Emperor: Feeding the People

## Navigating to important Dialog

The Food Supply & Mills Dialog can be quickly accessed by pressing the "2" key twice.

## Producing Food

Food is an important subject, especially to the citizens of the city. Without an adequet food supply the city is unlikely to prosper. The best sources of food will be through the Farmhouse, Fishing Quay and Hunter's Tent; which produce food locally. Supplimenting your food supply through trade should only be a temperary measure, unless it is the only option.

The Farmhouse facilitates production of Bean curd, Cabbage, Millet, Rice and Wheat. The Fishing Quay produces Fish. And, the Hunter's Tent produces Game meat. Two Condiments, which add flavor(improving 'Quality of Food') but no substanance(Quantity) to the food supply; are Salt, from a Salt Mine or trade, and Spices through trade only. Collectively, the food commodities are refered to as Food Types. Food Types may be traded using Trading Station and Trading Quay.

## Getting Food to the People

The Mill is where the Food Types are stored, made available to any Food Shops. Food Shops fetch Food Types, prepare and distribute the menu items to the populace. Based on what is available at the Mill and a Food Shop's 'orders'; a variety of menu items are whipped up in Food Shop kitchen. The 'Quality of Food' nametags for the menu items are Bland Food, Plain Food, Appetizing Food, Tasty Food and Delicious Food.

* **Bland Food** is made from 1 Food Type.
- up to 600 meal fetch in 100 meal increments.
* **Plain Food** is made from 2 Food Types or 1 Food Type plus a Condiment.
- up to 600 meal fetch in 200 meal increments.
- a Condiment will reduce fetch maximum to 500 meals in 100 meal increments.
* **Appetizing Food** is made from:
	+ 3 Food Types
	- up to 600 meal fetch in 300 meal increments.
	+ 2 Food Types plus a Condiment
	- up to 400 meal fetch in 200 meal increments.
	+ 1 Food Type plus both Condiments
	- up to 400 meal fetch in 100 meal increments.
* **Tasty Food** is made from:
	+ 4 Food Types
	- a 400 meal fetch.
	+ 3 Food Types plus a Condiment
	- a 300 meal fetch.
	+ 2 Food Types plus both Condiments
	- up to 400 meal fetch in 200 meal increments.
* **Delicious Food** is made from (requires Spices):
	+ 4 Food Types plus Spices
	- a 400 meal fetch.
	+ 3 Food Types plus both Condiments
	- a 300 meal fetch.

There are lots of menu item names, which are of little consequence. The Food Shop's menu may be found by right clicking on a Market. Within the Market's Dialog are two important buttons; 'Minimum' and 'Maximum' Desired Quality(of Food). Before settling on a range, ensure the Mill has the Food Type combinations required. If the settings are too high; the Food Buyer will not fetch Food Types from the Mill. If the settings are too low; Common Housing or Elite Housing may stagnate at a lower Evolutionary Level then desired. The Market distributes Food and Commodities to Housing using the Peddler walker.

## Food Consumption

Housing Consumes their lowest Quality food stores first. The displayed Food Quality is the highest Quality that has been distributed. It can take up to 8 months before they are consuming the displayed Food Quality, which effects Hygiene(Health) of the city. The displayed Food Quality is the limiting factor of housing evolution, not the consumed food.

Distributed Food is limited by the number of people occupying the house, maximum distributed is 3 times the current occupant number. When higher quality of food is distributed, the old food quantity is maintained though it is hidden from the player as only the highest food quality is displayed. Each Food Quality has a dataset(0-255) quantity maintained by the system. The Food Quality datasets are added together for the displayed total quantity which is used in calculating how much more food may be distributed. When a lower Quality Food is distributed; because a Markets 'orders' permit it, the lower Quality Food dataset is updated. Hygiene may suffer for a longer period of time because of the increase in lower Food Quality stores.

Food is consumed once per month at a rate of .25 per occupant(rounding down to a whole number). Less than 4 occupants results in no food consumed that month.

Note: Zao Jun distributes Delicious Food Quality without checking the occupant restriction. Unknown if there is a safety check for not exceeding the Delicious Food dataset range or if a higher value is used(say 0-511). Assumed that total quantity is (0-511) or higher.