Change the eat this button for raw meat or food in general

[darkscaryforest]

This is as much as a cry for ideas from folks to prevent me from doing this again as it is a wish list item.

Space bar has many uses when examining an item you've clicked:

-Pass time while boiling water

-Harvest a rabbit from ground to avoid getting scent vs in inventory

-Eat food item

 

If you pick up raw meat on accident when you meant to click a pot or a rabbit (or heck just mix up the wrong button since you're doing other actions) and press space bar that's instant food poisoning or parasites.

I thought I had a solution in physically removing my space bar key, but then I can't pass time when boiling water or well..use it for anything else.

 

It's important to be aware of your surroundings, but I would argue that this is so trivial as to not be an interesting facet of game play to preserve. Having to wait for the 'brief item fade in' , visually confirming it is the pot or rabbit I meant to click, and then pressing the space key to do the action is a little tedious when you're in the groove. Thanks for reading!

PS: I would personally be happy with any alternative to help me not do this on accident including a "are you sure you want to eat raw meat?" prompt, allowing me to rebind these space bar key actions, take away the space bar quick action option altogether, have Will/Astrid insult my intelligence. I'm just looking for a way to not have a split-second slip up again

Edited April 12, 2021 by darkscaryforest

[RedFox]

I made an account to post this very thing. I made it to 100 days on my interloper run and accidently ate raw meat clicking in my inventory. Survived it. Day 124 I did it again on accident. Adding a warning saying "Are you sure you want to eat this uncooked?" Would be a nice thing to have. It's just an extra layer of prevention for someone who might not want to do it. 

[UpUpAway95]

I'm absolutely OK with HL not adding in such warnings to handhold the players in the game.  The consequences of eating raw meat is merely a case of food poisoning, which is a curable condition... take some antibiotics and get the required amount of sleep (and you'll be able to sleep regardless of your tiredness.  For roleplaying purposes, you're lost in the wild... tired, disoriented, and hungry... so, you're going to make dumb mistakes.  It's part of the game.

[odizzido]

We wouldn't need the warnings if the same keys didn't do five different things. It's not just eating raw meat, it's so many other things. I really hope this gets solved before I go through story mode because it's going to reduce my enjoyment of the game if not 😕

Edited April 17, 2021 by odizzido

[UpUpAway95]

3 hours ago, odizzido said:

We wouldn't need the warnings if the same keys didn't do five different things. It's not just eating raw meat, it's so many other things. I really hope this gets solved before I go through story mode because it's going to reduce my enjoyment of the game if not 😕

This issue, I think, is that you can find yourself in two different levels of the inventory when you first open it.  You can be at a point where your cursor is sitting in the general groups tabs or your cursor can be already within one of those tabs and ready to act on a particular item... resulting on accidental consumption or use of said item.  All they really need to do to fix it is to ensure that opening the inventory always places the cursor ready to select one of the general tabs.  (I realize this may not be the clearest of descriptions, but right now I just can't think too straight... headache.)

Over the years, I've learned to really look to see what is being highlighted by my cursor when I first open the inventory, so it doesn't really "catch" me anymore, but I would still like to see it fixed (no warning necessary though... which would only slow the game down).  It wouldn't take too long before I got frustrated with continually being asked "are you sure..."

Edited April 17, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[odizzido]

I am assuming you mean it would move your mouse cursor?....I am pretty sure I would hate that.

[UpUpAway95]

38 minutes ago, odizzido said:

I am assuming you mean it would move your mouse cursor?....I am pretty sure I would hate that.

I'm saying that when you first open your inventory (by pressing Y if your on an Xbox one), the highlighted item would always be the first tab (which is the "All" tab) regardless of where and how you previously exited your inventory or what you last used in your inventory. Right now if I opened my inventory since I last started my game and selected an item (highlighting it) and then close my inventory, when I reopen my inventory again, the highlight will be still on that item I last highlighted (if it's still in the inventory or on the item adjacent to it if it itself is no longer in my inventroy).  I feel that each time I hit the "Y" button to open my inventory, the highlight should always be at the top left (i.e. on the "ALL" tab).  That way, I will not inadvertently "select" or "eat" or "use" or "drop" an item just because it was the item beside the previous item I used or highlighted

The thing with "are yous sure" warnings is where do you draw the line with them.  Imagine the annoyance if after level 5 cooking is attained, the game cuts in with an "are you sure you want to eat this?" confirmation every time you go to eat something that's ruined.

Edited April 17, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[odizzido]

Oh...you're playing on the bone? Yeah okay our control stuff will be really different. I understand why you didn't see my issue with using buttons for too many things too.

[RedFox]

10 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

 The consequences of eating raw meat is merely a case of food poisoning, which is a curable condition... take some antibiotics and get the required amount of sleep (and you'll be able to sleep regardless of your tiredness."

There is the issue of intestinal parasites. This is a (10 days on Stalker) 20 day long issue you have to deal with that gets worse and worse. You need 20 doses of antibiotics/Reishi tea to survive the infection. If it was just food poisoning, I would agree with you. Chock it up to being an idiot and move on. However that wasn't the issue. I apologize for not being more clear in my original post above that it was the parasites, and not the food poisoning I was mentioning. 

[UpUpAway95]

26 minutes ago, RedFox said:

There is the issue of intestinal parasites. This is a (10 days on Stalker) 20 day long issue you have to deal with that gets worse and worse. You need 20 doses of antibiotics/Reishi tea to survive the infection. If it was just food poisoning, I would agree with you. Chock it up to being an idiot and move on. However that wasn't the issue. I apologize for not being more clear in my original post above that it was the parasites, and not the food poisoning I was mentioning. 

Eating raw meat gives you a 95% chance of getting food poisoning.  Eating wolf or bear meat, regardless of whether it's raw or cooked, gives you parasites.  The risk for it is cumulative, so it doesn't happen instantly with just one piece.  If, however, carnivore meat (wolf or bear) is raw, the risk for parasites from that is 75%... but it still has to be carnivore meat.  Even if you eat a piece of raw meat, there is a 5% chance you won't get food poisoning.

Edited April 17, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[UpUpAway95]

1 hour ago, odizzido said:

Oh...you're playing on the bone? Yeah okay our control stuff will be really different. I understand why you didn't see my issue with using buttons for too many things too.

Can't you remap buttons somehow on PC?  My son plays games on a PC and remaps his buttons for pretty much all of them.  I don't think he plays TLD, but I can ask him.  Regardless, I'd hate to have the game asking me "are yous sure" for everything.  I'd rather learn to pay closer attention to what I'm doing and pay the "illness" consequences on the rare occasion I make a mistake.  It gives me a reason to use up all those Reishi teas I make once in awhile.

[RedFox]

13 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

Eating raw meat gives you food poisoning.  Eating wolf or bear meat, regardless of whether it's raw or cooked, gives you parasites.  The risk for it is cumulative, so it doesn't happen instantly with just one piece.  Even if you eat a piece of raw meat, there is a 5% chance you won't get food poisoning.

Once you hit level 5 cooking you have no chance of getting food poisoning or parasites from -any- cooked meat you've made. However, eating (even accidently) any portion of raw meat from a bear or wolf will give you a 75% chance of parasites. With that ticking every 24 hours it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll get it from eating raw meat from a predator. For instance what happened in my game was I was harvesting a bear. I was going between dropping cooked meat from my inventory and accidently clicked on a raw piece, eating a small portion of it as I was trying to spam my escape button. That gave me a 75% risk of parasites which, sadly I ended up getting. While yes, it was me probably moving a little to quickly in my inventory that caused the issue, I was thinking while playing that it would have been cool to see a "Are you sure you want to eat this raw?" warning or something like that, which was why I made an account here. 

[UpUpAway95]

2 minutes ago, RedFox said:

Once you hit level 5 cooking you have no chance of getting food poisoning or parasites from -any- cooked meat you've made. However, eating (even accidently) any portion of raw meat from a bear or wolf will give you a 75% chance of parasites. With that ticking every 24 hours it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll get it from eating raw meat from a predator. For instance what happened in my game was I was harvesting a bear. I was going between dropping cooked meat from my inventory and accidently clicked on a raw piece, eating a small portion of it as I was trying to spam my escape button. That gave me a 75% risk of parasites which, sadly I ended up getting. While yes, it was me probably moving a little to quickly in my inventory that caused the issue, I was thinking while playing that it would have been cool to see a "Are you sure you want to eat this raw?" warning or something like that, which was why I made an account here. 

... and the wish list allows the community to give their opinion/input on each item.  All I'm saying it I would not like the warnings.  Where do you draw the line... someone put up a request here recently for a warning about going to sleep thirsty because they died.... now this.  The game could easily become inundated with "are you sure" warnings... and I (my personal opinion only) would not like that.

[RedFox]

2 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

... and the wish list allows the community to give their opinion/input on each item.  All I'm saying it I would not like the warnings.  Where do you draw the line... someone put up a request here recently for a warning about going to sleep thirsty because they died.... now this.  The game could easily become inundated with "are you sure" warnings... and I (my personal opinion only) would not like that.

Oh nonono, please don't think I'm trying to argue or say your opinion doesn't matter. I just thought I wasn't being clear in my previous posts, that's all. I do appreciate your input and your thoughts on it! Sorry if it came off like that  It wasn't intentional. 

[UpUpAway95]

5 minutes ago, RedFox said:

Oh nonono, please don't think I'm trying to argue or say your opinion doesn't matter. I just thought I wasn't being clear in my previous posts, that's all. I do appreciate your input and your thoughts on it! Sorry if it came off like that  It wasn't intentional. 

No worries.  Also, don't think that I think your suggestion doesn't matter.  It does.  It has some merit in pointing out a problem... that on Xbox at least, I think originates with how the inventory highlights different things when being opened.  They could easily make that more consistent regardless of whether or not they throw in "are you sure" warnings.  I think if the inventory opened where the cursor highlight was always on a group tab and not on a single item, there would be fewer people accidentally selecting stuff... again, just my opinion.  (Of course, that wouldn't solve the issue of accidentally going to sleep thirsty.)

Edited April 17, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[odizzido]

On 4/17/2021 at 5:09 PM, UpUpAway95 said:

Can't you remap buttons somehow on PC?  My son plays games on a PC and remaps his buttons for pretty much all of them.  I don't think he plays TLD, but I can ask him.  Regardless, I'd hate to have the game asking me "are yous sure" for everything.  I'd rather learn to pay closer attention to what I'm doing and pay the "illness" consequences on the rare occasion I make a mistake.  It gives me a reason to use up all those Reishi teas I make once in awhile.

The problem is that my left click opens doors, shoots, picks things up, throws rocks, etc. I can't bind throw rock and pick up to different keys. You end up with the situation where you're trying to pick up a rabbit but you end up throwing rocks at it. This is the same issue the OP has. Too many actions bound to a single key.

[darkscaryforest]

On 4/17/2021 at 8:34 AM, UpUpAway95 said:

I'm absolutely OK with HL not adding in such warnings to handhold the players in the game.  The consequences of eating raw meat is merely a case of food poisoning, which is a curable condition... take some antibiotics and get the required amount of sleep (and you'll be able to sleep regardless of your tiredness.  For roleplaying purposes, you're lost in the wild... tired, disoriented, and hungry... so, you're going to make dumb mistakes.  It's part of the game.

So I anticipated that there would be players that felt this way. I understand that there are many things in the long dark that will let you accidentally make a mistake that can kill you. However I think everyone would agree there has to be some level of reason here. To give a completely pedantic example, when we pick up a revolver, there's not a button that will have Will shoot himself in the face, right?

 

When we have the character sleep, it is a more momentous occasion. We open a dedicated menu and repeatedly click the arrows for how long we want to sleep. There's plenty of time to think about what we're doing and it's a very deliberate process. So, shame on me if I forget to drink before going and doing all that, I deserve the night's health loss. I will have learned to always check my hydration first. If I forget, I have some time to remember when I'm in the menu clicking up on the arrows.

When I go to harvest a corpse, again a dedicated menu pops up and I have to repeatedly click the arrows to say how long to harvest. I can even cancel mid harvest. I make the mistake of doing too much and haven't paid attention. I deserve to succumb to the cold. I learn to watch my cold bar and to harvest reasonable amounts.

If I step on live wires during an aurora, my condition goes to 0 in like 3 seconds right? I deserve that and I've learned to watch my step when in certain places at night during an aurora, but I had to actually go to that place to have it happen which again is very deliberate.

I'm on a ledge and I thought I clicked the rope to climb up, but didn't so I walked off. I learned I need to wait for the animation that automatically centers the player onto the rope to finish before pressing up or down. But, that animation is 100% grade A feedback for letting me know I've clicked the rope so it is hard to get confused about whether or not I've clicked it.

 

These are all interesting (or uninteresting but at least more deliberate) mistakes that most players might make a couple times, but then learn to avoid. Each of these takes more than 1 button press to cause happen.

 

But the accidental raw meat consumption is a step too far I argue. It is too trivial to have it happen on accident. You work with it more than the other things mentioned above. How many times do you pick up and put down the many slices of meat from the animal to the fire? Especially if you want to avoid predators coming at you right? It's not like I can just harvest it and carry it with me willy nilly in my inventory. Especially if you don't have cooking 5 and you're managing food percentages?

I'm clicking around, organizing things. There's a lot to cook and I'm boiling water, harvesting rabbits, and I press spacebar when I've selected the wrong thing... what have I learned?  Don't accidentally press the wrong button? I guess I need to press buttons slower thinking about it every time to reduce the chance of misuse? I say that's only fair if you let me isolate that action in some way (a different button that lets me eat things), or make it more deliberate (take that shortcut away, make me open the radical or inventory), and I don't see a way to do it with the current UI.

Here's what I mean specifically. You can eat items in the inventory by double clicking. You transfer items via dragging, but first you must single click said item. That's just one click from doom. So I don't eat items that way as a result. I store meat on the floor, dropped via the decoy shortcut..giving me a way to avoid accidentally clicking one too many times. However, the spacebar shortcut button exists and pressing it will consume a selected food item, but like we established it is used for many other actions, some of which are also used with the food itself (pass time until food is cooked)! It is too easy to goof up and too severe to warrant it in my opinion.

And the kicker here, how many times do you actually want to consume raw meat that make it an interesting legitimate survival option in the game? 

Edited April 19, 2021 by darkscaryforest
fixing quote