Game Version: 20251030.8384.W
Platform: Steam windows
Mods: Never used
Hardware Specifications & Operating System: Windows 11, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, NVIDIA 4070 rtx, 32GB DDR4, 4TB samsung NVME SSD
Steps to Reproduce: Unsure if bug or just design issue
Details: In the previous version before the 20251030.8377.W update, my Zois needs were relatively easy to maintain and I was able to roam around freely without much issue. Now all of a sudden, just doing something like eating till the hunger meter is full, not even 2 hours in game later and the meter is already down to half when I all did was do 1 single cleaning. Some of the other needs seem to keep draining too fast to do anything and I’ve just been juggling needs nonstop till I have to sleep till the next work day. I can’t leave the house because of it. This even affects other Zois because everytime I call one over, they are at red in sleep or another critical need. I also feel like recognition fills too slow and social is too difficult to keep up while juggling the other needs, it also seems like it replenishes too slow even when chatting compared to other needs. I am not sure if this is a bug or a design issue so I am not sure where to leave this.
Might be normal if you’re in the 48min day length (if you think you’re not supposed to, just double check in the settings to make sure).
The 48min day was a bit cheaty before the patch, because needs depleted on the 96min day length (so twice as slow).
Hunger depletion in 4 hours seems okay. Granted, 4 hrs is a bit fast (I usually eat breakfast a good 6 hours before dinner and I do not starve). It’s the new update stuff… Still a bit rough around the edge, I wouldn’t be surprised they adjust a few things in the upcoming days/weeks.
The update sets the default in-game day to 48 minutes rather than 96 - have you tried resetting it? Makes things feel much less frenetic.
The same thing is happening to me.
I use the 48min length day but before the needs were just fine, I could snorkel, go to the deserted island, look out for minerals. My needs reached their limits but I could do those.
Now I can’t do anything simple around the city and at least 3 needs are in red…
People were complaining needs does not decrease in 48min days so it was improved so they can decrease according to the day length. Of course it still needs tweaking.
Perhaps it should be like this:
you wake at 6am, then by 3pm you should be having lunch and again by 10-11pm dinner with perhaps snack break at 11am and at 7pm. I think that should be how it is. So if your needs are completely full by 7am (assuming it takes zoi’s an hour to eat) then by 11am it should be half full and depleted almost by 3pm.
Do a test and record the time of day to see how it is in your game. Make sure they are completely full after eating meals.
Basically this.
Instead of having zois hungry at specific hours.
Have their bar deplete at a given speed and that’s it.
So wake up at 11am and eat breakfast ? you’ll be okay to go supper at 6pm with the rest of the family.
Wake up at 6am? then dinner at noon and supper at 6 also fits.
I feel 6 hours you should have depleted 1/3rd of the hunger wheel.
12hours you should be at 1/3rd left (and in the yellow)… Then by 15-16hours of not eating, you’re in the red.
Adjusted for each day’s length, of course.
I have done a few tests before posting.
I started by waking up at 6 am and showered and ate before work at 8 am.
I ate first till the meter was full, by 8 am my meter was already down to 75%. Keep in mind, this would’ve been finished at 6:30 by how long these acts take.
I went to work after and came home at 4pm and immediately had to once again, eat, fill recognition, social, fun, etc. So now as I fill the most dire need, the other 2 keep depleting and I am just spending the rest of the day filling one only for the other to shoot down, so now I’m back to that. If I’m not at work, it’s just a hamster wheel of need maintenance.
I switched back to the 96 minutes and it’s back to the way it was. I do think they could meet halfway with the time at least instead of cutting it in half. Or at least make it so my character isn’t an Olympic athlete that needs to shovel 8 thousand calories a day to keep their body going.
I wonder what setting the default day length to 48 hours (against the majorities wish to keep it at 96 hours) was all about when it’s worse than before? It’s even worse than right after early access release when I had to make feeding rounds every few ingame hours so my Zois wouldn’t starve. Maybe they should have waited with this update until it works properly.
i notice it too. my zoi’s wake up or come home from work starving and in the red out of nowhere. i see npcs starving too. the only reason i wasn’t vocal about the time scale change is i thought i read somewhere that they were supposed to fix it so all needs scaled to whatever time was selected, so this shouldn’t be a big deal. but it doesn’t work and now everything is set to 48m per day?!
96 was fine to begin with but if you aren’t going to scale the needs, they shouldnt be catering to the lowest time on the scale!
I’m playing on 96m and the needs scale fine. You can change it back in the game settings, and honestly I’d recommend this, because needs are clearly draining way too fast on 48m at the moment. For instance Zois seem to need 3 meals per day or they end up starving; I realise most people have 3 meals in real life, but for gameplay purposes it might be better to reduce it to 2.
this is only the logical answer: have them deplete at a given speed depending on what time you use.
I get that they tried to adjust the hunger needs so Zoi will starve during proper meal times, but I think its a bit much and becoming unrealistic. My Zois just had a whole breakfast in the morning, but they needed to eat again in the afternoon for lunch because their hunger needs becoming super lower again. We couldn’t skip it.
I suggests hunger needs rate speed depletes based on the type of meals they eaten. In real life, certain meals will make us feel full even for the whole day.
- Eating snacks/desserts makes hunger depletes faster
- Eating whole/real/energy foods makes hunger depletes much slower
It’s understandable that they tried to adjust the needs to the 48min lenght day and make it 3 meals a day, but it’s unrealistic that Zois are starving so quickly and can’t skip meals without getting so uncomfortable.
I hope they can balance that with time, since the 48min lenght day is really usefull if you don’t have much time to play.
It shouldn’t even be 3 meals irl, because normally anyone could do fine with just one meal all day, you wouldn’t be starving just because you skipped lunch but ate a good breakfast. I’m not sure how weight loss works in this game fully, but I assume with the current depletion rate, it wouldn’t work too well with these strict requirements.
Yes, Zois definitely reach the ‘starving’ state way too early. Once they reach yellow stage, hunger drain should slow down a lot, and they shouldn’t be actually starving unless they go without food for a couple of days at least - and if you tell them to eat something, they should just do it immediately rather than standing around complaining. (Same with tired Zois going to bed, etc.)
I’ve noticed that too and it seems like a balancing issue. Now it feels like i have to feed my zois all the time. The hunger need drains way to fast. But I also noticed that with npcs. They are always starving and all they do is looking for food. Sometimes it makes it difficult to interact with npcs.
Hi everyone (@here),
We are really sorry for the inconvenience this issue might cause.
Thanks to your report, we were able to identify the issue and will let you know once there’s an update!