Food

[Enjoyment]

ok.

[Onep]

Wow, I'm completely autistic.

Wow, so nice of you to agree with me.

[Pickard]

Also, in my world, ideas of food spoilage appears almost every month

Alot of stupid ideas appears almost every day

[ekzarh]

The core idea of good game - you should not be punished for not logging in. But you should be rewarded for logging in o n the regular basis
It is not possible to complete this rule and keep the game hardcore so this rule has to be broken sometimes (sieges, raids).
But for the other things like livestock, and chicken something has to be done in the opposite direction.
So right - no decay for the sake of decay.

On the other hand - why not try the opposite approach - give some short-time bonus to a fresh food? Like sizzling roast meat? Even variety bonus from being different is already sufficient
From one hand - it rewards people to cook before eating. On the other - you are not punished for stockpiling.

I would go even further:
Most of Baked, roasted, boiled goods are best when fresh. (get bonus upon cooked, lose in 15 min)
Some particular cakes must cool down before reaching the peak of taste (get bonus after 1h, lose after 3h)
Salads are best when they stay for a while (let the veggies give some juice) (get bonus after 30 min, lose after 2h)
Sausages - varies. Some should be roasted on frying pan to become best, others need to cool down.
Cheese - matures for 4-7 days, get bonus for 1-2 days, lose bonus
Nature goods (veggies, berries) - best when fresh but fresh for a while. get bonus upon gathered, lose in 1 rl day.

Same may apply for fresh meat.
Also, producing salted/dried/smoked goods from fresh products may use other mechanics - they dont have their own bonus, but retain bonus of ingredients forever.

[tyrtix]

Decay without other proper mechanics that may gives more things to play with is bad.
But i believe that decay may give a more appropriate feeling of survival, especially on the first days, and after that you'll have to keep an eye on your stockpile once in a while and maybe smoke, salt or preserve that meat/egg/veggie before is good for pigs only. There's plenty of nice gaming to work with in this direction, maybe smoking meat with some kind of wood will give more or less in one of the three quality meters, maybe we can make pickled eggs or veggies with vinegar or oil (so we may find a good option to raise olives, or how to use linseed oil maybe); sausages and cheese are already a way to make long-lasting food, flour just does not spoil so it's easy to put out of the barrel some and bake something, and if you need that particular berry, well, just get that jar of jam out of the shelf (and make jars out of glass).
The more items we have, the more players will maybe specialize in doing one thing instead of another, the more trade will be done, and so on, making players live less like hermits and have fun trading and meeting other players.