How Starvation Should Work

[FlimFlamm 509]

Currently we have an "energy" statistic which spans -500 to +20000 in variance. When your energy is below 0, you steadily lose blood at a set rate, until death. When your energy is at 4000+ (and you are hydrated and uninjured) you will slowly gain blood, (and when your blood is full you will gain health).

The first problem with this system is first that there is no distinction between "fat" (energy above 4000), and the daily food-intake requirements of actually having energy. A player can over time max their energy bar and then spend a ridiculously long time drinking only water while suffering no detrimental effects. In the real world, you can survive on fat and water only (while fat stores last) but you will be in a state of reduced energy throughout this process. Furthermore, when fat stores run out death is not quick. People in extremely malnourished states languish for a long time in a state of severely compromised energy levels, (and symptoms including compromised immune system, extreme sensitivity to cold, hallucinations, and more).

Right now the incentive to be well fed is to heal/replenish blood, but other than that the only incentive to eat at all is to not die. It should be such that being consistently fed means you have top notch stamina, top notch ability to resist cold, a top notch immune system, and can build a "fat" statistic which will determine how long people can last without any food intake. When starvation does occur, it needs to be slow and painful instead of quick and easy. This gives players a greater chance to come back from starvation, but also makes it an inherently more painful and difficult experience: a reason to not flirt with malnutrition for those who want to stay alive.

So here are some proposed mechanics based on this:

Energy bar: [0 - 4000] This is raised by food consumption, and is constantly being consumed (more or less depending on physical activity/environment temperature).

Fat Bar: [-5000 - 25,000] This is raised when the energy bar receives surplus, and is lowered when the energy bar is at 0 (more or less depending on physical activity/environment temperature).

When players have some fat and some energy they are healthy and experience no penalty. When players run out of energy and start consuming fat their ability to sprint and/or their movement speed is reduced, their immune system is weakened, and they have increased sensitivity to cold. When players eat food from this state they gain some energy and thus regain the ability to sprint for longer periods, to resist cold, and immunity strength. When their energy bar runs out again they revert back to consuming their fat bar and accompanying penalties.

When players have a fat bar that is below 0, they are emaciated. This means their organs have begun consuming themselves, which results in a very compromised immune system, extreme sensitivity to cold, and an inability to perform overly physical tasks (I.E: sprinting). If players eat while in this state they can regain some movement speed while their energy bar lasts, but the detrimental effects of being emaciated will not go away until players actually gain weight by maxing their energy bar and then continuing to eat until their fat bar is above 0. When the fat bar is at -5000, blood and health start dropping until the player dies, by which time should feel like a sweet release.

This simple system could be tweaked by tying scaling cold resistance, scaling melee strength, (and body-weight) to the fat bar so that as it falls toward unhealthy levels slight penalties are increasingly felt. Additionally the fat bar could go even higher into "over-weight" territory and have trade-offs of lost movement speed for increased strength, cold resistance, and of course a longer lasting fat store (great for hermits and base-keepers?). Further tweaking can be determined by associating fat quality with individual food types such that some foods (like meat) give a much easier time of adding to fat stores while others are better for energy on the spot. This would force survivors over time to actually have a somewhat balanced diet and actually somewhat simulate real world nutrition.

 

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Some immediate benefits to a system like this will be to create advantages and disadvantages in PvP confrontation which can be determined by how well each player performs over the long term rather that just what gear they are wearing at the time. "PvPers" will have to contend with diet in addition to getting and storing good gear, which over the long run will separate the better organized, better prepared, healthier players, from the sickly ones who live only on sugar and Spite. This gives more value to hunting and farming, and also to cooperation and base-ownership for the purpose of building balanced and high quality food stores. It becomes harder to stay in top condition by requiring steady food intake in addition to steady water intake (as god intended), gives incentives to stay in top condition, and prolongs the experience of starvation which makes it more painful to go through but also more surmountable in the long run (at least from a moderate beginning state of health).

All of the numbers can be tweaked for balance along with fat/energy consumption rates and additional status effects could be considered

Thoughts?

Edited March 3, 2017 by FlimFlamm

[BeefBacon 1185]

Excellent idea.

It'd be nice if characters' physical appearances reflected their food intake. That is to say, emaciated players look thin and gaunt, well-fed players look healthy and over-fed players look fat. Failing that, different animation sets for different weights would be really cool, or really any way to immediately determine how well fed a player is. I expect a gaunt figure would be more likely to kill me if he thinks I might have a can of beans on me.

I'm worried the food system won't be particularly in-depth. I've not really heard about it - same with the medical system. Hopefully how (or if) the core mechanics like hunger and medicine will expand will be covered in an upcoming status report. Same with stamina. I think a lot of people have reservations about the soft skills. I'll adopt a 'wait and see' attitude.

[FlimFlamm 509]

3 hours ago, BeefBacon said:

Excellent idea.

It'd be nice if characters' physical appearances reflected their food intake. That is to say, emaciated players look thin and gaunt, well-fed players look healthy and over-fed players look fat. Failing that, different animation sets for different weights would be really cool, or really any way to immediately determine how well fed a player is. I expect a gaunt figure would be more likely to kill me if he thinks I might have a can of beans on me.

I'm worried the food system won't be particularly in-depth. I've not really heard about it - same with the medical system. Hopefully how (or if) the core mechanics like hunger and medicine will expand will be covered in an upcoming status report. Same with stamina. I think a lot of people have reservations about the soft skills. I'll adopt a 'wait and see' attitude.

If it was easily possible to give players an overweight or skinny look to reflect their nutritional health, that would be really awesome, but  it might be too costly or tricky to implement. Even if no visual indicators of weight are available it will still be worth simulating it's effects. Examining another player up close could reveal their rough body size though.

Hopefully we get some versatile food mechanics in addition to the medical system. I do hope we get as in-depth a simulator as possible even in these regards because of the possibilities they open up for diverse in-game experiences.

Edited March 3, 2017 by FlimFlamm