The Drunken Lizard Pub

I see that now there are more pros thhan contras
So please implement it

If it possible to turn OFF or ON food&water counter in game preferenses? - these solve all lazy players whinings ))

I voted for both, it requires a bit of planning when you are going out for a leangthly stay, like someone else mentioned, it also limits using your character as a pack mule.

I presume that they will make a big inventory...(and I aslo hope so)

Well, ideally I'd like to see small like-items stack (so food, potions, ammunition, that sort of thing).
I wouldn't want huge inventories, that's difficult to manage and very unrealistic. A modest-sized inventory means you have to think about what you need to carry, and what you can do without. Too many games have characters essentially carting entire stores worth of items on their backs, which is ridiculous.

But that's another topic all together

Hmmm thats true... but then if u don't cary items to the store and sell em how will you make money?

Choose the best items to take from treasure, or do quests for monetary rewards. If a character is particularly greedy, let the player connive ways to make more money (but the game also has to allow those schemes). From pickpocketing to other thievery, to using one's intellect and charisma to sell goods for higher amounts than usual, if a player wants to create a greedy PC, they should be able to do so.
An economy is a very, very tricky thing to balance in an RPG. The norm is to have characters ending up with huge fortunes, spending large amounts on money on magical gear. My preference is for a moderate economy, and have the best items be found items, rather than purchased.

Another can of worms in addition to the food and water debate - should money have weight?

Gallifrey: Should money have weight? In the perfect RPG, yes! I seriously thought about calculating the weight of your carried gold, but scrapped the idea early on because I knew it would lead to a headache for most players.

Of course, the perfect game also has banks to deposit your gold into so you don't have to carry it around. Or, you could purchase valuable gems (basically trading in a lot of heavy gold for a few small, lightweight precious stones). Then you can re-sell the gems when you need the cash.

Anyways...no, Eschalon does not calculate the weight of the gold you have, and as of right now there are no banks in the game world. Banks just didn't really seem to add anything to the gameplay (at least in Book I).

BasiliskWrangler wrote:Or, you could purchase valuable gems (basically trading in a lot of heavy gold for a few small, lightweight precious stones).

That's a good idea. You could also use coppers/iron/silver/etc coins, making gold pieces and diamons and such more valuable. I personally think it's ridiculous how some games make you carry thousands of golden coins around. If you think about it, that's worth quite a bit.

I don't like the ideea of banks....Those are for MMORPG. They really don't help you in a RPG. In MMORPGs its good to place your gold in banks cuz there are a lot of scammers...

Gems are a good way of carrying wealth in small quantities, though what invariably happens is that players sell their gems for gold. For gems to really be a valid wealth-manager, you'd have to be sure stores would accept gems as currency.

As for banks, they were somewhat common in RPGs for a while, particularly in the Ultima games (if I'm remembering correctly). Somewhere along the line they fell out of favour and now they're extremely rare to see incorporated into a game world. Having banks would require a whole sub-set of features and issues to contend with. An established legal system (where you don't just get attacked and killed by guards for doing something illegal), a system of regional currency, government structures and all of that. Otherwise, it's just a vault in some building tended by a guy you have no reason to entrust with your wealth.

Making the banks region dependent so you can't just stroll into a newly found bank and expect your money to be there is a good idea; in pursuit you have the new bank sending for the gold from the old, payed off of the account and then wait a few days, or consequentially, you have to run all the way back to get it.
If they have some kind of teleporter in the vault on the other hand..

I voted for both food and drink.
This game is all about bringing back the minor details and the complexity of oldschool rpgs. At least I hope so.
When done right it adds a lot to the game. Checking the bars every few minutes not to die of starvation or not to get all kinds of penalties is not right. But stocking up on food before a long expedition that takes a few ingame days(provided the game world is big enough ._., and you don't just make 5 minute trips from the capital to the most dangerous lair of of evil cultists.. *cough* Oblivion ) adds to the atmosphere. Picking mushrooms or eating wild animals also makes you feel you can take care of yourself in the wilderness, when going to nearby town is not an option, since there are no nearby towns around(also needs a game world big enough). Having to stop at an inn for something other than collecting the local quests would be nice as well. A good example for all this would be RoA2-Star Trail.
But since I know very little about the game yet, and if it is too combat-centered ,just on a more complex level, then yes, worrying about food between 2 groups of baddies is just a nuisance.

syrio wrote:But stocking up on food before a long expedition that takes a few ingame days adds to the atmosphere. Picking mushrooms or eating wild animals also makes you feel you can take care of yourself in the wilderness, when going to nearby town is not an option, since there are no nearby towns around(also needs a game world big enough). Having to stop at an inn for something other than collecting the local quests would be nice as well.

Couldn't agree more. I always like playing ranger-type characters in fantasy games, and such a huge part of that class is the ability to live off the land, to know how to be prepared for travel, how to keep others alive. And that's always an aspect of the ranger/survivalist type character that is tossed aside for cRPGs, which is disappointing. Bringing that sort of thing into Eschalon would be just tremendous.