Why does need for Food increase?

[data2008]

So the game requires each species to eat 1 more food after 4 months for basically maintaining the same effiecency (timer). Any idea how this game mechanic can be reasoned? Maybe the food becomes less nutricious with draining the soil, but then that would assume that always the same plots would be used...

Any other explanations?

[piete]

You have more things to worry about (more plots & production) so your brain consumes more energy

[leahcim99]

The supplemental stores of food and nutrition that you brought with you to Irata begins to run out and you need to produce more local food to offset the decreased nutritional supplements that you brought from home.

Same thing when people were originally "colonizing" the New World....settlers would use up their stores of food that they had brought with them and then they would require a greater output from local sources to survive and thrive.

Also, as the size of each person's holdings increase, they would need an increase in the food energy required to work all of their plots - which may be a way to slightly alter the food requirements curve....less plots, less energy needed to work them so then perhaps a player with 7 plots would only need 3 food while a person with 9 may need 4 or 5 as they willl utilize more nutritional energy in order to complete the increased work load of the extra plots.....

As always, it is great fun when the community develops these "stories" ie - Where Do the Freed Mules GO? and I look forward to reading many possible answers to this question.

PS - data2008 - being laid up for a little while, you should have LOTS of time to think up the answers.
Hope you are out soon

[Rogue Cat]

As the Packer said before, it can be because of the need of doing more tasks each time. However, that might mean that Rhodan has a special diet to eat the same ammount while managing 13 plots. :p So, I would discard this one.

Another possibility: the need for food is reduced in warm times, while it increases during cold times. (Except if you are a bear.) Calories last longer in Summer, as the body requires less "fuel" to generate hot. The opposite happens during Winter, when more food is required to keep the body working. You might have noticed that, if you feel you don't need to eat that much when weather is hot.

Maybe earlier months in Irata are warmer while the last months are not. That, or Cat-bugs always come in last months and roof-less houses are not as comfy after that. :p

[Keybounce]

Game balance.

You get "spoiled" with fancier living -- you get big and fat.

[Oort]

It's because of the automation that the MULES provide. As time goes on and you sit on your butt you get bigger and bigger and your belly has much more space for food!

Or its because the colony is actually "renting" the planet space from local inhabitants and one of the agreements is an increased expenditure of food parcels that are payed to the planet owners.

Or as the custom with all colonies, the players are injected with super vitamins so that they can withstand the harsh conditions of the initially barren planet, but as time goes on those supplement booster shots wear off until you need normal portions of food again.

Another thought is similar to the second in that the colony is being established for a food shorted empire. Initially you need only feed yourself, but as time goes on you must start paying back the cost of colony establishment in the form of food back to the empire. If you don't have enough food then you must waste a lot of time explaining why you are short on your payment, which leaves you less time to develop your plots.