Retooled dehydration

[DrMembrane]

Ok, I know it needs to be less than in real life for the gameplay purposes, but can you please retool the time it takes to become dehydrated. It's really annoying to be either sleeping through a full night or doing a few mundane tasks and becoming completely dehydated in a few hours. Like especially with sleep, it's not only annoying (a word I choose deliberately as it doesn't feel challenging just kinda obnoxious) but it really breaks my immersion to sleep for 9 or 10 hours and be dying of dehydrationwhen I wake up because I didn't drink a whole liter of water before bed.

[octavian]

Like especially with sleep, it's not only annoying (a word I choose deliberately as it doesn't feel challenging just kinda obnoxious) but it really breaks my immersion to sleep for 9 or 10 hours and be dying of dehydrationwhen I wake up because I didn't drink a whole liter of water before bed.

So why not drink before going to sleep then, instead of essentially having to rebalance the entire game?

[Random Fires]

Drink, sleep 8 hours, drink, andsleep another 3-5 depending on daytime.

Death by dehydration seems to take quite some time.

[madrepityu]

You can sleep 11 hour if you drink straight before you go to sleep. But you'll need to drink right after you wake up.

[lilpipsqueak]

I think dehydration is balanced fine.

However, it could be helpful if there were a way to have an activity automatically interrupted if ___ (freezing, starving, dehydration, condition < 50%, or who knows). I perform activities in such small time intervals now that this wouldn't be helpful to me, but I could see it being helpful for other players. Such as while harvesting a corpse, and suddenly a blizzard pops up out of nowhere that you weren't ready for.

[DrMembrane]

Octavian, no one likes a smartass, I do drink before I sleep and waking up completely dehydrated after a normal nights sleep is just kidna silly, it makes it hard for me to stay in character if this person is dehydrated after almost no time. But i do like lilpipsqueaks idea

[Carbunkel]

I sleep for no more than 6 hours because of this. Eat drink sleep. Wake up do the same and then sleep 2 or more hours to get to my desired time.

irl you wake up thirsty, not so thirsty your body begins to break itself down.

The hunger I'm okay with because you do wake up very hungry in the morning and I often wake up rumbling and very ready for food.

[Shanti]

Personally, I think that the water consumption should change based on the activity. Running, walking while encumbered, skinning, chopping wood should all be major dehydrators. Medium activities should include, walking, fire starting, repairing, harvesting, crafting, and be at the normal rate. Light activities should only be sleeping and if resting is added to the game, resting.

Even still, it's quite normal when backpacking (especially in winter) to wake up because of dehydration, drink a little water and go back to sleep. Personally, I think there should be a major overhaul for how sleeping works, which I detailed in a different post about sleeping and resting here.

[Bill Tarling]

Personally, I think that the water consumption should change based on the activity.

Things are a little different in steady sub-zero conditions... the body is in a constant state of burning fuel to avoid hypothermia, and dehydration can take place extremely fast.

In fact when the body starts approaching severe dehydration, you would also begin to lose cognitive thinking as well - which is also why it's common enough in extreme conditions for people to freeze to death in their sleep. The mind shuts down because the body tries to use the keep vital organs functioning.

[Shanti]

Personally, I think that the water consumption should change based on the activity.

Things are a little different in steady sub-zero conditions... the body is in a constant state of burning fuel to avoid hypothermia, and dehydration can take place extremely fast.

That's true. Hence the need to drink almost a gallon of water a day in game. However, water needs should still be tied to calorie consumption, both based on how active and how warm the character is kept.

In fact when the body starts approaching severe dehydration, you would also begin to lose cognitive thinking as well - which is also why it's common enough in extreme conditions for people to freeze to death in their sleep. The mind shuts down because the body tries to use the keep vital organs functioning.

This is true, but may not mean what you think it does. The game goes from "thirsty" to "dehydrated" in about 1-2 hours, and from "I can't drink anymore" hydrated to dehydrated in 8-11. While it may be true that someone in these conditions would become dehydrated in that time, dehydration is actually a spectrum, and most people will not immediately loose significant cognitive ability when they first become dehydrated. The type of situation you are talking about is far more common when someone has been dehydrated for days, not hours, and especially when they are both very dehydrated and hypothermic.

If you go to sleep thirsty, and are not hypothermic, your body will wake you up before you die of dehydration. It will also wake you up when you are cold, but before you become hypothermic. I can tell you from my own experience in sub-zero conditions that this is true - and in game terms, as long as your condition is high enough, should remain true.

People who die in their sleep in extreme conditions almost always have made a stupid mistake (gone to sleep freezing), or are at the end of their reserves (as the game would say, at a low condition). Otherwise, the body knows to burn it's reserves to wake up for a drink of water, or more clothing, or just to go pee.

For timed activities, I think it's important for the player to calculate for himself whether to proceed or not. There are times when I know that I will start freezing or dehydrating if I gather wood for an hour, but I know that's what I need to do to survive. It makes sense to be able to push through these conditions to get things done. Crafting is a bit more of a gray area - IRL I would probably put down my deerhide boots for 5 minutes in the middle of an 8 hour crafting session to take a drink. But sleep should be interrupted by hunger, cold and thirst, IMHO.

[Spoonbender42]

I could agree that this needs a little fine tuning. I am playing on medium difficulty and presume that most of the posts here are playing on stalker. Bill makes a good enough point that is very valid if I'm sleeping outdoors. My concern is when I'm in a bed indoors and wearing all my clothes, long Johns, sweater, deer boots/pants, wolf coat, sounds like I should be nice and toasty for a good night sleep. Maybe the game is going the other way and I'm cooking myself when I sleep. Maybe it is taking these items off me and freezing me but I don't wake up cold, just moving toward starving and dehydrated. Either way calorie and thirst should adjust based on activity and conditions.

[lilpipsqueak]

i do like lilpipsqueaks idea

Thanks.

[Carbunkel]

Okay in extreme conditions the body does burn more and need more water. But most of the places we use as safe houses are not in EXTREME cold. They're just cold. We can walk around in socks and underwear and still be warm. Plus a warmth bonus in a bed.

I do understand that the game is unrealistic to make it hard, but I still prefer to think I can sleep a normal sleep when I warm and just drank.

[JudenInduven]

I think dehydration is balanced fine.

However, it could be helpful if there were a way to have an activity automatically interrupted if ___ (freezing, starving, dehydration, condition < 50%, or who knows). .

I suggested this and a dev just told me that I could just back out of any action wherein time would pass in a fashion where dehydration, starvation, freezing, or exhaustion could start to drain my condition, he/she was right, but it's not really made clear that you can do that. I really would like a clearer alert for when you start dying than is currently implemented, but honestly, it's nothing too bothersome, in my opinion

[exeexe]

U can also drink so much water, not in one go but if you are disciplined, over a couple of days that you fill up your body with water. Just drink water even when you are not thirsty. Try do this and your urine will go from yellow to white and wont smell that much.

Marathon runners practice this so on the day of the run their bodies are full of water and so they can perform much better.