There needs to be free ways to deal with hunger and radiation Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

If you have no money, you die. That basically sums up the 'survival' aspect of this mod. Once you have tons of money, the survival aspect completely disappears. You can ruck around dozens of chocolate bars and gallons of water and it no longer is an issue.

This presents an irritating difficulty cliff at the beginning of the game where you can't even afford to buy a stove, which gets naturally easier as the game progresses.

Both of the problems to this is the same.

Food: Food either kills you or it doesn't. If you can afford the absurdly overpriced 'clean' food, you're good. But if you can't, you have to go hunting and turn ammo into food. Well here's a huge goddamn problem right away: hunted food will kill you. You basically HAVE to cook it, and even if you cook it, it WILL STILL kill you unless you deal with the radiation. And guess what - cooking food REQUIRES money. You have to turn money into fuel and cooking supplies, and until you do that, you will either starve to death or die of radiation poisoning.

So really, in a lot of ways, the problem with food is REALLY the problem with radiation:

Players have NO WAY to deal with radiation that doesn't cost money. If I can't buy or find water or cigarettes, I'm screwed.

What I would like:

1) Allow players to cook food over any of the HUNDREDS of burning campfires in the game. Why do I have to spend fuel to stick a piece of meat on a stick just to use the damn campfire that's right in front of me?

2) Allow players to collect rainwater as a way to deal with radiation.

With the exception of having to turn ammo into food, it means that both hunger and radiation can be managed without the player ending up backed into a corner, where it costs more money to survive than they have.

Clean food and drink in an area that is contaminated with radiation being difficult to obtain and expensive is totally realistic. It's realistic after a hurricane let alone a nuclear disaster for prices and availability to be so. You can sell meat uncooked and buy clean food. You don't need to fire a shot to collect all the food and loot you need to survive. Simply follow friendlies about and collect the remains from their hunting and battles. It gets easier as you go in almost any game. It is much easier to kill Bandits and Mercs and take their food and medicine arms and some ammo. At the moment there is no way to cut down trees for wood, and the trees would be radioactive IRL. Rainwater and standing water are also radioactive IRL.

You might want to try rookie mode for one play though until you understand the mechanics better and adjust your play style. I have never gotten to mid game (pre-Pripyat) never having played in rookie mode, with less than a half million rubles in my pocket. Selling the right things to the right traders and NPC's and buying the least amount of the necessary survival items and equipment required is critical to survive in any but a welfare state. Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers are who survive in the Zone.

I am on the opposite end of the food spectrum. Getting food even early game is way too easy and you're never presented with the threat of starvation or death by food radiation.

If you're playing as an assaulter, raw dog meat will only do minor damage without taking anything to remove radiation. Pseudodog meat also works but does a little more damage. Anything higher and you will need antirad stuff.

With the high radiation resistance class you might be able to get away with raw boar/pig meat but I am not sure.

I agree with Odizzido. Hunger and radiation are minor obstacles rather than threats and food isn't hard to find. Last Misery game I played was as an Assaulter where I set myself a goal of finishing without looting any stashes, not even the ones given as quest rewards. Even then I didn't have any major problems with cash, food or radiation, and it's not like I'm an elite level Zone Ninja player either.

I don't understand why people have trouble with this and keep asking for this mod to be made easier. I can't see how a player would run out of money unless they're spending thousands of RU on expensive gear and AP ammo early on. And if they're doing that, why aren't they using that gear and ammo to hunt Mercs and make their money back, probably finding some food and anti-rad stuff on the dead Mercs too? Add in stashes and there's even more easy food and money available.

I hope eventually for all the stashes to be randomized, but a frugal and savvy Stalker can make it all the way to the end game in 2.2 without buying anything from a trader except one weapon from Nimble for the story line. I accumulated a nice chunk of change in the process too even after paying for upgrades.