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

(Just adding 2c) I don't like the idea of food as buffs, because that inevitably devolves into balancing all encounters in the game around the "food buff".

There's also a midpoint between that and having hunger/starvation kill you.

Having a very small buff after eating when hungry is fine, something very brief. "Normal" status should be just that - normal. No buff, no debuff for the majority of time. However, once you get hungry, there can be another small debuff (no more than, say, a 10% reduction of stats/skills) that doesn't go away until you eat. There doesn't have to be a constant drain on HP or immediate death.

 

Minecraft got this one right for the most part. When fed, your health regenerated naturally. When hungry, it did not.

 

@Alayth,

If there is such a food bag, perhaps it would be called a "rations bag".

I have disagreements with the auto-consume idea for a couple of reasons.

* If there is auto-consume, it should be somehow tied to camping, where you stop and eat when you set up camp, rather than something that just happens on the road under the radar.

* You want some visible indication of the fact that you're running out of food. The devs would have to put some food stat on the HUD if they went down that route.

* You should be able to choose what you eat. Would that work by putting food that you don't want to eat in your normal backpack and not the rations bag? Maybe that's a workable solution.

* I would prefer a debuff that stacks, and if that's the case, you should be able to choose when you eat. Do you eat a real meal before you go on a raid or siege , and on the way just eat some small snacks to keep you satiated?

Personally, I think auto-consume is a solution without a problem. I think the attraction to it comes from people's experience with games like U7, where you get hungry far too quickly and have to feed your party manually; but I don't think it would be necessary in this game if hunger is done right and not in an annoying way.

But, maybe, if they are considering that, a combination of different approaches might work that would be something like this:

1. A stacking debuff.

2. A rations bag, which you auto-consume from when you set up camp and elect to eat.

3. Other food (your "trail mix") could be placed in your regular backpack, and then eaten manually along the way through double-clicking.

4. Added buffs from certain foods only, produced by quality cooks or farmers.

 

An advantage to the carrot over the stick is the ability to add variety. Hunger and thirst debuffs are limited to effecting your stats, while buffs can add many different abilities. Carrots can aid night sight, fish can boost your ability to translate (especially if you stick it in your ear), beans could surround you with a ward.

 

Games need money sinks to fight inflation. Food/drink is a good one. I don't think you should have to actively eat/drink like WoW pets system. That was a chore. But if you have food/drink on you it will be consumed and hopefully you will get a slight buff for better food/drink (preferably the best stuff made by crafting).

SWG had a system for cultivating community by drawing people to the Cantinas for R&R. A buff for eating in a tavern or just listening to some tunes would be cool. I'm not a roleplayer but I still appreciated the system.