Planning food

Three people on Mars, five trays of potatoes and a half full fridge. Is that enough? Instead of guessing, a chip works it out for you – and warns before the last plate is empty.

Demand per person#

How much a human eats in the game depends on the food and the save. Measure it yourself: count how many potatoes your crew uses in one hour of game time and enter that as a define. With the number of people from a dial you get the demand per hour:

lbn people DIAL HASH("Personen") Setting Average
mul balance people DEMAND      # demand per hour

Projecting the harvest#

The game data gives the growth time at full efficiency and the maximum harvest amount for every plant. For the potato that is about 3000 seconds and up to 2 pieces per harvest. Per tray and hour that is at most:

2 · 3600 / 3000 = 2.4 potatoes

The number of planted trays comes from Occupied with Sum. Times 2.4 gives the harvest per hour, in the best case:

lbns harvest TRAY HASH("Beet") 0 Occupied Sum
mul harvest harvest YIELD
mul harvest harvest 3600
div harvest harvest GROWTIME     # pieces per hour

Balance and range#

Harvest minus demand is the balance per hour. If it is positive, the stock grows and the range is unlimited – the display then shows 999. If it is negative, the stock lasts stock / loss hours:

sub balance harvest balance       # harvest minus demand
sub tmp 0 balance              # loss per hour
div range stock tmp
floor range range
sgez tmp balance
select range tmp 999 range

floor rounds down: 27.3 hours are 27 full hours, not 28.