So as I see it, Gumbo is the best food in the game vanilla wise. The things it requires, imo, should be craftable. Honestly all the canned foods should be craftable... But it should be possible to make empty cans with Iron, then using a cooking station that has a pot, you can turn stuff into canned food. Large Beef Rations made with 20 Raw Meat, Lamb Ration with 10, Chicken Rations should be made with chicken meat, so a new meat type for that, and chicken meat would also be used to make stock along with bones and maybe chrysanthemum or goldenrod? As for the Can of Peas, that would just take adding a Pea crop to the game and it could have a similar model to Hops since peas are grown on a viny plant. What do y'all think?
I've been thinking for a while now that the food system could really use some expansion—mainly to give players more ways to play. A great suggestion
@Venthari, the idea of letting players craft canned food themselves. For example: empty cans could be made from iron, and at a cooking station with a pot, you could craft preserved foods like Large Beef Rations (using 20 raw meat), Lamb Rations (using 10), and even introduce Chicken Rations with a new type of chicken meat, which could also be used for making stock. For Peas, a new crop could be added.
That idea really lined up with something I was already thinking about—only using
jars. We already have animal fat, so why not melt it into
lard, which could then be used to preserve food in jars? This could work alongside a
food spoilage system, making preservation and planning more meaningful. The Fun Pimps have mentioned considering a
degrading system—along with durability—for weapons, armor, tools, and vehicles, where after a certain number of repairs, items would break permanently. Personally, I think these broken items should still be salvageable for parts, to keep them useful. I'd also love to see items like
workstation tools (pots, beakers, anvils, etc.) and
mods (like the water purifier) degrade slowly over time, needing to be replaced. They could add a new station/storage an
Ice Box the fuel would be snow to slow spoilage.
To go even deeper: imagine if cooked food had quality levels, similar to how weapons, armor, and tools can vary in quality. This quality would be governed by a classic
learn-by-doing skill system tied directly to cooking Garnishes or spices could enhance buffs and food satisfaction, helping you stay full longer. All of this would open the door to a
deeper player economy, especially on servers with player markets—giving traders more valuable items to sell and players more reasons to buy. At the end of the day, it’s all about
player freedom. Expanding food and preservation systems like this would simply give everyone more
choice in how they survive.
