Food Preservation Techniques

[pizza duck5 5]

I think it would be really interesting if more food preservation techniques were implemented and important for long term survival. Meat doesn't go bad...yet, but I think it would be pretty cool for people to learn about these sorts of things as well as adding more collectible items that are non-militaristic.

Just a few techniques that would seem plausible for a zombie apocalypse

-Drying: (wild fruit, etc) Would not require any items except a knife maybe and a flat surface or maybe a plate or cookie sheet

-Freezing: Some kind of snow stash on Namalsk or using a generator and freezer

-Curing: Using salt to draw moisture out of meat (ie bacon). Could find salt in residential areas or markets

-Sugaring: once again preserving fruits

-Smoking: Use a slightly modified fire or an improvised smoker to smoke meats. idk if there would be any benefits other than a great smokey flavor

-Pickling: You could collect jars and the ingredients to pickle things

-Jellying; Making jellies from wild berries

Maybe having all of these more complex foods would help to maintain your sanity and humanity. Like comfort food to keep your spirits up and to maintain the illusion of humanity.

[pizza duck5 5]

Also a drying rack for meats for making jerky. Could be improvised

[IkaikaKekai 1957]

Pretty good suggestion. Theres actually many ways of doing each technique too so they Devs can pick and choose what they want (one of my favorite TV chef's made a smoker out of a cardboard box, battery opperated fan, sawdust, and hotplate)

[TG ! Jimmy 216]

This is a really cool way to build on the survival aspect of the game. There is a give and take on the "time" required to do these tasks, of course. Dehydrating, freezing, curing, etc. take a fair amount of time to do (properly) and I think opening the door to this world could be a proverbial can of worms.

That's not to say this isn't a great idea, because I think there are survivalists out there who are nauseated by the "find a can of beans & eat it" side of the game. How else can we expand survival? What methods are actually proven to be effective? These suggestions are as good as gold. Things as simple as coming across a tree that yields fruit, or farm with some vegetables isn't unreasonable to consider. Why must everything come from a can? Catching rainwater from the gutter of a house during a rainstorm seems fairly reasonable. Not the most palatable drink, but in a post-apocalypse world, I think we'd all take the gamble on it. Hell, I would.

Something that's (sorry to hijack, but it's on-topic) also been a hot button in society lately is "Doomsday Preppers". Are we to assume that no one in Chernarus (or what-have-you) had any food storage? No food stored in buckets with oxygen absorbers? The introduction of MRE's I found to be a much-needed addition, and could be expanded upon with MRE heaters, cases of MRE's, and potable water purification tablets. I think small amounts of items along these lines could provide a little more "surival oriented" gameplay if that is the intended direction.

Just my $.02

Edited March 19, 2013 by TG ! Jimmy

[King Tubbs 224]

i like the idea

[pizza duck5 5]

Pretty good suggestion. Theres actually many ways of doing each technique too so they Devs can pick and choose what they want (one of my favorite TV chef's made a smoker out of a cardboard box, battery opperated fan, sawdust, and hotplate)

Yeah exactly. One of the main inspirations for this was watching Survivorman, where he improvises with everything he has and everything he can find to help him cook or find food.

[TIC 1050]

I do think that since some food items are exposed out in the environment, we need to preserve it in some way.

I agree with this idea.

[pizza duck5 5]

Things as simple as coming across a tree that yields fruit, or farm with some vegetables isn't unreasonable to consider. Catching rainwater from the gutter of a house during a rainstorm seems fairly reasonable. Not the most palatable drink, but in a post-apocalypse world, I think we'd all take the gamble on it. Hell, I would.

Thanks dude. Yeah I would love to see fruit on trees or berries, or even being able to dig up roots cook em into a stew or something. Or just eat them raw. The rainwater catcher is exactly the kind of thing I would like to see in DayZ. Pretty much anywhere you can take a daily household item, or piece of junk, and turn it into something more useful in a survival or post apocalyptic situation.

I can imagine stumbling across a doomsday preppers base and feel like hitting the motherload

[godtoldme2killu 2]

Next thing you know we need the Tractor to harvest and then get taxed by a tax collector, starting Chernarus all over again. What if the food is contaminated and we cannot yield crops from the area? There is a reason helicopters are being shot down trying to make relief drops in select locations so we can eat beans while dodging zombies and bandits.

[pizza duck5 5]

I guess you could get a whole farming operation going with a tractor. That would be pretty cool. Kind of like Farming Simulator 2013. I don't think the land is polluted though seeing as we already eat the wildlife such as wild boars, cows, chicken, rabbits, and lamb. You can keep eating beans if you really want.