Bring back the food-meter

[Redeye]

So, who wants to bring back the Food Meter?

Also, what are your thoughts on sleep and the importance of time in CRPGs?

Discuss.

 

[Jasede]

Food & water are annoying if done wrong, it's best not to put them in if you are uncertain, to err on the safe side.

The only games were food was actually meaningful and gameplay-relevant was Dungeon Master.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Roguelikes do it pretty well generally. It should really only be used in settings where food is potentially scarce however. Adding a food system to BG would be retarded. You'd just end up buying rations every X days in the town you always have access to with the money you always have available.

In say, ADOM, you have access to one shop that sells a ton of food, but it's quite far from everything but the early dungeons and rather heavy rations, and you can't really afford to waste time travelling back there frequently. So other sources become necessary, which are much more interesting. Getting food from monster corpses (which has skills involved and makes sense, eating zombies won't help you generally) or using magic/herbalism. Although, ADOM lacks any sort of anti-hunger equipment, which kind of sucks.

The food system should tie into other parts of the game, not just be tacked on by itself.

 

[asper]

Eschalon 2 is going to have food & water meters.

I like it, but I have to say I haven't played a game in which it was done meaningfully. Apart from roguelikes, that is.

 

[Raapys]

I'd rather not have it. It was okay in games like M&M where you only need it for resting and travelling, but it didn't really add anything good to the game.

By all means put it in a survival game or some such, but not in your average RPG.

 

[spacemoose]

It should really only be used in settings where food is potentially scarce however. Adding a food system to BG would be retarded.

The food system should tie into other parts of the game, not just be tacked on by itself.

damnedregistrations is on the money

also, a food accounting makes sense in games that progress as a one-directional journey through the world - like oregon trail or nethack

 

[Kaiserin]

I've only ever found it fun in MUDs.

 

[Zomg]

Even otherwise good Roguelikes usually fuck up food at least a bit. Like in Nethack, food is critical during maybe the first 1/10th of the game, then is totally trivial unless you're playing the most food-restrictive conducts (as in, like, foodless).

If your shop can't design a fucking fight to be interesting you have no business messing with stuff like food management.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

In Dungeon Master 2, you could eat bits from the "edible" ennemies killed. That was nice.

 

[1eyedking]

Eschalon 2 is going to have food & water meters.

I like it, but I have to say I haven't played a game in which it was done meaningfully. Apart from roguelikes, that is.

This is food & water done wrong.

Eating and drinking is a social event, it should be encouraged for players to make the party/character eat & drink at inns (longer satisfaction? morale bonus?), or hunt down animals/collect vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and whatnot and cook stuff at campfires. Higher quality food means healthier adventurers, after all.

If you're going to put a system in, make it worthwhile and engaging, and not just two filler bars which probably means less inventory space and trivial micromanagement.

 

[Applegate's Breasts]

Depends on the game, but most of the times...well, I'll just let Chris Avellone say it for me:

 

[mondblut]

Having to stock up on food (which weights a lot, thus exhausting the party) for a long journey = ok.

Scavenging in dusty corners for an "iron ration" = fuck off.

In other words, hunger-management the Realms of Arkania way is fine, the Eye of Beholder way - no way in hell.

 

[spacemoose]

applegate's breasts, that's got to be the most androgynous avatar here yet

 

[Unkillable Cat]

In other words, hunger-management the Realms of Arkania way is fine, the Eye of Beholder way - no way in hell.

The sad thing is, once your Cleric reaches 5th level, the food meter becomes irrelevant and rations will only be needed to solve puzzles.

 

[St. Toxic]

Hunger and thirst are very important features, but not as important as sleep deprivation and the passage of time.

 

[Morkar Left]

If hunting gets involved and you have huge areas to explore where you can get lost, I would really like to have hunger and thirst back in my games. But it sucks if the only way to get food and water is to buy it in an inn.

In Fallout I really missed that there was no hunger and thirst. Afterall it was a postapoc world...

 

[vazquez595654]

Eschalon 1 bore me to death. The character moved too slowly, the combat was boring, and for being 2d, the world was a bunch of small zones patched together. There was a lot of empty land around, which wouldn't have been a problem if the character was faster.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Hunger and thirst are very important features, but not as important as sleep deprivation and the passage of time.

Yes, if you don't sleep enough your character goes crazy, becomes uncontrollable and does some stupid shit that gets him killed. Then the game should automatically delete all savegames and you have to start anew. Sounds like fun.

 

[bhlaab]

It usually doesn't add much to the gameplay besides one more thing to micromanage.

 

[thesheeep]

Depends entirely on the game.

If there is no problem, a deeper sense or fun involved at all in a game to get food&water, there is no need for such a game mechanic...

In the RoA games, I found that feature to be very welcome. You actually had a reason to go hunting and visit taverns, etc.

I also find sleep to be a lot more important. It doesn't have to be overkill, but a simple BG-like implementation would suffice.

 

[Sonic The Hedgehog]

I support hunger and thirst requirements as well as sleep and/or camping requirements so long as it's continually challenging and vital to the game. I also believe that time and age progression is important as well. I believe it can be immersive in the setting and enhance challenge at the same time.

 

[JarlFrank]

Generally I like food/drink requirements as long as it's sensible. In Realms of Arkania and World of Xeen it was good. You bought or hunted for food, and you had it in your inventory. In World of Xeen you bought rations and had a button that told you how long your food will last. It was consumed automatically. The way it is done in roguelikes is also okay.

But if it boils down to "You have to eat once every day!" and you have to manually put the food into your character's mouth or he'll starve if you forget it... that sucks. In roguelikes it's okay, you don't have to eat that often usually and you get a clear message when you're starving. And eating is a matter of pressing two buttons.

Bad implementation of thirst and hunger is having to manually open the inventory, pick up the food, drag and drop it on your character's portrait and having to do that every 10 minutes or so because the hunger bar goes down too quickly. That's just tedious and doesn't add to the game.

 

[Destroid]

As others have mentioned, it is appropriate in a survival or simulation game, otherwise it holds little value.

 

[X40c]

I'm a bit suprised that noone has mentioned Unreal World yet. It may be a little bit obscure as an RPG to the hivemind, but one thing it does better than any other game is the hunger, thirst, sleep and time system. The game is surprisingly built up around the characters needs. You'll be spending most of your time trying to satisfy those needs and to keep them in check. The needs are really done well and they keep on challenging the player to go father and father, until you get eaten by a lynx. Time management is important as well, you don't want to say up building your cottage too long or you're going to sleep out on most of the daylight next day. IMO, it shows how the survival part of an RPG can and should be done and how it can function as a motivating force for the player.

 

[DraQ]

Bad implementation of thirst and hunger is having to manually open the inventory, pick up the food, drag and drop it on your character's portrait and having to do that every 10 minutes or so because the hunger bar goes down too quickly. That's just tedious and doesn't add to the game.

This. Food and water should be auto-consumed when character/party camps, hunting/gathering food should definitely be possible, in towns, you should also be able to use taverns to eat and drink.

Also, the game cannot be scaled down too dramatically for this to work.

I voted "maybe".