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Sensible Balance: Temperature Affects Food Spoilage Rate

December 2024 Note: This is created and tested for Build 41 only, the Build 42 update will come in the future! The mod may still work fine with Build 42 - but use at your own risk!

World temperature affects the food spoilage rate as you experience seasonal and day-to-day variations. Compatible with everything, works in multiplayer, works with existing items, temperature-dependent decay time/spoilage rate updates every in-game hour.

The example picture has been created with the help of Eris' Food Expiry, which shows the remaining freshness and time until the food is completely rotten.

The game does not differentiate between items left outside and inside, where it is typically warmer, which is a limitation for this mod, but has been accounted for to the best of my ability.

Items do not freeze unless are in the freezer, same as vanilla.

-Update the mod for Build 42 when the time comes.

-Manually adjust some of the gratuitous spoilage times on some food items for better realism and immersion. I've already covered some in my Food and Drink, Nutrition, and Water Weight mod.

-If anyone has any idea how one could begin to code for items freezing once the temperatures are within the realm of freezing, please let me know. If it is possible for pots of water in the game to fill up with rain that means they know that: 1. they are on the outside tile, 2. the weather conditions are right. If the "amount of water" bar is able to fill up it should also be possible to fill up the "freezing" bar based on points 1 and 2. I would appreciate any insight into how one could code for this.

-Of course, if there are any issues or imbalances I will try and correct them. I use all my mods myself.

Because the refrigeration effectiveness sandbox setting is a flat multiplier against the decay timer, it is also adjusted to best fit realistic expectations (e.g. when it is freezing outside, refrigeration effectiveness is reduced given that refrigerators are meant to run between 0°C and 4°C). It is not possible to make food spoil faster in a refrigerator than outside, so when in doubt, use the fridge.

I would recommend using Surviving Through the Seasons to make the year last less than 365 in-game days so that you can actually experience all the seasonal variations through your average playthrough length. I would also suggest KYR Real Weather with the base minimum temperature to -4°C if you want the fairly typical real-life winter lows of Kentucky.
Lastly, Prepare For Winter to make farming below zero impossible.

Please do not mod-pack or reupload this mod anywhere else, just share the link to this page.
I hope you enjoy this mod.

Workshop ID: 3297793087
Mod ID: sensiblebalancetempfoodspoilage