[Poll] Player Hunger: Survival Fun or Invasive Drudgery

I do not want to be required to eat. I think that having hunger in a game so that you can support cooking is stupid. Giving a buff should be enough. I've heard the economy/alchemy arguments before but my opinion still stands. The way it works in EQ2 is perfect to me. Sure the buffs and regen aren't huge bonuses but if there is a 1% bonus to be had out there, I want that bonus dammit! I find myself buying lots of food and drink even though it isn't necessary. If it were necessary I'd probably waste a lot of time finding ways around it. If I have to keep finding ways around game play that I don't want, I'll play something else.

sent from the future using my Coleco Adam

 

Not really --- you can buy food, and you can eat raw food. Fruits and vegetables should be able to satiate you the same as anything cooked, plus dry field rations (such as jerky) should be cheap. I agree that you should be able to cook some things without skill, or without great skill. But I doubt if hunger is in that all people will want to cook. Some will devote more to alchemy, so they can make potions. Others will want to max their crafting skills. A lot of people will be happy with eating raw food and rations. --- The level skill in cooking of the food would likely either add buffs (through herbs and spices), or allow you to do more complex things like drying, curing, smoking, baking bread, preserving fruit in jams, baking bread, brewing wines and beers, etc, that have value because they last longer and can be sold to other players for their rations.

How people are describing LOTRO and other MMOs is certainly not my experience. If all you have is food, sure, you use the food. But as soon as you're able to get a lot of potions, all you do is use the potions, because they're always better than food, and more efficient to carry around. That's one of the problems with foods as buff-only. As you said, it overlaps too heavily with alchemy. Hunger lets the two skillsets diverge more.

And the way LOTRO handled food buffs wasn't even enjoyable, imo. You had dozens of skill buttons to click during battle, and the food choices were a dozen more choices to click, except before battle, and in your inventory. And it would always be right before battle. I think one of the things they're trying to do away with by using the deck system is this kind of clickfest.

 

Something has been niggling at me as we discuss many of these systems. Many of these suggestions feel like punishments. In this case, given the majority of the response choices from this questionnaire, if we decide cooking is not worth our time then our characters are punished for it. There seems to be something of a fervor for punishing players in the name of realism. I may make a separate post on this, but the short version is that i hope we can come up with more positive ways of making these systems "realistic".

Make things non-fun and people won't come back to play.

 

You don't have to cook to eat, though.

 

I don't think that hunger should be used to punish those who aren't interested in those mechanics.

That being said, I think it should be a mix of incentives, which will induce people to take part. I think being fully sated should be tied with increased regen, carrying capacity, and walking speed. Not enough that its absence will punish players, but enough that it will make players want to take a meal before heading out to a dungeon or to gather resources. Communal meals like in taverns or guild houses can increase this effect a bit, and it should be tied to the skill of the chef.

Basically, a mixed bag of small bonuses that will prod people towards using the skill and patronizing those who invest in it.

 

Well... I wouldn't worry about it - there's obviously not going to be enough time between now and the end of the year to put all these systems people are fantasizing about in the game.

I expect that as the actual game becomes an actual game, and theres stuff to do in the game, people's focus will go from discussing complex systems that will never see the light of day to discussing how the game works.

After just getting totally burned on the horrible game Thief, for PS4, whose development team all got laid off a few days ago, I think it would be prudent to err on the side of caution when taking any of these type threads too seriously.

 

I haven't read this entire thread, but it seems a majority of people want some form of hunger in the game. Me personally, I do want some form of hunger, but I don't want there to be death by starvation. If someone doesn't want to eat, that should be their choice. IMHO, the biggest reason for hunger is so that cooks have some purpose in game as opposed for superficial reasons. I could go either way if food is required to keep stats from decaying or if food provides a bonus. With stat decay pretty much every player character would need to eat, in order to avoid reduced skill ability. However, food that provides a bonus would be almost exclusively used for combat. If food does become a requirement, I don't want to have to eat every 15 minutes either. I think one meal every 24-48 hours would be sufficient.

 

Out of curiosity, how does this link into the topic at hand? I've heard its an awful game, but mostly to do with the atmosphere, music, controls...

 

I think I explained myself well enough

 

Updated (at least somewhat) and moved to general.

 

Agree New Vegas was well cool with the hunger and sleep element, But Bullet weight was a real pain, And it would make fishing and cooking and camp fires in the wild a need rather than a pointless exercise, And I think it should hamper your ability to heal just the same, makes the game world more real, I liked it in previous Ultima's, Age of Wushu does it well with different foods giving you different buffs and a very complex recipe and cooking game included, And you have to have travel rations in LOTRO to fast travel, Taverns and Hotels will be more important and drinking beer can be a source of food just like it was in Britain from the middle ages into Victorian times, Also given the fact that drinking water could have been a death sentence. Will help boost the economy as players can make money from cooking fishing etc, And people who can't be bothered with it can just buy their dungeon rations.

 

Just found this and I'll read through the responses later. Just wanted to say: I voted on the first Pro-eating choice.

I don't actually like hunger mechanics. Just seems tedious to me, BUT it is a very Ultima thing to have and if they offer the simple opt out; like the magic vials, so I don't have to deal with it if I don't want to, then I'm all for it. Especially if it makes other players happy.

 

I like the "realistic clock" one. But if I log off, I want the clock to stop, then when I log back on it starts again.

I might be convinced to have ti so when in the over-view map mode you consume food more rapidly cause of the great distances you travel.

 

Agree, Always online in Age of Wushu looked cool on paper and being able to set up your stall to sell stuff while offline sounded cool, All the being kidnapped and sold into slavery was a fricken bind!

 

I am pro hunger because it fits into my beliefs in an interdependent economy. Cooks and gatherers should be able to sell their goods. Every play style and profession should have a unique purpose.

 

i think it would be a fun system if it 's not taking too much to implement. I think the hunger could be stamina based ? the more physical actions you do the more hungry you get ? also , some foods can give bonuses would be nice....

 

As long as you don't have to eat/drink every other minute just to avoid an instant death, I'm in favour of this.

 

I think they should have hunger, maybe if you don't eat you loose some stamina or get sick after a long time not eating. I think eating maybe only one or two times times a day would be fine. Then maybe have special food that gives a buff, if a cook has the recipe. It just
makes for a more realistic immersive world. I was never really sure if eating in UO was required but it did seem like skill gain was better staying full, and less failures casting, but either way it wasn't game changing. Maybe have a special power bar that you only hafta eat once a week or something, but
costs a bit more. Maybe you could just eat some stuff growing around as the minimum, so it wouldn't be bothersome to the people against it, like mushrooms or wild onions. Or maybe Alchemist could make a vitamin pill for those who don't want to eat but once a week.

 

Yes please, but K.I.S.S.

No more than a 10-20% stat penalty, and properly prepared food (ie a chef) should give small bonuses. SMALL!

Let's not go back to the days of instant death in Akalabeth, and let's not have that BS from Warcraft where if your group isn't properly food buffed the dungeon is impossible.