Starvation Overhaul QoL Improvements

[Robzom11 109]

Starvation Overhaul

 

*Some of these ideas are not entirely mine, but i add onto them abit, and thought they needed their own post. I also have no problem with the current "difficulty" of starving and am not trying to suggest it be easier*

Currently the way starvation works in 1.06 is pretty simple, in terms of the impact that starving has on your character. There are mechanics & elements at play that do influence your hunger degeneration (using energy/stamina, aswell as body temperature, being sick). However there is no impact on your character when starving, other than loosing health and dying shortly after. These few suggestions are ment to focus on the impact starvation has on your character as well as some other ideas of what could further influence starvation.

The current impact starvation has on your character is very straightforward, you reach red hunger and you will die in minuites from there on unless you eat. While it works i think it could be more interesting. 

These are all fairly obtainable suggestions that would elevate the starvation mechanic into a more authentic, thoughtful, and perhaps difficult gameplay mechanic.

1. Instead of character health dropping to zero when reaching red hunger your health should drop to 25% and stay there without health regeneration, then when your hunger reaches flashing red, your health can start depleting to 0%.

This would make starvation have a significant penalty period before outright killing you and also allow the following suggestions to really thrive. I feel this is integral to the starvation overhaul. 

2. Increase the duration of time survivors are able to stay in red hunger. 

Without this change the first change wouldn't have any noticeable affect. I'm not sure how much time should be given, maybe 20 minuites before flashing red hunger appears if your body temp is normal. Taking into consideration point 1, player speed is also slow at red health so your not going to make it far, making any increase to time not nearly as powerful as you might initially think.

3. No stamina regeneration while in red hunger (or no stamina at all) 

This just makes sense, a symptom of starvation is weakness.

4. Decreased immunity to diseases + diseases caused from prolonged starvation (refeeding syndrome? Lol)

.  Not much to say here, here's some links about starvation...           https://www.newhealthadvisor.org/Symptoms-of-Starvation.html.       /   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation  /  https://www.healthline.com/health/refeeding-syndrome#causes 

 

5. Fat reserves based on how long you keep your character well fed.

I'm not sure about the logistics but I'm imagining something simple like a 0-5 number system that goes up 1 point every hour if you have kept yourself well fed. The timer restarts when yellow hunger is reached, and your fat starts going down (maybe every point of the fat reserve adds a minute longer to being in the yellow phase of hunger). Freshies could spawn with a fat reserve of 1.

6. Muscle reserves based on how many times you swing a weapon and how many km you travel

Part of the benefit could be seen as a softskill that would vary on muscle, but as a starting idea it would allow survivors to carry more weight by reducing the overall stamina cost that carrying alot of weight brings. It's just something that adds more value to your character over time . Just as if not more important it would add to the survival depth by absorbing the muscle during starvation. Similar to the fat reserve, only the muscle reserves start depleting during the red phase of starvation instead of the yellow phase as that would make more sense both for gameplay & authenticity. 

7. Weaker bones after prolonged muscle & fat deficiency

Maybe a prolonged muscle & fat reserve of 0 would cause this.

 

The overall goal of these suggestions is to expand upon the impact starvation has on your character while not trying to compromise difficulty or authenticity. If these changes were added Starving would have an impact on the characters ability to maneuver and fight and just add more depth into the actual experience itself, rather then a quick decline in health until death. Your character would be in a fragile, almost hopeless state, until you finally reach flashing red hunger and die or find food and even then special care would be required. I'm not entirely sure on the specifics, either way i think it's a more interactive & authentic system of starvation compared to what we have now. 

Thanks for reading. 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by Robzom11

[green_mtn_grandbob 594]

Sorry i'll get back to read this post as i have to get some thing to eat as i don't want to starve to death reading it.

[Robzom11 109]

@green_mtn_grandbob You should've just kept reading then in my opinion lol. Also that's where the fat reserves come into play, see my good sir if you're fat enough you might just be able to read the post and get something to eat! Imagine the opportunities. I can bore you without you starving to death, and you can be bored while starving me of any joy in life!