Poll: Requiring Food and Water in RPGs

[screeg]

I agree with Grayth on the "no food" side. I also fall in with the unwashed masses in doubting it would add any fun to the experience.

A good RPG usually has a ton of stats and equipment to track. Echelon even includes ingredient based alchemy. I think that's great. But adding in mundane requirements like food is crossing over from the Land of Item Juggling into the Realm of Burden.

I think being able to discover and use alchemy ingredients is enough food.

[quasimodo]

I was thinking about this the other day as I was traveling across the wastes in Fallout yet one more time. I think the need for food and water would be a good way to generate "random encounters".

When you run out of supplies you would have to stop and deal with it.
Maybe you just have kill a few rats, maybe fight some raiders for their food, maybe find some twinkies in a not completely looted store...as long as it is not the same thing over and over again I think it would add to the feel of the game.

[Sanctus]

I think water and food would be cool as it will be or realistic...
I didn't meat to many games in witch u have to feed u'r character or to make him drink water in order to be healthy or somefin

[cubgrace]

This is my experience and maybe you guys can make this not happen. But while playing either Ultima I or II if you ran out of food in the middle of nowhere and couldn’t make it back to town you died. Well. I just happen to save my game to far from a town one day. And for the "LIFE" of me could not get back into town before I died. Over an over I tried to find the shortest route to make it but never did. It made me hack into the code and give myself 10 units of food.

[Sanctus]

I was thinking that maybe they should be making the game so that u can save on multiple files... and maybe u shoudn't overwrite other savegames
That way if something goes wrong on one file u can load a previous one and fix the problem by (in your case ) go and drink some wather or eat some food

[BasiliskWrangler]

Thanks for all the comments, and keep them coming!

If we were to implement food/water in the game, it would be done like this: death from starvation would be nearly impossible unless you are trying to die by that method. First, your hunger/thirst meter would run low. You'd notice that you don't replenish hit points/mana points as quickly, and resting would provide less and less replenishing of benefits. Poisons and trauma would begin to have a greater effect on you. Only after you have truly reach the level starving would hit points begin slipping away. Food would generally be a plentiful commodity except in some dungeons or remote, desert-like environs. These are the areas where you'd want to make sure your water sacks are full and you have meal rations in your backpack.

As it stands right now, more people have voted against having food and water requirements (but it's still a close race!) so we will probably hold off implementing this. There is still food in the game, and it can be eaten, but there is no requirement to feed your character and no bar graph showing hunger or thirst levels.

[Sanctus]

Dudez pls vote for it cuz its the best...
The way u'r thinking to implement it is very good... (U don't just don't eat->starve->die)
Well please implement at least food (but it would be best with water to)

[Del137]

+1 Sanctus
the more complex will be game - the better

[quasimodo]

If the source of the food and water is always the same and is easy to get then there is not really any point to it. If you occasionally need to go hunting in the wilds for some food and water, and the search involves some combat, bargaining, moral choices and maybe the chance to find some loot or gain experience then it could add a lot to the game.

If it merely involves loading up your mule with 20 days of food and water then I agree that it isn't worth it.

[vazquez595654]

If you want to have forced eating and drinking, go play The Sims. This would be really annoying if you forced it in your game.

[Meph]

It's usually been just a pain in the ass.
Only game I've ever seen it implemented good was unreal-world and maybe teudogar/ultima 7, but the former is a complex survival roguelike, too.

There is still food in the game, and it can be eaten, but there is no requirement to feed your character and no bar graph showing hunger or thirst levels.

Sounds good. I'd possibly add a hunger/thirst bar as a roleplaying aspect for the main character, though, I dunno.

[GhanBuriGhan]

I would like it, especially as described: it can add an interesting aspect to certain dungeons/regions, but shouldn't be a tedium otherwise. Auto-eating a la Krondor migh tbe a good idea, too.

[Daz4x]

The Ultima games had a excellent way of feeding system. This would be a great way to have food done in Eschalon.

[Gallifrey]

I'm all for realism in RPGs, and so few RPGs incorporate food and water survival systems these days. I think the intial outline idea is an ideal way to go about handling food and water, it's there, but it's not something that you have to tend to every ten minutes or face disastrous consequences.
It's little things like that which pull me into a gameworld, into the life of my character. So, please, food and water!

[gregIknowmiles]

I had a snake once in d&d that I fed hill giant meat to. That was fun but in game play I think it depends on if the player gets hungerier due to time and then is it real time or what and does fatigue play in.