Food matters! [Food durability, nutrition value, and other effects]

[Wep0n 532]

I got some inspiration from "don't starve" and i think that different food items should have different durability and nutritional value.

food should be one of the biggest concerns a player should have in the world. currently everyone has beans, and those beans hold forever. that should not be so!

people should scavenge the forests and fields for berries, mushrooms, nuts, fruits, animals...

and people should process/craft these items... out of berries you could make jelly, put it into a bottle to keep it durable. meat and other items can be dried/smoked, and become alot more durable and lighter to carry.

people would have to maintain a fire for a longer period of time in order to smoke meat, and therefore gather wood to keep the fire going.

it is very unrealistic that you find cans everywhere, since most of them were already eaten during the apocalypse.

so cans/candy bars should be alot more rare to find and have a good nutritional value, aswell as infinite durability.

it will be the goal for high end players to find many of these for storage. also, it is always decent to have some of them close by in case food rations get low.

other food items have a certain durability, and will not hold on for too long. nuts could be stored for almost forever, while raw meat should be cooked and eaten within... lets say 2 game days, which is 8-16 hours of playtime. after a while, things could start to rot, and players could become very sick.

"smelling" the food item should give information about the condition of the item, but the safest way to be sure if the item is still okay is to know how old it is. people might sell you rotten meat which still appears to be fine, and you should be careful with looting players as their food might be infected with sickness.

cannibalism should be a way to get food in desperate times, but with a high risk of sickness.

nutritional value should depend on the food item. so 1kg of potatoes will restore more hunger than 1kg of salad.

people will of course try to find food items which are more durable aswell as a higher nutritional value per kilogram.

different food items might have different effects on you. meat for example should regenerate blood faster than vegetables.

hunting should be challenging and very difficult. animals should have a good AI, and run away. meat will restore alot of hunger and heal wounds quicker, but not durable at all.

Knowledge also plays an important role to determine the condition of food items, aswell as be able to determine which berries/mushrooms are edible.

there should also be food items like certain mushrooms which have a certain nutritional value, but cause negative side effects and should only be consumed in desperate times.

of course i know that most of these features take a long time to implement, and i am not expecting it to be done early, but i defenitely think that this should be a long term goal.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Wep0n

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

I love Don't Starve too and when I was experimenting with different recipes I was constantly thinking how cool it would be to have something similar in DayZ. I like almost every part of your suggestion. Have some beans.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Fraggle

[applejaxc 2500]

--snip--

You're challenging realism and balance. You said, "...candy bars thus should have a higher nutritional value" or something like that, aye? Well, I can see your point of "The rarer it is, the better it is," but "Nutritional value" would be a HUGE misnomer. If you wanted that system, you would have to call it something else. And calling it something else would make it a silly mechanic.

As for durability and degradability:

Cans are made to hold for as long as possible.

Butchering animals should give you raw meat. After time, raw meat becomes inedible After cooking it, you have fresh meat. Fresh meat becomes old meat, which is worth less "N value" and has a higher chance of disease. Old meat becomes inedible.

Canned goods/bottled water should last fairly long.

Processed goods (AKA, candy bars) don't biodegrade correctly. In fact, most "Potato chip" companies can't legally call their thing a potato chip. I won't name any names, but I won't be eating anymore chips out of tubes. These foods are also bad for you. Basically, the longer the food lasts, the more it hurts you. IE, twinkies = death by lack of nutrition

[djzombie 22]

i actually just posted this is another thread about deer, but i think its super appropriate here:

it would be kinda cool would be if different animals yielded different meat, and there was a whole cooking system where different meats / meals give you different bonuses, nothing huge, just some ideas:

1.) small amount of blood regenerated for the next 30 mins / hour.

2.) decrease dehydration rate for the next 30 mins / hour.

3.) decrease hunger rate for the next 30 mins / hour.

4.) immune system boost - immune to sickness for the next 30 mins / hour.

5.) increase bone strength - less likely to suffer a broken limb for the next 30 mins / hour.

all of these things meals could reasonably provide you(ie theres no "magic", for instance soups and stews could provide the hydration buff, big steaks could provide either the regen or the hunger rate, citrus fruits could provide the immune system boost, and any calcium based would provide bone strength(though i'd be surprised to find much dairy after the apocolypse) and don't seem too overpowered.

so you could make how the meat was prepared just as important as what the meat is by mixing and matching those bonuses positively and negatively based on how it was prepared. which would also give way to having different tools to cook with as well.

that would be another huge thing to add to the game, being able to capture, breed, and use livestock like cows/goats for dairy.) being able to pick fruit from trees would be amazing. agriculture in general would be amazing if you could plant and harvest food.

the thing is in an apocolypse of any kind there is a finite amount of supplies, whether its food or fuel, anything consumable will eventually be gone as if its an unrenewable resource.

so i think that server just respawning stuff over and over and over and over as people come and take it works mechanically, i dont think anyone could realistically survive during an apocolypse without some type of self sufficient way of food production(ie agriculture)

the forest animals will be more hunted than they've ever been in that scenario as well so unless you can breed them you can't guarentee any kind of lasting supply there either.

[Florx 1326]

Very good suggestion. i like it :thumbsup:

[person915 345]

I though you were going to be like "And there should be a food pyramid in the standalone so you have to eat a certain amount of each kind of food every day or you will get fat/sick/dead."

I like this better. Believe it or not, I like the WarZ model how some drinks restore a tiny bit of hunger and some salty or fatty foods take down a little bit of thirst.

I also think that the hunger meter should be based on meals. The first set of colors represents how hungry you are for the meal. When it turns yellow you should probably eat. Afterward, if you would get to the point where you have skipped one meal and are already hungry for the next, you are starting to starve and it will flash a pale, yellowish-green. Once you've skipped yet another meal it will flash orange for starvation, and if yet another it will flash red for extreme starvation.

Then of course you would have to eat a bunch of food to get back up to not hungry anymore, but then that's the beauty of it; you could remain hungry if you needed to, and ration out your food. Might be more miserable but you'll live a little longer that way!

[Wep0n 532]

" but "Nutritional value" would be a HUGE misnomer. If you wanted that system, you would have to call it something else.

by nutritional value i mean calories and proteins.

when you try to survive, yur biggest concern will be to get more calories, so a candy bar will make you happier than an apple.

the swiss army has "survival rations" which are made out of chocolate, nuts and other ingredients. i, as a swiss person kid you not.

now i agree that candy is bad for your health in the long term, but i am pretty sure you could add some long term benefits from eating vegetables aswell.

fresh fruits and vegetables give you more vitamins and should increase your immune system.

1.) small amount of blood regenerated for the next 30 mins / hour.

2.) decrease dehydration rate for the next 30 mins / hour.

3.) decrease hunger rate for the next 30 mins / hour.

4.) immune system boost - immune to sickness for the next 30 mins / hour.

5.) increase bone strength - less likely to suffer a broken limb for the next 30 mins / hour.

some good ideas for attributes. different food items have different values. but i think things like immune system boost should rather be something long-term.

eating fruits for several hours will not make you very vulnerable to sicknesses, but eating regularly some veggies/fruits should grant you a good immune system for a long while.

of course people should not just eat tons of items just to gain attributes, so the benefits should be toned down, and eating too much will make you slower and cause negative effects.

things like bone strenght should only affect you if you are severely malnourished for a long period of time...

instead of "boost", i'd actually like to call them "attributes that you should have aslong as you eat for a longer time period"

only if you start eating unhealthy/not enough, these attributes should slowly wear off.

i dont want to see people eating apples before combat to get a "boost".

Edited April 8, 2013 by Wep0n

[djzombie 22]

im all for making the systems as true to life as possible - that was just a rough layout i drew of some possible bonuses that wouldn't affect anyone elses gameplay.