Food mechanics
Community Forums/Technical Discourse/Food mechanics
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| I've been thinking; other than hunger bars and temporary stat boosts/healing, are there any incentive to use food in a survival type game? For the purpose of discussion I'm going to count morale meters as a form of hunger bar. Like if I was trying to make a survival game with no sat boosts/healing from food, there would be no incentive for the player to a eat a key lime pie over a roast beef. In really life people like to eat a variety of foods, and will eat just for enjoyment. In video games is there any real way to recreate that? So anybody have ideas, or of know of games that do this? All I can think of is just making the food visually appealing. |
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| No matter how you approach it, food will always be either busy work, or just resource management. Hard to change that, since you don't get the real-world 'reward' associated with an actual good-tasting meal. |
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| I guess that is the core of the problem, although I'd rather try and solve it than not. What you said about there not being a real-world reward made me think. In Minecraft I always start stocking all of the different foods, which you have to hunt down some of the ingredients for. And things like fishing can fun in of itself. So maybe it's the journey and not destination thats the solution. Going back to the "beef vs pie" thing: for example key limes could be a rare plant, and you would have to explore to find them. And once you have them, what is the point of having them and not using them (assuming you have a food spoiling mechanic)? Thoughts? |
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| why not make it so it gives a little less satisfaction every time you eat the same thing over a period. Much like people who always eat x food they get bored with it after a while. |
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| Add a mental health stat to the characters. Having preferable food will increase that stat. What that stat actually means in game though, no idea. The idea of what is desireable is situational too, US troops in WWII gladly traded their canned rations for fresh fruit and booze - while the people they traded with were happy to get the US rations. |
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| @EdzUp MkII @dynaman Satisfaction and mental health would both kind of go under morale meters. But a stress stat work nicely in a survival game, even if it's still kind of a morale meter. I think stress has some physical effects, and having the effectiveness of the food go down with use would keep the players most abundant food from being a cheep de-stresser. And there is nothing stopping you from using this system on things like art of music. It would also give alcohol and dugs non bogus use in games. What do you guys think? |
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| Maybe add a Diet system, all about a balanced diet, too much or not enough fat, sugar, salt, vitamins will have effects on your character. E.G a 1st person game; too much fat and you walk slower or have reduced stamina? too much sugar and your aim is off or bouncing around, too much salt and you lose water faster etc. |
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| the whole thing is a fine balancing act and one that we could debate well into next century but I do believe that it's one now the reasons it was all lumped into the one Hunger bar. |
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| @coffeedotbean I've had a similar idea, but I never thought about it affecting things like aim. @EdzUp MkII Debate and discussion are part of why I made this topic. =) Also in my last post I didn't make it very clear that I using you and dynaman's idea, that's been bugging me since I posted it. |
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| In the old Redneck rampage FPS, picking up a bottle of booze would temporarily disable your left or right turns so you'd have to drunkenly wander in circles |
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| > In the old Redneck rampage FPS, picking up a bottle of booze would temporarily disable your left or right turns so you'd have to drunkenly wander in circles But it increased health! Loved that game. |
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| Well that sounds like "fun". lol |
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| Umm... we are friends right Yue? :P |
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| :) Yes. Only It's just a food joke. |
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| The only food mechanics you need to know are:- Meat = 100% health regen Fruit = 20-30% health regen |
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| I think water is important. Without water the character begins to delirious. |
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| I think water is important. Without water the character begins to delirious. In the scrolling beat-em-up world, water is not needed. ;) |
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| I feel like I'm missing a few in-jokes here, care to fill me in? |
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