4Game

Ok so since new food system launched with this update like many of you I was hit with some frustrating aspects however I do not think problem is just new food system, its stamina, but I also did notice how lacking Valhaim character progression actually is, and how little your choices affect you character in a long term outside of your gear and food choices even skills do not mean much if you do not supplement them with right food choice.

This is not me hating update, I actually like new food system, this system alone would actually be a very nice addition, problem is it clashes with some of the lacking features this game has from the start, like stamina and health systems.

This is to be expected Valhaim is EA and development is still not finished, so gameplay will probably change multiple times during its life cycle.

So I actually had idea that may just work in Valhaim, without overcomplication, or massive changes to the core gameplay and will fit just in new food system, with probably even adding some of that risk/reward factor we play valhaim for.

So my solution is simple, with consuming food you get points that will progress you character stats, max number of this "stat points" is lets say 50 and this will stay even when you do not have consumed any food, that means that in theory if you eat only health food you will get 50 points of base health in your health bar over period of time, and on the other hand eating only stamina food will give you 50 stamina point into your stamina bar, ofc most of the players will actually consume 2-1 ration depending on a playstyle that means that you will feel progression changes on your character that will depict your choices over time also higher tier food will give you more of this points, making progression gradually faster the more you progress. To prevent eat/puke type of shortcut, you will only get points on stat progression after food duration passes half time.

Also this can affect some aspects of your character like for example eating a lot of health food will allow you to have higher weight limit and block more efficiently also lowering speed penalty on your equipment, while eating stamina food will let you have faster attack speed with faster bow draw and maybe ability to jump higher(I know builders that do not use cheats would love this) but I think this can be kinda overcomplication.

To keep things balanced, ofc dying will lose you some points and not like skill points you will lose this moment you start new character, that means that for every death will be more of a risk and you will have more to lose and also not dying will have very good feeling especially if you mange to stay alive for longer time, the more you have more you lose when you die, also not eating for a long period of time will cause your character to "starve" and gradually loose health, dying from starvation will cost you a lot more stat points however.

This actually can fit right into valhaim gameplay loop, lets say you died a lot of times during one gameplay session, you lost a lot of this "base stats" with your death streak, you do not feel confident to venture into new biomes anymore, or face that boss, so you stick in your base, you go on a bit of farm/hunt gather some food and materials you build new stuff around your base while you do that you consume good and higher tier food to get your stats back faster, that way that "rest" period feels rewarding. One thing I noticed when I do that building phase if I consume good quality food it almost feels like a waste. With this system only way that feels like a waste is if you stat pool is at the max level and that could also be a good way that game tells you "Ok you are rdy, go to adventure now, enough building"

So what do you guys think, I know this is not very balanced probably but with some tweaks here and there, this could actually add more depth to imo weakest aspects of this game, health and stamina systems and I dont think it will take any large dev. time, since its pretty simple, also without changing gameplay loop at all in fact it may even improve it.