Let's talk Well Fed

[odium]

Looking for opinions on Well Fed, specifically on Loper, and whether or not it is worth maintaining long term.  

 

Previously I would always strive to maintain well fed and would go to great lengths to keep it.  On my current loper run ~200 days, I'm starting to lean towards a new school of thinking, eating when necessary to manage condition drop, but allowing the character to starve intermittently to conserve food resources, which ultimately conserves my bow/arrows etc.  Even though I have plenty of food to keep well fed up, does that extra carry weight actually net me anything significant?  I have stripped my daily carry down to around 28kg with full loper gear (2x bear coat, 2x deer pants,  2x longjohns, 2x wool socks, 2x thin wool sweater, rabbit hat/gloves, ear wrap and moose satchel).  i dont find myself needing more carry weight for daily life but hauling region to region, i wouldnt mind the extra 5kg, but its very hard to maintain well fed while travelling.  

 

Thoughts?

[Serenity]

It really depends on  how long you want to play. There are enough saplings for hundreds of arrows in the game. Personally I don't have the patience for super long games. So if I know that I only go for maybe 200 or 300 days maximum, why go to great lengths to conserve anything? Having to eat all the time is also a great incentive to go out and do something besides collecting wood.

[Dr. S.]

Of course the only right answer is "whatever makes the game more fun or interesting for you", but I wouldn't overlook the condition benefits of WF. One of the challenges for me on interloper after day 50 is finding ways to spend time outdoors. Even with good clothing, the "feels like" temperature outdoors is negative, often very negative, especially when it's windy or on certain maps. WF provides more condition, and more condition recovery, which means more time outside. I would estimate that WF gives between 10% and 15% bonus to condition per day, between the extra 5% at the top and the condition gain (or lack of loss) compared to starving during the day. So to me that means more time to spend outside.

[odizzido]

If you're playing on loper it's far better to find 5kg of gear to drop and eat only 700kcal 98% of the time.

I don't recall if loper is the same but I only recover around 5-7% per day(I think) with the settings I use(no sleep regen, lowest awake regen) so I would be surprised if 10-15% was the norm in loper.

[Dr. S.]

"Far better" assumes a metric that isn't relevant to all players.

I don't know exactly what the rate of recovery is in interloper when all four needs are met (I'll have to do an experiment), but since the survivor loses 1% condition per hour while starving (on top of any other condition loss), the difference between a starvation diet and WF (never starving) can easily be 10% to 15% per day.

[haft2doit]

Generally I would say it is better to eat only to maintain condition.  Short term do whatever you want.  Long term conservation is where you should be.  Early game I tend to do whatever gets progress happening.  Late game austerity measures kick in and use as little resources as possible.  Keeping well fed uses a ton of food compared with "just enough" to survive...and well fed therefore, uses more arrows, tool condition, wood, matches, and time than a nibble at bedtime.  Well fed still has it's uses late game, but I use it for specific needs rather than just to have it.  Moving a large amount of items, or starting a long trek perhaps.  I don't keep well fed just doing basic living in a single map.  To each their own though and only matters if your goals align with a long term game run.

edit: Also once you get the moose hide satchel, you basically have early game well fed all the time (as far as carry weight goes)

Edited September 12, 2020 by haft2doit

[ManicManiac]

5 hours ago, Dr. S. said:

Of course the only right answer is "whatever makes the game more fun or interesting for you"

Well said, and I agree.  I think it definitely should be player choice. 

Edited September 13, 2020 by ManicManiac

[odizzido]

12 hours ago, Dr. S. said:

"Far better" assumes a metric that isn't relevant to all players.

I don't know exactly what the rate of recovery is in interloper when all four needs are met (I'll have to do an experiment), but since the survivor loses 1% condition per hour while starving (on top of any other condition loss), the difference between a starvation diet and WF (never starving) can easily be 10% to 15% per day.

True. My metric is reducing the amount of effort required to stay alive.

As to the condition we were talking about different things. I was only talking about the health Regen and I didn't remember what you wrote properly.

[Andy_K]

I've done most of my 100+ day loper runs without it, but a few where I've attempted to keep it up 100% of the time (doable with some planning if you can hold through the early game). The extra carry weight is great, as is the health difference. But you really don't need it, and the amount of extra food you go through is HUGE.

If you are looking to optimise your play, I would recommend aiming for well fed when you're doing big transport runs, furnace trips, or sometimes exploring/harvesting new areas (particularly if hostile wildlife is likely to be present), but otherwise it's not worth it.

[Bigfatcat999]

On 9/12/2020 at 10:23 AM, odium said:

Looking for opinions on Well Fed, specifically on Loper, and whether or not it is worth maintaining long term.  

 

Previously I would always strive to maintain well fed and would go to great lengths to keep it.  On my current loper run ~200 days, I'm starting to lean towards a new school of thinking, eating when necessary to manage condition drop, but allowing the character to starve intermittently to conserve food resources, which ultimately conserves my bow/arrows etc.  Even though I have plenty of food to keep well fed up, does that extra carry weight actually net me anything significant?  I have stripped my daily carry down to around 28kg with full loper gear (2x bear coat, 2x deer pants,  2x longjohns, 2x wool socks, 2x thin wool sweater, rabbit hat/gloves, ear wrap and moose satchel).  i dont find myself needing more carry weight for daily life but hauling region to region, i wouldnt mind the extra 5kg, but its very hard to maintain well fed while travelling.  

 

Thoughts?

Well fed works at the beginning but once you are hunkered down in a base, storage takes the burden off your need to carry. Practicing in Pilgrim, you can raid most of the major sections in 80 days; Mountain Town, Mystery Lake, Muskeg, broken railroad (I wish you could move the Hunting lodge to Mystery Lake!), Ravine, ETC.  

[Valuable Hunting Knife]

My dream is to get good enough at loper that I can give well fed some consideration! Guard it jealously at 'lower' levels though.

[TiffTastic]

8 hours ago, Valuable Hunting Knife said:

My dream is to get good enough at loper that I can give well fed some consideration! Guard it jealously at 'lower' levels though.

Pretty much this. I play a lot, but not that intensely, and sometimes feel like starting 5 fires and hiking to an overlook during an aurora to see what it looks like. I don’t think it’s unrealistic, if I was the last woman standing I’d do stuff like this just to keep from going....well, more crazy I guess😁