I know a lot of you are going to immediately cringe when you think of having to eat in game, but I for one find it very immersive, especially in a roleplaying atmosphere. I think it’s good that we have the freedom to roleplay how we want, but I think that having some backbone to the world that we all have to forcefully adhere to gives us all the same conflicts to overcome in our own unique way, and having a hunger system opens up a whole world of not just conflict, but opportunities and enjoyment.
I put together a short list of how it should be made so that it’s less of a chore and more of a mechanic that is interesting to play around with.
-starving cannot kill you
-6 hunger states: Starving, famished, hungry, fine, sated, stuffed
-food gives small longterm buffs but only high quality food. food bought from NPCs like hotdogs would simply only restore hunger points.
-you suffer around negative 10-15% movespeed (and/or some other debuff, like -2 to all attributes) when you are starving, and -5 to -10% movespeed when you are stuffed (overeaten)
-stuffed would only last for 15 minutes from full hunger points, then sated lasts for 45 minutes, fine lasts for 1 hour, hungry lasts for 1 hour, famished lasts for 2 hours, and finally starving would simply last indefinitely. so it would take roughly 4-5 hours real time to start starving from being well fed. this could be extended even further if players find it to be too quick, but for me I don’t have 8 hours a day to play so 4 hours feels like a lot of time to me, but I can see these values being doubled in length and I’d be fine with that.
- it could be scaled however you want to do it but the idea is that a small food item would heal lets say 10 hunger points, where 100 is your max hunger points. a big steak dinner that gives an hour long bonus of +10 hp, or simply +2 con, would heal you maybe 50 points. you would start to get hungry at lets say less than 50 total hunger points, so if you were “starving” and you ate such a meal you would be “fine” but still have room to eat more before you are stuffed. hotdogs could heal 10 so you’d only have to stop at a vendor every few hours or so to refill your hunger.
-VERY IMPORTANT: buffs would only be obtainable from food if you are hungry or less when you eat them, so only when you are below a certain threshold of hunger points. This way an hour long buff will wear off before you are hungry again, and you won’t be able to simply restore the buff right away when it wears off. this would eliminate of lot of players feeling the need to eat a sandwich before every fight.
Stuffed is there to also prevent players from waiting until as soon as they get hungry to immediately eat a big meal that gives a buff and puts them to full hunger. you could still do it, but you would suffer movement speed penalty for a short time so it would be a trade off for meta gaming. no one likes reduced movement speed, but it’s not something that will gimp your character for long enough if you go one single hunger point above sated, as it should only take a minute or so to wear off, as stuffed should be intended to wear off quickly (15 minutes at max, as opposed to 1-2 hours).
I know some of you would rather just choose when to roleplay eating and not actually have a real mechanic in place, but having it introduced as real would solidify it in the world and add actual tangible benefits and consequences to our roleplay. It’s cool and all to emote that you are munching down on some crackers, but at the end of the day, those crackers in your inventory will never disappear, you will never get nutrition out of it, there is no consequences for neglecting your characters primal instinct to consume food, and most people are simply not going to take the time to roleplay having to eat unless it is a mechanic that has real ingame meaning to it. even then, it’s ok if they don’t go heavy on the roleplay, as long as they are aware of the benefits and consequences to eating or not eating, they will ultimately include it in their roleplay to some degree, and that is healthy for the server. There needs to be a wide variety of ways for characters to express themselves and food is surprisingly good at allowing little details in peoples character to come out.
I’ve discussed this on discord with some of you already so I already know I’m going to get bullied away and told that all hunger systems are more tedious than they are fun, but I honestly beg to differ and I would like to know if at least one other person on this server agrees with me on this, otherwise I may as well make this my farewell goodbye.