Food and Foraging

[xximrtwoixx 104]

I have two fundemental beliefs when it comes to dayz

1. Your goal is to survive as long as you can, while doing so I don't give a shit what your doing.

2. Nearly everything in the environment should be hostile, making belief one an active task at all time. Thus making everyminute you survive an accomplishment.

The largest part of surviving is aquiring sufficient calories/hydration to continue surviving. As it is now food/water items exist in two forms preserved (cans) and natural (meat & water), neither of which are that hard to aquire and niether pose any risk. I am partial to the real time aspect of dayz and believe that because of this farming/growing of food should not be introduced. This would be immersion breaking and also make it to easy to survive.

To recktify this I propose the addition of a comprehensive system that includes basic skills, new items, and changes to existing items.

1. Changes- Preserved items currently exhist in infinate amounts when they should exist in finite amounts given we are in a set geographic location, the same goes for animals (meat). I think this would be best addressed through scarcity mechanics (Tie spawn rates dynamically to possesion rates). This limits the no risk items. Meat should exist in a perishable state that also introduces contamination. (Either through aquiring (guttting) or through being spoiled (Item life timer). Spoiled meat would have negative side effects, illness much like being sick/infected now, lasting a set duration.

2. New Content

To make up for the reduction in available food through the changes in item one new food items and ways of aquiring them are introduced.

Berries- Four types of berries (items), each sharing the same in game models and inventory images. They do not stack and only one type is available from a given model. (They can't be distinguished from each other from the naked eye) An accompanying skill like foraging or botonay is introduced to allow the player to see the different names, otherwise they simply see a generic name like Berries or Red Berries.

Type 1- Fine to eat, one item restores hunger/blood as cans

Type 2- Restores hunger but makes you ill, hydration depletion rate doubles or some other limited negative side effect

Type 3- Makes you very ill, after 1-3 minutes player recieves 2 minute KO timer and begins to lose 10 blood a sec to total of 4k blood.

Type 4- Kills you, after 1-3 minutes player recieves 2 minute KO timer and begins to 10 blood/sec until death (maybe an additional antidote item could be included)

Mushrooms- Same as above berries, maybe a trippy color fade/aim wobble instead of sickness easier to do the same thing though simple reskin of above item.

Small game- Introduction of snare/trap item and accompanying skill to determine success. Player places item on the ground and item has a %Chance to aquire small game (Rabbit/Squirrel) every 5 minutes (could be adjusted to whatever). Chance is tied to players skill level with given item. Item when placed could act as a container that spawns meat inside of it or it could spawn a rabit carcas next to it. Item will run spawn chance until success then will only run aftr player resets item. Meat would function as noted in 1.

*Skill system to be expanded in later/additional post but there are many suggestions of how this could work as perk (one time choice) or expandable (build skill level).*

I think this would add tension to aquiring food and also expand the hostile environment that is DayZ.

[Sgt.Asshat 607]

Its already a survival game, not RPG lol

EDIT: tl;dr only saw skills and perks... nope.avi

Edited August 10, 2012 by Sgt.Asshat

[xximrtwoixx 104]

let the trolling begin....

I'd be fine implementing w/out skills but then you would always run the chance of poisoning yourself, could be fun but I think some people would bitch about it.

[xximrtwoixx 104]

bump

[falconne 13]

I think if you mention the word "skill" in a suggestion it will get shot down no matter what :P

[wtfosaurus 30]

I think this would be better implemented without skills, as said above, but maybe a book you can find in a residential spawn can help identify them. This still accomplishes what you want, without the need for a skill system.

[falconne 13]

I think this would be better implemented without skills, as said above, but maybe a book you can find in a residential spawn can help identify them. This still accomplishes what you want, without the need for a skill system.

Yeah I've thought it would be cool if you could "learn" things in the game by finding books (rarely) in certain buildings, like libraries and sometimes in residential buildings. It would allow more sandbox features to be added to the game, like foraging, repairing, first aid, etc. It shouldn't involve "skill levels" though, because that would encourage the "upskilling by grinding" pattern that RPGs use... it should just be "knowledge" that's hard to find, but if you find it it you have it, no need to have levels of it.

This could also promote more co-operation between strangers and less senseless killing. If some people may have valuable knowledge everyone would be more inclined to talk to each other to find out and there'd be more ad-hoc teamwork. Also you'd be far less likely to become a bandit and risk your character dying if he's learned some pretty useful things.

It's hard to implement without breaking plausibility though. Your character would need to spend a fair bit of time reading before he can learn something, so if you just make it so that he opens a book and he gains knowledge instantly, that breaks immersion. Maybe something like you have to put the book in your inventory and you only receive the knowledge if you leave it there for a certain amount of time. Then it starts getting messy.

Edited August 15, 2012 by falconne

[xximrtwoixx 104]

The main focus of the thread is changing the food system and introducing food that has negative side effects.

However your able to distinguish the types of food is irrelevant really. If you should be able to distinguish between harmful and safe food should be something discussed I think though.

[falconne 13]

The main focus of the thread is changing the food system and introducing food that has negative side effects.

However your able to distinguish the types of food is irrelevant really. If you should be able to distinguish between harmful and safe food should be something discussed I think though.

Well the main thing is that if you add foraging, you're going to need to add an "ability" for survivors to distinguish between good fruits and harmful ones. The graphic models should be generic, so players can't just learn what's what by looking at it. Instead their character would need to "learn" how to do it. And doing so by experimenting is not realistic... if you did that in real life you'd be dead. The only way to know what you can and cannot eat in the wilderness is to have someone teach you or read it in a book, hence the game would have to have such a mechanic too. That's why I was talking about learning from books.

[DizEx 0]

Survive, survive is the point of this game. Some things are annoying

[xximrtwoixx 104]

I think learning via experimentation would be realisitic, if you eat it you know what it is. Maybe include 2 of each kind, that way players would have the option to continue trying other kinds of berries/mushrooms even after they found one they knew they could eat safely.

It could the most plentiful source of food but would always carry a risk associated with eating it.

[falconne 13]

I think learning via experimentation would be realisitic, if you eat it you know what it is. Maybe include 2 of each kind, that way players would have the option to continue trying other kinds of berries/mushrooms even after they found one they knew they could eat safely.

It could the most plentiful source of food but would always carry a risk associated with eating it.

I'd disagree with that. If you went off into the wilderness and started eating random berries you'll eventually end up violently ill, possibly dead. You don't want a mechanic where a newly spawned player thinks "I just spawned, so I have nothing to lose, I'll try some berries.... oh that killed me... never mind, respawn, try some more berries... oh this one worked! Great, now this character will have an advantage for the the rest of its life!". Then it just becomes a dice roll every player takes with any fresh spawn until they have a good result to continue with.

[xximrtwoixx 104]

The system would mimic the fact that you could die or become ill, and fortune favors the bold so if you want to risk it so what. When that person dies it makes their death more painful as that toon had an advantage. I also think that later in the game people wouldnt be doing this as they would be running back to their tent/body/group.

[falconne 13]

Well I agree that foraging is a sensible feature to add to a survival game, but I think it has to be added in a way that enriches gameplay. Simply having it as a "Russian Roulette" style gamble where it's completely random whether you live or die is not that great for gameplay. There's no skill involved. It will become something that is part of the routine after a fresh spawn... simply head to the forest, try some berries; if you found the good stuff, then great, continue with the game with that advantage. If you get sick, keep trying till you die and then respawn and go try again.

Every other survival technique in the game requires skill and practice, which is why they are fun to learn. There's always luck involved, but you learn to take controlled risks and the better you get at the techniques the better your chances will be. That's why I was suggesting something along the lines of your character "learning" from books or other players about what's safe to eat. There's skill and risk involved in finding the information at least... although admittedly it's no different than the skill involved in finding weapons and ammo, so it needs more depth to make it something special and not just a rehash of existing features in a new light.