Decay Mechanics

[ajb1978]

So for the past few months I'd been operating under the belief that items out in the open begin to decay after the first time you visit that area. This has just been called into question. I started my current run in Forlorn Muskeg. I did my usual thing, and after getting settled I decided to go back and give the map another run. Today on day 249 I found an area I had missed (Low Blind) which had some canned goods sitting out in the open. To my surprise, I found a can of tomato soup still at 85%, even though it had been outside (i.e. not in a container) and exposed for 249 days.

So...does anyone have a solid handle on when decay starts, and on how it affects exposed items?

[IFIYGD]

This Guide was fairly accurate before, but is a bo it outdated now. The author is still compiling datas to update it again, according to his post in the comments.

I know I have heard that much earlier versions of the game had decay start only after you entered a new Map, but I had been under the impression that had been changed to start decay globally, at the start of a new Snadbox. But it is always odd to be 50+ days in, and find food that all are below 30% condition, except that one 90-100% tomato soup. Lol! Not sure why, but it is always tomato soup for me tat has this odd decay thing going.

[ajb1978]

And now here's another curveball. I went back to the Farmhouse to rip down the curtains for scrap cloth. Checking my journal, I haven't been here in 232 days. There was a raw rainbow trout still in the freezer that I had opted not to grab (poor calorie-to-weight ratio), and it was STILL at 77%! Raw fish, indoors, 232 days. 77%.

I had raw bear meat outside in nature's freezer drop to 0% in about 30 days. How the heck did that fish survive?

[ajb1978]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Not sure why, but it is always tomato soup for me tat has this odd decay thing going.

I have noticed that different things decay at drastically different rates. Even indoors in a container, the condensed milk seems to decay very quickly, compared to MRE's or boxes of crackers.

[IFIYGD]

Hmmmmm. Odd with that trout. I would have expected it to be at 0% after that amount of time, indoors, containered or otherwise.

Makes me wonder if the decay rate is different for undiscovered items, discovered items (not put into inventory) and discovered items (put into inventory).
Untouched (undiscovered)- decays more slowly after intinial spawn condition? Because it hasn;t bee touched or disturbed?
Discovered but not put into the backpack- decays slightly faster because it has been disturbed/exposed to new environmental conditions?
Discovered and inventoried- decays at a much higher rate, after beng disturbed, and placed into backpack (radiated body heat affecting decay rate)?

If this is the case, and there are mutliple alogorithms in place for decay rates, varying due to above listed effects, that's downright complicated to track via spreadsheet. Especially if the rate changes if storage location and handling has changed. (I touched it, thereby introducing bacterial actions on it, altering decay rates?). We know it does with meat and fish stored indoos or outdoors.

Lol! Now, I am more confused by it than ever. I knew I have always disliked Excel for a reason. I'll just keep going, and not worrying too much about the maths. Maths always make games less enjoyable for me. I have to deal with higher math to make a living IRL. I game to get away from IRL for a bit. I love that the game makes me think, seriously think, before and during actions. But having to pause to do higher math calculations? Nooooooo! :p

(The whole discussion on probabilities, starting with the OP's question of 7 fails @ 70% success chance... my head exploded. Several times, lol!)

[ajb1978]

Yeah I haven't given it much thought, sticking with the simple "If it's meat, store outdoors. If it's not, store in drawers," mentality. When you start to consider that different items have different decay rates depending on whether you've discovered them or not, picked them up or not, and possibly even that different containers affect decay rates...

Yeeaaahhh I'll let someone else do the math on that.

[IFIYGD]

Lol! Exactly. Nothing wrong with enjoying doing a great spreadsheet for a game. It's just not my thing, lol!

[ajb1978]

Originally posted by Яage:

Items decay when you pick them up, not just view them and put them back...when you have it in your backpack it starts the countdown.

Except that only seems to apply part of the time. I've found 0% food items that were sitting out in the open, that I had missed on my first pass through. And then there are food items like the tomato soup that after 249 days was still at 85%. I've seen these extreme deviations with both packaged food and raw meat now.

For every "rule" we seem to identify, there is inevitably some exception that throws a wrench in the logic. Meh.

[Copyrighted Moniker]

There was quite a lot of rebalancing of the decay mechanic in the last year. Everything in the world that decays starts decaying from day one. Matches and tools do not decay over time, only when used. Stuff that spawns in the fridge freezer seems to be an exceptional case, born of necessity.

There was a good discussion of this topic here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/305620/discussions/0/343787283761132471/

[Critical Jim]

tomato soup lasts longer outdoors, but the difference is negligible to me so I keep it indoors on a shelf because reasons. bars, dogfood, condensed milk and meat - leave outside. havent actually tested this out yet but you know how you can cook something that is ruined and bring it back to edible condition? i've seen it with fish, but does anyone keep raw meat stored until ruined, then just cook it up with lvl 5 cooking when youre hungee? could be a very lovely exploit for getting a nice hoard of food stashed

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by Critical Jim:

tomato soup lasts longer outdoors, but the difference is negligible to me so I keep it indoors on a shelf because reasons. bars, dogfood, condensed milk and meat - leave outside. havent actually tested this out yet but you know how you can cook something that is ruined and bring it back to edible condition? i've seen it with fish, but does anyone keep raw meat stored until ruined, then just cook it up with lvl 5 cooking when youre hungee? could be a very lovely exploit for getting a nice hoard of food stashed

Yeah, I do use that exploit of leaving predator meat out until ruined, and I have Lvl 5 cooking, so I can cook it to 50% and eat it safely. I usually do something else stupid and die shortly afterwards. Like forgetting that bear meat left out for 30 days should also indicate a new bear has spawned in the area, and is waiting around the corner for me to come storlling aong. xD

[jswilliams]

My new pelts are clocking in at 80ish % upon curing, and this time I was right there when they hit cured. DO I need to be curing my hides in a container? Oh Chuuuuuck

[Critical Jim]

Originally posted by Яage:

Items decay when you pick them up, not just view them and put them back...when you have it in your backpack it starts the countdown.

I wonder about matches...in the past they decayed very fast. I saw the magnifying glass not decaying...yet, ill be focused on that.

Hope im right, thats how they worked in the past.

yea it hasnt been like this for quite some time. matches no longer decay i believe, at least its slow enough for me not to notice. The clock for everything in the entire world starts at day 1. For instance, depending whether they are in their appropriate environment, I might still find something in decent condition, while any indoor energy bars I found now are ruined. As a rule.

[ajb1978]

Originally posted by Critical Jim:

I The clock for everything in the entire world starts at day 1. For instance, depending whether they are in their appropriate environment, I might still find something in decent condition, while any indoor energy bars I found now are ruined. As a rule.

And then there's my 232-day-old raw fish stored indoors that was still at 77% lol.

[Critical Jim]

Originally posted by ajb1978:

Originally posted by Critical Jim:

I The clock for everything in the entire world starts at day 1. For instance, depending whether they are in their appropriate environment, I might still find something in decent condition, while any indoor energy bars I found now are ruined. As a rule.

And then there's my 232-day-old raw fish stored indoors that was still at 77% lol.

there might be some exceptions to the rule. im 101 days in and found a 100% pork and beans in a cargo container. I think cargo containers might be immune until busted open

[ajb1978]

Originally posted by Critical Jim:

there might be some exceptions to the rule. im 101 days in and found a 100% pork and beans in a cargo container. I think cargo containers might be immune until busted open

And there's the rub. Exceptions to the rules, when both the exceptions and the rules are of uncertain parameters.

It's like trying to figure out quantum mechanics with an abacus. I just shrug and go with the general "Meat outdoors, all else in drawers," and call it a day. If someone really wants to gather the data and crunch out the calculus by all means knock yourself out. But until that happens, or a developer decides to spill the beans, I think we'll have to go with heuristics on this one.