The hunger decrease rate is too high - Please Fix

[Dog_Sodomizer_88]

This has been bothering me for a while, and considering most of my previous complaints have been answered, to my awe, by instant patches resolving the issues, I have high hopes that you Devs will sympathize with my plea. I know the previous patch notes said that the decrease rate was nerfed by 25%, but it feels like just the opposite.

Survivors get hungry too fast, simple as that. The thirst decrease rate is fine and realistic, the hunger decrease rate is not. You literally have to eat like a pig to actually have any hope of surviving a day. To keep your hunger meter above starving level during a day full of sprinting and wood-chopping, you must consume literally hundreds of berries and countless slabs of cooked meat.

It takes so much time and resources to collect a sufficient amount of food that it's not worth it. My friends and I have taken to just starving to death, respawning at bed, and quickly grabbing our stuff, because the amount of time and effort it takes just to keep your belly full is not even worth the effort. Invest in fortitude? Forget it, fortitude is not only a waste of skill points, it also has almost no effect on the players hunger or resistance to changes in temperature.

But.....this is realistic.....right? After all, sprinting around, chopping wood, and mining takes TONS of energy in real life and it should require boatloads of food to support such a lifestyle, right? WRONG! I worked in a lumber company a while back, where we were constantly either chopping up felled trees or sprinting lumber back to the storage shed. My physique was great, and the work was hard and tiring. You know how many meals I needed a day to keep me healthy? One, and possibly a few snacks....nothing more. A slab of cooked meat and a couple dozen berries would have been MORE than enough to keep me going no problem whatsoever, two slabs of steak would have sealed the deal.

That being said, please lower the hunger decrease rate, SIGNIFICANTLY, to a rate that mirrors that of real life. Ark has literally turned from a survival game into an eating competition where the goal is to be the fattest pig on the server.

Please and Thank You! ;)

[nogaems]

From what I noticed. When something is flashing, it is being consumed.

Healing consumes a lot of resources.
Stamina regen Consumes a lot of them.
Heat consumes a lot of water.
Cold consumes a lot of food.
Holding your poop might too.

Gotta play smart. Don't run yourself into exhaustion outside in the middle of freezing rain at night naked with low health. Don't sprint with heavy armour on and a fullbackpack in a heatwave.

Food goes super fast when you combine these things, though.

[DiabolusUrsus]

In all honesty, I think this is more a symptom of timescale than anything else. The amount of distance, etc., you travel is disproportionate to how much time actually passes. We think "Jeez, I shouldn't be hungry after eating a full meal and then walking a mile up the beach," but it took us a lot longer in game time to walk up the beach than it did in real time. I'm not saying that we ought to have a 1:1 timescale; that would make days and nights way too tedious without some sort of time-passing mechanic (which would obviously be limited by multiplayer...) . That said, I think time could stand to pass a LITTLE bit slower, so that we don't seem to get hungry as quickly.

If 1 minute of real time were 12 minutes of game time, that'd make days and nights (assuming equal duration) 1 hour each. If we needed to eat every 30 minutes or so of normal activity, i think that'd be more bearable.

[Dog_Sodomizer_88]

Originally posted by horsey:

Originally posted by Da FUhRer:

Shouldn't have to, I shouldn't have to put up with unrealism in a game that supposedly prides itself in mimicking realistic survival conditions, especially in a way that makes gameplay extremely annoying. A certain degree of unrealism is necessary in order to foster enjoyment, such as cutting down trees (MUCH harder IRL than in Ark), but the ridiculous decay rates of hunger at the moment do not foster any enjoyment whatsoever, only iritation. It's a matter of principle. Having a trike shouldn't be a necessary prerequisite to collecting enough berries to not starve to death.

..alright , in short : gain some levels first.

Originally posted by horsey:

Originally posted by nogaems:

From what I noticed. When something is flashing, it is being consumed.

Healing consumes a lot of resources.
Stamina regen Consumes a lot of them.
Heat consumes a lot of water.
Cold consumes a lot of food.
Holding your poop might too.

Gotta play smart. Don't run yourself into exhaustion outside in the middle of freezing rain at night naked with low health. Don't sprint with heavy armour on and a fullbackpack in a heatwave.

Food goes super fast when you combine these things, though.

..that's exactly what i tried to explain ..i know the first handful of levels are tough sometimes until you figured it out how's works. after that handful of levels ..it's just a joke then , no serious hunger ..no serious thirst.

I am level 34...so yeah.... that statement is completely invalid. The fact that I am level 34 and still experencing these issues was cause for my complaints, and almost every person I have talked to feels the same way.

[Dog_Sodomizer_88]

Originally posted by kaxman:

Also I'm curious where you got your insider information on the Fortitude stat. I'd love for you to explain precisely how this stat functions in the game and what it affects as well as to what degree.

It's common knowledge by now that Fortitude is supposed to decrease the rate at which you tire, get hungry, get thirsty, lose stamina, etc. Frankly though, it sucks....I've put 5 points into it and seen NO noticeable difference in gameplay.

[Dog_Sodomizer_88]

Originally posted by Diabolus Ursus:

In all honesty, I think this is more a symptom of timescale than anything else. The amount of distance, etc., you travel is disproportionate to how much time actually passes. We think "Jeez, I shouldn't be hungry after eating a full meal and then walking a mile up the beach," but it took us a lot longer in game time to walk up the beach than it did in real time. I'm not saying that we ought to have a 1:1 timescale; that would make days and nights way too tedious without some sort of time-passing mechanic (which would obviously be limited by multiplayer...) . That said, I think time could stand to pass a LITTLE bit slower, so that we don't seem to get hungry as quickly.

If 1 minute of real time were 12 minutes of game time, that'd make days and nights (assuming equal duration) 1 hour each. If we needed to eat every 30 minutes or so of normal activity, i think that'd be more bearable.

Possibly, though I cringe at the idea of 1 hour long nights....Nights are dark and dangerous as hell, harvesting resources or leveling during the night is extremely difficult, and with no way to pass the time, the idea of a 1 hour long night does not sound like my cup of tea, at all.

[Steelflame]

Except resources are perfectly easy to manage, and I was having 0 issues even before the recent buffs. I have more annoyances with water, just because it is harder to store up on your person than food, and even then it isn't an issue.

Yours, and most other people who are having food issues, all comes from exactly one place. Sprinting 24/7. IRL, you can not sustain a full sprint for long durations, without heavily training your body for it, and massive amounts of prep, ESPECIALLY under the weight loads you tend to have in this game. If you try to do IRL what you do in game, you would realize this. Tomorrow, spend the entire day in a dead run, carrying 100+ pounds of equipment. Do not walk, sprint to everything you have to do. Realize how insatiably hungry and tired you will be. The game reflects this, heavy work in a small area where you are not sprinting between resouces isn't that bad, jogging around while only carrying 10-20 pounds isn't bad, heavy carry weights, but not much distance travel, isn't bad. If you tried to sprint between heavy workloads carrying 100 pounds of equipment, you will fall flat on your face. And on the complaint about food decay rates... we are given a very VERY generous food decay rate compared to IRL. IRL, it only takes 4 hours at room temp for many meats to go very very bad. You can carry a stack of meat and have it last you for 8+ ingame days. When you look at the berry item, don't look at it as a handful of berries, look at it as A berry or two. Hell, for all we know, these berries are the size of cherries.

We are spoiled by other games that make resources dirt easy, but if you haven't been spoiled as such, you actually can manage pretty easily with what Ark provides you.

If anything, the food bar could be moderately increased in it's base size, but should drain at the same rate. If you are using the berries as your main food source, you will have problems. They are pound per pound the worst food source, the only advanage to them is that you can grab them literally while walking/running between other objectives. Small game also won't sustain you long. IRL a dodo might last you a day. Which is pretty accurate to the amount of meat you get from it. I'm often running around with 2-4 stacks of meat on my person though, because I'll just opprotunistically hunt a lot of the easy to kill dinos, and when I get back, turn half of it into cooked meat, give half to my dinos if they need it, and turn all the spoiled meat into narcotics. Hell, I often split my stacks of meat up just so I can get more spoiled meat, because it me it is more useful than it's food form.

[Dog_Sodomizer_88]

Originally posted by Steelflame:

Except resources are perfectly easy to manage, and I was having 0 issues even before the recent buffs. I have more annoyances with water, just because it is harder to store up on your person than food, and even then it isn't an issue.

Yours, and most other people who are having food issues, all comes from exactly one place. Sprinting 24/7. IRL, you can not sustain a full sprint for long durations, without heavily training your body for it, and massive amounts of prep, ESPECIALLY under the weight loads you tend to have in this game. If you try to do IRL what you do in game, you would realize this. Tomorrow, spend the entire day in a dead run, carrying 100+ pounds of equipment. Do not walk, sprint to everything you have to do. Realize how insatiably hungry and tired you will be. The game reflects this, heavy work in a small area where you are not sprinting between resouces isn't that bad, jogging around while only carrying 10-20 pounds isn't bad, heavy carry weights, but not much distance travel, isn't bad. If you tried to sprint between heavy workloads carrying 100 pounds of equipment, you will fall flat on your face. And on the complaint about food decay rates... we are given a very VERY generous food decay rate compared to IRL. IRL, it only takes 4 hours at room temp for many meats to go very very bad. You can carry a stack of meat and have it last you for 8+ ingame days. When you look at the berry item, don't look at it as a handful of berries, look at it as A berry or two. Hell, for all we know, these berries are the size of cherries.

We are spoiled by other games that make resources dirt easy, but if you haven't been spoiled as such, you actually can manage pretty easily with what Ark provides you.

If anything, the food bar could be moderately increased in it's base size, but should drain at the same rate. If you are using the berries as your main food source, you will have problems. They are pound per pound the worst food source, the only advanage to them is that you can grab them literally while walking/running between other objectives. Small game also won't sustain you long. IRL a dodo might last you a day. Which is pretty accurate to the amount of meat you get from it. I'm often running around with 2-4 stacks of meat on my person though, because I'll just opprotunistically hunt a lot of the easy to kill dinos, and when I get back, turn half of it into cooked meat, give half to my dinos if they need it, and turn all the spoiled meat into narcotics. Hell, I often split my stacks of meat up just so I can get more spoiled meat, because it me it is more useful than it's food form.

I agree with most of what you say, but none of it subtracts from the fact that the hunger decrease rate is too high. The bit you say about sprinting all day with 100+ pounds on your back, been there done that. Being in the military was a good experience. I admit, you get VERY tired and VERY thirsty....not hungry....almost at all....just my experience.

[Haratu]

I was thinking this yesterday. To get full I have to eat a minimum of 4 steaks... minimum, and that can be several times an Ark day depending on what I do... that my character has not grown obese and had a coronary and colon cancer from all the red meat is utterly astounding.

In real life A single steak should fill a person about half full. And three steaks a day should maintain an active lifestyle (survivors are not sediantry). For a sediantry lifestyle then one steak is enough.

[Uzi [OTG]]

Without commenting on hunger needs for players ...

A commentor above triggered something in me when he goes on about 'real life needs' blah
blah blah.

In 'Real Life' a -T-rex doesn't eat the entire beach worth of critters and keep on eating.
No, a real life T-Rex could get by very well thank you on one measly average human
being for needed calories.

So stuff that in your 'real life ' cap. The predators in this game eat a thousand times
more than is needed and can keep eating till they can't find local prey.

That isn't real man.

Wahmbulance.


Real Life my ar se end

[kaxman]

Originally posted by Da FUhRer:

I agree with most of what you say, but none of it subtracts from the fact that the hunger decrease rate is too high. The bit you say about sprinting all day with 100+ pounds on your back, been there done that. Being in the military was a good experience. I admit, you get VERY tired and VERY thirsty....not hungry....almost at all....just my experience.

You are lying about your experience.

[Father President]

Eating Simulator 2015

How they manage hunger in this game is simply no fun.

Has nothing to do with surviving.

[Gambit]

Originally posted by Da FUhRer:

It takes so much time and resources to collect a sufficient amount of food that it's not worth it.

I'm confused how yourself and others have this problem. Do you guys just keep mashing your sprint button and run in circles on a mountain until you die? Becuase that is literally the only scenario I can imagine that allows for Hunger to be a problem.

If you're doing basically anything, you happen to acquire berries and meat on accident in excessive quantities. Dinos are everywhere, poke them with a stick a few times and ravage their corpse for plentiful meat. Harvest berries from the plants that are everywhere.

If you rather eat berries, tame a Trike or Ankylo as soon as you can. They harvest berries at an insane rate.

I suggest meat though; it's far easier to acquire and if you want to use a dino to farm meat, it'll likely be a carnivore, so will benefit from it as well.

Food should really be more difficult to obtain, becuase right now it's far too easy.

[Zothen]

Hunger is barely an issue once you got used to the game. And i love the hunger/decay system as gameplay driver. Keeps you on the toes. Or your peons.. ;)

[Ozaki]

Amen! This has been a food simulator since day one! Just a tiny bit lower should be enough, this is killed me.

[Luigilogik]

Re-upping this, cause it's ridiculous this hasn't been addressed. It's the one thing stopping me from playing this game. whenever there's an update I check if they've adjusted hunger rates, shake my head then go back to something else. Was playing on non official servers with better rates, but they got shut down so would appreciate if some official ones at least made it realistic. seriously, 1 - 3 steaks per day/night cycle should be enough to survive. having to scoff down food every 5 minutes is just annoying and takes away from any fun to be had. I can go days in real life without eating. Somehow I need a brontasorous a day to get by in this game.