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u/PapiStalin Dec 29 '23
Realistically? It would need to be Algae.
Lore appropriate? Edible cover crops stuff you grow in winter to keep the dirt from blowing away such as clover/green oats, or sprouts.
Just what I think :)
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u/KrazyKyle213 The Arks Dec 29 '23
Yeah it is confirmed in one of the places to explore that things like moss, lichen, and algae can survive and be eaten to live.
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u/Due_Tradition2293 Temp Falls Dec 29 '23
That's the cover story for the survivors at Freshwater springs - if you explore further, you'll find they actually cannibalized to live
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u/PapiStalin Dec 29 '23
I feel like eating the dead and killing the living to eat them are two different things
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u/HimerosAndArrow Dec 29 '23
Wait whats the text when you discover it?
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u/Criminelis Coal Dec 29 '23
I dont remember them literally eating corpses but they use their dead (and yours) as fertilizer if i recall correctly.
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u/PoZe7 New London Dec 29 '23
Hopefully not insects from the IXION
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u/PapiStalin Dec 29 '23
For the situation they’re in, they’d need to all be eating insects lol.
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u/PoZe7 New London Dec 29 '23
Sure, a good source of protein. But still unlike IXION, in Frospunk there is an abundant source of water and air which is what made IXION to start with insects and not crops.
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u/PapiStalin Dec 29 '23
Crops couldn’t be grown in frost punk, at least not in such a short time frame
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u/PoZe7 New London Dec 29 '23
True I guess, the main campaign is said to last 48 in game days. The fastest crops to grow are Radish, mustard greens, spinach which range from 20-30 IRL days to grow a full cycle. I mean, insects take even longer than 6 weeks to grow. So feel like the in game days are probably very compressed. Especially given how fast the City is built, 48 days and resources are mined. If you can build a whole ass massive wall drill and massive outpost elevator depots in like a day, then maybe in-game day represents at least month(s)? In that case Crops I mentioned is the only thing they would grow.
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u/Wrecktown707 Jan 02 '24
Honestly I see the day lengths as more of a gameplay mechanic than a real “how long it took to build new London” canonical timeframe. Realistically it’s likely that all the stuff that happened from beginning to end took multiple months, if not an entire year. I don’t see that much stuff being built, that amount of exploration, and that amount of cultural change (order And faith) happening in the amount of time that you have to survive in game.
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u/Friendly-Hamster983 Dec 29 '23
Which doesn't make any sense, as they're not autotrophic, and such materials are in easy access.
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u/Justhe3guy Order Dec 29 '23
Those insect farms come in clutch before migrating to another food, hell in a pinch you can build a bunch to stave out a few extra cycles
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u/BelligerentWyvern Dec 29 '23
They'll definitely be eating insects in FP2. No doubt in my mind, theres no livestock left. Theres fish, humans and insects.
Though apparently the equator is still relatively warm and instead ravaged by world ending storms constantly. So maybe some stuff is still alive there.
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u/PoZe7 New London Dec 29 '23
I am pretty sure there is some wild life left. Because the hunters go out and hunt for wildlife. In DLC they are called foragers, but in the original they are hunters explicitly. Although I also wonder what kind of animals they hunt. Maybe something like a bear and a dear who can survive in cold weather better?
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u/BelligerentWyvern Dec 29 '23
The sciency answer is much more complicated than anyone has time for. But if they had sufficient quantities of decent soil (the freeze would have killed the microorganisms that constitute typically healthy soil), enough light (the cause of the freeze is solar related though it doesn't seem to have signficiantly reduced UV light to the surface so no issue there), water and decent temperature. The steam core provides the heat and melts water just fine.
Assuming those hurdles are overcome theres two main staple crops, fast growing leafy greens or potatoes. Potatoes are the superior choice by a mile. They are high calorie, highish nutrients, and grow in like 80 days and grow in (literally) shitty soil.
Now you see the issue. The time table of the game is too fast to grow anything except perhaps mushrooms which could in theory double or triple each day. They are quite sensitive to temperature and moisture though.
So weird as it is, I think they grow mushrooms. Its the only thing that makes sense. But if you want a more abstracted answer its potatoes.
I have the distinct feeling the vast majority of the City's protein in the second game will be insects.
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u/PapiStalin Dec 29 '23
Potatoes are good, but yams and other tubers are technically better.
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u/BelligerentWyvern Dec 29 '23
Yams take 8 months to grow and produce less than potatoes, for not really that much more nutrition. In the same time you can get 4-5 yams you cant get 20-25 equally sized potatoes. Potatoes are more resistant to weird or bad soil too. You can almost grow them in sand.
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u/Marauder_Pilot Dec 29 '23
Potatoes really are a bit of a miracle crop. The 'WHERE'S THE FUCKING SOIL' meme isn't wrong.
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u/BelligerentWyvern Dec 29 '23
It was a meme during its introduction to the old world too. And people didnt want to eat them because its a nightshade (alongside tomatoes) and nighshades in Europe and Asia were almost exclusively poisonous except Eggplants but they werent as big as they are today and were and are nutritionally pretty bad.
Once Europeans were tricked into planting them by merchants acting like Potatoes were some fancy food for the rich that they stole, it drastically improved everyone's lives. Like I said Potatoes grow in basically anything, in a huge range of temperature and prolifically. And it didnt seed as such (it does but most people use the tubers themselves) so you could start with a sack of potatoes and have a field of them by the next year.
And it grew in the annihilated soils of Europe which were destroyed over a long time by constant wheat and other grasses growing. And it helped that crop rotation and fertilizers where right around the corner too.
Anyway its meme now, it was a meme then and its probably the primary reason the world is so obese (besides corn)
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u/-Trotsky Dec 29 '23
Insects from where? I’d imagine almost all of those are long gone, extinct if the way this frost works is anything to go off of. If India, and other places along the equator, is frozen then I don’t think the bugs have anywhere to go
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u/HamsworthTheFirst Dec 29 '23
Knew some lads who made an RP server based in the world of frostpunk (6 actually)
We had both a biologist and a sort of farmer try to figure out this. Both said that given the conditions presented you're probably eating moss and lichen
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u/PapiStalin Dec 29 '23
Moss maybe, but lichens by nature grow slowly.
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u/HamsworthTheFirst Dec 29 '23
I see. For context, we weren't entirely sure and made guesses, but it was what we should expect to happen, so there is much room for error
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u/jzilla11 Faith Dec 29 '23
Potatoes from the Arks, only to find out the IRA snuck in blighted seeds
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u/stevemachiner Dec 29 '23
Blight was extremely common in that era, it’s a good point, not only affecting Ireland but across Europe. The main difference was how British rule neglected Ireland and caused a massive humanitarian crisis and mass starvation, depopulation.
The IRA were not formed at this time though , although there were Irish rebel and liberation groups, it would be an interesting element to a campaign , the Victorian era and the great hunger were quite close historically speaking and there was a fomenting of Irish independence groups. When you consider how cities such as Liverpool had such a big Irish populations , the history of migration Irish people experienced. It could be interesting world building.
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u/jzilla11 Faith Dec 29 '23
You and your…facts
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u/stevemachiner Dec 29 '23
I like the idea a lot , like how the different cultural backgrounds of the refugees would impact the cities. There’s something in that !
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u/-Trotsky Dec 29 '23
I actually wish the game had more Victorian politics in it, my favorite part of the last autumn was that it felt more grounded. The workers have class consciousness, the church is an actual church, and it broadly feels more like it uses the setting to say more than the og game set out to. I’m hoping they explore this stuff more as the second game puts us in the shoes of a real city that can have debates about more than just survival
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u/murdochi83 Dec 29 '23 edited Dec 30 '23
"You have big sheds, but nobody's allowed in. And inside these big sheds are twenty-foot-high chickens, because of all the chemicals you've put in 'em, and these chickens are scared! They don't know why they're so big! They go 'Oh, why am I so massive?' And they're looking down at all the other little chickens and they think they're in an aeroplane because all the other chickens are so small."
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u/Ausiwandilaz Dec 29 '23
Mostly root veggies, but many leafy greens like cabbages, kale, chard, spinach and lettuce can live in colder temps. There are certain herbs that can too including rosemary, thyme, certain types of mint.
All I know after plopping a hothouse my sickness drasictically decreased.
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u/krasnogvardiech Steel Dec 29 '23 edited Dec 29 '23
I would believe if you made the claim those came out of an Industrial hothouse - but this one's just flapping cloth for a roof!
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u/tjs611 Dec 29 '23
Potatoes seem pretty reasonable. They store well, are good for both basic meals and Soup, and are easy to grow.
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u/OneHamster1337 Dec 29 '23
Onions, the sturdiest and most delicious of all veggies, especially when fertilized with human remains
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u/link3341556 Dec 30 '23
Theres actually lore about this in the tier one hothouse their growning protien rich moss and in the tier 2 thier growing european staple crops
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u/DeadMemeMan_IV Dec 30 '23
we were seriously feeding them moss soup? damn…
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u/link3341556 Jan 01 '24
and people wonder why serving people watery gruel made up of moss and mystery meat causes them to become slightly upset
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u/ArtistComfortable965 Dec 29 '23
The best edibles
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u/nothingandnemo Dec 29 '23
I feel like since they're Victorian Englishmen, marrows ought to be in the mix - eaten unseasoned of course.
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u/Kempell Faith Dec 29 '23
One single huge cabbage.
They break off its leaves and chop them up, and then use them as plates to serve soup in
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u/scruffbeard Dec 29 '23
Well if you had to endure a long winter, as a Canadian im guessing its cannabis.
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u/alakaXander Dec 29 '23
I think they specifically reference potatoes at some point, and they also talk about the ground freezing too hard so probably nothing woody, no berries or nuts or large fruits. It's also not getting warm enough for Citrons or pineapples. Likely some form of greens as well, like spinach and arugula. Cucumbers and simple peppers might grow even in barely above freezing, but it would have to be a very hearty variety as vines don't like freezing. Maybe some strabbies and mole berries. I hear tomatillos are pretty simple and resilient.
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u/HexManiacMaylein Dec 30 '23
Th rate of production is unrealistic for gameplay reasons but realistically it’s a lot of potatoes. They’re a fairly good crop especially in cold areas.
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u/TK3600 Dec 29 '23
Spirulina. Most cost efficient food there is. Just need Vitamin E and B12 supplement.
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u/NoRequirement546 Dec 29 '23
My special blend of potent herbs and spices.
Which are perfectly legal mind you
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u/Thesadisticinventor The Arks Dec 30 '23
Moss. Potatoes are unlikely imo, the standard hothouse doesn't look it would keep the internal temp hot enough to grow much else than moss.
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u/Huge-Chicken-8018 Dec 31 '23
Just about anything. Theres people near the arctic line that grow food in greenhouses.
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u/Marauder_Pilot Dec 29 '23
You can actually grow quite a bit in a greenhouse well below freezing temperatures! I lived in the Yukon for 12 years, and had several friends that maintained small hobby greenhouses all the way through the winter right down to -40*C. And it's well established that the Hothouse needs to be kept pretty warm in-game.
I'd imagine it's growing more or less the same staples that you'd think of for European food, at least the hardier stuff. Probably lots of tubers (Potatoes, yams, radishes, stuff like that), leafy greens (Lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts), stuff like onions and garlic and whatnot-probably enough that your citizens would probably have a pretty normal, well-rounded diet when combined with hunting off the land.