Primal Needs tries to increase the immersion of the game by adding hunger, thirst, fatigue, urine and feces as well as few other elements into the game. It tries as much as possible to make the needs interesting and enjoyable, while also not ruining the action combat experience. However, by adding these new elements into the game the whole thinking about the combat and preparation changes according to your need levels.

 -- THE NEEDS --

As mentioned above there are 5 needs added: Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, Urine and Feces. Each one of them affects different things and rises at different speeds, so it should be maintained differently.
First three have levels from 0% (fully rested, sated etc) to 100%(starving, thirsty, tired), and step is 1%.
Urine has 10 levels, while Feces 20, hence feces level is rising slower then urine (can be tweaked)

 -- Hunger --
 - Hunger is medium-slow growing need
 - Vitality has the biggest effect on the hunger and vica versa
      - the less vitality you have the faster hunger's gonna grow
      - if you reach critical levels of hunger vitality will slowly drain
 - If fully sated adrenaline will deplete slower, and if hungry faster
 - the more toxicity and adrenaline you have, hunger will rise slower there fore drinking potion and being agressive in combat is more rewarding
 - Eating reduces hunger
 - Added custom animation for eating
 - Amount of reducing is shown in the tool tip of every food and depends on food quality
 - Some drinks also reduce hunger ( like milk ) but very little
 
 -- Thirst --
 - Thirst rises the fastest, but is also reduced by drinks the fastest
 - It is mostly connected to the stamina
     - The less stamina you have, the faster it's gonna rise
     - Being completely thirsty fully negates stamina regeneration!
     - if not thirsty you will get additional stamina regen
 - Toxicity level also slows down thirst rising by a lot
 - During combat you'll get thirsty a little faster
 - Drinks reduce thirst, any kind of drink
 - Added custom animation for drinking
 - Some food also reduce thirst like fruits but very little
 - Geralt can also drink water from rivers and lakes. But since it's war time and it's full of blood and corpses, drinking it will also rise Geralt's toxicity

 -- Fatigue --
 - Fatigue is the slowest growing need
 - Some stats affect it, but it doesn't affect them
 - It is affected by encumbrance. The more encumbered Geralt is, the faster fatigue is gonna grow.
 - It is also affected by type of armor Geralt is wearing. The heavier it is the faster fatigue is gonna grow.
 - Fatigue is generally connected to combat
 - When reached certain levels of tiredness, you won't be able to perform certain actions like: sprinting, dodging, blocking, rolling, jumping and even running in the latest stages
 - Fatigue is reduced by meditating, about 6 - 8 hrs to get form 100% to 0%
 - If you overeat or overdrink that will also rise your fatigue level, and will start affecting your combat so be careful how much you eat and when.
 - If you overeat or overdrink when not hungry or thirsty, after some time Geralt will puke ( this is initially off, tho you can turn it on )
 - If you reach maximum of 100% fatigue, Geralt will be unable to continue and will lie on the ground and sleep for about an hour, restoring a bit of fatigue
 
 -- Urine --
 - Urine is also one of the needs that need to be tracked
 - It has 10 levels
 - It only rises when you drink
 - if you overdrink it will rise faster (can be tweaked)
 - Custom Animation has been added for urinating (can be disabled)
 - Urinating in public is deemed socially unacceptable and guards might attack you if they see you
 - You can manually urinate only when you have urine level over half.Manual urinating can be interrupted ( Default key F10 )
 - You will automatically urinate if you reach maximum level, no matter where you are. Automatic urinating cannot be interrupted, so be careful of your urine level.
 - It is shown in the HUD as a yellow bar

 -- Feces --
 - Feces is the last need
 - it has 20 levels (rises slower then urine)
 - it rises only when you eat food
 - If you overeat it will rise faster (can be tweaked)
 - Custom defecating animation has been added ( which is more of just a crouch, but still it's doing the job )
 - Defecating in public is deemed socially unacceptable and guards might attack you if they see you
 - Same rules for manual and automatic defecation apply as for the urinating ( Default key F11 )
 - It is shown in the HUD as a brown bar

 -- General --
 - Every need is togglable, so if you don't want it, simply turn it off
 - During times when you don't have the control over your character ( fast travel, cutscenes etc ), needs will also rise, but each one has its limit on this, and it cannot rise over that much. Can be changed in the menu
 - Meditation slows the progress down of hunger and thirst by a lot (10 times slower - can be adjusted), while reduces fatigue.
 - All buffs and debuff needs give are scaled according to need level ( meaning 80% thirst will give slighlty smaller stamina regen debuff then 81% for example )
 - Puking will cause Puking Effect! For an hour after puking Geralt will refuse to eat or drink and his needs will rise faster. To counter this simply meditate for an hour

 -- FOOD REDESIGN --

Food has been redesigned to be as immersive as possible. Gavrhan has been kind enough to offer to redesign food completely for Primal Needs. I accepted the offer and he did absolutely amazing job! Here is full new system:

 -- Food --
In real life, the greater quantity of our muscles' energy comes from fats and protein, but they are slower than carbohydrates in producing such energy. Lastly, simple carbs (sugar) produce energy at a very fast rate, but can't last for long since it's present in lower volumes.
HEALING FACTORS:
- Sweets and sugar
Brief duration for a more explosive method of healing, similar to the vanilla game, discouraging the player in eating in large quantities, if the overeat option/puke is enabled.
- Carbs; fats/proteins in small quantities
Medium duration with a reasonable high total healing value
- Protein/fat in large quantities; special kind of foods
Very long duration with a very low healing factor. This to emulate the idea of a large quantity of energy produced at a slow rate.
 
HUNGER REPLENISHMENT:
- Small snacks
Dried fruits, olives, and other snacks that wouldn't be very filling if eaten, such as burnt or stale food.
- Carbs in low quantity; fats/proteins in medium quantities; other medium snacks
Carbohydrates are very filling on their own, so even a small quantity ( a potato for example) would be as filling as a chicken leg, even having different energetic values (and thus different healing factors)
- Carbs; large quantity of fats/proteins; Mix between all of these
In this category fall whole chickens, sandwiches (carbs+protein+fats), and other kinds of large meals.
 
 -- Drinks --
HEALING FACTORS:
- Alcohol
Alcoholic beverages now will heal more than sweets and sugar, in a similar, slighty longer, explosive and brief way. They'll act as "mini-potions", even if not nearly as powerful as them, The logic behind this is that alcohol can help not feeling pain, so drinking after a fight would become a not so bad idea, to "forget" the pain from a wound. Alcohol is the only item that has the same healing factor both in and out of combat (although fighting with a blurred sight makes up for the "advantage").
- Juices and other beverages
Juices often comes from fruit, with the addition of sugar. Since fruits are already quite rich in sugar on their own (the same goes for milk), this make this category a good balance between thirst replenishment and energetic values. Same total healing of alcohol but in more time. Beers also falls in this category since is a very mild alcohol.
- Water
Water is not meant to have high nutritive values for muscles, so it'll be the least healing item. Slighty lower healing factor than other 2 categories, but in a much longer total time.
 
THIRST REPLENISHMENT:
- Alcohol and sweet drinks
Alcohol and sugar tend to make you more thirsty than you should be. So these drinks, while hydrating in some way, are not the best option to completely replenish your thirst meter.
- Most beverages
Milk, natural juices and such. As said before, a good balance between energy production and hydration. Some drinks such as milk will also have a small hunger replenishment ability.
- Water
Water is still the most thirst-quenching item, compensating for its poor healing factor.
- Fruits
Both low thirst and hunger replenishment.

 -- Prices --
Difference in prices will are also adjusted to reflect the new properties of each food item. For example, a loaf of  bread is very filling, since it's mostly made of carbohydrates, and it's also quite cheap. But a chicken is not only filling, but also have a better energetic output, so it'll cost more. Meat was also very expensive in medieval times, much more than vegetables and derivates.
Alcohol it's usually more expensive than juices and beverages, and now there's a good reason for it in-game. Water is still the most cheap solution, and the most useful to quench Geralt's thirst, but it serve little purpose in healing capabilities. Juices will cost just a little bit more than water, while milk and other drinks even more, but still less than alcohol.

 -- Expiration --
Every food has expiration date mainly 3 - 5 days. More sustainable or less quality food has longer expiration time and vica versa. When food expires it is automatically removed from inventory. Food now stacks differently in inventory depending on expiration date. How many days left for each food can be seen in tool tip next to the price. Some food types do not expire like: water, wine, honey, alcohol and similar. You can store food in the stash and then the expiration will be paused.

 -- Cooking --
Geralt can now cook food thanks to integrated mod What's for Dinner. To get recipes go to Crow's Perch food merchant and buy them. After that Geralt can cook as long as he has ingredients. Cooking food gets you better quality food.

 -- Toxicity --
Strong alcohols and raw food will now increase toxicity level. How much is written in the tool tip of each food that does it. 

 -- Getting Food  --
Food cannot be found anywhere. It's war time and everyone is trying to preserve as much as possible. Geralt is not a thief so no food in interiors as well. The best place to get food are ins and merchants. They will always sell fresh food and to complement this their food stocks have been increased. The other place is to get food is from dead animals (Raw meat) but be careful on your toxicity when eating it, it's better to cook it first.

 -- Healing Effects --
Drinking and eating will now heal Geralt separately as each type of food has it's own healing factor and duration.

 -- Summarizing --
Food is generally a more viable and cheap way to recover health without using potions, while drinks, with the exception of alcohol, will heal slighty less in general, serving its own purpose of hydration, that will influence stamina regeneration. Potions of course will always be a more convenient way to heal Geralt, but if using a modded alchemy system that doesn't automatically refill your potions just with a bit o alcohol, food will play a much important role, being more accessible from taverns, vendors and hunting, as opposed to the "real deal" which needs diverse alchemical ingredients and strong alcoholic bases.
Some tweaks have also been made to expirations, for example raw fish go bad very quickly.

 -- ADDITIONAL FEATURES -- 

 -- Drinking from Shallow water -- 
Geralt can drink water from rivers, lakes etc. But to do it he has to be in shallow water. Drinking it, it will replenish thirst on each sip. Added new animation just for this action ( not that on 1 animation loop Geralt drink twice, while that is counted like single sip ).
But since waters are polluted during the war by blood and corpses, drinking this water will increase toxicity. Also if Geralt drinks this water way too much he will puke and gain Puking Effect. Everything here is tweakable.
F7 is default hotkey for drinking this water, while pressing jump will stop Geralt from drinking more after he finishes current sip.

 -- Puking Effect --
If Geralt overdrinks, overeats or drinks way to much of polluted water, he will puke. For an in game hour Geralt will feel sickly so he will refuse to drink or eat any more even if hungry/thirsty. For that hour his needs will also grow faster. So the best thing he could do in that situation is to stop and take a rest meditating for some time. 
Note: disabling Puking animation in options will completely disable this feature.

 -- Overtired Sleeping --
If Geralt reaches 100% fatigue he will lay on ground completely tired, and sleep for an hour no matter where he is. Sleeping for an hour will replenish a bit of his fatigue level.

 -- Stamina --
Stamina has the same regen rate no matter if you are in combat or not. It just doesn't make sense to stamina regen to be 10 times bigger outside of combat.

 -- Real time meditation support --
Primal Needs and fatigue system support real time meditation that is implemented in various mods. Currently supporting: Primer, Preparations, Friendly Meditation and W3EE.
If you know any other mod that implements real time meditation let me know, and i'll add support for it as well

 -- Hud --
The mod comes with its own hud to show the needs. In reality that is redesigned Conrols Hints module of the hud ( which i think is useless and breaks immersion ). Next to the need name is the current %. They will change colors depending on what is your current level.
 - if it is green it means you are getting buffs from the need and it's right where it should be, always try to keep them green
 - if it is yellow, it means it started rising a bit too much. It also means the need is giving you small buffs or small debuffs, but nothing extreme. This is a good time to fulfill the need.
 - if it is red, it is giving you major debuffs, and should fulfill the need asap
Right next to the current % is the + increase speed number. The 1 is default and it means the need is rising in it's normal speed. It also changes the colors depending on it's value. This is togglable.
 - green means you are slowing down the growth, yellow it is fasten by a bit, red it's rising very fast, so keep watch at those too
Those growths are affected by stats and can be adjusted in mod menu by how much for each need. If it says 0, that means the growth is paused for that need.
 - Hud now shows time in game teft before before the need turns red in the format hh:mm. This is also togglable.
 - The whole Hud is togglable. Default key is F12 tho you can change the binding. If any of the need gets red it will force show itself. If you enable always on in the menu it is basically manual toggling, if you switch it off, it will always be off except when some need is red..
 - Hud now shows Urine and Defecation levels as well with yellow and brown bar respectively.
 - Puking effect is also shown in the HUD when it is active.

 -- Animations --
The Mod adds 15 new animations to the game. The animations are for Eating, Eating Alt, Drinking, Drinking Alt, Horn (for drinking/eating), Urinating, Defecating, Puking, Applying oil, Sharpening sword, Enhancing Armor, Looting, Looting dead body, Overtired Sleeping and Drinking from Shallow water. Each animation can be turned on or off to your liking.
All animations are interruptable except puking and overtired sleeping. Those 2 will also interrupt others if they happen at the same time. To interrupt animation press "Jump" ( "Dodge" in combat ).
Horn animation can now be used as alternate animation for drinking and eating in combat. The benefits are that you can move and dodge in combat while drinking and plus it doesn't require you to sheathe your sword making it ideal for combat. However it can be turned off and regular animation will be used then.

 -- Translations --
Some translations are now included directly into the mod. Included translations are:
 - Italian translation by Gavrhan
 - Brazilian Portuguese translation by MRichieri
 - Korean translation by kgh3411
 - Spanish translation by AundiAundi
 - French translation by showda
Others will be uploaded in optional files as they come

 -- What's For Dinner --
I got permission from mod author Az0r3 to integrate his What's For Dinner mod into Primal Needs so i did.
Gavrhan did an amazing redesign to how the mod works:
 - Fuel: Timber instead of Coal.
 - Most recipes now only requires 1 ingredient of each kind, with some exceptions. Some changes has been made to recipes as well.
 - Quantity of produced items from a single recipe has been adjusted: the more ingredients a recipe requires, the higher chance it yields multiple items. This to avoid the feeling of wasting food items without any gain.
 - New recipes: Oil, Cheese, Purified Water and Dried Meat. You can buy these from the usual vendor in Crow's Perch.
 - Geralt's Canteen: With the "purified water recipe" you can now filter and boil bottled water to get 3 portions of "canteen water", that you can access at you discretion. Each sip will heal the same as a bottle of water (it's purified after all) and only replenish 10-15% of your thirst meter.
 - New Ingredient: Salt. Added as a requirement for various recipes. Sold by most food vendors.
For more information on that Mod check the page: What's for Dinner

 -- Tweaking --
The mod comes with mod menu, where you can tweak almost everything in the mod to your liking. Every need is togglable as well as animations, and elements in the hud. Also, every aspect of the mod can be tweaked to fit better your gameplay like speed of need progress, stats effects on needs, and many other need behaviors.
Here is the full list of every option and explanation of what each does:
 -- KNOWN BUGS -- 

These are the bugs that i currently cannot do much about them:
 1. Bottle is upside down in Horn drinking animation
 2. If you interrupt animation while Geralt is holding some item in his hand ( bottle, apple etc.) that item will be stuck in his hand. To unstuck it simply unsheathe any sword.
 3. If it so happens that puking is triggered while Geralt is in air, he will perform that animation in mid air. This can be fixed tho since it's using timer it would require some kind of workaround or redesigning the code, but as it shouldn't happen like ever, i left it like this.

 -- INSTALLATION -- 

Use my Witcher 3 Mod Installer for automatic install and then install 1.15.1 choosing to overwrite ( if installing patch using installer choose to overwrite not to delete old files first )
or
Copy everything from the archive into game installation folder, and then download and apply 1.15.1 update. All presets should be loaded automatically when you load the save, if they didn't for some reason load them manually.
If installing Primal Needs for the first time, open inputs.txt from the archive and follow instructions there.
NOTE: input.xml file is in <Game Installation Folder>\bin\config\r4game\user_config_matrix\pc folder, while input.settings in documents\The Witcher 3

If you want to use GhostMode along with PN and LFE, there is a patch for that on LFE page.
Use the patch or the main file not both at the same time!
For detailed installation instructions for every version and file read: README

 -- UNINSTALL -- 

if you're using main mod just remove modPrimalNeeds
If you're using Ghost Mode patch remove modFPrimalNeeds and modGhostMode and then reinstall modGhostMode
if you're using W3EE patch remove modPrimalNeeds and modW3EE and then reinstall modW3EE
If you're using SOTR patch remove modPrimalNeeds and SOTR_Scripts and the reinstall SOTR

You can also use my Witcher 3 Mod Installer for automatic uninstall ( and reinstall of the patched mods).

After that optionally you can remove PN.xml from bin folder and lines you added from inputs.txt

For detailed uninstall instructions for every version and file read: README

 -- COMPATIBILITY --

I gave my best to make this mod as compatible as possible, by moving as much of the new code as i can into newly created scripts. So it should be pretty compatible, but script merging will still be necessary. But, as the mod grows it's becoming less compatible. I'll try upload merged files and patches as much as i can for requests, and most popular mods out there.
   - Ghost Mode - patch has been released
   - Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition - patch has been released
   - School of the Roach 1.3 - patch has been released
   - What's for Dinner - It's integrated in the mod.
   - Primer - preinstalled version here: PN + Primer Preinstalled
   * If you need any older version of the mod you can find them here: Primal Needs
   * Merges i make for latest main version and various mods on request are here: Various Merges

 -- FAQ --

 Q: Is this mod compatible with mods that change the timescale?
 A: Yes, it is. The mod follows game time, not it's own timers, so if you slow the game time, the needs will follow

 Q: Can you make a patch for mod X ?
 A: Sure, if it's a hard merge i'll upload patch in main files, if it's medium i'll upload in Various Merges (link above), if it's easy i'll send you instructions

 Q: Is this mod compatible with mod X ?
 A: Almost every 2 mods are compatible if they are for same game version, as long as you understand what they do, and know how to merge them. So most likely yes

 Q: I have a suggestion or idea for the mod
 A: The mod is closed for new features

 Q: How do i translate the mod into my language?
 A: Download Translation Strings, translate the English text at the and of each line, and send me the translated file

 Q: Can i publish my translation on nexus?
 A: Sure, but i keep all translations here in one place, so send it to me as well to be found easier

 Q: How do i install translation?
 A: Find your translation into your language in the optional files download it put it in modPrimalNeeds folder

 Q: I want to use older version
 A: I keep all older version on the cloud, link above

 Q: Can you make version for 1.2x game version?
 A: Sorry, i can't, i only have latest 1.31 version

 Q: I got script errors
 A: Try using Unification Patch if that doesn't help it's probably the cause of Script Merging with other mods. Try to remerge scripts, if that didn't help contact me i'll try to help you. However don't post them as bug reports, they are not bugs, just merging problem, leave that page for actual bugs.

 Q: I don't see the HUD
 A: Check if HUD is turned on mod menu, after that check if Control Hints is turned on in Options/Video/HUD Configuration menu

 Q: Is it safe to remove Primal Needs in the middle of playthrough?
 A: Yes it is, it's completely safe.

 Q: What are default key bindings?
 A: F10 for Urinating, F11 for Defecating, F12 for toggling HUD, F7 for drinking from shallow water. You can change them in key binding options.

 Q: Key bindings don't work
 A: If you have copied everything correctly they should work. Check if you haven't accidentally changed the extension of any of those 2 files. Secondly check if you can see them in key binding options in game, if you can't something is wrong with input.xml file, if you can try to change them.

 Q: I can't find input.xml, and input.settings files, where are they?
 A: input.xml file is in <Game Installation Folder>\bin\config\r4game\user_config_matrix\pc folder and
     input.settings in documents\The Witcher 3

 Q: Does Ghost Mode patch affect new food added by Ghost Mode?
 A: Yes, it does.

 Q: I want to donate how do i do it?
 A: Firstly, thank you very much! Secondly there is a problem that Pay Pal does not allow receiving money in my country. It only works if i send money request to you. So if you wish to do it, send me your email address and amount, and i'll send request to you.

 -- RECOMENDED MODS --

Friendly Meditation - Adds real time meditation to the game.
Lore-Friendly Economy - My other mod that overhauls economy and makes it fully costumizable

 -- CREDITS --

 - Gavrhan - For amazing ideas and food/what's for dinner redesign!
 - Reaperrz - For explaining to me how some things work in witcher scripting, and for making W3EE. I learned a lot just by looking at W3EE code
 - WiperDark - For initial Russian translation, initial Primal Needs testing and for being a good friend
 - Maciek1010 - For persuading me to make all these animations
 - Az0r3 - For letting me integrate What's for Dinner mod into Primal Needs
 - MRichieri - For being good friend and polite as fuck
 - Daemarr - For helping me test the fix when i wasn't able to
 - iStep13 - For cool ideas that ended up integrated
 - Zoeytrope - For donating and therefore inspiring me to continue working
 - vk9 - For donating and therefore inspiring me to continue working