We've been developing yesterday, and today, and here's what's new.
The Symbel: Feasting
Since we changed the hunger values a while back, most of us have probably noticed our proverbial cups overflowing with food that just sits around to no earthly use what so ever. Not only is this boring (Two cupboards full of roasted meat, I tell you!) but it also hurts trade. To combat this we've conjured up a feasting mechanic that allows you to not only eat more food, but also to get more FEPs per food unit eaten. How? By feasting. Basically we figured that the ancestors (bless them) were quite fond of feasting. The concept of the grand feast that lasts for days is prominent in the sagas, and the concept of feasts is obviously referenced everywhere from Beowulf to the Poetic Edda. Hearthlings can now, quite simply, feast. But how, oh how?
Build a table. The table can be equipped with eight different items. Pull up a chair and have a seat. Now right-click on the table. You get nice little bonuses to your eating depending on the Q of the table, and of everything on it. You can see these bonuses displayed in the table's interface. You also have a tidiness bonus. This represents how well the table has been set. Psyche+Cooking makes you set tables better. (The local Feng-Shui improves, you see). While seated, and with the table's interface open, click feast. You now get to see the divine fork (we use this mouse cursor to delete objects with our god characters). Now click on a food item in the table's inventory. Tada! Eating, and bonuses applied.
You can create various kinds of objects to put on the table. We've only scratched the surface of the possible stuff we could put in here, but there are some plates and some cutlery and whatnot to get us started. These Symbel items degrade over time. They each have a certain chance of degrading every time a food unit is eaten off of the table. Gold stuff obviously is much slower in degrading than temporary flower arrangements. You get it. If they degrade they lose one point of quality. If they lose their last point they are destroyed. Please note that you can only get bonuses from one instance of a particular item type. Psyche is relevant for all these crafts.
But that's not all, folks! You can also build a huge ass bonfire! Just build it, and load it up with fuel, light it, and feast away. There is a minimum requirement to how much fuel the bonfire needs before you can light it (it will change sprite when it's possible to light it). By feasting in sight of the grand fire, you can eat even more, the bonus determined by the collected hunger modifiers of all active tables, factored by the average charisma of everyone at the party. Please note that the FEP-bonus is only ever applied to the table in question, never shared with the extended party in any way. The person with the highest charisma should light the bonfire, as charisma of the host of the evening is obviously relevant for the bonus. Keep the riff-raff away from your party, and you can party away yourself.
Be aware that you regain less fullness when feasting, so don't do it if you don't have the food to spare. It should be self-explanatory, but seeing as how even national governments of this age (I'm looking at you, Bammie) do not seem to get that, I say it anyway.
Also the raft-splosion bug should now be fixed, wagons should be capable of running over small animals, and you can now put troughs into wagons.