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[LordDemon]

How would it work, if dwarfs would eat more often, but could carry food and drink with them like military?  Dwarf would have his backback with food and flask/skin full of drink. They would work normally, but occationally keep a short break and eat some food/drink some of their drinks. Only when the backpack and flask/skin is empty, they would stop their work so they would move to get some more. In a pinch they could even store food in pockets.

I understand one of the reasons dwarfs eat so rarely is because the travel times. This could be used to increase dwarfs food consumption without adding travels. It could come in handy later on if farming is to be changed, to allow smaller units of food or larger consumption.

[Particleman]

I think it has some potential. I could see a dwarf with high focus or concetration (or whatever) carrying around a wineskin so he doesn't have to leave his workshop when he gets thirsty, but I wouldn't want them to carry food around, mostly due to the fact that they wouldn't get the positive tought from eating in a good dining room.

[Euld]

Positive thoughts from eating/drinking from high quality backpacks/hip flasks, plus the quality of the food in question?

Urist McThirsty had an exsquisite drink from a sublime hip flask recently.

[Kholint]

This sort of thing definitely makes sense, especially for mining or woodcutting (would be more efficient AND realistic).

[Zengrath]

Yes, this makes sense to me as well. It's not like the dwarfs just live in a tiny house where fridge is just a short walk away.. no they have real jobs, where they go out chopping wood in forest, mining in other side of map, building a wall of china, why would they have to travel all the way home to get food then back to job site every time they need to take a break, etc.

having dwarfs come home to sleep, restock food/drink, etc. makes more sense then come home every break to grab a snack or drink a mug of beer/water.

[LordDemon]

For those who are worried about dining rooms, I think it would make sense that dwarfs who don't have job currently (idlers), or are close to dining room might go there to eat. After all, if you have the time and nothing important that requires your attention, wouldn't you go and eat with your friends/family?

I guess this could even be taken one step further, so that dwarf moves some food from stockpile/store to his home into some container. (cabinet maybe? Where did people store food before refrigerators?). Then they take food from there to their backpacks. When dwarf goes to bed, if he has own dedicated bed, then he likely has cabinet near by. Once he wakes, he restocks the food and is ready to go.
Sort of moving food from fortress level to family level (as spouses and children share the bed I think, they could use the same cabinet to get food) to dwarf level.

[Pilsu]

Personally I'd prefer communal habits for the dwarves. Worth implementing for human villages though.


Giving happy thoughts for the meal because it was stored in a great backpack is stupid. There should be a price to pay for the efficiency. Flasks would be handy though.

Meal times might be worth looking into. Even if you don't have the time to trek back home to eat, you could at least heat up your meals and eat with the other woodcutters. Could just be setup manually, make a fireplace in the woods and set the woodcutting team to heat up their own carried meals in the nearest possible locale. The trick is making them stop doing it once they're done and move to other tasks, ones that don't warrant carrying rations.

[blizzerd]

you could always make dwarfs require a big meal every so many small meals

like a dwarf snacks twice before eating a big meal, snacks consist of 1 food item and 1 drink item
when a dwarf eats a snack he will eat it on the spot (like a picknick)

then he requires a big meal consisting of 2 food and drink items (like a stack of cooked meals, he will subtract 2) he will prefer a diner, if no available he will get an unhappy thought

when taking his big meal he will also fill up on snacks and booze

a backpack can hold 2 meals afaik? can a flask hold 2 beers as well?


the only problem i can see with this is if food stocks are slim and "on demand" the stocked up snacks could make other dwarven get unhappy while they wait for there food

some civilian "how many snacks carried" should fix that

[Ilmoran]

It makes more sense for mining and woodcutting, but if you want dwarves to have food close at hand rather than running all over your fortress to get to your dining hall, give them a chair, a table, a single tile food stockpile, and a single tile drink stockpile, next to their workshop, or in their room, or at whatever relatively stationary point you want them to stay near.

The reason your dwarves don't stockpile food at home and always go out to eat is because you make them do it 

[LordDemon]

It makes more sense for mining and woodcutting, but if you want dwarves to have food close at hand rather than running all over your fortress to get to your dining hall, give them a chair, a table, a single tile food stockpile, and a single tile drink stockpile, next to their workshop, or in their room, or at whatever relatively stationary point you want them to stay near.

The reason your dwarves don't stockpile food at home and always go out to eat is because you make them do it 

It is true, but I would like the option for those who work in a more moving occupations.  Hunters, woodcutters, miners, haulers. The benefit of carrying food with you is also, that if the eating schedule is changed so that dwarf eats a plumphetmet or whatever once a week in game time, those few square distances from workshop to room start to count.
If there is no need to move at all, there is no time wasted, except when you restock your lunchbox.

Having dwarfs eat more would enable btter handling of food. I've always considered plump helmets rather large, if the dwarf survives 2 months on it. Even a week would be long time, but you could break the food into smaller portions better, something that might help with the farming later on.
So instead of stack of 5 plumphelmets that feed your alnost a year when eaten once every 2 months, you could have a stack of 50 plump helmets, which would do the same when eaten at one/week rate. Just make sure the dwarf could carry 8-0 food items at once, and the end effect is about the same. However, you would benefit from the smaler division of unit.

[Fetus4188]

I think this would be great if you could set how much dwarves carry dependent on their profession (if/when a foreman-style interface is added). That way you could have miners and woodcutters carry snacks but tell your crafters to socialize and eat in the dining room.