Food Rationing 101: A Beginner's Guide to the Gods Who Watch us All.

[a razor named qualia]

(This isn't a guide because I didn't feel it needed to be).

As an avid player of Gods Will Be Watching (Seriously, buy it), and Project Zomboid I decided to make this, as a guide to a new player in MP facing a hard scenerio. This time: It's Starvation.

NOTE: THIS HYPOTHETICAL SCENERIO WILL NOT BE THE SAME FOR ALL OF YOU. AND YOU MAY BE FACING EQUALLY HARD OR EASIER HARDSHIPS, ALONG WITH OTHER PROBLEMS AND MEMBERS. ALTER THIS COURSE OF ACTION ACCORDINGLY.

The Scenerio is this: You are playing with a group of five other friends and soon ran out of food in your safehouse. You are not currently self reliant and cannot hunt for food all the time. All of this coupled with regular zombie attacks and an unstable team. There are no traders, no farming available to you.

STEPS TO SURVIVE PART I: LEADERSHIP

1A: Gain Leadership.

These people are your friends, you need them to trust you here. Gain their respect and obatin authoritity, or supply reasonable advice to the leader in power (Avoid internal conflict if possible).

1B: Assert said leadership.

This does not mean being a boss and telling everyone what to do every second. This means giving people specific tasks (Assigning some people to scavenging is a good example. But don't tell them how to do their jobs), and ensuring they carry them out. Try to seem on the same level as them, and just a figure talking up leadership in a time of need.

1C: Problems You might face.

As a leader you need to cope and solve each of your team's problems. This doesn't mean solving them yourself however, play your part but don't try to do everything for fear of alienating your team.

The problems you may face include (But are no limited to):

- Starvation

- Team troubles

- Zombies

- Bandits

- Cold/heat

- Sickness

In this scenerio, you'll only need to cope with starvation, zombies and team troubles. But in a real scenerio you are screwed if you can't adapt to any of these problems arising. Adapt accordingly.

STEPS TO SURVIVE PART II: SOLVING PROBLEMS

2A: Identify.

Identifying the problems you have and the problems you are most likely to face in the near future (A few weeks is a good timeline. But you may need to expand this if you have a particularly weak team) is a MUST in ensuring the survival of you and your team. This means that you have to analyze each potential issue in extreme detail, and prepare accordingly.

2B: Use your team.

You have six people in this scenerio. Use them. Solve issues on a day-by-day basis and once night falls, put your team on a sleep schedule (Though having someone work through the night or act as a lookout isn't a bad idea if you think they can manage it).You have plenty of time to get ♥♥♥♥ done throughout the day. And make sure you do things as well, but don't waste time by chatting with people. Which brings me to 2C:

2C: Team Problems & The general guide to gamer psychology.

If you have a dedicated (Or normal team, even) team you can disregard all safeties put in place to ensure your team doesn't piss off into the night. You can work till you drop and then some, but in this scenerio. You can't. Your team requires talking to and such, to keep them from feeling used or such. In-short: Most normal people will just require the fact that you don't act like a ♥♥♥♥ to them, these hypothetical people require more than that. A good start to getting your team on track is reassurance, tell them you have a plan and that they can get through this. Don't focus on yourself and tell them you are the only person who can potentially save them, that could easily make people defensive. Next, you have to make them think about the here and now if they aren't already. Some zomboid players think too far into the long term, and it can cost you the short term in the end. Focusing on the here and now is a good idea, so make sure people aren't hoarding food or something, make them eat while they can and take it if they don't.

Which again brings me to the third segment:

STEPS TO SURVIVAL PART III: RATIONING FOOD & SACRIFICES

3A: Pick and choose who is worth the food.

As a leader, you are going to have to pick and choose who lives and who dies. Sadly you can't ration your food good enough to save everyone without things rapidly going to ♥♥♥♥ (Sick people can just be killed, to be grimly honest). No amount of leadership justifies taking unnecessary risks with lazy people or people who require more food. Now of course this is a last resort. This scenerio assumes you want to keep everyone alive, of course in a real scenerio you won't (Quite a few leaders are too selfish as a matter of fact. Leaving their team when things get bad).

3B: Food Rationing, the easy way and the forceful way.

Food rationing is simple, control a lot of the camp's food (Enough to make you their primary source of food), dictate how much people can get each day, give it to them. But there is more to it than that, there always is. For one, you need to dictate how much you can give people and you need to be consistant. This can range from 1/4 a bag of chips, to some random fruit you found on the toliet. Next you have to give it to them, which can be done in a few ways. One is lining people up and handing out rations as people come (People who miss the handout starve). The other is laying it out on the ground near people when you're feeding them, you don't need to be consistant either. One is professional (Though morally correct, which is bad), the other isn't (Though it allows for easier giving of rations to people you want to save).

EPILOGUE AND SUMMARY

TL;DR Brief tips:

- Ration food when you have food to ration, and to those either worth the effort to save or who need it most.

- Pick and choose who is worth the effort to save.

- Be a leader.

- Identify problems fast.

- Solve problems effectively.

- Manage your team.

Epilogue: With these tips you should be able to lead your group of survivors (Who were somehow unlucky enough to get into this situation in the first place. Jeez) to survival one time after another. And the first time (And first few weeks) you do this will be rough, and the situation itself will seem insurmountable and nothing less than your death. But you need to make sure it ends differently.

I cannot guarantee you'll survive. I cannot assure you that the tools I give you to survive will function. But I can say I have you the tools. Now it's on you to survive in this vast unforgiving landscape. And adapt accordingly to the situations you face. You must overcome everything from famine to madness, and it will not be easy. But you will survive, because you know what to do. And know you can beat these odds. And know that once and for all you are proving that you are a survivor destined to live to the end. And remember:

GODS
WILL
BE
WATCHING

[a razor named qualia]

It has a guide now: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=313067852