Weight Tiers

[onlyusemeazn 0]

I was watching videos from SideStrafe (YouTube commentator) and he mentioned how the body lives off fat when food is not available. So, why not give players a choice of body composition when creating their new character.

Tier (BC Choice) 1: A bit more chunky and slow, but hunger depletes at a decreased rate.

Tier 2: Average weight and speed with average hunger depletion.

Tier 3: Skinny, fast, but hunger depletes quickly.

This is just a rough idea. You could get even more in depth by adding different foods that could shape a player's body composition (meaning the player starts out with a Tier 2-esque build). Twinkies can make them fat or something. loool

I'm not a medical doctor and I'm not the most experienced with the human body, but this could be interesting.

Comment and Add to it or change it and stuff. c:

[Saul Weinstein 0]

To make it ultra-realistic your body type should be randomized at respawn.

You can be a fat diabetic who needs to find insulin or you will slip into a coma, or you can be a fit, athletic person. Or something in between.

[Runtz 0]

I love the Tiers! I think its a great idea for the future. The going in-depth thing could prove difficult so maybe not but we'll see. I do really like the Tier idea, it is awesome. :D

[onlyusemeazn 0]

@Saul Weinstein Great idea :D Maybe the server admin can force obesity or somethin' :P

@Runtz Thanks ^.^ The in-depth part is near extreme, but like you said, we'll see.

[DevilDog (DayZ) 455]

You would have to account for the fact that the larger you are the more calories you burn and thus the more food you need though. :-/

[onlyusemeazn 0]

You would have to account for the fact that the larger you are the more calories you burn and thus the more food you need though. :-/

I thought the more athletic you are the more calories you burn so the more you can consume. Again, I'm no physiology wiz. Maybe they should add a craving system so the larger players want food more but don't actually need it. Agh more complexity.

[WhiteTigerShiro 25]

Bad idea, simply because of balance issues. As-is I can scavenge food a lot faster than I can eat it, to the point where it doesn't take long before I'm just leaving it behind; and I'm just an average player at best. So it'd be too obvious that the easy pick is the skinny guy, since having boosted run speed with be GREAT for evading zeds and getting from town to town a bit faster; and all at the low low cost of having to lot a couple more of those food items that I would have left behind anyway.

Broken idea needs more balance, and kinda feels needless, anyway.

[Claytonaj 12]

No to the tiers, but perhaps to allowing different body shapes to develop according to energy intake and expenditure. In the vast majority of cases an individual's weight reflects the balance between the amount they eat and the amount they exercise. So, if you eat lots and sit in a bush for 3 weeks sniping you'll become fat, whereas if you run around eating only when hungry you'll be lean.

The repurcussions might be that if you're fat you move more slowly (zeds can catch you even when you're sprinting) but you can go hungry for longer. If you're lean you can move quickly but you will starve more rapidly, should you go without food, due to lack of fat reserves. Not sure about other medical symptoms associated with weight, it quickly gets more complex beyond this..

People should spawn somewhere in the middle of this continuum, and their behaviour determines the way their body adapts.

[WhiteTigerShiro 25]

Not a terrible idea on playstyle/eating habits causing your character to gain/lose weight.

Still, the idea is based on a flawed premise anyway. Just because the body is able to survive on stored fats doesn't mean that it's easy to do. You don't just "not get hungry" just because you have a few extra pounds, and going too long without eating will still cause hunger withdrawal side-effects. So whether your character can gain or lose weight shouldn't have bearing on the hunger meter.

[Claytonaj 12]

whether your character can gain or lose weight shouldn't have bearing on the hunger meter.

I wasn't suggesting it should; I might've made it clearer. You'd get 'hungry' whatever your weight (the icon would flash) but if you're fat you can go hungry longer before succumbing to starvation.

Also, starvation is an interesting problem, since seriously emaciated people can't simply eat a tin of beans to renourish, not without regurgitating it.. I don't suppose there are currently enough foods to allow someone to be weaned back onto solid food.

[onlyusemeazn 0]

True to both of your statements. So what now, kinda develop the nutritional diet/play style effect on weight? I like Claytonaj's idea with players spawning in the continuum. Should it even deal with hunger or be it's own separate stat?

[Claytonaj 12]

I don't know about the perception of hunger as it relates to bodyweight. Whether that's even correlated. Might be worth looking into. My suspicion is that it varies so much between people that it's really not related, just an assumption that fat people must feel hungrier because they're fat. I know plenty of skinny people who are always hungry!

Let 'perceived hunger' (indicated by the HUD icon) be unrelated to weight, but increase with physical activity. It's probably about right in the game as things stand. Although it is often the case that as long as you're occupied doing something you forget about hunger, and only when you stop you 'realise' how hungry you are, or is that just me? If I'm unoccupied for long periods I'll tend to feel like eating regularly -- in other words I feel hungrier -- whereas I can work all day without a thought to eating. Could this effect be replicated in the game? TBH it might just be too subjective to be able to reflect every player's relationship with food.