Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid

Smokin' Joe's Coolers
Tchernobill 26 Mar, 2022 @ 7:37am
The difficulty of food aging process in PZ
Hi,

When I made the Coolbag mod I met the same problems as you do now for solo games and when multi arrived for B41 the same multiplayer problems. I solved them with a crazy amount of time and complexity management.
I let down many small details like respect of thermodynamic on the way :steamfacepalm:.

Here are the main problems :
  • Food aging process does not care about the temperature of the bag it is in. This is due to Food.java class looking for the OutermostContainer to extract temperature information.
  • In multiplayer food aging process is done on the server side.

If you want to check the efficiency of food conservation by your mod:
  • compare the rotting time between an food item in the coolbag and an item in a random container.
  • use eris food expiry mod but only for indication in your test process, do not use is as final comparison info (never use any mod for that, only vanilla data).
  • play solo and use debug time increase. check MP once solo is fully operational..
  • use bacon bits, they rot very fast.

For now in a solo test (vanilla B41.68 + Eris + Smokin' Joe's Cooler), aging speed was the same for:
  • a bacon bit in an organ cooler on ground with 5 large frozen ice packs.
  • a bacon bit in an organ cooler equipped as secondary with 5 large frozen ice packs.
  • a bacon bit on ground.
If I made a mistake I am sorry.

Your models are awesome by the way.
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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
Smokin' Joe  [developer] 26 Mar, 2022 @ 8:52am 
You're correct. I hadn't dug deep into the aging process of the food items, and came across the food's java class limitations, in my travels down the rabbit hole on this project. My primary use of coolers is to tote food from point to point, but of course, optimally - it would slow the aging process as well. I appreciate the feedback and if I come up with something interesting, I'll post it here.
Smokin' Joe  [developer] 27 Mar, 2022 @ 6:31am 
I seem to have found a fix by simply adjusting the item ages on the server end? I wait until I can find a change in the items age, and then subtract "half" of the difference, effectively slowing the aging process to half of its normal rate while within the cooler.
coraxery 5 May, 2022 @ 6:52am 
I have noticed that if I place a cooler into a trailer or vehicle the ice packs "melt" extremely quickly, I was wondering if this was an issue with the mod or not
Smokin' Joe  [developer] 6 May, 2022 @ 2:29pm 
It may be "losing track" of the cooler, but I will definitely try it out.
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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
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