Insect Composition

[Wally-kun]

It kind of bothers me how reliant one can become on giant insects for food, particularly in the winter. Not that it’s not effective or anything, just that it’s actually a little too effective.

Insects are pretty high in protein when they’re small, so theoretically you’re talking about big nutritional value bloated up to the size of a horse or something. But their meat isn’t like that of a cow or a pig. They have very different internal structures and the meat in particular I imagine would be particularly fatty, goey, and perhaps a bit spongey. Their circulatory systems also tend to be one big open system, so theres a lot of room that is wasted because of the ‘blood’ flowing in the central parts. Lots of fluid and not especially dense.

On top of that is the grossnes factor. I don’t know about anyone else but the prospect of eating small insects is gross enough; an ant steak is still enough to make me recoil, even if it doesn’t have limbs or is curled up in a death position. It doesn’t look like a bug anymore but it’s still offensive to the senses almost instinctually. That and spongey chewy steak sounds…gross.

Basically, you can go the bug route if you want, it’s probably still very very good for you, but it’s also gross and should probably be changed a bit to reflect that. Specific meats for specific insects maybe.

Spiders in particular wouldn’t have much meat on them because their limbs use a kind of hydrolics system - they have even more fluid in them than normal. And I don’t know much about bees but they don’t scream ‘good eating’ to me, even on an inflated scale.

So I propose insect meat be put into its own special category of food and made to be less plentiful and carry not insignificant morale penalties (whatever effect those even have these days), but carry some subtle health improvements because of how nutritious the meat is. Not something you would want to survive on through the winter but it wouldn’t hurt if you did. Though your survivor will probably hate you for it.

…also the insects need to get their blood types changed. All ants should have the kind of blood that the larvae do because that’s the kind of blood they have, regardless of size. Also 90% sure spiders have blue blood.

Paint the landscape beautiful colors~

[Coolthulhu]

Insect meat actually is half-implemented. It’s just currently turned into normal meat because there are no recipes that use insect flesh.

If someone sends a PR with insect flesh item and few recipes like dehydrated insect flesh, soup with a (slab of) fly in it and cooked insect flesh, I’m pretty sure it would get in really quickly.

Apparently prepared insect flesh doesn’t taste bad. Unusual, but usually described as nutty or citrus-like rather than bitter or otherwise offensive.
While raw insect flesh and insect soup would probably be hard to stomach, fried insects are no longer gooey.

[Derpular]

Since giant insects got that way because of the blob’s influence, shouldn’t they drop tainted meat? I assume the blob is asserting a fairly direct action - giant insects just aren’t possible without some kind of magical handwaving - but even if you want to say it’s just some kind of weird mutation, that should still be considered a blob infection without equally-magical chemistry in the way to keep the blob from taking over (mutagen).

Otherwise - do you eat crab and lobster? Same phylum. The squick factor is just you not being used to it.

[Valpo]

Giant insects are not zombies. They are mutated versions of normal insects. You won t drop tainted meat either if you have had you body changed by mutations.
I am not sure which differense a z makes exactly when it comes to meat… But i would asume that theire meat is just rotten or something or extra high concentrations of blob because they died… well i am not sure.

[Derpular]

Giant insects are not zombies. They are mutated versions of normal insects. You won t drop tainted meat either if you have had you body changed by mutations.

According to the lore they ARE zombies, actually. While the blob remains quiescent in vertebrates while the vertebrate is alive, it starts right on up in some insects and makes them enormous. It’s the same process.

Mutations, on the other hand, are not directly caused by the blob, but by an extract of it that’s been filtered through some hilariously experimental SCIENCE!! first.

And interesting implication of this given my previous post, is that between the zombie sharks and the giant crabs, the ocean ought to be a very scary place.

[Valpo]

Well with the differense that the insects didn t have to die first. So maybe it has to do with the zombies beeing rotten.

[Coolthulhu]

According to the lore they ARE zombies, actually.

Zombies are fully blob-controlled animals. Mutant insects are mutated by the blob and carry it, but they use their own organs to do everything.
All humans in the game also have the blob. Mutagen is supposed to be blob-based.

[Belteshazzar]

Could be that the blob is trying to ‘juice up’ insects so they’ll make better hosts by bypassing the size limitations that would otherwise prevent them accumulating the critical mass required for ‘ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL’, at least I think I’d read a similar idea somewhere?

Still, could be that some element of their insect biology keeps their infection levels lower than mammals, or otherwise prevents them seizing control/killing the host.

Still, I remember hearing from a close friend that black olives taste similar to raw cockroach (supposedly why he cannot tolerate the taste of olives anymore.) Still, bugs wouldn’t be near the top of my ‘good eats’ list given the work that would go into shelling and cooking them correctly. Maybe make giant Louisiana shrimp boil style dishes (if you could find enough spices.)

[Snaaty]

I am also in favour of increasing penalties for eating insects. Maybe make a trait give resistance against that. Imho, even a self-prepared piece of meat from a deer you just hunted and butchered will probably be not very appetizing for most of us.

Also I have always wondered how insects even work when they are so big. IIRC, insects dont have lungs but instead get access to oxygen through their tracheae, tubes going through their body, I imagine it is hard for a man-sized insect to have sufficient tracheae.

[Darkfirephoenix]

Also I have always wondered how insects even work when they are so big. IIRC, insects dont have lungs but instead get access to oxygen through their tracheae, tubes going through their body, I imagine it is hard for a man-sized insect to have sufficient tracheae.

I also wonder about that. Insects are small nowadays because of their inefficient “breathing” system, they wouldn’t get enough oxygen to survive if they are giant sized. Millions of years ago we HAD giant insect due to much higher oxygen levels in the air.

But I think that maybe the blob gives the insects the needed energy to support their giant size.

[Snaaty]

But I think that maybe the blob gives the insects the needed energy to support their giant size.

That’s what so great about having some sort of pseudo-magical thing in your game; you can use it to explain even the most absurd and scientifically impossible situations. (not complaining, here)

[Nathan]

I’d think that XE-37 below the stasis limit isn’t enough to make meat considered tainted, but is enough to spark mutations, and that the reason why zombies are all tainted is that the stasis limit is no longer being observed within them.

[i2amroy]

Also I have always wondered how insects even work when they are so big. IIRC, insects dont have lungs but instead get access to oxygen through their tracheae, tubes going through their body, I imagine it is hard for a man-sized insect to have sufficient tracheae.

See, they are so old that they were grandfathered past the laws of the universe.

Joke about old game content aside, if I had to go with a current answer this is probably what I’d go with:

But I think that maybe the blob gives the insects the needed energy to support their giant size.

[Wally-kun]

I’d think that XE-37 below the stasis limit isn’t enough to make meat considered tainted, but is enough to spark mutations, and that the reason why zombies are all tainted is that the stasis limit is no longer being observed within them.

Something very interesting to see would be varying relationships between a blob and its host. For being a parasite, the relationship between humans (while living) and blobs is pretty symbiotic: the blob gets to exist outside its portals and humans get a plethora of benefits like vastly accelerated healing, increased survivability, and who knows what else? Being infected with a blob is actually a pretty good thing for the survivors. Till they aren’t survivors anymore. But that’s something else.

Insects are…strange. It’s a very strange reaction. Wherein humans blobs are passive and almost exclusively helpful (while alive), they sort of halfway take the reins right off the bat, but stop at allowing the insect to do its…insect-y things. Letting it have control despite doing what it wants to their anatomy. I’m pretty sure most giant insects could technically be zombified due to being over the necessary weight limit, but no zombie insects exist.

And then you have the fungus, which is just…terrifying. And also its own exclusive form of life. Regular blobs and fungaloids have almost nothing to do with one another anymore. They ascended into their own unique species.

I almost want to see what other kind of unique reactions the blob has with other creatures, but I’m a little bit afraid of the potential results.

[i2amroy]

Mutations are another benefit, including mutations from radiation (it’s the blob inside you trying to defend against an unknown stimulus). And yeah, The blob and Fungaloids are rather large enemies actually, which you can find out quite a bit about if you try to go down the fungaloid mutation line while having other types of mutations (or try to get others while you are half fungaloid).

More faction interactions is definitely something I’d like to set up in the future, and I’ve also got a whole list of possible ideas just waiting on the point when we can have different factions actively changing the map while the player isn’t present.

[Pthalocy]

I’d wanna do some research on how different bugs taste before considering penalties to morale for their consumption. XD

I’ve had toasted mealworms and crickets, though frankly, they were so much toasted I found them to be rather bland. Proteiny, but bland. You know when you eat popcorn, you get the kernel’s skins stuck in your teeth sometimes? I’d liken the crickets I had to that for texture and not far off from flavour. Vaguely nutty. Crunchier, but still teeth-sticking. Would be improved with the addition of cheese, or more biomasse on the bug’s part.

[Wally-kun]

I looked around online and have seen comparisons to nuts and also to citrus. Which makes sense to some degree; in Australia they had these really green ants that you could just straight up eat and they said it tasted almost exactly like lemon (though I was not brave enough to test it myself). They made tea out of them as well, apparently, and also have a very distinct lemon flavor. Online people have said there are a few other species with some faintly citrus-y tastes but I haven’t looked particularly hard.

I think it’s very difficult to tell exactly what they taste like if you like, cooked them, because a lot of what you’re going to be tasting is the chitin or the exoskeleton, which would probably be shucked off if they were the size of, say, a cow or something. It’s probably bland because, again, just chitin/exoskeleton. Whatever’s underneath is also probably toasted so thoroughly that whatever is actually there won’t taste like much at all.

I think if you skinned something and THEN cooked it and ate it, you might have a better general idea, but I’m going to run with the assumption that certain species taste vaguely citrus-y but that the texture would be most of what would turn people off. I’m thinking crab meat but with a little bit more fluid and no saltiness.

Still rooting for the ant blood conversion. They should all relaly have the same blood type as Mi-go’s and ant larvae, cuz, well, that’s what kind of blood they have. Not sure about the color but grey seems as good as anything else.

[Pthalocy]

Crab and lobster are probably fair comparison for texture given their exoskeletal nature. Of course, both of those are both gross to some and delicacies to others. I’m beginning to think an agreed-upon definition for ‘gross’ food would be too much work to resolve XD

I kind of think it’d be really neat if dead giant spiders got harvested for a gallon or two of nutritious goo instead of meat XD

Most ants I’ve squished exude a yellow-grey paste. I am unable to tell if that’s just blood or not. Mmm, goo.

It should be mentioned that I’ve largely given up several junkfoods and most sugar consumption. On the rare occasion I try doritos or something, I am repeatedly impressed with how caustically over-flavoured these items are. So I wonder if bugs come across as bland due to a cultural bias towards absurd flavour use? I mean I used to think nuts and coconut water were boring but that’s probably because nobody’s tongue can taste anything after a cola/salt n’ vinegar chip exfoliation.

[Wally-kun]

Raw would probably be god awful and almost guaranteed parasites though. It’d also probably be extremely healthy. Bug meat, that is. But also probably not quite as plentiful as other sources because of the amount of fluid in them.

[Pthalocy]

…do bugs even get parasites that can affect humans? I mean, I know bees have huge problems with mites. With bees being gigantic in CATA, I could see mites being more of a MUTANT FLEAS sort of problem.

…actually that would be a hilarious problem, can we find a place for that in this game too?

Additionally, I was thinking spider goo could go in soup like some kind of delicious cream of ‘mushroom’ blasphemy. Dang I need to learn how to code.