Hunger needs to be increased.

The hunger mechanic only seems to have little effect if you constantly die. If you're able to avoid being killed every couple of minutes, you'll actually start to get really low.

Furthermore, the hunger mechanic is there to combat any sort of AFK farming method that people devise, since staying away from your computer means your character will starve and die. It's one of the few new mechanics in this game I'm actually happy they have.

I'll also take this opportunity to point out that certain foods actually have a great benefit other than staving off starvation. Some will give you certain buffs, like a long Health Regeneration (much longer than a bandage). This makes growing your own crops and creating food dishes actually useful.

 

Nah, I just spent 45 minutes starting a new character and going through to the first boss and killing him.

And in those 45 or so minutes I only even had to eat 3 times. I did not die once.

 

Why have it in the first place?

Minecraft has it simply because otherwise you'd do nothing but dig and have little incentive to do anything other than to occasionally get wood for your torches. It's to add variety to the gameplay. Starbound on it's own offers the mining as well as world exploration and dungeons. There's a lot to do and the combat is difficult so it can add a bit of a grind considering all the monsters. Terraria didn't reintroduce the food mechanic because it didn't need it. I have no idea why it's in Starbound.

 

I feel like I'm gonna be the minority here but I love hunger mechanics in games. Part of the whole survival thing, and I love survival things.

 

There should be a little more to the Hunger mechanic IMO.

Increased hunger rate makes farming and hunting more important.

Maybe special perks for being full? Penalties for being under half full? That may be too harsh though... thoughts?

 

As stated in my last post (you were probably typing so couldn't see it), it's a great mechanic to combat AFK farming.

 

That is the kind of thing I am thinking. I know some food has buffs, maybe a buff lasts longer or stays stronger if the hunger bar stays fuller?

I honestly jsut want it to have more use than every hour me hitting 8 and going nom nom nom.

 

How is sitting still afking going to give you any advantage considering the game's current features and what might come along? And even if people came up with something that gave them an advantage, they're still spending time. Unless we get something like free items for x time spent alive, there's no reason to have this mechanic.

Edit: So I just realized that you meant food. Funny enough my opinion still hasn't changed. After all the only reason farming is really a thing in this game is so that you can avoid dying of hunger. Even if you afk to wait for your seeds to grow into healing items, you're still just sitting there burning time and you need to get the seeds in the first place. The advantage is insignificant at worst.

 

Jus becas u tink is pointles don men others tink is not fun.

 

You must not understand what AFK farming is. I'll explain it for you.

In many games, there are ways to set up your character and a certain situation (a good example is placing traps) that allows you to do something without actually needing to supervise the game at all. Generally, this method entails killing enemies. Enemies have item drops. By constantly killing said enemies without supervision, you are able to amass a very large amount of those items plus any rarer materials that may also drop. Another side effect is generally currency, as well. The end result is a ton of items with absolutely zero effort, and since you don't even need to be at your computer, ZERO time spent.

The hunger mechanic prevents this.

 

i agree with TitaniumDragon, hunger should be eliminated.
if not eliminated then players should only have to eat 1 item per day-night cycle ingame.
the only purpose for eating in this game should be to provide temporary boosts by crafting recipes from food items.

 

Just couldn't leave this one be. It caused me physical discomfort to read that. Valid point though.

 

There are plenty of ways to make it more complex/"realistic", but too much and people complain it's too tedious.
I've got so much meat that I haven't had a use for any of the cooking recipes ever.

Here's some things I wouldn't mind:

• Hunger depletes faster when active. Using tools and weapons would consume hunger more rapidly than standing still.
• Thirst, desert planets would make you thirsty faster. Allow for drinking of water tiles for small thirst decrease.
• Tone down cooking recipes, or make them more valuable, either stat buffs or by prolonging how long you can go before eating again, while meat would be the equivalent of a snack. You'd get hungry again pretty soon.
• Have food expire after awhile. Forcing people to renew it, rather than horde 999 and forget about it. Have storage to slow down the rate food expires at, so carrying it with you makes it expire faster.
• Allow food to be placed as decor, for larger meals, share the effects with friends if multiple people "eat" it together.
• Being full gives buffs, where being near starving gives negative effects.

 

While I agree with you unless traps start hurting mobs you can really only AFK farm food though.

 

So you mean a complicated farm that generally requires lava or spikes and won't gather you anything other than pixels?

Terraria had some exploitable potential farming but since the average mob won't drop anything other than basic currency it's really that that big of an issue. It's far from gamebreaking.

I can see what the devs were thinking with that but really those farms are just as doable with or without hunger. All you need to do is potshot some monsters with a hunting bow and you're set. All you have to do is time it and click the game. It's basically the same as afk farming.

 

Agreed. Want more hardcore.

 

Problem is the devs have to make money off this game and going that far would drive off a very high number of potential customers. If it was a freely distributed side project like another game I know of I'd say go all out on it but that isn't the case here. Especially on the food expiration portion.

 

Which is what I was getting at with my first sentence.

Anyway, there's always the modding community and / or difficulty settings in the future that can tweak these things.

 

Ah, but they can ...

Lava and poison water are among some of the things that injure enemies. While we currently don't have "buckets", it's easy enough to funnel liquids into places you want to go via clever building (I've done it myself).

Once more items and mechanics are introduced, I'm sure AFK farming will become even easier (and more profitable).

Best keep hunger.

Your problem is looking at the current state of the game as the finished product. It isn't.

Once the game is actually done, there will be a LOT more items in the game, and some will be dropped loot.

 

Not asking for it to be hardcore but for it too actually be useful aka actually have a reason to be ingame.