Hunger Module
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Timescale - Controls the player's hunger and thirst "burn rate", with
1xbeing roughly equal to "real time". Suggested values are 10-30x for longer slow-paced games, and 40-70x for shorter fast-paced games. Also affects consumption speed of food/water, and increases the projected number of rations spawned in the level, although the random nature of the spawner and suitability of spawn locations on a given map may lead to either a surplus or deficit of rations. -
Auto-Select - Lets the player use one key (
Fire) to eat and drink, picking whichever one is needed more.
During gameplay, the player burns calories and water at a base rate. At 1x this is approximately 1500 calories and 1500 milliliters per 24 hours while resting (standing still, doing nothing). Additional burn occurs any time the player's fatigue level is raised by sprinting, dashing, sliding, crouching, standing up, jumping, leaping, etc. Note that short-term fatigue burns water faster than calories, so make sure to stay hydrated if you're sprinting and jumping a lot.
The player will periodically receive various messages indicating their hunger or thirst status. These will vary, and can contain several different phrases depending on the player's current hunger/thirst and how long it's been since the player last ate or drank. For the curious, status messages are defined in HungerStatus() and ThirstStatus().
Rations are prepackaged portions of clean, sealed, and preserved food and water, intended to be equivalent to roughly one serving. The contents of the ration vary nominally in flavor and amount, but in-game are represented identically. The player starts with a few prepackaged rations. Additional rations will spawn randomly around the level upon first load.
The player starts the game with a messkit, used to consume rations. The messkit may be opened by selecting the proper inventory item and using it. If hd_helptext is enabled, a help message will be displayed. The player's current hunger/thirst status will also be displayed. When a ration is empty it can be manually discarded, or will be automatically discarded by pressing Fire / AltFire again. The rate of consumption is increased by the timescale, so players don't have to spend as long eating if they're playing a faster game.
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Fire- Hold to scoop, chew, and swallow one bite of food. Release and hold again to repeat. -
AltFire- Hold to drink a mouthful of water. Release and hold again to repeat.
Note: If Auto-Select is On, then Altfire is disabled and Fire is used to both eat and drink.
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Reload- Tears open a new food ration, and adds it to the plate. -
AltReload- Opens a new water ration and adds it to the plate -
Unload- Dumps the current meal even if food/water remains. All remaining contents will be discarded and cannot be retrieved. -
Firemode- Triggers the current hunger/thirst status manually. Not shown on ingame helptext.
If the player does not keep either their hunger or thirst sated, then the player is considered to be starving or dehydrated. In either state, an internal counter begins adding a base level of fatigue. In Hideous Destructor, fatigue decreases the player's ability to perform strenuous actions, and also increases the player's heart rate / blood pressure. If left unchecked, this rise in heart rate will eventually kill the player via cardiac failure. At 1x , this takes approximately 1-3 weeks of real-time (proportionally less at higher timescales). Note that dehydration increases the fatigue counter about 3x more aggressively than starvation, however starvation is harder to break out of due to the slow nature of the digestive process.