"Well Fed" Is Useless To Me

[Diveyoc]

As a Loper player, I find this buff mostly useless. I'd say it's a buff that makes easy modes even easier which is fine, it just doesn't appeal to me in Loper. I saw someone post that it's good to gear up for zone transitions. This is likely the only time I might use it.

You certainly are not going to eat all your food in early stage Loper becuase it will expire so fast. Even in later stages when taking down Moose and Bear I probably still won't try to maintain it. Getting + 5 kg. of carry capacity just isn't that important to me to be devouring all my food.

I think the implementation of the Moose satchel was a much better idea. It's takes some skill and effort to achieve and you still need to maintain it, but you don't have to expend a ton of resources to do so.

I would have much rather seen a craftable item such as a utility belt, canteen, or an improved backpack for something like this. I guess "Well Fed" just seems somewhat like a cheap solution to a community request to me.

Not a big deal, just my 2 cents. Maybe people like it, I'm just obviously not overly excited about it.

[SBlack]

There are times even in Loper when you've got tons of food. Like when you killed a moose

[osman]

At later stages of Loper, food is so much that you can not starve unless you specifically want it. So it's +5 kg on a constant basis and without any effort.

[pbmax]

I'm using it on my loper run, but I'm also mapping and exploring HRV (only been there once before just to see.) It's nice to have 40Kg capacity if I don't know where the next warm spot is or when I'm pooling resources to return to Mliton. Once I get it mapped, I might let it expire until I'm ready to transition out again.
I am eating a metricsheeton of cattails that I normally wouldn't though, while I'm exploring

[Diveyoc]

Well, I'll see how it goes. I've always played Loper conservatively but recently changed my play style to be more aggressive and focus on early bow and hunting.

My goal is to be mobile and travel more, where being well fed would require consistant hunting along the way, and one bad blizzard might spoil maintaining the buff.

[Ka Faraq Gatri]

You know theres also a small condition bonus as well as the +5kg?
That might just save you during a wolf encounter that would have otherwise killed you.

[Avvy]

Sorry you don't like the Well Fed buff. To each their own though, right? I'm thrilled with it because I hate having my character starve (they are so whiney!) So getting a nice little bonus for eating food is great.

[mf187doubleg]

As said above on loper, in later phase, if you hunt, food is not a problem - I am currently living in HRV (already 60 days) and this bonus helps in climbing, carrying a lot of stuff.

IMO this bonus is great also when moving from 1 region to another when you are dragging like 50kgs with you.

Also for wolf fights.

So bonus is very good but it depends on your playstyle.

[listless]

- probably makes even more sense at level 5 Cooking when you can start using all that wolf meat.

Hanging around camp doing chores, I might let it lapse, but any more I won't travel any great distance without it.

The health buff's helpful after a wolf attack, too, since it basically negates the bleeding damage you take while trying to dress wounds - not to mention the condition loss just from being out in the cold. Moreover, the increased carrying capacity mitigates the danger hostile wildlife poses in the first place since you're less likely to be overburdened.

But then again, I guess it puts people at greater risk if they have to go out of their way to maintain it.

[gnusjunkie]

@Diveyoc I think I was one of the people who posted about using it when moving between regions - that's certainly how it's worked for me. But I absolutely agree with your headline point that it isn't a viable stable or long-term state to be in for an Interloper.

Where I disagree is that, FWIW, I actually think it's a really well designed change: it leaves the existing arrangements in place (so we can all play using starvation the way we've learned) but gives a bonus at the other end of that scale. So that starving is not a 'costless' exploit any more - it involves forgoing the WF buff. That, to me, seems like quite elegant game design.

Finally, one unexpected feature of it is that I've found it unhelpfully difficult to stop eating food once I'm well-fed - the psychology of 'losing' the buff means that when my hunger gets low, if there's lots of food around, I'm really tempted to eat it instead of letting the buff lapse and saving the food for later. I think this may have something to do with the cognitive bias that behavioural psychologists call 'loss aversion'.

What it means in practice, is that if I don't exercise a bit of self-control, my WF survivor is like a meat addict, burning through all their food in the white-hot blue glow of a WF binge, and then crashes to earth when the food runs out... :-)

[SBlack]

It's really hard to get out of the starvation habit :) But after the early crunch and the crafting you have the tools to treat yourself a bit better. Sure you can keep those hundreds of cat tails for a bad day, but chances are you don't need that many

[gnusjunkie]

Originally posted by micah6vs8:

> it it isn't a viable stable or long-term state to be in for an Interloper.

Why not? There are hundreds of cats everywhere for early game. Rabbits are much easier to kill now. If you get the bow going by day 15, there are plenty of processed food to eat (assuming you are covering a lot of ground each day) to see you through until your first bow hunt harvests. It's dangerous, but you can always run a deer into a wolf and scare it away with a fire- before you have the bow and if you are in a pinch.

After you get the bow, food is rarely (if ever) a problem. I used to decorate my bases with massive amounts of steaks.

That’s a fair point, micah6vs8 - in a long-established base, especially, we are generally accumulating food as we hunt, rather than running down supplies. We all have (some) bases that look like abattoirs after a while, I am sure.

A more nomadic style makes it harder, since carrying enough meat to stay WF is both literally a burden and more importantly a source of heightened predator risk.I guess my instinct is that a lot of the time, when exploring or other than being at or travelling between established bases, the margin for error in Loper will remain very slim. Often, trading the benefits of the Well-Fed buff in return for less of a buffer in terms of being able to have food stored away for a set-back (broken ribs or IP, for example, or a massively bad set of blizzards) may not be a good trade-off.

We will all learn as we use it more, of course - look forward to trading experiences with others here and hearing from others about how they’ve made it work creatively.

[Diveyoc]

Originally posted by mf187doubleg:

So bonus is very good but it depends on your playstyle.

I think it's a little bit of both play style and psychology for me. I'm a real miser when it comes to resources. I play as if I'm going to survive 1000 days or something. I swear, 50 days or more can go by and I've only consumed 2 cups of reisha tea.

Not to mention I've become accustomed to being a very light traveler, so that's likely part of the reason + 5 kg. isn't impacting my game in a huge way. However, if I ever get my desired crafted gear, the extra weight will surely have me thinking more about this buff.

[mf187doubleg]

Originally posted by Diveyoc:

Originally posted by mf187doubleg:

So bonus is very good but it depends on your playstyle.

I think it's a little bit of both play style and psychology for me. I'm a real miser when it comes to resources. I play as if I'm going to survive 1000 days or something. I swear, 50 days or more can go by and I've only consumed 2 cups of reisha tea.

Not to mention I've become accustomed to being a very light traveler, so that's likely part of the reason + 5 kg. isn't impacting my game in a huge way. However, if I ever get my desired crafted gear, the extra weight will surely have me thinking more about this buff.

With 2 bear coats and all animal clothings + tools I have like 30kgs already so the + 10 from satchel and bonus gives me ability to climb ropes up to 40 kgs and carry stuff with good speed up to 50kgs. This bonus is really important for heavy gear in later phase.

[Diveyoc]

Originally posted by mf187doubleg:

With 2 bear coats and all animal clothings + tools I have like 30kgs already so the + 10 from satchel and bonus gives me ability to climb ropes up to 40 kgs and carry stuff with good speed up to 50kgs. This bonus is really important for heavy gear in later phase.

This made me think of the movie "The 13th Warrior". If you haven't seen it, check it out.

[mf187doubleg]

Originally posted by Diveyoc:

Originally posted by mf187doubleg:

With 2 bear coats and all animal clothings + tools I have like 30kgs already so the + 10 from satchel and bonus gives me ability to climb ropes up to 40 kgs and carry stuff with good speed up to 50kgs. This bonus is really important for heavy gear in later phase.

This made me think of the movie "The 13th Warrior". If you haven't seen it, check it out.

Antonio is great in this role but I do not remember him using the well fed bonus :)