First off, I need to make sure you're not mistaking resting for sleeping or eating food for no good reason. If you're sending Lona to sleep every time your stamina drops too low, you're actually screwing yourself. Eventually you'll accidentally fall asleep somewhere that'll lead to you being captured or wake up to a world difficulty level too high for you to survive. If you're stuffing Lona's face at every opportunity you get, you're wasting your food. Food should be reserved for dungeon crawls and walking long distances. The Inns in the game are your cheapest food option. Buy a key and sleep when you're hungry. You'll wake up with full health and stamina, as well as a mostly-full belly. If you're dying from a lack of food and stamina despite all this, it's probably because you're not fighting or traveling efficiently.
The stamina system isn't too bad, it's just something you eventually learn to manage. Simply doing the rat killing tutorial quest gives you enough money to rest in the inn for the next three days and night. If you hire a companion, you don't need to fight as much or at all, depending on the enemy. If you didn't fight much and your hunger is mostly full, you could sleep in an alleyway to save money. Rising dead in the Cemetery takes about half a day to do, pays enough for a full day's stay at the inn, and refreshes every other day. Crystal Mine clean-up will take most of a day, but pays enough for 3 and a half days of stay in the inn. It's also a good source of Mystery Meat if you're looking for easy food sources. The cost of an NPC that can do all the worth for you for the next two or three days? About half a day's stay in the inn. Aside from being able to cook your meat, all of this is accessible to a lv 1 Lona.
Don't want to hire a dude or rely on the inn? That's fine, rats, mice, and insects are technically edible and respawn in the sewer every time you leave and reenter it. Eaten raw, a mouse restores 12 hunger, an insect restores 6, and raw animal meat (from rats) restore 8. As long as you're not spending unnecessary amounts of stamina to kill the rats, you should have a net gain of hunger every time you run through the sewers. You might have to deal with squatters every 10 days or so, but by the time that becomes an issue, you should have gained enough levels to deal with them.
No no no, I'm not mistaking sleeping for as in, passing 12 hours, but the rest skill we have, which recovers 20 stamina in exchange for 10 hunger. And I've played the game for a long time, time is probably way over 20 hours or 30, I have no idea. I've had this game since January. So I'd say I know most of the necessary niches to make this game more efficient.
I know to keep food reserved for dungeon crawls, or going long distances of course, use the inns when I can, and should, and know the necessary easy quests.
Basically what I'm saying is, I feel like I know how to efficiently play this game, and am sure of it, because it's not really "hard" anymore, compared to my first 30 minutes of gameplay, rather it's waay easier.
And I see how the stamina system isn't "bad", but to me it's illogical, as well as consumes an unnecessary amount of time compared to the games otherwise logical approach.
Based on a harsh world, difficult and mind boggling world, we see that the enemies are difficult, quests are difficult too, there are traps, money's harsh, characters might be evil, etc. These all, and I mean everything certainly requires strategy, and critical thinking yes, and to me, is a depiction/comparison to the real world, with some other twists to a certain extent, which is logical, and adds on to the games premise of a harsh world!
But, like I said before, the stamina system, or rather parts of it are what are annoying. Although it's "just something you eventually learn to manage", some parts of it aren't just logical, to pinpoint it even more specifically, the combat based stamina consumption, the in map stamina based consumption, as well as recovery.
To make it easier to understand, I'll put it in branches:
Combat Getting attacked:
-This is logical, getting attacked, will confuse you, hurt you, make you lose you're breath, and the stronger the opponent, the more breath/stamina you will lose.
Combat Attacking:
-I apologize, before I think I said that the Lona losing a lot of stamina after attacking is a stamina issue, but rethinking it, and relooking over it, it seems I had a misconception, Lona doesn't seem to be losing a lot of stamina, and it seems very logical to the games premise, as well as reality.
Sleeping Skill/Hunger:
Now, this is the main issue I want to talk about
-Using the sleeping skill, not sleeping on a bed, recovers 20 stamina per 10 hunger.
-Now, lets say I Attacked a dummy, using all 100 stamina, with a 1 stamina consuming attack.
-I'd need to use the sleep skill 5 times, reducing 50% of the amount of food in my stomach I ate.
-Seems weird right? Epically since this is a game, with a reflection to realistical systems, of course in a dangerous world.
-If me, and average joe, swung a sword, light one lets say, 100 times, I'd be tired, but after a small rest I'd probably be able to do that a more times, without being hungry until a couple more hours, and still have stamina to spare.
-Yet in this system, it doesn't do that which is the main flaw.
Now, of course, situations are different. The one I mentioned above, is purely in the form of Lona attacking, without being attacked, sick, broken arm etc.
How could Eccma make this system better?
-Firstly, increasing the base stamina recovery ratio, I don't know how high, but that's why there are test builds.
-Secondly, implement a system, after increasing the base stamina recovery ratio, in which the more wounds, or status effects you have, the less stamina you're able to recover. As an example, the base recovery lets say is 50:10, stamina to hunger, then a head injury, would reduce it to 30, maybe an arm injury to 40, both arms would be 25, and head, with arms 10.
And that about sums it up, I might have things I'm forgetting.
Now I also want to point out, I'm free if you guys want to point out some things I'm either , or things I'm saying wrong, but try not to only ostracize, since we're having a discussion, to come to a common ground afterwards.
