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Food and Water


The_War_Doctor

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While posting on another thread i realized that im not certain how the game will take into effect that we are humans and that we would need to eat and drink to survive. I think somewhere in another thread or devblog something was mentioned about going out and hunting after we leave the ark ship.

 

 

But i just wanted to get everyone's opinion on if they believe this should be a mechanic in the game or not.

 

Personally id like to see it as it adds a very intriguing level of immersion into the game. especially for long space flights and wars far from your home system

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It would definitly be fascinating, it would offer new careers like farmer and hunter, additional there are the possibilitys for hardcore roleplayer, imagine somone who is happy with playing a life sim as farmer.

 

And this would add more strategic aspects to ship design and deepspace fleet operations. should there be sufficent hydroponics for food on every ship or is it better to have one giant agricultural ship accompanying the fleet? Or maybe even a combination?

 

And then the hunger and thirst mechanic, will your sourroundings influence how fast you get hungry and thirsty?

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My thought was that it will discourage pvping to some degree. but not in a negative way. You would have to plan the logistics of long warfare for a large force or plan and build an agricultural ship that can supply the fleet. Which just adds another target during wars. gotta take out the agriculture ship as well as the one with the RN on it. But I see this as just another reason that people wont aimlessly start wars and such which i think people who are not interested in the pvp side may actually like.

 

My thought on the mechanics on your surroundings is that the suit would house a kind of camel back with water and it depletes at a certain rate at idle and while doing different types of actives it would deplete at a faster rates. The food part im not sure how that would be taken care of. i would assume that you would have to store food in your pack unless its processed into a paste that you drink through a straw in your suit. which honestly doesn't sound great lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

edited for a typo i saw

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It would definitly be fascinating, it would offer new careers like farmer and hunter, additional there are the possibilitys for hardcore roleplayer, imagine somone who is happy with playing a life sim as farmer.

 

And this would add more strategic aspects to ship design and deepspace fleet operations. should there be sufficent hydroponics for food on every ship or is it better to have one giant agricultural ship accompanying the fleet? Or maybe even a combination?

 

And then the hunger and thirst mechanic, will your sourroundings influence how fast you get hungry and thirsty?

That would make something like a blockade more possible and other estrategies

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I've actually discussed something like this in my Fleets Management and Blockades post on my Factions website and on the forums here and here.

 

On my forum post on my Factions website, I discussed the idea of a Life Ship, carrying crew, ammo and food rations. This idea would be important to keep the Life Ship protected during battles and to ensure that it would not receive heavy fire.

 

This re-enforces the idea that you would need to have vessels with food, resupply ships and as such in order to sustain a battle during a war. This would make war costly and would prevent random attacks without reason, making the game more realistic. 

 

It's a simple element and I don't think it would go overlooked, but it does bring out the point to realism and importance to protect your important crew sustaining supplies instead of simply overlooking them and attacking into battle without a second thought.

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It would be really interesting from an economics and political standpoint. When claiming territory now you have to take into account how well you can actually grow stuff on the land you own, and whether or not you will have to trade outside of your Organization/compound to sustain yourself, and would add a lot of strategy and choice when it came to things like sieges

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I am all for it, but I would like a more elegant design that doesn't put it in the center stage.

 

In games where survival-horror is the focus, it makes sense to have multiple bars and have the player freak out on the currently lowest one - the most nearing cause of death - but in a game where you want this as an enrichment rather then a distraction, you could simplify it into a supply unit you can craft, made out of the basic supplies you would need within a certain time frame. Instead of dying the moment it's gone, it could have an incremental negatives: once reaching a certain line within the supply bar your suit automatically starts budgeting your supplies more and more and you get certain negative effects on your health and attributes.

 

This should only be a factor when you are trying to survive somewhere out there or in encouraging players to build life support systems. While you are in the safety of arkships, your supplies should be completely provided for.

 

Potentially this can be combined with a fuller survival system as well: Have the multiple bars thing and multiple actions to reduce each of them, but then hide and replace the bars with the general supply bar when you have a supply unit on you.

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Could be really interesting. Making it much more realistic and immersive... maybe they could even add a sort of market in the case that you can sell food, water or the like to people if they are visiting your colony. Could be REALLY interesting :D

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I am all for it, but I would like a more elegant design that doesn't put it in the center stage.

 

In games where survival-horror is the focus, it makes sense to have multiple bars and have the player freak out on the currently lowest one - the most nearing cause of death - but in a game where you want this as an enrichment rather then a distraction, you could simplify it into a supply unit you can craft, made out of the basic supplies you would need within a certain time frame. Instead of dying the moment it's gone, it could have an incremental negatives: once reaching a certain line within the supply bar your suit automatically starts budgeting your supplies more and more and you get certain negative effects on your health and attributes.

 

This should only be a factor when you are trying to survive somewhere out there or in encouraging players to build life support systems. While you are in the safety of arkships, your supplies should be completely provided for.

 

Potentially this can be combined with a fuller survival system as well: Have the multiple bars thing and multiple actions to reduce each of them, but then hide and replace the bars with the general supply bar when you have a supply unit on you.

I agree with this :D could make the whole thing much more immersive.

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After reading the lore(parts 1-5), I think they allude to game mechanics that the devs are hoping for. I could see food and water(or beverages) as being something to help with energy(which might come back on its own) or help you get health back faster. This way you are limited to things like health packs and stim packs. Would make the game more immersive, without making it a requirement.

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After reading the lore(parts 1-5), I think they allude to game mechanics that the devs are hoping for. I could see food and water(or beverages) as being something to help with energy(which might come back on its own) or help you get health back faster. This way you are limited to things like health packs and stim packs. Would make the game more immersive, without making it a requirement.

Maybe :P hmm, it is a tricky thing to really fully decide. On One hand would it be amazing if you had to eat and drink and such, but on another it could be REALLY tedious and it would be super frustrating if you suddenly realise "oh.. I am in the middle of nowhere, starving... well fuck"

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Maybe :P hmm, it is a tricky thing to really fully decide. On One hand would it be amazing if you had to eat and drink and such, but on another it could be REALLY tedious and it would be super frustrating if you suddenly realise "oh.. I am in the middle of nowhere, starving... well fuck"

That's why I'm personally hoping it isn't a requirement. If it is, well I guess I would have to deal with it. I would probably just stock up on the cheapest food for long journeys.

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That's why I'm personally hoping it isn't a requirement. If it is, well I guess I would have to deal with it. I would probably just stock up on the cheapest food for long journeys.

Maybe the cheapest food don't give any major buffs, or simply just don't last as long?

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That's why I'm personally hoping it isn't a requirement. If it is, well I guess I would have to deal with it. I would probably just stock up on the cheapest food for long journeys.

 

Come to think of it, what would be the cheapest food to grow in space?

Here on earth it's often wheat, but I've heard wheat has difficulties when it comes to hydroponics. Maybe rice?

 

I'd suggest potato's but I don't want Matt Damon to sue DU...

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Maybe the cheapest food don't give any major buffs, or simply just don't last as long?

Have you heard or MREs? Something equivalent would be possible.

 

As for something to grow in space? I've heard hydroponics make things a little easier to grow, manage, and manipulate(like its shape). 

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Have you heard or MREs? Something equivalent would be possible.

 

As for something to grow in space? I've heard hydroponics make things a little easier to grow, manage, and manipulate(like its shape). 

Hmm, maybe... *strokes chin* Still, it is a discussion which will take quite some time to really figure out a endgoal of... I would still see it as something interesting and fun to add, even though it could be really difficult to make not... "buttclenchingly" annoying to hold properly.

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I assume the game will use realtime instead of fast-forward daycycle, so it would be realistic if you need your 3 meals a day, what would result in one meal per game session for the average player.

 

I think it could work so:

You will need food but only once all 8 hours, depending on your activities this could be more or less. An example: if you mine the whole time, then you need food more frequently approximately all 3 - 4 hours, because its exhausting, but if you're offline (sleeping) this changes to a 12 hour cycle, should you not be online if food needed, it will automatically consume food from your inventory. Should you be longer offline, for a week or even a month, there could be the possibility to reenter the cryostasis.

 

With this system i see two ways for players,

first, the lazy one, you stack simple rations in your inventory wich will automatically consumed as you go.

Second, the more realistic, you cook or buy yourself a real meal and you consume it manually. If you using this method i would give little bonuses like +10hp for the next hour, nothing really drastic, but a small reward for your effort.

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Have you heard or MREs? Something equivalent would be possible.

 

As for something to grow in space? I've heard hydroponics make things a little easier to grow, manage, and manipulate(like its shape). 

 

There are probably just going to have to be constructs of some sort that can be modular to whatever design you can come up to use them. The end result food can just be "sucked" into your suit storage like mentioned in the (Part 1-5) of the Backstory. Before that is food grown from pre-determined in game objects Aka Seeds. Seeds would need to be planted in sufficient soil by liters cubed and watered sufficiently during the life cycle. So all we would need to do as the player is create a complex voxel object that satisfies that process. 

hydroponics.jpg

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There are probably just going to have to be constructs of some sort that can be modular to whatever design you can come up to use them. The end result food can just be "sucked" into your suit storage like mentioned in the (Part 1-5) of the Backstory. Before that is food grown from pre-determined in game objects Aka Seeds. Seeds would need to be planted in sufficient soil by liters cubed and watered sufficiently during the life cycle. So all we would need to do as the player is create a complex voxel object that satisfies that process. 

hydroponics.jpg

This could be DAMN interesting :D like people have to come up with a sort of "efficent" design to create as much food on as little space as possibly with as much efficency as possible... and (this is what I would love) the one that gets the best, could potentially rule an area, due to him being able to produce the most food meanhing he could sell it cheaply, meaning people are more likely to buy it from him than growing themselves, since he does it so cheaply.

 

 

 

I assume the game will use realtime instead of fast-forward daycycle, so it would be realistic if you need your 3 meals a day, what would result in one meal per game session for the average player.

 

I think it could work so:

You will need food but only once all 8 hours, depending on your activities this could be more or less. An example: if you mine the whole time, then you need food more frequently approximately all 3 - 4 hours, because its exhausting, but if you're offline (sleeping) this changes to a 12 hour cycle, should you not be online if food needed, it will automatically consume food from your inventory. Should you be longer offline, for a week or even a month, there could be the possibility to reenter the cryostasis.

 

With this system i see two ways for players,

first, the lazy one, you stack simple rations in your inventory wich will automatically consumed as you go.

Second, the more realistic, you cook or buy yourself a real meal and you consume it manually. If you using this method i would give little bonuses like +10hp for the next hour, nothing really drastic, but a small reward for your effort.

This could be an interesting system... but the cryosleep shouldn't mean that you are "punished" by not playing... that could just make the players (other than the most fanatic) dislike the game since it basicly forces them to play as much as possible.

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I would love to have a comprehensive mechanism around food, reaching from planting and watering manually (mincraftstyle) and cooking it yourself to giant automated factorys. Livestock could also be a possibility. After all food is an essential part of human society.

 

Edit 1 due to lag of the forum -.-

This could be an interesting system... but the cryosleep shouldn't mean that you are "punished" by not playing... that could just make the players (other than the most fanatic) dislike the game since it basicly forces them to play as much as possible.

 

I doesn't mean the cryosleep as punishment its simply a way to eliminate the need of food.

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I would love to have a comprehensive mechanism around food, reaching from planting and watering manually (mincraftstyle) and cooking it yourself to giant automated factorys. Livestock could also be a possibility. After all food is an essential part of human society.

 

Edit 1 due to lag of the forum -.-

 

I doesn't mean the cryosleep as punishment its simply a way to eliminate the need of food.

I'm glad to see someone mention food sources other then agriculture. Granted protein can be generated from plant based products but what about the animals? Heards of cattle flocks of chicken and schools of fish, just to mention a few would be interesting to see added to the mechanics. Should we have to stop every five minutes when our hunger bar goes to low or would a three squares a day be more realistic. Don't get me wrong i love a good slice of toast with butter or peanut butter for that matter but i'm a meat eater i want some steak and eggs people!

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I'm glad to see someone mention food sources other then agriculture. Granted protein can be generated from plant based products but what about the animals? Heards of cattle flocks of chicken and schools of fish, just to mention a few would be interesting to see added to the mechanics. Should we have to stop every five minutes when our hunger bar goes to low or would a three squares a day be more realistic. Don't get me wrong i love a good slice of toast with butter or peanut butter for that matter but i'm a meat eater i want some steak and eggs people!

WE MUST HAVE MEEEEAT!

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I'm against it, this is supposed to be a builder/scifi mmorpg, not a survival game. I definitely dont want to be forced to regularly eat food, its only a chore without benefit                                                                                                                                

 

 

It would actually have a benefit in many well planned strategies like blockades,destruction of a planets food supply,etc

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