PC How and why current food poisoning is bad design.

I understand a lot of players hate it; but I don't see how it is 'bad design' or a 'closed system' any more than a leg break or infection.
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I hope you aren't mad that I don't reply to everything. I've talked about this in detail and there is nothing I can add.

So just to this:

Because a broken leg changes your gameplay. You don't jump out of a window, it is a restriction that is forcing you to play a different way (even though framing basicially negates that, but we are talking base features :D )

And infection is an added risk in combat, that effects your gameplay if untreated and can be treated afterwards.

Broken leg:

-avoid high drops

-if unavoidable, needs tending (medicine production)

-while tended, your gameplay changes (you are slower, therefor fighting melee with ferals is far harder, animals are faster, close quarters are more risky)

Infection:

-added risk to fighting (sure you can say you can simply do more damage, but it is actually a different sort of risk, while foodpoisoning just needs more food)

-when infected, you need to either explore and get antibiotics/honey or you get continually worse, giving you more and more adverse effects, pressuring you to either go home for medicine or go out and get it

Of the two, infection is similar to food poisoning, since you already need to avoid getting hit (like you have to eat food anyways), but it is not something that you need to waste ressources in advance for something that might not come.

Also you don't just lose more health which you can negate with perks or a vitamin before going in combat, it is actually effecting you a long time after, if you haven't got the medicine (which is way too common in my opinion).

THE most similar feature I can think of when it comes to food poisoning is bleeding.

But opposed to food poisoning, bleeding is still not as closed off.

Bleeding needs: one slot in the quick bar, attention in a hasty fight, some time to bandage

It is basicially damage that you can negate by beeing prepared.

How can you prepare for food poisoning?

Buy 4 ranks in iron gut or swallow a rare ressource, that you can't farm. How very satisfying.

Again: I am not saying I absolutely hate this system... what I am saying is, that it is so much wasted potential.

It's like as if suddenly the devs would remove gravity from the game... some people would argue that it gives more freedom and how it has benefits and all that, but it loses complexity that enriched the gameplay.

It's annoying, it is senseless, in its current form it isn't even making the game harder. It's just nothing, while it could be SO MUCH MORE.

 
I hope you aren't mad that I don't reply to everything. I've talked about this in detail and there is nothing I can add.So just to this:

Because a broken leg changes your gameplay. You don't jump out of a window, it is a restriction that is forcing you to play a different way (even though framing basicially negates that, but we are talking base features :D )
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But food poisoning does change your game play (or at least should). You don't eat a stew in the middle of a POI at least not without taking a vitamin first.

Is it a huge change? No, of course not... but it's certainly inline with "don't jump from too high a location"

 
Personally I think you are creating a distinction where none exists.
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The difference for me is that you avoid something that you know could happen but you overcome something that has already happened. You can avoid a broken leg by not jumping from great height but you can overcome the handicap of a broken leg with a plaster cast or splint.

 
But food poisoning does change your game play (or at least should). You don't eat a stew in the middle of a POI at least not without taking a vitamin first.
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Usually i eat before doing any POI. That's enough for the most POIs. If it's a T5, i might eat cans i found on the way anyway.

That didn't change because there is food poisoning now, that's the way i did it since i'm playing 7d2d.

 
Usually i eat before doing any POI. That's enough for the most POIs. If it's a T5, i might eat cans i found on the way anyway. That didn't change because there is food poisoning now, that's the way i did it since i'm playing 7d2d.
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Most of the players I know scrapped the cans in A17 once they estabished a base and had some food. Nobody wanted take to the risk of food poisoning if not necessary.

 
Usually i eat before doing any POI. That's enough for the most POIs. If it's a T5, i might eat cans i found on the way anyway. That didn't change because there is food poisoning now, that's the way i did it since i'm playing 7d2d.
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Just because it didn't change your play style doesn't mean it didn't change other people's. All I'm saying is that it is inaccurate to say that the mechanic doesn't change game play in general. Some, like you, it didn't change at all.... but others it did. For me, I used to carry stew all the time and ate whenever I thought about it. Now I don't.... now I pay more attention to where and when and what I eat. Not all mechanics in the game have to be huge or complicated. This is a small mechanic that makes some people think twice about what they're eating.... and honestly, I think thats all it's intended to do, for now.

 
Again, I think I see what you mean, but I don't agree;
The game mechanic needs to balance out between SP, MP - PVP and PVE - so changing food availability is one solution, but one that has many possible issues - in a multiplayer servers, the more players there are the more a reduction in food becomes an issue - especially in early game.

So lets imagine you and your 7 buddies play a PVE Navesgane or pregen. I also start a SP. We have the same settings and start in the same area. The game needs to make keeping myself fed a challenge for 1 player. It also has to make it a challenge for you 8. There are the same POI's, the same number of traders / vending machines, and same number of animal spawns.

Either it gives us enough food for you 8 to survive, in which case SP has too much food - or it gives us enough food for me to survive; and 7 of your guys starve.

OR

It gives enough food for 8 to survive, but there is a risk that at any given time that could go wrong. In SP I can stick to the canned food; or if I don't and am unlucky I might die as a result. In PVE you can't stick to the cans, as there aren't enough for 8 - but it still remains a matter of luck (or RNG) whether or not any or every one of you has problems, and you're less likely to die as there are 7 of you able to help out any 1 low stamina player who is far from home.

Neither solution is perfect, but one is better than the other.

Sometimes the balance of the game and achieving an effect is more important than a satisfying mechanic - especially in a developing game; they'll try to find the right balance and THEN smooth out and perfect the mechanics.

At the minute the food poisoning isn't quite right, but it is comparable to the development of the infection mechanics. It makes combat extra risky, but it's never a guaranteed chance. If it does happen early, or you aren't ready then it can kill you. Later on in the game it's less of a problem as vehicles and medicine are acquired.

It makes eating risky, but is never a guaranteed chance. If it happens early or you aren't ready, it can kill you. Later on in the game it's less of a problem as you have vehicles and medicine to get you safely home.

I understand a lot of players hate it; but I don't see how it is 'bad design' or a 'closed system' any more than a leg break or infection.
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Couldn't have said it better myself. Great post. 👍

 
Make Iron Gut lower food and water consumption and lower the damage food poison does. Make Cooking skills lower the percent of the chance of poison. This gives 2 options to deal with poison.

 
I threw up in the early game and I had no extra food and that directly led me to put off my planned quest and instead I cleared the apartment building nearby. With all those kitchens I was able to recover my energy little by little bit I then had to keep going to clear the whole building.

Changed all my plans for two of my days. Definitely wasn’t a simple eat again to refill and move on experience. It just depends when it happens but the potential for disruption is definitely there.

 
I'll again repeat my caution against "realistic" food poisoning.

You don't want realism here, folks. You can't 100% avoid food poisoning (even in "real life" Earth, it is a low risk in sanitary parts of the world, and a larger, constantly potentially life-threatening risk in unsanitary parts of the world). And you can't really "overcome" it either. If you get it, it runs its course. You can do a few things while you lie there wishing you were dead; but in a world where lying down in a random location means you get your neck chewed open..."realistic" food poisoning === you're now a zombie.

I'll also repeat my statement that I'm not 100% satisfied with the current food poisoning system either; but it has changed (to a minor degree, but still changed) how I play in A18, enough to give some somewhat interesting decisions. And I await a larger change before I render final judgement.

 
There are toilets and fresh pairs of pants everywhere. I don't think it would slow me down at all.Gives new meaning to the term "wasteland."
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Absolutely. The stomach cramps would always keep you bent slightly so you would even get a bonus to stealth :cocksure:

 
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