hunger and starvation

[Ramboon]

I have about eight hours in this game so far and am really enjoying the experience, but I am still a little confused over one aspect. ... hunger and starvation.

I understand that once starvation occurs you will gradually lose condition over time, you can't seem to hold the rifle or bow steady and I 'think' your sprint time bar thingy is reduced. .. But. ... is that all?

Are there any other detrimental effects caused by starvation when the little red icon appears?

It seems that it makes more sense to ignore hunger until you need to sleep or your condition degrades severely enough to require attention. This way you save precious food resources.

I'm still not 100% sure on this though, and it's quite possible I am missing some aspect entirely!

So am I correct in thinking this way? Is it better to remain hungry or starved when exploring then only eat when you need to sleep or are hunting?

Any info or advice on this from a more experienced player would be greatly appreciated!

[Scyzara]

There is a health regeneration exploit known as "starvation-hibernation" that is based on starving yourself down to 10% condition during the course of the day, eating a few hundred calories afterwards, going to sleep and regenerating back to 100% health again. Requires you to either stay indoors all the time or have a very high self-esteem regarding your wolf-avoidance skills, ofc.^^

Congratz for realizing this possibility after only 8 hours, most people need way longer. :lol:

I do, however, strongly advise against this playstyle (because it's both boring and an exploit of game mechanics.) Especially if you're new to the game, want to explore the maps and (presumably) haven't mastered the art of wolf-management yet.

As long as you can't exclude the possibility to get jumped by a wolf by accident (yet), running around outside with <50% health is really not advisable. Especially because starvation also increases your fatigue gain (hence the bow swinging, btw) which will make it considerably more difficult to fight off a wolf if necessary.^^

Better keep your character well-fed, play fair and avoid all these problems.

[Ramboon]

Thankyou for the reply, there's something I didn't know about the sleeping thing. Seems a bit extreme though and not really my idea of fun, I much prefer exploring and playing as if it was myself out there.

I was just curious about the hunger and starvation mechanic, on my second or third try I'd eaten my way through a bear and a couple of deers and it seemed a little extreme!

I always tried to keep the bar full but have now realised I really don't need to.

I'm thinking of eating just enough to try and avoid any serious condition loss but it's good to know that if I do start running low on food I can go without for a while, that and if I'm halfway home when the starvation icon pops up I don't have to devour my last bit of bear there and then!

Do you happen to know at what point hunger starts to effect fatigue? Or is that only when starvation occurs?

I think that may be the only real negative to starving yourself while out exploring as once fatigued you really are on burrowed time!

[Scyzara]

Not sure about that, sorry. I always keep my character full and thus hardly ever enter the "ravenous" or "starving" states at all.^^

[Ramboon]

No problem scyzara, Thankyou for your help.

I'm trying to find an ideal happy halfway where I'm not wasting too much food and not eating until necessary rather than constantly topping up.

I'll have to try and do a few experiments to find out how levels of hunger effect fatigue drain.

That'll have to be after I get settled in my current play though, a rather nasty looking Wolf invited himself over for dinner earlier and I was the main course!

[selfless]

Starvation has exactly one effect in the game. It lowers condition by 1% each hour until you eat something. (Okay, two effects, you also can't restore condition by sleeping if you are starving. Sorry.)

Otherwise, Fatigue is normal, Stamina is normal, activities like sprinting or climbing or breaking down furniture are normal. Everything is normal. Why worry?

Best practice: Eat something before leaving your camp for the day. Do whatever, wherever until dusk. Return to camp starving and exhausted (80%ish condition). Eat some dinner, go to sleep, wake up fully refreshed ready to face another day (100%).

Lunch is severely overrated. Breakfast may be a luxury, too. Dinner is a necessity.

[Best_Leopard]

You realized this way sooner than I did, Ramboon! What the others are saying is true, though, and I tend to do exactly what selfless suggests in the post above. I know this can be exploited as Scyzara says, too, but it isn't much fun to play that way in my opinion. Still, I reason that if I were in this kind of situation and I had a limited amount of food, I wouldn't want to eat it up all in one day even if I was really hungry; I'd want to save a little for each day to keep my strength up.

[PolarBear70]

The hunger-starvation exploit is available for use; it's not necessarily in the spirit of the game, but the current game mechanics allow it. I, like Scyzara, tend to keep myself "filled up", most of the time, for other reasons (food inside you doesn't weigh anything, food inside you don't degrade, etc.) Having done a few "start the game in Timberwolf Mt. and stay there" game runs, I could see the need for stretching out that scarce food supply.

A lot of solutions were proposed for this issue, but I wonder if the devs aren't going to make a medical condition that activates for hunger like they did hypothermia for the cold, i.e., if you go for so long without eating, you get a negative medical condition that requires you to maintain > 0 cals food store for 24 hours. Maybe, "extreme starvation" or something. heck, they may end up doing that for all of the condition bars...

[cekivi]

Personally, I would also like to see this addressed. One thing I suggested in another post was a morale system:

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=10099

If you're starving all the time you will not be a happy survivor!

[GroggyNoggin]

I usually keep myself starving all the time, and only eat when it's sleep time. Water, on the other hand, is a much different thing. I keep myself hydrated all the time. That is a 2% loss per hour. I can usually wake up in the morning at 100%, travel somewhere, do whatever, then come in at nearly nightfall with 80%-ish health left due to hunger and eat right before bed. Rinse and repeat. I actually feel that it is pretty realistic to how I would manage food in that actual situation. I would conserve the heck out of it IRL. Playing on stalker, I don't find very much of anything any way, so I feel I need to play the game that way. Once I am established and have weapons and tools, I then have more food than I can eat before it goes bad, so at that point, I could lighten up on the starvation and eat more. But that makes sense IRL, too. Once you become used to the situation you are in and have figured out how to deal with it, it becomes a little easier.

[thinair]

Food supply not only is infinite but also free (no need of rifle, bow or fighting wolf) in TM on Crystal Lake, probably the easiest spot in game, almost right from the door. All you do is, steer deer/rabbit to wolf, and then attract it's attention and run to fishing or mountaineers hut.

As far as starving, in my personal opinion i do not think its an exploit, been saying that all the time. It does give you penalty, which is condition loss, plus if you over use it, your stamina/carrying capacity decreases. Not coming after those who mentioned being on a full stomach, but in reality in such a survival situation person would starve, person would never be on full stomach. Its not a all-inclusive vacation after all.

Personally, i live in the greatest country in the world (according to various rankings) so of course food here is not a problem, i can eat all i want, and still casually i find myself starving So in a survival situation, indeed person would starve. But its the beauty of the game... gives ability for a player to play the way player wants.

edit: anyways, being on full stomach, would make person almost useless in survival situation. It makes you lazy,slowish, sluggish, you name it.

[cekivi]

edit: anyways, being on full stomach, would make person almost useless in survival situation. It makes you lazy,slowish, sluggish, you name it.

But a full stomach also makes you happy, confident and hopeful. All of which are very, very important