Malnutrition
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Malnutrition is a health condition that occurs once any pawn hasn't eaten to the point that they starve. When a pawn is malnourished, they will eat literally whatever they can get their hands on (whether it be a lavish meal, some raw food, or even a human corpse) in order to prevent themselves from further starving to death.
Malnutrition increases by 2% per hour, with initial symptoms including a faster hunger rate, slight loss of consciousness, and an increased chance of social fighting. Advanced symptoms include loss of consciousness, and eventually, death. Malnutrition will begin decrease by 2% per hour after the pawn is fed, during which time they continue to suffer from the different stages of the condition.
Stages
Trivial - Severity: 0 - 0.19
- -5% Consciousness
- 1.5x Hunger Rate
- 1.5x Chance of Social Fighting
- -22 Mood
Minor - Severity: 0.2 - 0.39
- -10% Consciousness
- 1.6x Hunger Rate
- 2x Chance of Social Fighting
- -29 Mood
Moderate - Severity: 0.4 - 0.59
- -20% Consciousness
- 1.6x Hunger Rate
- 2.5x Chance of Social Fighting
- -36 Mood
Severe - Severity: 0.6 - 0.79
- -30% Consciousness
- 1.6x Hunger Rate
- 3x Chance of Social Fighting
- -42 Mood
Extreme - Severity: 0.8 - 1
- Loss of Consciousness (Severity: 0.8-0.99)
- -50 Mood (Severity: 0.8-0.99)
- Death (Severity 1)
Because malnutrition decreases Consciousness, it can be very dangerous to wounded prisoners, recent surgery patients, or others who may already have a Consciousness at 10% or lower and are unable to feed themselves. Dropping -5 or 10% more can kill just that quick.
Tips
Intensive taming can demand a lot of food.
Straightforward: Make sure there's a decent surplus of food in your freezer, and don't take on more prisoners or colonists than your food supplies can handle. Ensure that meals are easily accessible - raw food is significantly less efficient in terms of nutrition than even simple meals.
Don't be afraid to resort to nutrient paste in certain circumstances (e.g. toxic fallout, wildfire that wipes out a significant chunk of wildlife, migration); it's the most efficient way to get nutrition from food out of any meal, yielding 0.9 nutrition from only 6 of any ingredient- the same as a fine meal, and you can't get food poisoning from it.
Version history
As of Alpha 16, Malnutrition also increases the hunger rate and likelihood that affected pawns will start a social fight if slighted or insulted.