Rumiluntti]

 

Sound great!

Can't wait to forcefeed some poor skrell infinite amounts of synthmeat, they don't gain nutrients from it so they never get full from it. Riiight?

 

 

[DeletedUser]

 

I love this, it adds the much needed racial differences and doesnt alter balance, because junk-food is avaiable anywhere.

 

Buuuuut...

 

Kidan: DIET_CARN (Kidan appreciate a fresh nymph, still squirming)

 

 

I'm not sure if a nymph should be cathegorized as meat, or as plant, maybe both. And ants will eat pretty much anything that isn't a rock. But for variety's sake im fine with leaving it like that.

 

Tajaran: DIET_OMNI

 

 

I'm skeptical about this for reasons I've already stated somewhere, but I don't want Fox ranting about tajara being bullied so I will just let it be, hue.

 

[Spacemanspark]

Kei is vegetarian.

[DeletedUser]

 

Kei will be what I tell Kei to be.

 

NOW EAT THE MOUSE!

 

*dodges Fox's syringe gun*

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

You forgot to dodge Kei's shotgun going through your face.

It's filled with cabbage flavored buckshot.

 

[davidchan]

So... does this mean we can make Gelato?

[dreadweaver]

I'm all over anything that adds another layer of complexity in the game.

[Qinetix]

This is neat, also aren't Diona like... plants, don't they count as plants when eaten?

[FalseIncarnate]

 

So... does this mean we can make Gelato?

 

Definitely could be added, I'd like to continue expanding some of the options to offer more variety and some dishes you can't find on other stations. That probably would be a later addition though.

 

I listed tajaran as Omnivores since their lore page says they typically eat stews, which I interpreted as being a mix of meat and vegetables.

 

As for whether or not Diona could be classified as "meat", I honestly wasn't entirely sure myself. However, given they are sentient, and making Kidan carnivores helped maintain an equal distribution of diets, I considered them as a protein food source. This could change based on popular opinion though.

 

[Fj45]

 

Stews are meaty to me.

 

Tarajrnajrnajrnajrjans should eat meat.

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

Stews are meaty to me.

 

Tarajrnajrnajrnajrjans should eat meat.

B-b-b-b-but Kei.

And cats can certainly eat leaves anyways. Not that realism makes a game fun, but just to point out...

 

[davidchan]

 

Traditionally cats are carnivorous. They actually get sick and can die from malnutrition if they don't get meat or forced into a vegan diet. That said, any sentient species could have evolved to an omnivorous diet.

 

I'd consider Nymphs to be a plant, given how they are created and their body composition. Doesn't make Kidan any less of omnivores though, Bull Ants are strictly Carnivores, for example, while Leaf Cutter Ants are strictly herbivores, and various other species jump that line or sit in the middle of it.

 

 

Regardless, more food options would be loved. Particularly recipies that use rarer Botany objects like Cabbage, which is seemingly only in two recipes that I know of. Additional Salad types, or even California burgers (basically a burger with no meat) would be nifty. Things like Watermelon and Pumpkin could use more recipes too. Bread bowls are another idea that comes to mind. Lasagna would be cool too, even sliceable!

 

[FalseIncarnate]

 

Traditionally cats are carnivorous. They actually get sick and can die from malnutrition if they don't get meat or forced into a vegan diet. That said, any sentient species could have evolved to an omnivorous diet.

 

I'd consider Nymphs to be a plant, given how they are created and their body composition. Doesn't make Kidan any less of omnivores though, Bull Ants are strictly Carnivores, for example, while Leaf Cutter Ants are strictly herbivores, and various other species jump that line or sit in the middle of it.

 

 

Regardless, more food options would be loved. Particularly recipies that use rarer Botany objects like Cabbage, which is seemingly only in two recipes that I know of. Additional Salad types, or even California burgers (basically a burger with no meat) would be nifty. Things like Watermelon and Pumpkin could use more recipes too. Bread bowls are another idea that comes to mind. Lasagna would be cool too, even sliceable!

 

Cats (at least mine) seem to eat anything they can, though they don't always seem to keep it down afterwords. I'm going to probably leave tajaran as omnivores for the sake of simplicity and to avoid un-needed drama over their diet. Perhaps different groups of Tajaran have different dietary customs, just like different ethic groups here on earth.

 

I'm getting the impression that people agree that diona should be considered plant-matter, thus changing Kidan into omnivores to maintain consistency. I was hoping to keep a fairly equal distribution of diets across the races. Perhaps whatever race comes next will be carnivores by nature, who knows?

 

More foods would be a separate topic, though one I am heavily in favor of pursuing after this system has been implemented and people have begun to acclimate to the new changes. I have some good plans for things, expect a thread for new foods in the next week or so to gather ideas.

 

[KasparoVv]

 

Kickass idea, would love to see this implemented.

 

The Vox bit made me giggl'

 

Edited May 19, 2015 by Guest

[FalseIncarnate]

 

Small update: I began work on implementing this, and initial tests seemed to work properly. I've been testing and committing my work to my github fork for the sake of documentation and to ensure that I don't lose all my work if I accidentally screw something up and delete the local clone. You can track progress here https://github.com/FalseIncarnate/Paradise/commits/master by checking out the latest commits.

 

However, Ponies pointed out that under Paradise Lore (yes, we do have a little bit of it), Kidan are a vegetarian race. Therefore, their diet has been changed to DIET_HERB.

 

Moreover, the diets were removed from Diona and IPCs due to their alternate methods of procuring nutrition. This should prevent them from gaining benefit from protein, plant-matter, AND pure nutriment. For example, diona can eat all the junk food they want, and will never notice an effect on anything other than their bank accounts.

 

[FalseIncarnate]

PR up: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/1112

[Plotron]

 

I'm on the fence.

 

Do whatever you wish, as long as you don't nerf health regeneration by chance.

 

[FalseIncarnate]

The health regeneration chance is still in place. However, you must be able to digest the reagent in order to get the chance, meaning a Skrell can't chew on some jerky to try and heal, but eating some cheesie honkers or a nice apple will still have a chance to heal the Skrell.

[Garoon]

I'm curious, is meat and that delicious jerky the only ways to obtain protein at the moment?

[FalseIncarnate]

All meats (human, monkey, xeno, synthmeat, etc), monkey-cubes, organs, jerky, Admiral Yamato Carp (from Mr. Changs) any meatpizza (including ones from cargo), eggs, blood tomatoes, sliced up killer tomatoes, and spider meat/legs/eggs have protein.

Edited May 21, 2015 by Guest

[Blackmage199]

 

"Monkey-cubes"

Unless slimes people can eat them without consequences, there's a problem.

 

This is a serious suggestion, by the by

 

 

[FalseIncarnate]

 

"Monkey-cubes"

Unless slimes people can eat them without consequences, there's a problem.

 

This is a serious suggestion, by the by

 

 

While I personally have not tried it, you probably could just drop the cube into a grinder like any other food.

 

[Garoon]

Just an idea, maybe there could be protein bars and/or protein shakes? I mean, yes, there are quite a few sources of protein, but meat in general can get rather scarce if medical doesn't bother to make synthmeat for general consumption. Would be nice if there was an alternate source of 'healthy' protein in the snack machines instead of restricted to the chef.