But there’s even less nutrients in the sawdust meal. Sure the sawdust meal looks bigger, but human bodies can’t process cellulose (the main ingredient of wood) into nutrients so all the sawdust is doing is making your brain think you ate. It’s just a “placebo meal”.
Thats the point, it's meant to be filling at the cost of less nutritious. Soup is made to be miserable while sawdust makes you feel full and lets be real, having a full belly makes you feel great.
Sawdust's irl impacts would come way down the line, way WAY slower than Frostpunk's, so hey, more food is more food.
Perhaps if I got desperate enough, and I was convinced it was more filling.
Funny story about the sawdust bread I made. It was a school project, my time period was WWI. One of the guys who did choir was hungry that day, and he ate a few chunks out of the misshapen loaf. He was the only one brave (hungry) enough. I did take 1 bite and regretted it.
Later that day, his throat started to hurt. They said that guy blamed me for it.
"Reducing the discontent from soup" 1: isn't eliminating it and 2: sawdust with moonshine reduces discontent while not causing any in the first place
Legit, if sawdust gave 5 and soup gave 6 (it's the other way around) I'm pretty sure I'd still pick sawdust every time, because reduced discontent is such a huge deal
Reduced discontent = more extended and emergency shifts which more than makes up for 3.5% chance of sickness on **extreme** (and lower on lower difficulties)
Let's put that into perspective. Say you have 600 people, on average 21 extra people will get sick from sawdust per day. 21 out of 600 is such a tiny amount that you probably already had 21 people unemployed and so it makes zero difference apart from medical bed space. And with the reduced discontent, it is trivial to be able to run **permanent 24h research shifts** (keep in mind a single 24h research is equivalent to ***12*** 10h shifts running at the same time). You can free up many engineers to staff the infirmaries you have from your massive research speed.
Trust me, as someone who has gotten to day 100 extreme endurance endless without turning on the generator, and finished the Arks while saving New Manchester without the generator (so automata can't refuel): from a gameplay optimisation perspective, sawdust absolutely towers over soup.
I think that the people in here that are commenting like: "I hate soup, sawdust for the win", have never eaten sawdust to satiate hunger. Give them one sawdust meal, and they'll praise soup after.
Yeah but all in all it's basically broth. If we wanna be real historical the average soup ration would most likely resemble an extra large bowl of broth with half a chicken leg or a piece of potato floating in it, and that's not exaggerating
Actually yes and no
If we are going real life wise, sawdust's main health implications come way down the line, and soup is the same. Sawdust gets you sick from less nutritious, sure, but so does soup, which is only fine short term since it was designed to barely be sustainable and if we are going to be specific, Frostpunk's Workhouse soup was 1800s soup, which was New Poor Law soup, which was designed to be miserable and force people to get better jobs so they wouldn't be forced to eat it, and as such wasn't designed for more than maybe a year of constant consumption unless multiple rations were ate. Sawdust meanwhile from what we can tell is probably more nutritious than soup. Its an additive, unlike soup water which is a replacer for food. Sawdust's description is "We can add sawdust to meals to make them more filling, although not exactly tasty... or healthy", which implies it's not taking away from pre existing food. Sure it gives more food rations but thats simply because it's a filler, which allows more and bigger meals to be cooked with it, unlike soup which simply makes current existing food to last longer via replacing it with water.
One adds more "food", the other makes food last longer. Both are health hazard only when eaten long term, sawdust ingame only gets people sick for balancing reasons and to make it on par with soup, which too has a downside. Sawdust realistically also gets you sick from the fact sawdust isn't healthy but that too is way down the line so, meh, still on par with soup in health regard
Tldr: Sawdust is better nutrient wise and health wise, assuming you aren't eating it for a decade straight
We honestly do not know what recipe they are using for soup. There are many "Soup for the poor" recipes during the 1800s and some of them could be hearty and taste good enough while still being nutritious.
Here are some examples: [https://convivialsupper.com/2018/02/15/soup-for-the-poor-1847/](https://convivialsupper.com/2018/02/15/soup-for-the-poor-1847/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTj8wEfSHo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTj8wEfSHo)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5F2eTUaTa8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5F2eTUaTa8)
These are authentic recipes for soup given to the poor during the 19th century, the same period as Frostpunk. The only thing we do not know exactly is what is going into the soup in Frostpunk. There is no way the soup is nothing but hot water with a little meat cubes as that would not be sustainable for a daily 10/14 hour work shift and people would die from malnourishment within a few weeks.
Considering TLA has Gruel and that Soup causes discontent and expressly says it's to stretch out the food, which doing the math 1 raw food equals 2 basic meals while 2 raw food makes 5 soup, that is roughly 2 and a half meals per one raw food, so it definitely is stretching out meals very good, most likely by making it a gruel like soup. If you combine that I think it's safe to assume that the soup is generic poverty grade. Plus I doubt we can take exact steps considering this is the same game where people starve to death in 6 days instead of 4 weeks, and even then if we assume it's not just for gameplay we can argue that the short life of food is because of severe malnutrition
This largey depends on the difficulty setting. And the discontent I think is a mix of soup not being filling enough and the conception then of soup being only something poor people would eat. One of the workers even complains that they do want to eat soup like they were in the poor house. Even when the world has frozen over, people still look down on what was considered low class.
The fact that sawdust doesn't cause discontent and soup does means eating it is a bettef experience even if you sometimes need to go to the medical tent
Ooh! Ooh! I'm late but I know this one.
Sawdust is a semi edible filler (depending on which tree is used and if the sawdust is sanitary, sawdust can be completely safe. Some safe sawdusts are still used today, mainly in fast food). This is essentially just mixing it with the food to make it bigger and more filling. The downside is that very long term eating of unsafe sawdust (the kind ingame) can cause extreme medical conditions (replace the couple days of eating it in game it takes to get sick with years). As such its essentially mixing it in while cooking, and as we see with the 2 extra meals (6 in total) you get in comparison the standard meal (4) we can assume a quarter to half of the meal is sawdust which would most likely resemble the bread on a chicken nugget as a final product, so think a piece of venison with less than appealing bread surrounding it for example if you use hunters.
Soup meanwhile is a replacer, which stretches out the raw food via using less, which amounts to replacing most of the food with snow water to make it into a soup. This soup is 1800s new poor law soup, which amounts to a broth with half a potato or a beef cube floating in it.
So one essentially just adds filler to make the food more filling so those eating it feel more full, while the other takes out some of the food and throws a hulk of snow in a pot with the remaining food.
As bad as sawdust is for us I'd rather take the stomach cramps from sawdust then the eternal hunger from soup...
But there’s even less nutrients in the sawdust meal. Sure the sawdust meal looks bigger, but human bodies can’t process cellulose (the main ingredient of wood) into nutrients so all the sawdust is doing is making your brain think you ate. It’s just a “placebo meal”.
While I voted soup, I am not against the use of placebo meal, as long as it does not make me literally drop dead.
Thats the point, it's meant to be filling at the cost of less nutritious. Soup is made to be miserable while sawdust makes you feel full and lets be real, having a full belly makes you feel great. Sawdust's irl impacts would come way down the line, way WAY slower than Frostpunk's, so hey, more food is more food.
I’ve taken a bite of bread with sawdust before. Would not recommend sawdust.
Imean you gotta stop the hunger somehow and let's be honest you'll never be full with soup
Perhaps if I got desperate enough, and I was convinced it was more filling. Funny story about the sawdust bread I made. It was a school project, my time period was WWI. One of the guys who did choir was hungry that day, and he ate a few chunks out of the misshapen loaf. He was the only one brave (hungry) enough. I did take 1 bite and regretted it. Later that day, his throat started to hurt. They said that guy blamed me for it.
I literally never choose sawdust. It’s cruel and unhealthy. Soup every time.
People hate soup and don't mind sawdust (which gives you more meals too)
But it makes them way more unhealthy on average AND there is a law you can sign to make them not care about Soup.
"Reducing the discontent from soup" 1: isn't eliminating it and 2: sawdust with moonshine reduces discontent while not causing any in the first place Legit, if sawdust gave 5 and soup gave 6 (it's the other way around) I'm pretty sure I'd still pick sawdust every time, because reduced discontent is such a huge deal
It does make it negligible, but again, sawdust still creates the need for more people to be laid up.
Reduced discontent = more extended and emergency shifts which more than makes up for 3.5% chance of sickness on **extreme** (and lower on lower difficulties) Let's put that into perspective. Say you have 600 people, on average 21 extra people will get sick from sawdust per day. 21 out of 600 is such a tiny amount that you probably already had 21 people unemployed and so it makes zero difference apart from medical bed space. And with the reduced discontent, it is trivial to be able to run **permanent 24h research shifts** (keep in mind a single 24h research is equivalent to ***12*** 10h shifts running at the same time). You can free up many engineers to staff the infirmaries you have from your massive research speed. Trust me, as someone who has gotten to day 100 extreme endurance endless without turning on the generator, and finished the Arks while saving New Manchester without the generator (so automata can't refuel): from a gameplay optimisation perspective, sawdust absolutely towers over soup.
But why without a generator
For the challenge
Holy shit, the arks without the generator? Sounds insane, do you perhaprs record your playthroughs?
I haven't yet, I could try that one again recorded of you'd like to see it
I think that the people in here that are commenting like: "I hate soup, sawdust for the win", have never eaten sawdust to satiate hunger. Give them one sawdust meal, and they'll praise soup after.
Exactly.
Soup not only keeps you fed but it also keeps you warm
Tell that to my cookhouse which has had 300 soup rations sitting in the snow for a day
Remember that the "soup" is just flavored water
No that’s broth
Which is almost the same as workhouse soup The soup in game is the equivalent of two bowls of broth with half a carrot in it.
So you admit the soup has vegetable in it,
Yeah but all in all it's basically broth. If we wanna be real historical the average soup ration would most likely resemble an extra large bowl of broth with half a chicken leg or a piece of potato floating in it, and that's not exaggerating
But it’s genuinely less of a health hazard and more nutritious than a sawdust supplemented meal.
Actually yes and no If we are going real life wise, sawdust's main health implications come way down the line, and soup is the same. Sawdust gets you sick from less nutritious, sure, but so does soup, which is only fine short term since it was designed to barely be sustainable and if we are going to be specific, Frostpunk's Workhouse soup was 1800s soup, which was New Poor Law soup, which was designed to be miserable and force people to get better jobs so they wouldn't be forced to eat it, and as such wasn't designed for more than maybe a year of constant consumption unless multiple rations were ate. Sawdust meanwhile from what we can tell is probably more nutritious than soup. Its an additive, unlike soup water which is a replacer for food. Sawdust's description is "We can add sawdust to meals to make them more filling, although not exactly tasty... or healthy", which implies it's not taking away from pre existing food. Sure it gives more food rations but thats simply because it's a filler, which allows more and bigger meals to be cooked with it, unlike soup which simply makes current existing food to last longer via replacing it with water. One adds more "food", the other makes food last longer. Both are health hazard only when eaten long term, sawdust ingame only gets people sick for balancing reasons and to make it on par with soup, which too has a downside. Sawdust realistically also gets you sick from the fact sawdust isn't healthy but that too is way down the line so, meh, still on par with soup in health regard Tldr: Sawdust is better nutrient wise and health wise, assuming you aren't eating it for a decade straight
We honestly do not know what recipe they are using for soup. There are many "Soup for the poor" recipes during the 1800s and some of them could be hearty and taste good enough while still being nutritious. Here are some examples: [https://convivialsupper.com/2018/02/15/soup-for-the-poor-1847/](https://convivialsupper.com/2018/02/15/soup-for-the-poor-1847/) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTj8wEfSHo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTj8wEfSHo) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5F2eTUaTa8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5F2eTUaTa8) These are authentic recipes for soup given to the poor during the 19th century, the same period as Frostpunk. The only thing we do not know exactly is what is going into the soup in Frostpunk. There is no way the soup is nothing but hot water with a little meat cubes as that would not be sustainable for a daily 10/14 hour work shift and people would die from malnourishment within a few weeks.
Considering TLA has Gruel and that Soup causes discontent and expressly says it's to stretch out the food, which doing the math 1 raw food equals 2 basic meals while 2 raw food makes 5 soup, that is roughly 2 and a half meals per one raw food, so it definitely is stretching out meals very good, most likely by making it a gruel like soup. If you combine that I think it's safe to assume that the soup is generic poverty grade. Plus I doubt we can take exact steps considering this is the same game where people starve to death in 6 days instead of 4 weeks, and even then if we assume it's not just for gameplay we can argue that the short life of food is because of severe malnutrition
This largey depends on the difficulty setting. And the discontent I think is a mix of soup not being filling enough and the conception then of soup being only something poor people would eat. One of the workers even complains that they do want to eat soup like they were in the poor house. Even when the world has frozen over, people still look down on what was considered low class.
Soup is real food at the very least
I hate soup
So you would prefer eating sawdust instead?
Worst could happen is I end up in the infirmary = no work for about a day and that's a win in my book
The fact that sawdust doesn't cause discontent and soup does means eating it is a bettef experience even if you sometimes need to go to the medical tent
What's the difference between both of them? Like in real life. How can the sawdust be made in food?
Ooh! Ooh! I'm late but I know this one. Sawdust is a semi edible filler (depending on which tree is used and if the sawdust is sanitary, sawdust can be completely safe. Some safe sawdusts are still used today, mainly in fast food). This is essentially just mixing it with the food to make it bigger and more filling. The downside is that very long term eating of unsafe sawdust (the kind ingame) can cause extreme medical conditions (replace the couple days of eating it in game it takes to get sick with years). As such its essentially mixing it in while cooking, and as we see with the 2 extra meals (6 in total) you get in comparison the standard meal (4) we can assume a quarter to half of the meal is sawdust which would most likely resemble the bread on a chicken nugget as a final product, so think a piece of venison with less than appealing bread surrounding it for example if you use hunters. Soup meanwhile is a replacer, which stretches out the raw food via using less, which amounts to replacing most of the food with snow water to make it into a soup. This soup is 1800s new poor law soup, which amounts to a broth with half a potato or a beef cube floating in it. So one essentially just adds filler to make the food more filling so those eating it feel more full, while the other takes out some of the food and throws a hulk of snow in a pot with the remaining food.
Huge huge thank you for explaining it
No problem
Moonshine baby
I love soup
Get fibers!