If I may, I can tell you. To a newbie the current situation is more than enough to handle. As a newbie, even with a map, with extensive amount of "getting to know the game" (still noob of course, for the next dozens or more hours) dying of hunger really prevents you from doing anything useful in this game. I understand that if you more or less know all the techniques, all the details, able to interpret the map completely and know what to do in any situation with regards to survival, then yes, you'll probably not have a lot of deaths based on hunger. But then again nothing BI can realistically change will alter that situation. You're still gonna make it and not die of anything stupid. While newcomers have the hardest time surviving as it is and the threshold to get over that initial bump is quite heavy. We played 2 years ago and managed decently alright, we just started a couple of weeks ago again and I can tell you. The game is definitely very interesting but with everything it throws at you also extremely demanding and that's putting it lightly. The hunger, especially in combination with the cold, alone are more than a handful to manage, together with the sickness and low amount of loot it's keeping us basically busy 100% of the time already. I don't think the game wants to dismiss newcomers in droves. I don't think any game can afford that really, this not being an exception. About your "90 minutes dying hunger too trivial" - sometimes I run around for more than an hour, from tree to tree, finding 1 apple, yes, as said, NOOB, I know. Desparately looking for that chicken in nowhere (it is on the map). Didn't spawn? Do these rotate through spawn locations? I don't know. Right now, I would really recommend for you to find a hardcore server, the game is right at the edge of undoable for us. Luckily we like a challenge. But there is that - imho it doesn't need more of it at the moment. Just my 2 cents.
