Suggestion: "broken" colonists eat available food.

[Bonaventure]

People don't go crazy and starve themselves to death. That's not a thing of going crazy and "wandering in a daze." It doesn't matter how dazed and oblivious you are, if your stomach growls, you'll eat a meal sitting next to you.

Secondary to that, prisoners in the midst of acute starvation should wake up when served food. They would, you know, do that.

Broken-and-wandering colonists should eat food that is available, and starving prisoners should not sleep through their starvation, but should prioritize eating. It is very frustrating to wait and try to let a colonist get over his freak-out on his own, finally arrest him to take care of him, and then be unable to wake him up and feed him.

It doesn't make for a good story, because it's so unrealistic, and since the point of this game is to provide good stories, it would be great to see this changed.

[Dran]

It's not unrealistic it can actually happen. There are plenty of people who willing starve themselves to become skinny. Why is it not possible to starve yourself because you given up on life? Broken and wandering is just another way to say they've given up on life. However this post made me think of a great idea! Some people lose it and go wandering other people drink to solve their depression. Then there is the people who eat themselves to death! Your colonist will just keep eating and eating food until he either dies or runs out of food. Maybe 20 meal equals death or something like that.

[Bonaventure]

I'd accept a "stress eater" trait for a colonist (hello Darkest Dungeon!), but there should be a mood upside to the food-binging. I don't think it would fit well with the "broken" mechanic but it could be something colonists did when stressed, similar to the booze-binging.

I think there's a big difference between anorexia and severe PTSD, so I don't think that "starving to death" should be the most likely outcome of a psychotic break -- if there is food around. But I admit that broken colonists making a beeline for the food locker would be a bit too "purposeful" for the state they're in.

Maybe broken colonists should be exempted from starving. Seriously. People don't starve to death in 1.5 days, they starve to death in a matter of weeks. Perhaps there should be a cap of 50% or so starvation on "broken" colonists, so that when they come to their senses, they're REALLY hungry, but in the meantime, they endure.

Actually I think that would be a pretty good solution. Starvation happens MUCH too fast anyway, IMO -- hunger may cripple but starvation doesn't kill for a good long while. So at least giving crazy colonists a partial pass on starvation might be ideal. Slowing the process down enough so that it's more realistic (and perhaps more crippling while ongoing?) might also solve the crazy-starving-colonist problem while making starvation more realistic for sane colonists as well.

People can actually live a LONG time without food. They're not good workers in the meantime, though. I kind of like the specter of a colony in the last throes of starvation, all its members moving at 25% speed, vaguely hoping someone can shoot a monkey to death before everyone expires.

Starvation is a crisis right now, it should be more of a long, drawn-out misery.

[Dran]

I hope I'm not misquoting Tynan here but I believe he has said a few times that just because it is more realistic doesn't mean it is good for game play. If it took a week for colonist to starve then the strife in the game would be gone. After a huge attack (without kill boxes) I can 9 times out of 10 recover within a day or two worse case 3. So if I had more then a day and half to recovery a broken colonist it ruin the challenge for me.

[Monkfish]

Zackery.

For all the squawks of realism that are made, few tend to take gameplay into consideration and ignore that some creative licence needs to be applied in order to make something fun/challenging/whatever.

As an example of this, let's look at a game mechanic and suggestion I made for something that occurs in DayZ; broken legs.

At present, a broken leg can be insta-mended by application of either morphine or a splint. From the perspective of realism, this is obviously complete tosh. However, from the perspective of gameplay, expecting the player to deal with 6 weeks of broken leg is simply unreasonable and, from a game design point of view, totally retarded. I therefore suggested a halfway house that makes broken legs a moderate hindrance but makes a gentle nod and a wink at realism;

- Broken leg either could not be walked on, or can be walked on but with heavy speed penalties and cries of pain
- Morphine would stop pain and allow some additional walking speed, but not much.
- Application of a splint would allow the leg to be walked on at 75% full speed. Screams of pain would still be made if no morphine applied
- Leg heals after 1-2 game days of play time.

The above means that broken legs can't be insta-healed and pose a moderate hindrance to anyone suffering with one, plus there is a defined healing process that will take some time, though concessions are made to realism for the sake of gameplay.

Simples, no?