Balancing
These values are constants in the code, not configuration. Changing them means editing and rebuilding. They are documented here so you know what the numbers mean before you touch them.
Need decay
Per tick, from NeedsHelper.tickDecay (Adults):
| Need | Rate | With trait |
|---|---|---|
| Hunger | 0.0001 | — |
| Energy | 0.0002 | 0.0004 if LAZY |
| Social | 0.00015 | — |
| Fun | 0.0001 | 0.00005 if FUNNY |
| Hygiene | 0.0002 | — |
Per tick, from BabyNeeds.tickDecay (Babies/Children):
| Need | Rate | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Hunger | 0.0003 | — |
| Affection | 0.0002 | — |
| Health | 0.0001 | 0.0004 if Hunger < 20 |
| Negative Experiences | +0.001 | if Hunger, Affection, or Health < 30 |
At 20 ticks per second, adult hunger takes roughly 13.9 in-game hours to fall from 100 to 0.
Hunger thresholds
| Constant | Value | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Idle search | 70 | Looks for food when idle |
HUNGRY_ENOUGH_TO_EAT | 70 | Eats a gift on the spot instead of pocketing it |
HUNGER_INTERRUPT_THRESHOLD | 25 | Drops its current task to eat |
STARVATION_THRESHOLD | 5 | Stops working and cries |
Starvation
Starvation costs an NPC its usefulness, not its life. Below STARVATION_THRESHOLD it abandons its
job, its hobby and its social life, turns SAD and plays the crying animation. It stays that way
indefinitely until someone feeds it.
It still walks to a chest and eats — the "stop everything" rule excludes the tasks that lead to food, and excludes sleep.
Aging and disease will own death. A second cause competing with them would make both harder to reason about, so hunger was deliberately taken out of that role.
Earlier versions of this page described a starvationDamage counter that killed at 200 damage.
That system was removed along with Needs.java; the constants it named no longer exist.
Food values
| Tier | Hunger | Health |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | +25 | +6 |
| 2 | +45 | +14 |
| 3 | +65 | +24 |
Tiers come from the item's own Root_Secondary_Consume_Food_T1..T3 interaction, not from its name.
Sleep
| Constant | Value |
|---|---|
| Night window | day progress < 0.25 or > 0.75 |
| Tired threshold | 30 energy, or 60 if LAZY |
| Energy recovered while asleep | 0.045 per tick |
Guards invert the window: they sleep during the day.
Search radii and cooldowns
| Constant | Value | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
CHEST_SEARCH_RADIUS | 24 blocks | How far an NPC walks for a meal |
FOOD_SEARCH_COOLDOWN_TICKS | 100 | Stops a search storm when no food is reachable |
MOVE_TIMEOUT_TICKS | 600 (30 s) | Gives up on an unreachable chest |
| Furniture scan radius on join | 32 blocks | Picks up pre-existing beds and chests |
SOCIAL_SEARCH_RADIUS | 20 blocks | Max distance to search for a talking partner |
SOCIAL_COOLDOWN_TICKS | 800–1200 (40–60 s) | Mandatory cooldown between talks for both NPCs to prevent non-stop chatting |
SOCIAL_SEARCH_INTERVAL_TICKS | 300 (15 s) | Throttle for checking nearby conversationalists when idle |
SOCIAL_THRESHOLD | < 45 | Need threshold to trigger conversations (with 4% rare spontaneous chance) |
WANDER_RADIUS_VILLAGE | up to 48 blocks | Village stroll radius from village center, letting villagers walk around streets and squares |
WANDER_RADIUS_HOME | 20 blocks | Stroll radius around bed for isolated NPCs (expanded from 8 blocks) |
SEPARATION_RADIUS | 1.15 blocks | Personal space avoidance radius to prevent NPCs from clumping on top of each other |
Without them, an NPC with no reachable bed or food re-enters the search every tick. One real session logged 3447 rejections of the same bed in a few seconds, with the NPC standing still the whole time.