Feedback on 2.5

Without perking into anything to increase forge ahead drops or cooking magazines, I unlocked the stews only about 1-2 real hours before the dew collector. The dew collectors allow me to make stews without issue. Before that, there's steak and potatoes that is a good food option that doesn't require water and also requires fewer crops than the stews, making it also easier to cook before you have a farm really producing well (for those of us who don't put points into LotL right away). I also use 0% return for jars because I don't want empty jars to begin with, let alone having to get more whenever I drink something. Anyhow, I get that people like empty jars. And I get that people play the game differently than I do. I do a lot of scavenging in the early game so I have the resources I need to do a decent base early in the game rather than trying to focus on building the base immediately. After all, there isn't any real need for a base for the first few days. I'll drop a few storage crates by the trader until I have a base with storage set up and, if needed, I'll even drop a workstation or two there in a land claim so I can move them when I build a base. But for those who want to spend the first days building a base or mining or whatever instead of scavenging, the game will play out differently for them.
We have slightly different playstyles and completely different luck. The first thing I leveled up was farming, and I also put one point into cooking. I'm on my third day of play (120 minutes). I only have enough water to drink, even though I'm picking up and filling empty jars. The water issue should be gone, though, since I can now make smoothies and make seeds from blueberries and yuca. But I'm missing potatoes for stews; for some reason, they're not dropping. I also can't make dew harvesters yet, nor can I even make a workbench. I'm just unlucky with the magazines for workbenches in this game.
 
If you are going out scavenging, you are likely to find drinks, meaning no need to drink from a water source. And you're also likely to find a goldenrod tea or a vitamin. They aren't that uncommon, even in 2.5. And if you aren't going out scavenging and running around a lot, you aren't using as much water, so with the water you start with, you should have no problems for the first couple of days. And dehydrating isn't even a significant problem, especially if you're just hanging out at your base all day. Dysentery isn't even that big of a problem if you happen to get it. But the we were talking about whether you can get plenty of water (infinite water) or not as the game is right now. Yes, you can. Is there potential risk? Sure. Can it be avoided without too much effort? Yes.

If drinking from a lake with a chance of dysentery is what you call "no problem with water at all" and "unlimited water", then we don't have different play experiences as I thought, but a difference of definition what constitutes a problem.

Theoretically we have unlimited water at our hands. Practically drinking from a lake is trading one scarce resource with another, and not a solution if you are already down with both.
When I start a new game I usually need to adapt to being a weakling again and get hit sometimes and often also get an infection. I play with default 60 minutes per day and each single basic zombie needs >5 hits with a club before going down. Even a normal lvl 1 Poi takes 1/3rd to half a day to clear with this. With starting quests, going to the trader and starting dig quest I have only time to clear one single poi the first day, maybe two if nothing else happens. That is one or two kitchens, (before 2.5) worth 2-3 murky water after practically having expended more than double that with activity. I am always low on food and water at the start of the second day. And if I am low on food and water means I have to be more careful and slow down simply because I don't have enough stamina for emergency situations. Which results in getting less food and water.

Your experience may be different if you simply achieve not getting hit by zombies the first day. Or playing longer days or playing at a lower difficulty. Or ... . We are probably all playing near the point where we find enough water to replace what we use. But if someone is slightly below he constantly looses water and if someone is slightly above he feels no scarcity and can do everything much faster.

This is why I am saying: Just because you feel no scarcity doesn't mean other players feel the same.
 
If drinking from a lake with a chance of dysentery is what you call "no problem with water at all" and "unlimited water", then we don't have different play experiences as I thought, but a difference of definition what constitutes a problem.

Theoretically we have unlimited water at our hands. Practically drinking from a lake is trading one scarce resource with another, and not a solution if you are already down with both.
When I start a new game I usually need to adapt to being a weakling again and get hit sometimes and often also get an infection. I play with default 60 minutes per day and each single basic zombie needs >5 hits with a club before going down. Even a normal lvl 1 Poi takes 1/3rd to half a day to clear with this. With starting quests, going to the trader and starting dig quest I have only time to clear one single poi the first day, maybe two if nothing else happens. That is one or two kitchens, (before 2.5) worth 2-3 murky water after practically having expended more than double that with activity. I am always low on food and water at the start of the second day. And if I am low on food and water means I have to be more careful and slow down simply because I don't have enough stamina for emergency situations. Which results in getting less food and water.

Your experience may be different if you simply achieve not getting hit by zombies the first day. Or playing longer days or playing at a lower difficulty. Or ... . We are probably all playing near the point where we find enough water to replace what we use. But if someone is slightly below he constantly looses water and if someone is slightly above he feels no scarcity and can do everything much faster.

This is why I am saying: Just because you feel no scarcity doesn't mean other players feel the same.
That seems like a lot of hits. I don't use clubs, but they shouldn't be that bad. Are you doing headshots and power attacks? Or just regular attacks anywhere on the body? Even with the Q1 wooden spear, I'm knocking them down with a single headshot power attack. One more is usually enough to kill most of the ones you find in the first day. The ones with more health might take an extra hit or two. That's with 1-2 points in spears for day 1. But maybe clubs really are just that low damage.

As far as settings, I use 2 hour days as I've mentioned, but that doesn't change my ability to find food or water. It just means that if I say a day, it's equal to 2 days for you. And the initial water lasts me one day without a problem on 2 hour days, so should really last you 2 days on 1 hour days unless you're constantly running or mining or something else that uses a lot of extra water. I am currently on default difficulty for experimental. I'm assuming you are as well, so no difference there.

Scarcity isn't running out of water. Sure, I'm not stacking up a lot of unused water immediately. But I have enough without drinking from a water source or using empty jars. I do clear tier 1 POI very quickly. They aren't exactly difficult. So maybe I just find a lot more. I also loot everything with E followed by R, so I don't spend time dragging stuff to my inventory or anything like that, which can certainly slow you down significantly.
 
Water is basically unlimited from day 1 anyhow. The idea that it is any kind of challenge is just make believe. In any case, that was an example and I provided other options.
Our of curiosity survival games tend to have things for players to overcome whether it be the elements, shelter, good or water.

Is your issue that the current implementation isn't valid for water scarcity to be a concern or that you don't think it's one of the items that should be one?

Currently water can give dysentery and with the smell changes it might not be a good idea to drink murky water. If you combine that with proper debuffs for being sick then I don't think water is readily available day one.
If you are going out scavenging, you are likely to find drinks, meaning no need to drink from a water source. And you're also likely to find a goldenrod tea or a vitamin. They aren't that uncommon, even in 2.5. And if you aren't going out scavenging and running around a lot, you aren't using as much water, so with the water you start with, you should have no problems for the first couple of days. And dehydrating isn't even a significant problem, especially if you're just hanging out at your base all day. Dysentery isn't even that big of a problem if you happen to get it. But the we were talking about whether you can get plenty of water (infinite water) or not as the game is right now. Yes, you can. Is there potential risk? Sure. Can it be avoided without too much effort? Yes.
So then the amount of food and drinks should be reduced to encourage hunting and early game survival from t0-t1 loot. I think a small reduction would benefit the early food/water survival concepts and encourage more to actually make food rather than just eat from another canned good they pilfered from a store. Plus it gives more use for the smell system if people are hunting more and jars if people need to find water sources.
 
As far as settings, I use 2 hour days as I've mentioned, but that doesn't change my ability to find food or water. It just means that if I say a day, it's equal to 2 days for you. And the initial water lasts me one day without a problem on 2 hour days, so should really last you 2 days on 1 hour days unless you're constantly running or mining or something else that uses a lot of extra water. I am currently on default difficulty for experimental. I'm assuming you are as well, so no difference there.

I haven't looked into any of the guts of it but I would think that food and water usage would scale with the settings.
So if you are on 1 hour days and your water (during normal use) drop to 50% by say 12:00 then
on 2 hour days doing the same thing your water will still drop to 50% by noon.
That is just how it works in my mind. Someone who has delved into the bowels of the code could possibly sort it out.
 
So if you are on 1 hour days and your water (during normal use) drop to 50% by say 12:00 then
on 2 hour days doing the same thing your water will still drop to 50% by noon.
I think the base drain is per real hour, not per game time. It's not explicitly stated in the xml:s, but where setting the base in entityclasses:
<passive_effect name="WaterChangeOT" operation="base_subtract" value=".0111"/> <!-- water base drain, 40/hour -->

The comment is 40/hour; we're not losing 40 per game-hour. 40 per 60 min real time seems much closer. The .0111 seems like "use per second", multiply by 3600 seconds and you get close to 40.

Also things like painkillers last for 3 mins Real time, and adjust the base water consumption stat like it's bound to real time. With a comment of "40/180" - assuming 40 water over 180 seconds.
 
The comment is 40/hour; we're not losing 40 per game-hour. 40 per 60 min real time seems much closer. The .0111 seems like "use per second", multiply by 3600 seconds and you get close to 40.

Also things like painkillers last for 3 mins Real time, and adjust the base water consumption stat like it's bound to real time. With a comment of "40/180" - assuming 40 water over 180 seconds.
I never knew the actual numbers/rate, thanks.

My friend and I were playing each of us used our own settings, him with 60 minute days, me with 120 minute days. He would get to day 100 in game, even starting just a couple days before me, but I would play less total hours, less game days, but already surpass him in characters levels.

We compared notes, and it was the 60 (real minute) game day setting that was killing him. I could basically do twice as much as he could each day, and i was far better prepared for Horde Night, as well. He switched to 120 minute game days after that.
 
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We compared notes, and it was the 60 (real minute) game day setting that was killing him. I could basically do twice as much as he could each day, and i was far better prepared for Horde Night, as well. He switched to 120 minute game days after that.
It does have an effect, but it's roughly the same as setting "horde frequency" from 7 to 14. You get more time, but the first horde is way worse. Depends on how much base you want to prep for etc, the compounding effect of wasted time can be significant. But it's not insane scaling; haven't done it in a while, but "a horde every night" is still playable. Horde every night with 20 minute days started approaching insanity - even when the early hordes were just a couple zeds, and that got changed.
 
Look all I know is jars are king. I love them i miss them and idk if its a bug or intentionally but yucca smoothies dont require water in order to craft @schwanz9000

Ether way im loving this update im currently stuck in masons farms barn after killing a deer at night with feral sense on so alot (like 5 zombies) is around


The one thing that makes me depressed is still just lack or zombie spawns. But soon I won't worry about that
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Makes sense, With 120 minute days you have double the time to prepare over the same amount of days.
I've tried to play like that and holy hell nights are EXTREAMLY excruciating at night. Mostly early game but maybe I'll give it another try
 
I have also experimented with longer nights/shorter days.

Dawn coming around a 10AM is a bit strange, but a 12 hours Horde Night is just awesome, though not so much every night.

My latest game, dusk at 2200 hrs, dawn at 0600 hrs. The longer nights cut down questing time (daylight hrs) and delay trader opening until 0600. Traders still try to open, but if Horde Night is still active, you get bounced if you try to enter before 0600 hrs.

Nice little change of pace.
 
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