by xanduswizarde » Thu May 18, 2017 6:11 am
I never really got to the late game, but was having lots of fun with the concepts of food variation/satiation and curve of development (currently at 60~ stats).
I get the feeling that the purpose of the food system should be, mainly dictating the pace of the character stat development. The problem lies in the fact that the "cost" for levelling a stat is linear and the benefits of reductions are not. Satiations, by design, should play the role of alleviating that, while at the same time forcing cities to be built to divide the labour of food production. My guess is that this is where the problem is currently.
Satiations force new players to either spoil the game, make an alt or have a headache in the future. It also forces hermits to both fish, hunt and plant. That assuming this "symbel exploit" didnt exist. Whats the benefit of satiation besides roleplay (which I think is cool)? None, it takes the spirit of the game away. Conceptually the game is full of choices: I can use taproot or hide straps as strings, I can eat Apples or Fishes for CON stats, I can be a hunter or a farmer. The fact that satiations exists, negates all those choices both directly and indirectilly.
Its important to ask what is nice abou this levelling system in concept, and for me it is:
You get the feeling that you can choose your diet.
You get the feeling that working together is good, but solo is fine.
You get to plan and build a strategy ( MOST important concept IMO ).
You get to plan and guess when you are getting to a milestone ( important vame design ).
So the real question isnt "how to fix the food system". It is "how to make a levelling system that present alternatives, make choices relevant and yet provide a steady feeling of development to groups and hermits alike?"
My suggestion is:
On symbels:
1) Take hunger reduction off entirely.
2) Take off bonus FEP%.
3) Make specific symbel for specific food groups or food stats. They would raise the quality of the food when present i the table, softcapped by the food item itself. (Since quality in higher values brings less benefits, make this bonus significant and implement the softcap)
* Do note that one can chose its symbel based on what they eat to bend the rng of stat levelling in their favor, instead of eating the same specific food only, which could lead to new opportunities.
On Satiations:
1) Remove satiations as a conceptual debuff, make it Cravings instead. People will ALWAYS try to avoid negative effects. It must be an advantage and it needs to be useful, otherwise it wont be worth it, and it must not be crucial as it is today when it screw you up.
2) Cravings can only present advantages for those who use them. They appear through eating and they vanish when sated or after long times without eating target food (maybe then presenting a debuff to the food that generated it?)
On foods:
1) Keep up the good work on adding recipes with variety, they can play a nice role in a system where you need variety but want to focus on a food group due to your profession of choice.
2) Make cravings random. Optimal routes will be made if they are not. Buffs will never be a reason to complain, unlike satiations. Do make some cravings (satiations) more frequent on some food types, but dont limit them into that.
This system makes it possible to a hermit to live solely off his farm. But it will help people who like to trade because they want to saciate their cravings and they want the best possible quality for that, not their average quality they made out of their secundary stat. This system would also make alts less relevant at early game and avoid power level of new ones.
Death penality would be cruel because the development curve would be steeper, but vengeance would taste better. Just keep the work on combat overhauls and diseases / infections. Make them take off your cravings, I dont know... Nobody likes to eat a soup when they got a teeth extracted, or the like.
EDIT: A system should then be modified to prevent people who would spam eat the same recipe from doing that. Maybe adding satiations to those specific cases or adding a timer where that same kind of recipe would give diminishing returns.
On drinks:
1) They wouldnt buff satiations anymore.
2) They could help you with getting a specific craving when eating.
On Hunger Bar:
1) The sole system of the bonus part of the hunger bar should be to help casuals to catch up. Make it so by improving food variation total FEP reduction, energy gains and granting some buffs to those who eat at Ravenous to make up for the smaller stat pool. Maintaining yourself at current 100% would present you with a faster progression, while those at the current 200% or 300% would have compensation temporary stats and slightly higher develop ratio.
EDIT2:
On bonfires:
1) Rework them as a social tool instead of a mechanic for development. That would just create dual accounts and botters. Maybe make it so that characters can gain exp from each other based on their charisma as if telling fireplace stories after a feast. And maybe Will could be used here aswell on the receiving side of the equation as the listener doesnt need to be charismatic. Exchanging stories with different people could help getting more and more exp but would experience diminishing returns with the same folk until you talk to sufficient other people.
2) make it useful when you have completed a quest or experienced some Exp-giving events.
) (production 75-150 units in 3 days)
