World of Banished

MODS Garage => Mod Talk => Topic started by: salamander on October 13, 2014, 12:40:09 PM

Title: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: salamander on October 13, 2014, 12:40:09 PM
Beans, beans, good for the heart, the more you eat 'em the more you ... umm ... get protein.

As a beginner to modding, I thought to try something simple, but something that meant something (to me, at least).  It's bothered me that beans as a crop were considered to be vegetables only as far as their contribution to health.  In real life, beans are a good source of protein, as well.  So ... using @slink's How To ... (http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=452.0) thread as a starting point for making override-type mods, I'm adding two to the list of mods: one which makes beans count as both vegetables and protein, and a second where beans are a source of protein only.  The difference between the two being what you think beans are -- green/string beans can be both vegetable (the pods) and protein (the seeds), while something like soybeans, where the pods aren't normally eaten, would be protein only.

These mods could be useful for anyone who wanted to work toward a vegetarian/vegan goal, but who didn't want to bother with pecan/walnut orchards as a source of protein.

I'm probably breaking forum rules by including these files as attachments here instead of putting them in the Downloads section, but I'd really like to see any comments you might have (since they're my first mods) before they are more generally available.
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: salamander on October 14, 2014, 01:36:41 PM
These mods aren't flashy, but they do seem to make a difference as far as health in the town.  With town health being dependent on so many things, I didn't realize how weird it would be trying to test them in-game to make sure I had done everything right.  What I finally settled on was starting the same town (same seed and starting conditions) several times with the mod either enabled or disabled, and watching how the town's health decreased with beans as the only source of food (other than the potatoes I started with, which disappeared pretty quickly).

With the beans counted only as a vegetable (the original way) health decreased to 2.5 hearts by Late Spring/Early Summer of year 3.  With beans also counting as a source of protein, the same period of play saw health decrease to only 3.5 hearts.  This was repeated several times and seems to be pretty consistent.
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: slink on October 14, 2014, 02:50:05 PM
Now explain why the food store in real life has reduced the package size of frozen green beans to 12 oz, from 16 oz.  I know the answer - it is so that the price will stay the same per package.  When I mentioned it to the check-out clerk, in response to her query regarding whether or not I had found everything I was looking for, she looked blank and said she never noticed the ounces in packages when she bought them.  When I further commented that people surely would notice that they only had three-quarters as much to eat when they cooked one package, she continued to look blank.  I told her we were going to a competitor to see if they had decent-sized packages of frozen green beans, which we did, and they did.  Their 16 oz packages were about one-third more expensive than the 12 oz packages at the first store, which was fine with us.  We just didn't want to deal in partial packages.  We eat 16 oz of vegetables per day, alternating green beans with peas-and-carrots.  This is relevant here because people should be encouraged to eat more green beans, not to eat less vegetables and then feel hungry so they fill up with potato chips and Twinkies after they eat dinner.
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: salamander on October 14, 2014, 03:41:52 PM
That has happened with many products.  The main problem I have is that they won't admit to what they're doing -- marketing departments have produced any number of new messages being printed on the package: "More Economical Size" (even though you're paying the same for less); or fast food restaurants reducing the size of their meals and drinks ... for your health.  The list could go on.

It's the apparent assumption by businesses that consumers are universally stupid that really bothers me.
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: Pangaea on October 15, 2014, 12:49:39 AM
It's the same here, and it's annoying. Typical meat for example was reduced from 500g, to 450g, to 400g, and now I sometimes see 350g packages. Of course, the price is the same. Probably more expensive to be honest. Sometimes the price shoots up on the same product too, without any changes, because somebody in the chain wants to make more money off it. Once I heard a clerk say that the price of a small package of some product would go up by about 50% for no other reason than to increase the profits, so buy the 'old' one while you can. Pretty disgusting.
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: slink on October 15, 2014, 06:18:17 AM
At least an increasing price is honest.  Decreasing the size of the package for the same price lets economists claim there is no inflation.  "A package of green beans at the supermarket costs the same now as it did three years ago", they might say.  Never mind that the contents of the package are now 3/4 of what they were.

Another trick of the economists in the US is that they claim food categories rather than actual food specimens.  So for instance, a family that used to eat porterhouse steak, but now can only afford 75% lean ground beef, is considered not to have suffered any loss of quality of life because they still get the same number of ounces of meat per day.  Of course, that was before the current administration with its claims of no inflation.  Now we get less and less meat for the same money, unless we buy from a local supplier.  I've been watching them, too.  We buy turkey and beef from a local supplier.  The turkey is usually right on target for the weight as it is listed on the invoice, but the beef comes out about 5% under.  When we started buying from them it was always on target, and once even slightly over.  They have raised their price for beef lately, which I am hoping will stop them from trying to chisel a little more profit from the weight.

Apparent affordability is nice, but I prefer honesty above all.  Appearances don't fill the stomach.
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: rkelly17 on October 15, 2014, 10:04:07 AM
Beef and Pork have been going up lately for a variety of reasons (pig diseases, farmers cutting back on herds, etc.). The California drought has hit almost all produce prices from almonds to zucchini. Push for ethanol has raised corn prices in US and Canada which, given the amount of corn products in everything, raises many prices. GMO seeds are more expensive.  Etc., etc., etc.  Fortunately in our area we have the Old Order Mennonites and Amish to keep farm produce prices lower. Just this morning I stopped in at the local-only farm market and bought a nice big basket of green and wax beans and what is probably the last fresh corn of the year. Last week it was a half-bushel of apples and a half-bushel of pears. Next week pumpkins and squash. I shouldn't gloat--but it's just too tempting!  ;D
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: slink on October 15, 2014, 10:09:02 AM
It sounds delicious, @rkelly17.   :)
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: rkelly17 on October 15, 2014, 10:13:15 AM
Quote from: slink on October 15, 2014, 10:09:02 AM
It sounds delicious, @rkelly17.   :)

Indeed! Given the pictures of your property you posted awhile back I assumed that you lived someplace rural enough that you'd have access to farmers' markets, etc. But not? I think that the Old Order presence really makes a difference here. Plus it was nice to sit in my urban university office and hear a horse and buggy clip-clopping by on the street outside. Even the McDonald's drive thru can accommodate horse and buggy!

Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: salamander on October 15, 2014, 10:40:16 AM
The bright side is that merchants sell the 'protein-enriched' beans at the same price as always for the same number of seeds.  ;D
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: slink on October 15, 2014, 10:44:54 AM
Our neighbors grow on the corn-soybean-hay schedule.  It is harvested and carried away.  Any produce is grown for their own consumption, although one of our neighbors has been generous in sharing excess tomatoes and watermelons with us.  The tomatoes are welcome.  The watermelons are not so welcome.  Seedless watermelons are like 12-oz packages of beans for the same price as the 16-oz packages used to be - neither one thing or the other.  You can't spit out the slippery little white things that are the residual seeds, but you can tell they are there when you chew the melon flesh.  However, in the name of good relations my husband eats the ripest part in the middle and throws the rest over the back of our hillside for the wildlife.

Horse-and-buggy clopping is a nice sound, isn't it.  I don't know where the nearest Amish are to us here.  My mother's house was built by Amish, 24 years ago when she retired to Neosho, Missouri.  It was a very good job they did, and they cleaned up after themselves which is a lot different even from the best contractors we can hire here.  I know we have Amish somewhere around because the closest gasoline station used to have an Amish woman working at the checkout counter.  That was twenty years ago, though.
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: salamander on October 15, 2014, 04:16:06 PM
Most Saturdays, especially in the summer when the weather's predictable and usually nice, you'll hear the clip-clopping of a buggy going by on the road in front of our house, and more often than not, they have a canoe strapped to the top -- there's a nice lake a few mile beyond our house.  In late afternoon, you'll often see, if you're paying attention or hear the clip-clopping, the same buggy, complete with canoe, going back the other way.  I'm not sure I could live the Amish way of life, but they certainly seem to fit everything in just fine.

I live in Mercer County, PA, which is on the western edge of the state (oh ... excuse me, I meant commonwealth) pretty much due east of Youngstown, OH.  Mercer Co. and Lawrence Co. (to our south) have quite a few Amish farms.  If you drive around here, you expect to see buggies on the road, and my experience has been that most drivers are courteous in dealing with them.  Around here, if you want quality work done for flooring, roofing, etc..., you contract with an Amish group -- otherwise, you're playing the odds and are likely to lose the bet.

Of course, the main Amish area in PA is far to the east of us, in Lancaster Co., where 'Amish Mafia' is filmed, a classic example of trashy 'reality' TV.  I wonder what the Amish communities think of that show, clearly made for consumption by the 'English'?
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: Pangaea on October 15, 2014, 09:44:37 PM
Quote from: slink on October 15, 2014, 06:18:17 AM
At least an increasing price is honest.

I don't agree, not when it's such absurd spikes. To take the latest example I heard about, today. A package of flour is going up by about 110% in price. Why? Instead of using the normal wrapping of thick paper, they're starting to use cardboard.

I'm sure that more than doubles their production costs  ::) >:(
Title: Re: Modifying Nutrition from Beans - salamander
Post by: slink on October 16, 2014, 06:15:48 AM
Quote from: Pangaea on October 15, 2014, 09:44:37 PM
Quote from: slink on October 15, 2014, 06:18:17 AM
At least an increasing price is honest.

I don't agree, not when it's such absurd spikes. To take the latest example I heard about, today. A package of flour is going up by about 110% in price. Why? Instead of using the normal wrapping of thick paper, they're starting to use cardboard.

I'm sure that more than doubles their production costs  ::) >:(

I did not say that the given reason for all price increases was honest, only that it is more honest to increase the price of the same size package than to continually work the size of the package down and keep the price constant.