Changes: Food

Revision as of 05:55, 10 July 2010

Food is one of the resources that the player will need to collect in all versions of Age of Empires and Age of Mythology.

Without Food a civilization won't get far. Food is absolutely necessary because it sustains populations. Without it, everyone would die! In fact, it was only with the advent of agriculture that humans were able to create permanent villages and towns instead of living as nomadic hunter-gatherers.

For Age of Empires and Age of Mythology, players must constantly be gathering food for creating units, researching technologies, sending shipments, and advancing their empire through all the ages.

Ways to get Food

Hunt

Other then gathering berries, hunting Animals is the first way that a player can go about gathering food. During the early parts of the game, hunting is by far the best way to acquire food for ones settlement as the gather rates are faster then any other source of food. Animals can be found in groups all through the maps, when one is shot, the others will run in the opposite direction. This can be useful, because with enough patience, one can use his/her units to herd them closer to the Storage pit or Town Center in Age of Empires or the Mill in Age of Empires II. The major downside of Animals is that they are non-sustainable and players will do a lot of traveling to get to find them. There are animals in the game that can not be hunted such as Birds or Turtles as well as animals such as Wolves who can be killed but do not provide Food. It is important to note that in all Age of Empires games, the Food content of an animal deteriorates over time; thus, ideally animals should be collected by either a large amount of villagers, (extract all the food at once) or by three or four villagers spaced out so at least one is gathering, one is dropping food off at a Food drop off point, and another is returning from dropping off Food. For Age of Empires III, this is not necessary however because villagers do not need to drop off resources. There is still a deterioration factor.

Gathering

Forage bushes are typically scattered throughout the map in clumps at the start of the game. These are used early on since they produce food at a high rate and are relatively accessible, allowing a boost for budding civilizations. These food sources usually do not last very long because they are not very common and have high gather rates.

Farm

In Age of Empires, Farms can be built by villagers only after you have built a Market. They contain a limited quantity of food. They can be farmed by multiple villagers, but they deteriorate more quickly.

Farms in Age of Empires II are similar to those in Age of Empires, except you must first build a Mill, and that they can be replanted by right clicking, (or through the use of queue in the Conquerors Expansion and that they no longer obstruct unit movement nor that multiple villagers can farm a single farm.

Farms in Age of Mythology are different from the Age of Empires and Age of Empires II Farms because they have infinite food.

Farms in Age of Empires III, called Mills, are different too. They produce infinite Food at a rate determined by the number of gatherers, with as many as ten working on one Mill.

Farms are critical to a player, especially in long games, since many initial sources of food are exhausted before the end of the game. They take up space, though, and require wood to build, so other sources of food tend to be more effective while they last.

Markets

Gold can be traded for Food. Food can be obtained this way in all versions except for Age of Empires. This is because Age of Empires Markets do not support a resource exchange.

Fishing

Fishing boats, caravels, Villagers can usually gather fish if there is a significant amount of water on the map. Fishing is the best form of food collection, along with farms, because boats are cheap, cost only wood, and they don't waste villagers. Task your food-collecting villagers to trees instead.

Fishing is most effective in Age of Mythology because fishing spots in that game contain an infinite amount of food.

Herding (Age of Empires II onwards)

Age of Empires II introduced Sheep as a domestic animal with more types on later games. They could be found anywhere on the map as neutral units and when come to contact with a playable unit, their collars turns into the colour of the player's chosen colour and could be controlled, but if they get contacted with enemy unit, they immediately turn into enemy player's control but can be taken back by same means. When tasking a Villager on a domestic animal, he will herd them to the Town Center or the nearest Food drop site and slaughter them one by one and starts gathering meat of them similar to a hunted animal.

Here is a small list of the domesticable animals:

Sheep (Age of Empires II onwards)
Turkeys (Age of Empires II:The Conquerors, found on Mesoamerican maps)
Cow (Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III)
Pig (Age of Mythology only)
Goat (Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III (The Asian Dynasties, Chinese only)
Llama (Age of Empires III)

Fish Traps (Age of Empires II only)

Similar to farms, they are built by fishing boats.They contain 715 food and are built by using 100 wood. They will eventually run out of food and have to be rebuilt. They are superior to farms in that fishing boats can gather from them (freeing villagers to gather other resources); however, the most upgraded farms can produce more than them.

Factory (Age of Empires III only)

Factories can be set to produce an infinite supply of Food, as well as Wood and Coin. I can only be built if you have a "Factory" card and are in the Fortress Age or later.

Other methods

Docks (Age of Empires) and Trading Posts (Age of Empires III) are another ways to get Food, and act like markets (Age of Empires II). Age of Empires III also offers the option of Home City shipments as a means to get extra Food.

Cheats to get Food*

Age of Empires: Pepperoni Pizza + 1000 Food
Age of Empires II: Cheese Steak Jimmy's + 1000 Food
Age of Empires III: Medium Rare Please + 10,000 Food
Age of Mythology: JUNK FOOD NIGHT + 1000 Food

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 '''Food''' is one of the resources that the player will need to collect in all versions of [[Age of Empires]] and [[Age of Mythology]].
-Without Food a civilization won't get far. Food is absolutely necessary because it sustains the populations of civilizations and without it, everyone would die! In fact, it was only in the advent of agriculture that humans were able to create permanent villages and towns instead of living a nomadic hunter-gatherers.
+Without Food a civilization won't get far. Food is absolutely necessary because it sustains populations.  Without it, everyone would die!  In fact, it was only with the advent of agriculture that humans were able to create permanent villages and towns instead of living as nomadic hunter-gatherers.
 For Age of Empires and Age of Mythology, players must constantly be gathering food for creating units, researching technologies, sending shipments, and advancing their empire through all the ages.