Hunger/Thirst system soft locks characters now?

PinkLed5

PinkLed5

Refugee
I haven't played Vanilla in several years, but I'm using crossplay to play with my nephew, so here I am. Once our hunger or thirst reached zero (don't remember which) stamina became stuck at zero also. This meant we couldn't swing our stone axes or dig (I was trying to find the buried supplies at the time, hoping it had food). This makes it almost impossible to forage for food and it seems like we're soft locked out of game play and just have to sit and wait until we die.

Is this a bug or by design? Am I missing anything? Is there a suicide command so we don't have to sit around and do nothing until we die from starvation?
 
Yes, this is an intended gameplay mechanic. You have to make sure your hunger and water bar are kept up or else you will encounter debuffs.

Dew Collectors gather murky water over time (and you can add mods to make them more efficient). Red Tea and and Goldenrod Tea are excellent sources of hydration so if the vending machine in your nearest Trader compound has them available, buy them, along with any food you need.

Talking about vending machines, put down a marker whenever you find a working one. Knowing where the closest one is to you can be a life saver in the case of emergencies.

Collect eggs and harvest any meat around for bacon and eggs.

Putting a single point into Living off the Land will heed you double drops when harvesting crops and another point into Master Chef will get you more food books, allowing you to cook more sufficient meals.

If all else fails, just die. You will get an XP penalty for a little bit, but your hunger and thirst bar will be full again.
 
Thank you for your reply. I have 3,000 hours in the game since Alpha 10, so I'm no newbie. The solutions you propose are not really feasible within the first few days. Harvesting crops? On day 3? I think you need a cooking pot or grill to make bacon & eggs and we hadn't seen a single animal, anyway. Also, unless they've changed it, I think that recipe needs to be unlocked. Red Tea and Golden Rod tea on day 3? I don't think so. I couldn't even cook the murky water I had in my inventory.

Soft locking players in the early game due to unlucky RNG is poor game design. I'm a veteran player who loves this game and they're actively discouraging me from playing it.

If I can ask a question, what are we supposed to do if we find ourselves starving with zero stamina? What options does a player have at that point?
 
PinkLed5 said:
Thank you for your reply. I have 3,000 hours in the game since Alpha 10, so I'm no newbie. The solutions you propose are not really feasible within the first few days. Harvesting crops? On day 3? I think you need a cooking pot or grill to make bacon & eggs and we hadn't seen a single animal, anyway. Also, unless they've changed it, I think that recipe needs to be unlocked. Red Tea and Golden Rod tea on day 3? I don't think so. I couldn't even cook the murky water I had in my inventory.

Soft locking players in the early game due to unlucky RNG is poor game design. I'm a veteran player who loves this game and they're actively discouraging me from playing it.

If I can ask a question, what are we supposed to do if we find ourselves starving with zero stamina? What options does a player have at that point?
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Looting a single fast food joint or restaurant will get you enough food on day 1 to keep you from starving. Cooking pots are found in nearly any kitchen, you just have to look.
 
Going for restaurants and similar or going just to the kitchen in houses to get a cooking pot on day one is a must. If you don´t find a cooking pot, you can do quests and buy food or a cooking pot. On day 3 it is possible to have the forge going easily. Needs only 5 forge ahead magazines. If you put a point into advanced engineering from your first 4 points it is possible to find up to 4 forge ahead magazines in the workstations at the trader. Mostly it´s 2-3 though.
 
PinkLed5 said:
Thank you for your reply. I have 3,000 hours in the game since Alpha 10, so I'm no newbie. The solutions you propose are not really feasible within the first few days. Harvesting crops? On day 3? I think you need a cooking pot or grill to make bacon & eggs and we hadn't seen a single animal, anyway. Also, unless they've changed it, I think that recipe needs to be unlocked. Red Tea and Golden Rod tea on day 3? I don't think so. I couldn't even cook the murky water I had in my inventory.

Soft locking players in the early game due to unlucky RNG is poor game design. I'm a veteran player who loves this game and they're actively discouraging me from playing it.

If I can ask a question, what are we supposed to do if we find ourselves starving with zero stamina? What options does a player have at that point?
Click to expand...
I can make a Dew Collector almost by the end of Day 1. I already know the materials needed so I go straight for it collecting them. Even though it requires reading one Forge Ahead book, you can usually find one looting Rekt's compound in the broken cement mixer or workbench outside.

I also go straight into questing so I can get a few Dukes to get me some food and water for the first few days, plus looting will open more opportunities to finding cooking pots. If anything else, craft a Forge and make them once you read enough Forge Ahead books.
 
PinkLed5 said:
Thank you for your reply. I have 3,000 hours in the game since Alpha 10, so I'm no newbie. The solutions you propose are not really feasible within the first few days. Harvesting crops? On day 3? I think you need a cooking pot or grill to make bacon & eggs and we hadn't seen a single animal, anyway. Also, unless they've changed it, I think that recipe needs to be unlocked. Red Tea and Golden Rod tea on day 3? I don't think so. I couldn't even cook the murky water I had in my inventory.

Soft locking players in the early game due to unlucky RNG is poor game design. I'm a veteran player who loves this game and they're actively discouraging me from playing it.

If I can ask a question, what are we supposed to do if we find ourselves starving with zero stamina? What options does a player have at that point?
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If nothing else works for you, you can always sell some polymers, they pay well and you can buy water and canned food at the trader.
 
I appreciate your guys help, but none of those things are the issue. I've got 3,000 hours in this game and have died less than 10 times in total during that time, none of them due to hunger or thirst. Believe it or not, I've figured out that I need to look in kitchens for food and cooking pots by now. I apologize for the snark, this is just a frustrating experience.
 
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There is a Suicide button on the Esc menu if you have debug menu enabled, guess that wouldn't work for console though. One player could kill the other, then use the button.

Drink the dirty water and eat those raw eggs before you get that desperate is the better option.
 
PinkLed5 said:
I appreciate your guys help, but none of those things are the issue. I've got 3,000 hours in this game and have died less than 10 times in total during that time, none of them due to hunger or thirst. Believe it or not, I've figured out that I need to look in kitchens for food and cooking pots by now. I apologize for the snark, this is just a frustrating experience.
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So what is the issue then? There's no real shortage of food and water in the game. If you look, you'll find it. If you find it, you won't starve.
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By the way, as seven mentioned, bird nests don't take stamina to open. Raw eggs will keep you from starving, and they're everywhere.
 
PinkLed5 said:
I appreciate your guys help, but none of those things are the issue. I've got 3,000 hours in this game and have died less than 10 times in total during that time, none of them due to hunger or thirst. Believe it or not, I've figured out that I need to look in kitchens for food and cooking pots by now. I apologize for the snark, this is just a frustrating experience.
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Totally get the frustration part. I think once you get your footing again you will be just fine.
 
I am also confused about the problem. I've never had an issue finding food or water in the early game. Deer spawn between around 12am and 4am, so if you go hunting then, you should be able to find at least one or two. Chickens are easy to find if you run down a road in the wilderness since they tend to walk on it a lot and you can see them from a long distance when they are on the road. And if needed, you can use Animal Tracker to make it easier to find them. It is rare not to find at least one canned food item in a residential kitchen. And worst case scenario, there are a LOT of farms with corn around. Go harvest some corn. Beyond that, if you still have trouble, you can buy food from the trader or vending machine. So there should be no reason to ever run out of food. It might not be food you want to eat (I hate eating charred meat), but it'll keep you going.

As far as water, you can make a dew collector really quickly and easily. One stop at a trader for one forge ahead magazine that is an almost guaranteed drop from at least one workstation there will let you craft one. It'll be murky water until/unless you buy a filter, but you can drink murky water. You just might have to deal with dysentery unless you also use a vitamin. And you can even drink water up to 200% from any standing water source. You might get dysentery that way as well, but it's a low chance if you're only drink a handful or two.

Pots can be a pain to find sometimes since they are RNG, but even one or two quests gives you enough money to buy one if you really need to. I'm pretty sure they are guaranteed at Rekt, at least in the stock he has in the first few days. And you can craft one from the forge, which is very easy to make on day 1, or at worst on day 2.

So yeah.... you shouldn't ever be unable to get enough food or drink to keep going. There is murky water everywhere. Pots are cheap to make or buy if you have bad luck finding one. Chickens aren't hard to find on roads. Corn is everywhere. Kitchens almost always have some kind of food item, even if it's an uncooked foot item like a potato. It just sounds like you need to get used to the game again (or at least vanilla) and you'll be fine.
 
A lot of times you can find farms with some corn nearby. Loot all the lives ones for early day food, eat raw eggs from nests, eat those old sandwiches if that's all you have. The sandwiches usually drop pretty often in early day loot. Drink from water sources if you're going to die of thirst. Yes you might get dysentery but it beats starving/dying of thirst.
Loot houses until you have enough of something to keep you from hitting zero hunger/thirst.

If your hunger/thirst hits zero it's supposed to be a desperate situation. You can keep going but it's going to be tough like it should be if your thirst/hunger is that critical.
 
FYI the zero star POIs are great for finding cooking pots. They are easy to loot and you can luck out finding one while you are traveling between locations. Last 2 playthroughs I found one in them which immediately help my hydration problems.

Vitamins used before you eat / drink anything that might give you dysentery will prevent dysentery.
 
Hmm, if the mechanic is actually that you get to literal zero sta regen, I'd say that's a rather annoying mechanic. It's likely tied to only water though, so any puddle or a pool will fix the issue - with a new problem of dysentery. So I dunno, that would be the only reason I can imagine to end up with dysentery, so maybe it isn't all bad .. ;)
 
YourMirror said:
3000 hours in game and yet manage to completely deplete food and water. That calls for a "git gut".
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If it was alpha 17 experimental release, I could understand it. Only time I've nearly starved to death in the game. I was giddy with joy when I got attacked by a wolf, because I finally had some food.
 
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