After playing Medieval Overhaul for a few playthroughs and then returning to VE mods, one of the things that hit me the most was the vanilla meal trays.
Not only do they look subpar compared to the rest of the VE content, but they also don’t thematically fit any colony that isn’t an industrial era cafeteria.
Description
This is a simple patch that replaces vanilla meal textures with ones more fitting for pre-industrial playthroughs.
Changed Meals
- Simple Meal
- Fine Meal
- Canivore Fine Meal
- Vegetarian Fine Meal
- Lavish Meal
- Canivore Lavish Meal
- Vegetarian Lavish Meal
- Nutrient Paste Meal
- Packaged Survival Meal (and Ideology variations)
Updates
29/03/25 - Nutrient Paste Meal
Nutrient Paste has been retextured.
02/04/25 - Packaged Survival Meal
All three Packaged Survival Meals have been retextured.
10/04/25 - Vanilla Cooking Expanded
All original VCE Meals have been retextured.
13/04/25 - Vanilla Cooking Expanded: Stew
VCE Stews have been retextured.
14/04/25 - Big and Small - Genes & More
Note: On 1.4 and 1.5 only.
All B&S Large Meals have been retextured.
17/04/25 - Sauced Meals & Bakes, Ashes and Vanilla Simple Meals
All Sauced Meals have been retextured.
23/04/25 - Veg/Meat Ideology Variants to Nutrient Paste Meal, Fine Meal, and Lavish Meal
Added Ideology variants to Nutrient Paste, Simple Meal, Fine Meal and Lavish Meal.
26/04/25 - Baby Food & Pemmican
Pemmican and Biotech Baby Food have been retextured.
07/05/25 - VCE - Carnivore/Vegetarian Meals Patch
VCE Carnivore and Vege Meals Patch variants have been retextured.
16/09/25 - Survival Meal Pallet
Odyssey Survival Meal Pallet has been retextured.
Design Considerations
The new textures follow vanilla’s design philosophy:
- While they’re no longer rectangular, they maintain a round shape for easy recognition at a distance
- Their color reflects meal quality and ingredients (mixed, vegetarian, or meat-based).
- Includes x2 and x10 stack variants.
Technical Details
- Safe to add mid-game and should be safe to remove.
- Textures match vanilla resolution (128x128).
- Obviously, if you advance to Spacer tech while using this mod, your Spacer Pawns will still eat from bowls - but that has its own charm, right?
Future Plan
- Odyssey DLC support
- Kibble
- VE Cooking: Haute (Investigating)
- Meals from Alpha Bees
- Cannibal and Insect Meals
- Rotten Meat (if it gets to 1.6)
- Sanguine Dining
- Better Survival Meals
- Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded: Reimagined Progression
Credits
- Made using photopea[www.photopea.com]
- Inspiration comes from Medieval Overhaul
- Above screenshot was made using Vanilla Factions Expanded - Tribals, Vanilla Factions Expanded - Medieval 2, and Clean Textures
Assets
If you want to reuse the assets and make your own, here's a link to all my original files:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/czwsnxia9dblrtdr19opr/ADM3_oDVcDkCx9Ghp1lQdzY?rlkey=vwmfd1ek8wyg52f564wk5lqz6&st=4ds9ha4k&dl=0
