Inproving refrigerators and food conservation / degradation mechanics

[FSHerrante]

Hi, I m playing this game since the version 15 and y think that this game need any type of food degradation mechanic.

 

A food degradation mechanic depending of a ambiental conditions (like a the long dark for example). When the food degradation increase the intoxication probability is higer and finally the iten turn in to rotten food, and may be used to make farm plots for example.

 

 

This justify the need of make a simple refrigerator, powered / advanced refrigerator or the plastic fridge and snowball to preserve these foods during more time in here or in non-refrigerated containers like a wooden chest while you get the resources for make one of these and prevent a unrealistic mass storage of fresh food in non refrigerated containers without consequences (or benefits if you want to have many farm plots easily).

 

I dont no if this mechanic is planned, taked in consideration or sugested but would be very interesting.

 

Sory if my english is poor, that s not my native language.

[hunluki]

+++ Good idea.

[RipClaw]

You're talking about food spoilage. This has often been discussed but Modmole has always rejected the idea and instead added the 4% chance of food poisoning for cooked food as a substitute.

 

If done well, food spoilage can be an interesting game mechanic, but it should also be connected to other parts of the game. For example, it would be great if you could process rotten meat, fruit and vegetables into fertilizer for the garden to increase the yield.

[OzHawkeye]

The problem with food degradation is how to manage it.

 

If each food item has its own degradation timer, how would they stack? What's the impact on the game (especially a server) having to keep track of all the food items degradation timers?

 

I've seen a few games do it, but none do it well.

[Viktoriusiii]

I've seen a few games do it, but none do it well.

 

Arks core design is great.

But instead of one item beeing gone, make it 1/4 or 1/10 (a percentage of the whole).

 

So it stacks and will always take the median (so if you stack three with 20min and 1 with 40 it would go to 25 (20+20+20+40/4 = 25))

 

Once the new stack is formed, they all get the median so you don't need to keep track of every single item, but only have a 5 stack of 25.

When the 25 minutes are gone, you delete 25%-10% or whatever number is most balanced of the whole stack.

So not stacking it is never the better solution.

 

And boom. Cooler and fridge and freezer only add a multiplier.

 

I don't see how that would effect the server performance AT ALL. Even with 100 players all having stacks of every food that is like 600 stacks (supported are 8 players btw ) 600 countdowns... if THAT is too much, you have absolutely no right to be programmers

Okay... I take it back... your code might not allow to make it that easy... but if something that easy can't be done in a simple way, you might want to rethink the engine or the language you are using

[ZombieSurvivor]

I don't see how that would effect the server performance AT ALL.

 

I know very little to nothing when it comes to programming but I can see how it would effect servers. A timer takes processing power thus the more timers you have running on a server the more processing power is needed. Its very simple to understand how it can be bad, performance wise, for servers in my opinion.

 

Having said all that, I still am pro food spoilage and I'm sure someone out there can figure out a way to optimize timers not not have such a huge impact on the game...who knows..

[theFlu]

Per stack would be rather easy to implement, but if you want something even easier, make it per container.

 

Just keep a note of the last time someone looked in, measure the time from that when next opened, multiply by "spoil chance per day". Sure it makes opening a box do some extra maths so it's a little heavy for an instant UI operation, but you can also lazily do the calcs when a player gets near their boxes.

 

Implemented this way, you could also have the POI cupboards and other loot foods have a virtual "starting day" for their foods, you'll find some spoiled foods in the beginning of the game, but as time goes on, more and more of the loot food is spoiled.

[hotpoon]

Hi, I m playing this game since the version 15 and y think that this game need any type of food degradation mechanic.

 

A food degradation mechanic depending of a ambiental conditions (like a the long dark for example). When the food degradation increase the intoxication probability is higer and finally the iten turn in to rotten food, and may be used to make farm plots for example.

 

 

This justify the need of make a simple refrigerator, powered / advanced refrigerator or the plastic fridge and snowball to preserve these foods during more time in here or in non-refrigerated containers like a wooden chest while you get the resources for make one of these and prevent a unrealistic mass storage of fresh food in non refrigerated containers without consequences (or benefits if you want to have many farm plots easily).

 

I dont no if this mechanic is planned, taked in consideration or sugested but would be very interesting.

 

Sory if my english is poor, that s not my native language.

 

Your English is fine.

 

As RipClaw said, it has been brought up numerous times and shot down, but then so were lockpicks and MM finally relented. So it is worth it to fight for good ideas like this.

 

Ark and Conan both implemented food spoilage well, so it's not like they have to reinvent the wheel. The 7 Days to Die version would be even better if, as you say, the food poisoning probability gets higher the closer it gets to spoilage time. That is a way more fun and logical mechanic than the 4% story.

 

If they made canned food really scarce (but totally safe), then people would want to store canned goods and start farming (which they currently don't need to).

 

They could even go one step further like Empyrion, and give the user a way to make their own canned food - some sort of kitchen tech that could be crafted.

[RipClaw]

They could even go one step further like Empyrion, and give the user a way to make their own canned food - some sort of kitchen tech that could be crafted.

 

There is a schematic for Shamway cans. This is often offered as a reward for quests and can also be found at the Shamway factory. But once you've read the ingredients list, you'll probably never want to eat from a Shamway can again.

[FSHerrante]

Thanks for the replies.

 

The implementation os this mechanic have many options, the most great the possibility and necessity of cook the basic food up of 40% of condition (for example) to get new food with 100% of condition and with a degradation time very much slow (depending of the grade and complexity of the recipe). This at the same time increasing the need of get new recipes with unique advantages and promote the farm of vegetables and hunting.

 

If for example the condition of one individual piece or stack of food decrease under 20 or 18% this food may be stored to get rot.

 

Indirectly this in online increase the number and variety of elavorate food in vending machines and this possibly save the life of a big number of PVE or PVP survivors.