A survey on food.

[Tadashir]

So I went to the base to sleep before going on a run. I checked my stash and noticed i have at least 60 pieces of food in there and about that much in my inventory too. Finding it hasn't been a problem but the game tells me to eat quite often. What is the point of this? All survival games are doing it. My feeling is that this doesn't make the game harder or more realistic, it's just annoying. For the first few games that did food it was neat but I'm just tired of it at this point. To me it's become like "Press a series of buttons every ten minutes" and that is the entire function of food. I feel this for games that have more complicated food systems too. The only exception is when food is used as medkits or the food gives you buffs. Other than that it's enough already with all the food guys.

So what do you guys think? Do you enjoy food in games? Please keep this on topic and it's not meant to be just about Stalker or anything against this game. Just something I noticed and just find pointless.

[Heresy]

Its a overused expected essential survival mechanic. In Stalker 2 the characters metabolism is way too fast just like the day/night cycle. So in 1 hour of real world time is 24 hours in game including day/night and 24 hours of food. So you have to eat food every 5 mins because thats actually like 5 hours time in game world. Which is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tedious and dumb.

Kingdom Come Deliverence had too fast of a day/night cycle and it was one of the only things to complain about in the whole game. Now stalker somehow has that beat I have no idea how they possibly thought that fast of time would be fun or immersive.

Food in some previous modded versions of stalker was much more important because it directly effected your maximum stamina as well as your endurance regeneration speed. Here its just there because its one of those tact on mandatory modern "survival" mechanics. I dont have a problem with food in games but its a problem in Stalker 2.

[thestile]

It does add some limited element of realism because people do have to eat. I think it's more immersive. And it provides the small benefit of healing, not a lot, but it's there.

But the day night cycle is too fast so the player needs to eat too often. So I can see where that would cause a little bit of annoyance

This game isn't just following the survival game fad though, with the eating element, because it was in there in 2007.

It wouldn't break the game to take it out but I think it adds a little something to have it in. I personally like it but, I can understand the opposing view.

[Mörkö]

Originally posted by thestile:

But the day night cycle is too fast so the player needs to eat too often.

Funnily enough this had also annoyed me in Valheim. So i had to mod it to make each cycle last hours and food duration to like 5x more. Tf am i gonna understand from the cycles if night lasts 5 minutes.. Could at least make it customizable or something.

[Mista Dobalina]

HEY I CANT COMPLAIN BECAUSE IT TOPS OF MY HEALTH BAR MOST OF THE TIME IT'S KIND OF NICE

[thestile]

Originally posted by Mörkö:

Originally posted by thestile:

But the day night cycle is too fast so the player needs to eat too often.

Funnily enough this had also annoyed me in Valheim. So i had to mod it to make each cycle last hours and food duration to like 5x more. Tf am i gonna understand from the cycles if night lasts 5 minutes.. Could at least make it customizable or something.

Oh yeah, I was kind of annoyed by that in Valheim also. Partly because so much of your health bar relies on food, and it didn't last long.
Yeah, that sounds like a good mod

[Tadashir]

I just want to be clear this wasn't a dig at Stalker in any kind of way. More just a realization that I'm fully done with eating food in a video game. I've eaten more digital food than real food over the past twenty years lol. While a funny statement, it's probably true by a large margin.

[Myyrä]

I dislike the way survival mechanisms are implemented that usually infests games, since the characters have the metabolism of a hummingbird, having to consume their weight in food in order to survive for couple of hours.

[Coolverine]

Food takes up way too much space, better to just eat directly when you find it instead of saving to inventory. Even if Skif isn't hungry. Still a good idea to carry sausages, because they give a decent health amount.

Also carry only the ammo for the weapons you have equipped, will save some space as well.

[Tadashir]

Originally posted by Coolverine:

Food takes up way too much space, better to just eat directly when you find it instead of saving to inventory. Even if Skif isn't hungry. Still a good idea to carry sausages, because they give a decent health amount.

Also carry only the ammo for the weapons you have equipped, will save some space as well.

That isn't bad advice. I started carrying only sausage and bread to make sure I have a balanced post apoc diet. If you just keep a bit on you it's not that heavy so it's not a problem but there isn't anything good about it either IMO. Like I said above it's just become "Press these buttons when we tell you to" kinda thing. I will say though that I hadn't noticed it gives you a bit of health until you guys mentioned it. That's probably because I seen food and am like "Ugh, more of this overused game mechanic" and then pretty much ignored the food until I get the icon on my screen. So to any would be game devs out there planning their next project... Innovate on game food or don't waste your time, put that work into something else.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

I'll be honest I've never even been close to running out of food and I have no idea why its in the game because really its only a minor inconvenience at best that occasionally annoys me and makes me click a button.

[Tadashir]

Originally posted by Grumpy Old Guy:

I'll be honest I've never even been close to running out of food and I have no idea why its in the game because really its only a minor inconvenience at best that occasionally annoys me and makes me click a button.

I think you described my feelings on the subject better than me. I feel exactly as this was stated.