Buff food vs Food for Survival -- (Dev) Replied

Hello,
I'd like to hear your opinion, what food system you prefer. Do you prefer a system, where food gives buffs and faster healing (comparable to the system in most other MMORPGs like Lord of the Rings online) or do you prefer as system, where you need to eat and drink regularly, or otherwise you will get penalties (like the old Ultima concept and in games like Mount & Blade and Fallout).

Chris Spears named it a decision between "carrot & the stick":

Carrot = food functions only as buff food; food brings only positive aspects to the game
stick = you get penalties, when you don't eat enough food; food prevents you from getting the stick

My opinion: I'd prefer the stick system of the old Ultima games. You could arrange it like in Mount & Blade, where your group is eating automatically, while travelling on the world map. But as a compromise and an incentive for cooking higher quality food, it could also give some positive things with it. In Mount&Blade better food improved the morale of the troop, for example.

I'm not so much a fan of the buff food system of other games, where everyone was forced to eat it's buff food before each boss fight. I always found that strange. It didn't make much sense to me, that a whole group sits down in front of a demonic beast to hold a feast.

So, what do you think? Maybe you have completely other ideas for a food system.

Cheers,
Andreas

 

If you need to eat to compete then something is out of balance. I don't mind a minor buff from food but it should never be a determining factor.

On the other side of the coin, being forced to eat has some tedium to it if you need to do it too often. Having practically grown up on Ultimas I would prefer more 'stick' than 'carrot' but there are limits. You shouldn't be able to die of starvation for example..

Perhaps if you don't eat your carrying capacity goes down a bit. That alone would keep people wanting to eat on a regular basis.

 

With this being a Class free system! with multiple ways of play,
It could also come down to the need to have Both systems of food...

With the basic overall game play to be decided by the individual as weather to follow your path of an Adventure or to settle down as a Merchant (Poor and simple example's) the need for both "Carrot" and "Stick" may be needed.

 

I think it should be a sliding scale. When you eat a top tier meal you are buffed a little. Say 15% increase to something. For 2 hours you will have the full benefit of the buff and then for the last hour you will loose the last 15% of your buff until it reaches 0% buff. An hour after that you will suffer hunger and have a negative affect on stats.

 

And what about shareable food in a campfire (that only could be made in an area without enemies, or far away, then it burns out in 5-10 min), and i would prefer a system that gives a small bonus instead a penalty for not doing it.

 

I started a thread about this over in the Wish List area:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?topic=food-and-water

In NWN there were some seriously hardcore Thirst/Hunger/Fatigue systems, and they can be very non-obtrusive.

I definitely want hunger and thirst. At the very least, something like this on the map portion then people won't starve when AFK unless they are stupid enough to sit on the map. In U7 food was easy to come by, so it really was only an issue of inventory management.

If you go out for long spells without something to eat or drink you should die. You should have to rest at some point or have your head get muddy, and you should be forced to walk after a period of running.

Just like in U7 you should be able to hand food out to party members or companions that are hungry. As Andi said, I want me some stick.

 

Rather than food providing a buff, I've previously suggested that thirst and hunger gives you debuffs that are fixed by eating and drinking. That more closely matches real life.

 

Stick for me.

 

Food as a buff would be good

 

I prefer:
"Stick = you get penalties, when you don?t eat enough food; food prevents you from getting the stick".

With cooking being a natural talent everyone starts out with, as long as they are using an oven or campfire, along with the correct ingredients.

 

+1 Owain

 

If the skill had progression to it, what does that progression mean?
1) Only a skilled cook can make grass edible?
2) A skilled cook can make a larger quantity or otherwise keep someone full longer?
3) Is there simply no effect to being a better cook other than RP?

Does rotating food types somehow put me in the "satisfied" state longer or can I just keep eating the same thing?


I understand that it seems silly to have a buff associated with food. But this is a game with magic and dragons. If there's no reason to buy good food over bad food then there's no reason to spend hundreds of hours training and gathering rare ingredients to be a top chef. It's possibly worth it to become a smith just to make cooler looking great with no stat difference...but I just don't see people instagramming their meals.

 

stick, but with some buff food additives, that add to certain characters classes :

1. if mushrooms are cooked, mages gain +10 spell casting for 6 hr?
2. if steak is cooked, fighters get +10 strength for 6 hr?
3. if both are cooked, mages & fighters both get corresponding buffs

if staple foods are cooked, they provide no buff, but they work to satisfy the constant need to replenish food & water, just like in life ... the stick overall, but some fun buffs only in special carrot/class combinations

 

I agree with food for survival, and IMO its possible to make this very simple: not eating would just gradually cap your max. stamina in an increasing degree. Like others have said, a de-buff.

I also would add sleep for survival, with the same type of stamina cap effect. The natural time to sleep would be at night of course, if there are day/night cycles and you don't want to expend torches or lanterns.

 

STICK...big stick, "that food smells good."

 

+1 gadget
regular food will keep me alive, (stick)
A top chef's food will make me feel good, increasing vitality or strength or magic ability. Anyone heard of power drinks? Cooking if it's just plain food no one will use it, we'll all eat basic fruit, give a meaning to the skill &amp; make it mean something <strike>(carrot)</strike>(15oz venison steak with wine sauce)

 

"Anyone heard of power drinks?"

Ever heard of a caffeine crash? Uppers may give you a temporary boost, but it comes at the expense of a debuff later. Maybe a bad debuff, which could be educational. "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs".
*Cut to scene of a cooking egg*

 

What's the difference between carrot and stick this time?

Carrot: You don't eat, you are imposing a lesser value of stats on yourself.

Stick: You don't eat, you are imposing a lesser value of stats on yourself.

Carrot could give different types of buffs based on the types of food you eat, but so could the food under the stick method.

I say go with stick. If not for tradition then for realism.

 

I don't mind a stick system, as long as we can't DIE if we don't eat. I don't mind if not eating makes you gradually weaker as time goes on, as long as it doesn't become annoying to have to eat all the time (maybe eat once per login session or something.) I also don't mind the carrot system where food just provides buffs. In many games that have cooking, it's often one of my favorite crafting skills, along with farming, and it would be nice to produce stuff people want and are willing to pay for, but I don't want to have to rely entirely on a player economy either.

 

@nonobadkitty,

What do you think about my suggestions about stat effects in this thread:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?topic=eatingsleepingweatheretc-stats

People can go without eating for 30-40 days, and they said daylight (I think daylight, not a full day, I'm not sure) is about 30 min, so technically even if decided to be 100% realistic you should be able to go without eating for 30-40 hrs of gameplay. Of course, under that system, in 30-40 hrs you would have all of your strength completely drained because you would expect to die at that point.

But, by the same token, if that were implemented, you should have several hours of gameplay before the stat. toll would be large enough for you to care.

Same thing with sleeping, if it were added, though you'd need it more often than eating.