Wouldnt the alien planet already be self sufficient WRT food when you conquer it? (how else could it still exist) Maybe some was destroyed in the fight but probably some of the population died as well to balance it out.

That planet belonged to another empire, it got food transported from their farming planets. Upon conquest the food transfer obviously ceased.

Perhaps you could grow the food on planets you already control that have the right conditions to grow said foodstuffs? It could make for an interesting dynamic if you had to plan for resources and transporting them ahead of time to be in a position to supply your newly conquered planet with supplies. Alternatively, you could also invade appropriate farming planets prior to invasion depending on how aggressive you are.

EDIT: This could also create interesting game play when balancing the resources you're creating for different races when making decisions over expanding your Empire.

EDIT 2: Another potential idea can also be that if you have any allies with appropriate food supplies you can strike trade agreements for that planet to be supplied until you've set up your own system.

I agree that the planet will have food, yet if we look at human history we will see that after a time of war most deaths to the local population was because of starving, or illness caused by starvation.

Even if there has been no real large scale war between developed countries recently so we could see the effects, we can speculate that most able people will be helping with the war and this will slow down production. Even when most people know food comes from farms very few of them know the locations of the farms, or how to farm.

Also during world war 2 most countries suffered large resource scarcities, it's safe to say that after a planet is conquered it will undergo a recovery stage.

The thing about food is how it's processed, when food is considered bad for a animal it means that the animals digestive system can't break it down into fuel. A combination of acids and digestive enzyme allow food to be broken into the needed chemical fuels.

All combos of acids and enzymes can break down some basic elements even if some are slow at it, so a all purpose food can be made that all animals and even plants can consume for fuel.

At the moment the human race has gone in the opposite direction, we make ideal food for cats and dogs that works better with there digestive system, this in turn makes it harder to consume by other animals.

So your military or what ever organization monitors them, will have some kind of Food-X to help with refuge relief efforts.

However for people the ideal survival food would be potato mash, milk and a small amount of butter or margarine. Eating some thing like this for a long time will be unpleasant. Also in real relief efforts grain is used instead, it has a wider variety of uses.

To avoid players saying Food-X isn't realistic you can be vague about it, use some thing like "Made by scientist to help alien refugees, during times of war." for flavor text.

You could also let the player choose between importing from other alien planets for a high prices, or using Food-X but it negatively effects war propaganda.

Waterlimon, on 17 Aug 2015 - 12:27 PM, said:

Wouldnt the alien planet already be self sufficient WRT food when you conquer it? (how else could it still exist) Maybe some was destroyed in the fight but probably some of the population died as well to balance it out.

That planet belonged to another empire, it got food transported from their farming planets. Upon conquest the food transfer obviously ceased.

What if it's just seen as a strategic matter? If you hope to conquer an alien race you had better start with their farming planets otherwise expect to never be able to hold onto anything else for long.