# How can some materials have an effect on a completed item but others don't?

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-can-some-materials-have-an-effect-on-a-completed-item-but-others-dont/20887>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [July 26, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-can-some-materials-have-an-effect-on-a-completed-item-but-others-dont/20887 "2019-07-26T03:48:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bio](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/bio/32/6690_2.png) [@Bio](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Bio)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-can-some-materials-have-an-effect-on-a-completed-item-but-others-dont/20887/1 "2019-07-26T03:48:37Z")

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It seems that sometimes items chosen in a recipe affect the finished product, but often don’t.  
Like for fruit leathers the calorie amount may change based on what fruit I used, however when I make a meat sandwich the amount of calories seems fixed (such as using cracklins as meat causing the amount of calories to decrease from 500 to 200)  
If I were to use a plutonium cell to make a laser pointer for my gun, would it still work like a battery powered one, or would it have 14 million year battery life?

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**Author:** ![Podesta](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/podesta/32/2524_2.png) [@Podesta](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Podesta)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-can-some-materials-have-an-effect-on-a-completed-item-but-others-dont/20887/2 "2019-07-26T04:04:21Z")

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Are you sure the fruit leather changes based on the ingredients you use? Unless the crafting system changed since the last time I played, it isn’t possible. The crafting is fairly rudimentary, and unlike, let’s say Project Zomboid, the end result is always the same. To have different fruit leathers based on the fruit, you would need a different recipe, resulting in a different item for each one. That’s one of the reasons I felt like the vitamins system didn’t work so well when it was implemented. You often times end up losing a lot of vitamins when cooking food, because it can’t account for different ingredients.

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**Author:** ![Abraham\_Limpo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/abraham_limpo/32/6711_2.png) [@Abraham\_Limpo](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Abraham_Limpo)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 8:31am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-can-some-materials-have-an-effect-on-a-completed-item-but-others-dont/20887/3 "2019-07-26T08:31:19Z")

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I don’t know about fruit leather but on 0.D stable desiccated fruit and vegetables have different values depending on the fruit or vegetable you used. Maybe it changed later?

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**Author:** ![Trigon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/trigon/32/2668_2.png) [@Trigon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Trigon)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-can-some-materials-have-an-effect-on-a-completed-item-but-others-dont/20887/4 "2019-07-26T13:26:53Z")

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It was changed around the release of .D (a few days before it went stable iirc) so that food values are now dependent on their input ingredients for nutrition. I think some of the recipes give a bonus to caloric value, but if any of them are just deleting calories I’m pretty sure it’s a bug.

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**Author:** ![Podesta](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/podesta/32/2524_2.png) [@Podesta](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Podesta)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 1:55pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-can-some-materials-have-an-effect-on-a-completed-item-but-others-dont/20887/5 "2019-07-26T13:55:51Z")

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Yeah, after Abraham’s comment I tested it, and that’s true. I was looking for the PR, and finally found it as [PR #27252](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/27252) from January this year.

So I tested specifically the meat sandwich, and it seems to be working correctly. To craft a meat sandwich from cracklings (typo in the game, without the g, BTW), you need 2 bread (2x84=168) and 1 crackling (270), resulting in 2 portions of meat sandwich, each with 219 calories (168+270=219x2=438).

I’m clearly not up to date with the new system, but maybe there are other interactions at play that made OP’s sandwich not get the same results as I did? Maybe stale or rotten food has few calories, which translate to a lesser sandwich?

> <https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/27252>

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**Author:** ![Bio](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/bio/32/6690_2.png) [@Bio](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Bio)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-can-some-materials-have-an-effect-on-a-completed-item-but-others-dont/20887/6 "2019-07-26T20:34:52Z")

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yeah. some of the fruit leathers I made were 40 cal whereas others would 100 cal or higher.  
I’m currently using the stable version.