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Meals - game design

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 5:48 am
by watermelonnose
I was wondering in designing the game why some of the foods that are easily obtainable, (carrots, asparagus, spinach) are on a par with or better than foods that take a lot of preparation (bread, baked cod grilled meat). :?:

Better than: meaning time to gather the item and how much the character needs to eat of it each day.

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 9:27 am
by sammigurl61190
Hmm....good question....

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:05 pm
by Alcatraz
I think the creator needs to be poked :twisted:

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:10 pm
by Solfius
no, don't poke the creator. Just pass it to the Resources Dept.

I don't know much about the nutrional value of food, but it could just be that bread is just as filling as carrots etc?

Resource distribution.

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 10:12 pm
by David
In place X, carrots maybe plentiful. In place Y, wheat may be plentiful, but only potatoes are the other food source. So in some places it makes sense to bake bread, while in others it does not.

The value of bread depends upon the region.

Re: Resource distribution.

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:47 am
by watermelonnose
David wrote:In place X, carrots maybe plentiful. In place Y, wheat may be plentiful, but only potatoes are the other food source. So in some places it makes sense to bake bread, while in others it does not.

The value of bread depends upon the region.


Even against potatoes bread doesn't stack up well. Any schmoe can get 8 days of food for one day of work. For bread you'll not do much better than 5 days worth of food for one day of work.

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 1:06 am
by grayjaket
Well, for one thing there is weight to worry about. If you want to carry around less weight take bread. Also, in places like Sring Sri, the best food source is bread. Also, who says that it has to be totally even? I mean, it could take hours to bake a cake, but that doesn't mean it's gonna be more filling than making as many sandwiches as you can in the same amount of time....

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 3:22 am
by David
That's what I was thinking weight is a consideration: IC your character may not know where food is available even if they have a resource map, what if they arrive in a region and they aren't allowed to gather food? So, from where they start a long adventure they may stack up on labor intensive, but light bread. Though I admit carrots can be used for that purpose as well.

Sring-Sri was one place I had in mind.

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:27 pm
by griogal
One of my chars always carries some spare wood and stone with him to make a fire if necessary.

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:45 pm
by metcalfedj
Thats a wise move but also i can see why things like grilling meat and cooking and baking bread takes longer to dothan collect potatoes or carrots. As someone else said you could cook some meat in an hour but you could pick more carrots than cook meat in that hour. So the game is actually right.

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:17 pm
by watermelonnose
metcalfedj wrote:Thats a wise move but also i can see why things like grilling meat and cooking and baking bread takes longer to dothan collect potatoes or carrots. As someone else said you could cook some meat in an hour but you could pick more carrots than cook meat in that hour. So the game is actually right.


I don't want to compare to RL......the point I am trying to make is there should be more of an incentive designed into the game to use these other foods. It's ok to RP a bakery but, when you don't get much business because there are easier choices for the characters to make in gathering food it limits the depth of the game experience.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:28 pm
by metcalfedj
Yes i can see what you mean, i guess then that the game needs to be changed either so that things like bread and meat bring back health a lot more then potatoes but still can be an automatic food. Or that characters eat very little bread as in a gram or two. :lol: