[MOD REQUEST] Make Food Useful / Survival Mode

[Ectso]

Bethesda's food system, as always, is garbage and needs an overhaul. Buff durations are weak and make it feel worthless despite how obnoxiously abundant food is.

Increase buff durations based on food quality with 5 IRL minutes being the lowest possible buff for things like CHUNKS, and 30-60 minutes for things like fully cooked gourmet meals etc.

On the survival side, a system that requires a particular caloric/nutritional intake during a single UTC or IRL timer would be nice. Something a little more complex like breaking food down into calories / nutritional value and adding buffs for fullness, vitamin levels on food, etc. Debuffs for eating too much, or eating low quality food or fried foods, or not enough fruit and catching space scurvy.

Debuffs could be a reduction in player speed and jump height and oxygen recharge if you're too full or bloated from eating fried foods. Scurvy from a lack of citrus. Reduced oxygen levels if the player hasnt consumed food with iron in it. Constipation from too much dairy which lowers jump height and reduces player speed.

Additional pointless negative or positive starting perks like iron deficiencies (requiring a constant intake of specific iron-rich foods), allergies to dairy, penicillin, nuts, seafood etc. Positive perks might be reduced need to eat or an iron gut that reduces food debuffs by a certain amount etc.

Convert the healing factor from food consumption to increase energy and oxygen recharge levels instead for realism.

Make booze and inhalant drugs give you negative buffs that increase damage thresholds for catching hypothermia in cold areas and becoming dehydrated in hot areas.

Add a tag to food that is homecooked that provides an increase to duration of the buff that the food gives based on your gastronomy level, starting at 50% and ending at 200% buff duration and a special increase of like 10% buff effectiveness and a 25% reduction in any debuffs the food would have, ie cooking food in less fatty oils and using healthier ingredients etc.

Add a spoilage factor to food that has entered the players inventory and corresponding debuffs and effects etc.

It's a tall order but even a fraction of this, especially just a simple hunger system would vastly improve the food system that feels like wasted disk space at this point.

[mariontebo]

Buff Duration Overhaul: Food items should have buff durations based on their quality. For example, lower-tier items like CHUNKS might provide a minimum 5-minute buff, while fully cooked gourmet meals could offer 30-60 minute buffs. This change would make the consumption of food feel more meaningful and strategic. As for relating this to "A&W Singapore menu price" the promotion could incorporate themed food items with unique buffs or benefits, encouraging players to seek out these promotional items in the game. This would tie real-world marketing into the gameplay experience, creating an interesting synergy.

Edited October 19, 2023 by mariontebo