[2021] The “Rule 1: Cardio” perk should get a slight rework

Originally posted by itchyfart123: ...players can easily go through 100+ food a day without doing anything stamina heavy and several hundred with stamina heavy activities...

Are you exaggerating? I don’t know how people get in that situation. It’s like we’re playing different games. If I haven’t invested in Healing Factor, I frequently find myself waiting for my hunger to go down more, so that I can use more of the random food I’ve looted and maximize the benefit to both my fullness and my hit points. Within the first week I have a full stack or more of meat and can almost live off of looted canned food. That’s with doing a ton of on-foot map exploring and playing with less than 100% loot.

Also, Rule 1: Cardio’s viability is already heavily slanted to the early game, perhaps to a fault.

It seems as though food consumption is the underlying issue in your experience, and I’m doubtful that Rule 1: Cardio’s implementation is significant there.

Originally posted by itchyfart123: As for it being targeted as an early game perk, I have to disagree. Any even slightly competent player will weigh perks to try and figure out which one they need the most. That perk is placed near the bottom, well below other things such as improving combat, harvesting, healing, and looting related perks that are important at the start of the game.

Okay, but the value of Rule 1: Cardio only goes down over time, as the player's max stamina increases and they eventually acquire vehicles. If there are other perks you think take priority, that may be an argument that the whole perk is weak in relative terms, but that doesn't mean early game isn't when it's most useful. It's not more appealing as a late game perk just because one has run out of other things to buy. By late game, I simply wouldn't buy it at all, ever.

Stated differently, if one imagines graphing the perk's value over time, you make the case that the whole curve is low, while I'm making the case that the curve's slope is negative. These can both be true.