Knock it off with the hunger checks every 2nd room maybe?

[Daikataro]

I mean seriously, I get it that the game is meant to be hard, and that managing supplies is a critical part of any expedition, however you guys artificially raising the difiiculty by giving me a party that needs to be fed every 200 meters completely breaks the suspension of disbelief, and does not feel justified in any way.

It does not fit into the story, it does not feel fair like other mechanics (like 1 party member staying behind in Darkest Dungeon to buy his comrades time to escape), it does not add anything to the story and overall, it feels cheap, like something you added just so game would be more difficult for the sake of being more difficult, not in a justified way like stress on abandoning or heart attacks.

I am the kind of player that used to buy all the food available either way BEFORE the "balance" patch, because of the hp and stress benefits a feast brought to the table. Now if I camp at all, I have to either feed my party half rations for no gain whatsoever, or have them take a hefty hp and stress penalty later in the dungeon because they got a hunger check 3 times in 4 rooms.

How many rations you brought was supposed to be optional, now you either buy everything the caretaker has in stock and then some, or you will have an afflicted party way before you complete the expedition goal; forget about healing anyone with food, either you bring a healer to the party or face a wipe because you can no longer use food to patch anyone up, lest you want to risk starving from walking a 100 meter hallway. It really breaks immersion and player choice and strategy when you are forced to stock a metric ton of food and bring a healer to every single expedition because you will run into a minimum of 6 hunger checks in a small run.

I am currently running a large dungeon and have already faced the afformentioned 6 hunger checks, and am not even halfway thru! If by any chances one or more of my characters were afflicted by Tapeworm or Stress Eater, that would mean an entirely failed run, just due to the sheer amount of food required to clear a dungeon. And before anyone mentions it no, you can NOT rely on curios to keep you fed (or for anything at all really) because they're random and situational.

In all seriousness, please dial down the hunger checks to a manageable level, it does not make the slightest bit of sense that my characters can't walk 300 meters without needing a full meal.

[DJTron]

i havn't noticed this for the most part. it's based on rng so maybe you just got unlucky. how many times has this happened?

[Daikataro]

So far, I would say 3 out of 4 runs I get the minimum of 6 hunger checks per expedition, heck I wouldn't be posting here if this wasn't happening often enough that it became an annoyance. I noticed it happening shortly after the near-last patch (not this one, the previous), and this most recent patch only made it worse. I am running into hunger checks every 2nd or at most 3rd room, and backtracking has became impossible, because if I get the item I need to activate a curio (eerie coral, confession booth etc.), the path to it will cost me more in food, than whatever gain could be had.

[The Saddest Healer]

Well,♥♥♥♥ they brought by the curse of hunger? I thought they removed It a few patches ago.

Well, considering when the hunger curse was removed heartattacks where not a thing.

Seems old DD is fallin back into bad habits.

[Daikataro]

Yeah it seems they upped the odds of being hunger-struck to something around 45% each room, or at least 10% each square of a hallway. It is a complete missmatch with the game's thematic, as it is something you have no control over, and when you are forced to abandon a quest because you ran out of food, despite buying everything you could, you feel cheated because it wasn't your fault, it was a random event with odds set stupidly high.

[Sunwave]

There is a maximum amount of hunger checks per dungeon. They're set up exactly like traps (except invisible). There CAN NOT BE one check every 2 hallways, because there are not that many checks. There's up to 4 or 5 maximum in the long dungeons, and less in the short ones.

Unless you backtrack a lot, which gives the chance to generate more traps, battles AND hunger checks in the already explored hallways.

[Daikataro]

Originally posted by Sunwave:

There is a maximum amount of hunger checks per dungeon. They're set up exactly like traps (except invisible). There CAN NOT BE one check every 2 hallways, because there are not that many checks. There's up to 4 or 5 maximum in the long dungeons, and less in the short ones.

Unless you backtrack a lot, which gives the chance to generate more traps, battles AND hunger checks in the already explored hallways.

Trust me when I tell you I am currently running a long dungeon, and have already went thru 24 supplies from 6 hunger checks:

-16 of my own, 8 from a carcass
-Long dungeon, regular difficulty
-No hero afflicted from Stress Eater or Tapeworm
-Purchased all 36 rations off caretaker
-Backtracked exactly two rooms, because dungeon goal is 90% exploration, thus I needed those 2
-Progressing normally
-Still both firewood remaining
-No character has been given food to for healing purposes (have Vestal)
-Still 50% of the dungeon unexplored

So I have already went 1 or 2 over the 4 or 5 checks you postulate as an absolute hard limit (as you capped the "can not be" part), unless two rooms deviation is "a lot". Also, unless you are one of the programmers, or have some serious data mining skills, how do you backup your statement of "there can not be" more than X of said event? Did you apply that rule yourself? Do you have the code snippet that says:

IF hunger_counter >= 5
THEN
GOTO END
ELSE
event = hunger_check
END

I have had battles and traps re-generated in already explored hallways with reasonable frequency, that is, every 3 or 4 rooms I backtrack (which turns into 6 or 8 on going back and forth) generate 1 trap or 1 battle, but hunger is just off the charts. Plus, traps and battles are manageable, traps you dismantle with a Highwayman or Grave Robber, battles you face them, but hunger is "you have 4 food you live, you don't, you take a hefty penalty", it just does not feel fair and there is no way around it.

[Caramirdan]

I guess we're all trying to make the best of a bad situation . . . .

[Turnipz]

I totally get you on this, I have not run into this issue as frequently as you have postulated but I have been in situations where if it had not been for chance curios I would have run into significant issues. Even when using herbs on fish carasses in the cove I find myself not getting any food drops far too often

[Skeleton]

RNG fam. Your party just stuffed their gullets to the brim a meer three tiles ago? Welp, they're hungry again. Better cram more food into the black holes that are their mouths.

It's almost like this game should just have some kind of hunger meter that needs to be replenished instead of ALSO relying on a dice roll to generate.

[Sunwave]

Well, honestly my knowledge is from spring 2016 so maybe it got changed in between. But back then there was definitely a maximum (DEFINITELY not more than the maximum food supplies would give you, without extras from curios, not sure of the exact amount). There was simply a random number of them generated at dungeon generation (between a minimum and a maximum) and they were scattered around. Then the only extra ones would be in explored hallways becasue that's the only place they can spawn *after* initial generation.

Again, maybe it got changed. A lot of stuff got changed between then and now. I just came back to this game because of the Radiant update.

[Daikataro]

Originally posted by Sunwave:

Well, honestly my knowledge is from spring 2016 so maybe it got changed in between. But back then there was definitely a maximum (DEFINITELY not more than the maximum food supplies would give you, without extras from curios, not sure of the exact amount). There was simply a random number of them generated at dungeon generation (between a minimum and a maximum) and they were scattered around. Then the only extra ones would be in explored hallways becasue that's the only place they can spawn *after* initial generation.

Again, maybe it got changed. A lot of stuff got changed between then and now. I just came back to this game because of the Radiant update.

Well, that explains a lot, one year old knowledge is pretty outdated in modern standards; as I mentioned this is a relatively recent issue, a couple patches ago, it is definitely not something that was an issue when I started playing, like I mentioned, I used to buy all the available food because I had the OPTION to do so, for giving my party a feast and the benefits it entails, now I have the "option" of either buying all the food available, or getting an hp and stress penalty before I get a chance to finish the dungeon; it is not really optional if you are punished for not doing it.

If the maximum amount of hunger checks is the maximum amount of food for sale/4 then it is plain and simply bad game design, period. You do not give your player the option to bring less food without a hefty penalty, and any other uses for food are negated because the cons far outweigh the gains every single time unless you're really lucky with the numbers and even then, the marginal gains (leftover food is worth a rat's spit) are far too meager when compared with the potential losses of not hoarding food like a squirrel.

If devs are reading, here's a quick, free fix, actually a few of them:

-As has been mentioned, add a hunger bar that works exactly like the torch. Bam, easy fix, you already have the assets, just draw a new bar and place it somewhere. If you're feeling fancy maybe add a few quirks/flaws to it (full bar +damage, below 30% ++stress etc.)

-Remove A LOT of randomness for hunger checks because seriously it makes no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sense that your party demands more food from walking 2 hallways; even an average Joe can walk a couple miles without stuffing every item from the pantry down his gullet. For example, after a hunger check, event chance drops to ZERO for let's say, 15 tiles unexplored or 30 tiles explored before it can even occur again, THEN check against the RNG regular chance.

-Add individual hunger bars for characters, easily the one that entails the most work, but could add a ton of potential to the game. We already have classes that outshine the others, so might as well give the more neglected ones a chance by either consuming food at a slower pace (boring yeah) or having better bonuses from a full stomach. Heck you might even factor in a hero gaining adittional stress from an empty belly if someone else in the party is well fed.

Will be happy to further elaborate on any if required, and seriously this only adds artificial difficulty to the game without feeling fair to the player like other mechanics, and does not feel engaging as the literal only solution is "hoard food". It is a common axiom for videogames that, for a game to be considered good, the player must be able to solve its challenges in different ways.

[Sunwave]

My bad. I didn't read your full post. =/ I usually read everything but I didn't feel like it. I didn't realize you only had problems after a recent patch. I feel dumb. Worst thing, I am usually super annoyed by people who ignore (parts of) previous posts.

*crawls away in shame*

[Rox]

See, this is a big problem with the game. The fact that hunger is treated ENTIRELY RANDOMLY. It's just piss poor game design that it's a randomly placed invisible trap!

The map is based on squares, so it should be based on how many friggin' squares you travel. That ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ simple.

[Gustuv Wynd]

Yeah...just happened to me as well. I had four hunger events in the first six rooms of a medium dungeon...had to retreat after the last one. VERY pathetic mechanic. I am now looking for information on if I can mod these out of the game or at least lower their chances. They've been annoying the entire time, but this time was rediculous.

[Lujo]

Dear god, all this is just applying RL logic to a videogame. And none of it makes sense.

I'm currently 44 weeks into a Radiant game, so a recent patch. Not one single time have I had any problems with food. What's wrong with you people? Two hundred hours + total and never anything like what you describe, or if it did happen it never affected my performance or made me feel like something to complain about...

AFAIK the devs are looking to change the mechanism, but stll, if you are complaining about food you are bad and you should feel bad.