Hunger System Needs a Resolution

[Krixa]

I did a search on this and there are a few postings but not for awhile now.

The I'm Hungry, and Very Hungry, and Starving notifications are terrible. As part of this the digestion of things are way off.

The bottom line here is if there is going to be a Hunger, Thirst , and Fatigue system in your game then you need to make it function correctly. Thirst works well and Fatigue is coming. All of these system I like and have been a staple in both Table Top Dice Adventures (I am almost 40), various other games that did it very well. The Hunger system in this game has the appearance of working but it is mind boggling how it continues to slip from patch to patch without a decent resolution.

In general from testing (over many patches now) the in game foods last about ~4 minutes Real Time (~16 minutes Game Time). There are a few exceptions. 1 hr Game Time (4x what they are now) would be acceptable per Food Item. See sanity testing below.

For my own sanity I did some testing with equals to what is in game. I mean...did anyone ever think to test this and say....yeppers...this is designed properly?

How about attaching Hunger to Energy Reserves which seem to be working decently?

Proteins:
- You know...like real life we need this for muscles and many things.
- So we need good sources of proteins.
- Eggs, I purchase 10 at a time. Good protein but low satiation.
- 50g of meat when grilling should NOT look like a 500g steak. I wonder if there is a 0 missing there. Why not instead of 10/10 just make the harvests 1/1 with 300g or 500g Steak/Filet.
- Fish Filet, Great Protein and Low Fat. That works but eating the Unsalted (3/3) or Salted 3x give almost no satiation for hunger.
- Red Meat Steaks. Unsalted gives various stacks but Salting gives the same 50g steak.
-NONE of the above last long at all....even when thinking about 4x game time acceleration....more on this below.

Fruits:
- Love all the fruits.
- NONE of the above last long at all....even when thinking about 4x game time acceleration....more on this below.

Veggies:
- Love all the fruits.
- Cabbage icon/space (and a few others) are far too large.
- NONE of the above last long at all....even when thinking about 4x game time acceleration....more on this below.

So I did some testing in real life with things I eat in game.
- I exercise 5-7 days per week for 25-40min (3 light weight machines, Eliptical, Stair Steppers, Treadmill), I am 15% body fat percent, female.
- I did the following tests 3x

Tests
- I made a Black Forest Ham sandwich. 200g of meat, 100g of Provolone Cheese, Mustard, Mayo. I ate it when I was feeling hungry and after exercise. My hunger was satiated for ~6hrs.
- 1 Medium apple. ~3hrs
- 1 Medium brown potato, microwaved, butter, black pepper, and sea salt, ~3hrs
- 1 Medium tomato, sliced with sea salt, ~3hrs
- 1 Kiwi, ~2hrs
- 1 Grapefruit, ~3hrs
- 1 Tangerine, ~2hrs
- 1 can/bowl of beef stew (Campbell's Chunky for ref), ~4hrs
- 1 can of spaghetti, ~4hrs

In Game Tests:
- Almost ALL Veggies and Fruit are ~16 minutes Game Time (~4 minutes Real Time).
- They should be 4x what they are to now to be even remotely acceptable.
- Again, 1 hr Game Time would be acceptable per Food Item.

[smokey57]

I agree on all counts, your studies and conclusions make perfect sense. But, as with other aspects of the game, the devs have stated numerous times that they aren't going for exact 1-to-1 reality, in their game mechanics. Very often, they will tweak them around just to make things harder for the player, more survival-gamey (with the emphasis on 'gamey'), so that they are forced to keep going, constantly move around in search of sustenance and loot, constantly need to be exposing themselves to more danger and deadly encounters, not be able to just collect a week's worth of food easily and then rest easy... basically, making it harder to live and easier to die. While i don't mind that to some extent, and while it's easy to re-tweak things yourself in singleplayer to make up for it if you prefer, i definitely think it's a bit overdone, especially if you're on a vanilla server with default settings. I couldn't stomach playing that way, personally. But it's a ways to 1.0 yet, and i'm sure we'll see more adjustments as time goes on.

[CrankyOldMan]

We adjusted the metabolism from 3.84 to 2 on our server. You still need to eat and drink often. Players feel it is a good balance.
Your just not reloading your body faster than you are reloading your guns.

[Argonaut_Jay]

I literally load up bread or popcorn so my guy stops acting like he's starving so I can play the game

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally posted by Argonaut_Jay:

I literally load up bread or popcorn so my guy stops acting like he's starving so I can play the game

Yes that can work but for myself I am trying to figure out today or now what works to keep vits and mins up for later on it will be in the game so what I do now prepares me for later

[Argonaut_Jay]

Eat a vitamin every day and you'll be maxed. That's what I do.

[Krixa]

Not sure how this was moved to Suggestions. Only 1 line in here as a sort of 'Idea' to easily patch this.

Originally posted by smokey57:

I agree on all counts, your studies and conclusions make perfect sense. But, as with other aspects of the game, the devs have stated numerous times that they aren't going for exact 1-to-1 reality, in their game mechanics. Very often, they will tweak them around just to make things harder for the player, more survival-gamey (with the emphasis on 'gamey'), so that they are forced to keep going, constantly move around in search of sustenance and loot, constantly need to be exposing themselves to more danger and deadly encounters, not be able to just collect a week's worth of food easily and then rest easy... basically, making it harder to live and easier to die. While i don't mind that to some extent, and while it's easy to re-tweak things yourself in singleplayer to make up for it if you prefer, i definitely think it's a bit overdone, especially if you're on a vanilla server with default settings. I couldn't stomach playing that way, personally. But it's a ways to 1.0 yet, and i'm sure we'll see more adjustments as time goes on.

I agree that it should not be 1 to 1 in regards to reality but currently the 'Stomach' wheel does not digest slow enough. Slow it down and the system will work fine the way it is now.

Everything else you state here is Would/Could/Should Hopeium 101. It is not what we have now and Would/Could/Should and Maybe Some Day because....The Devs and EA....we have faith. No, sorry, if it is broken it is broken. Spin it in any fashion imagined, the fact is it is broken. In fact 0.7.5 worked better so the Devs did something and broke it badly and refuse to fix it.

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Currently my solution to get away from this is to run the body simulation at 4.0 (not 3.84...not even sure how that number translates to a 4.0 accelerated time scaling).
- This works 100% for keeping healthy in SCUM. Easy to ward off infections which are heavy in this latest patch. Easy to heal wounds too with Aseptic Wraps. This is over time testing too so it is very reliable data on how the game interprets 'Good Health'.

- Once or Twice per day.
- 2 Vitamins in the morning and evening.
- Half a Box of Corn Flakes and 2-4 Drinks of Milk. For breakfast.
- Half a loaf of bread with 4 meat chops/filet (good nutrition and holds off hunger notifications best). For Dinner and Supper. This is a thick sandwich.
- In between snacks, Fruit/Veggies. Good nutrition to keep healthy. Terrible satiation.
- Try to keep energy reserves from 20-50% and ignore the constant hunger notifications since they are broken.
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And this is my last post in regards to SCUM. Just shut down my server. I will play SP but not much until this game gets close to the brilliance of 0.7.5

Later peeps. Some of the discussions were entertaining.

[CrankyOldMan]

Krixa...Take care hope you do come back late on when the game is a little more appealing to you.