I have a suggestion here but I myself is a bit uncertain about it. It would be fun to hear what everyone else thinks about it.

Everywhere around sanctuary you can buy food and drinks but it isn't really neccesary to eat or drink here in EFU. I played on another server (The Known World, very nice server but with many haks that scares people away) and they had implemented a script which made you weaker (con or str decrease or something) if you didn't eat or drink anything. Would it be a nice idea to have this feature here in EFU as well or do you think it would be much work for nothing or totaly unnecessary?

This server's sister server had a script that was like this, at times it got annoying and had little gain (In my opinion). If people want to RP eating food, then they will. I believe there has to be a balance between fun and realism here and you have to draw the line somewhere, else there would be a system where you spoil your pants if you don't relieve yourself in X number of hours.

Nice suggestion though, but I just don't think it will add anything other than a gold sink.

I still maintain--ironically that the starvation scripts on City of Arabel were unnecessary and detracted from the flavor of a fantasy-hero world setting.

EfU though is a survival-tragedy flavor that makes the necessity of starvation scripts something I keep fervently hoping to see.

Needless tedium.

I've been to Arabel, saw the starvation (Food rations as a necessity) and left.

Its completely unneeded and would drive back good RPiers. Starvation would bring this place to the edge in matters mechanics view rather then RPing view, to my opinion.

I have seen scripts that kept track of the damage done to your weapons and gear, kept track of your rest, kept track of item wear thru use---

And imo, it was a little too much realism. You have to walk in the rain, so you get a msg that says, "Your armour is rusting..."

You walk too far without resting, and your character slows down, and losses some constitution, and you get a message that says, "You are tired, and must rest soon.... and your boots are about to fall apart." You strap on your full plate armour, and your characters speed is halved. Nevermind that you have 19 strength, seems full plate is just too difficult to move in. Oh! And you had your sheild out for too long, and you get a message saying, "Your arms are tired, you should put your weapons away."

So what ends up happening? You get a bunch of monks cause clothing never rusts, and you don't have to worry about weapon damage, or your arms getting tired from carring a sheild.

If the economy on EFU was a little more money rich, then maybe you could ad these scripts.

BUT-- whats the point? Does it add to lagg? Probably. Does it serve some game balance purpose? Can't see one...

If there is a need for a "money sink" I think there are better ways to make one.

In my oppinion, the most precious thing to a gamer is his time. If you make a gamer waste too much time on things that aren't "fun" then the gamer will find some other place to have "fun".

Occassionally, the need to feed will pop up in the longer DM quests, but otherwise, I wouldn't expect a scripted hunger system for some time. We all just assume your PC eats, sleeps, bathes, and defecates -- you don't need to roleplay that if you really don't want to.

While I disliked the thirst/hunger/tired system on CoA, it was never terribly intrusive, given the way nearly everything was centered around the city, and food and things were readily available.

However, I think that starvation and thirst could offer a very large avenue of roleplay in a setting like Sanctuary.

It opens a lot of doors that I think would really add to the immersion, rather than detract. After all, we're sitting in the middle of the Underdark balanced on the edge of a razor between meager survival and utter destruction - A city-wide famine, or a poisoning of the water supply would be major. It'd encourage people to work together - or against eachother, to acquire the barest necessities to the city's survival.

I think if the DM team here at EfU can figure out a smart way to implement a script like this (and I'm sure they can), I'd be all for it.

I'm going to echo what Strife says. The only way I could see otherwise is if Sanctuary underwent some sort of food crisis, similar to the plague.

Concerned This server's sister server

Sister server? Sorry for being off-topic, and if i sound stupid, but EFU has a sister server?

In a sense, yes. Most of our playerbase and a large portion of our DM team played on City of Arabel (CoA).

EfU has no sister server.

I would love to see a food and drink system. Echoing those above, it just feels right in a setting where survival is a major theme. How much more epic does a desperate struggle to return from the underdark become, if you are counting rations, and the bloody half orc eats all your Barrelstork soup -again-! It only adds oppertunity for RP.

A while back I was playing a character who tried to have a picnic ready for whenever the current group was pausing, like at the end of a static. While playing her, Sanctuary had a food crisis and the price of food went up nearly ten fold. I think was the only player who even noticed. I tryed to drum up some panic, and everyone was just, "meh". This could have been more 'fun' for everyone. And by 'fun' I mean torturous and painful, which is what passes for 'fun' on this bad-ass-high-casualty-hell-in-a-box server. It adds to the gritty, harsh and dark feel of EfU.

Let us never forget: "Man shall not live on buffs alone" - Matthew (ch. IV, v. 4).

The only addition I have seen on servers that used a food system was that when they really had to eat they just "used item's special power" without actually RPing it, and really, how much fun is RPing to eat a full meal in the middle of a, let's say trial or funeral for example; or optionally, if they were out of food, going "//gotta get more food, brb", just to dash out of the room to return some time later after having bought some 1 GP ration or what have you.. (Of course I wasn't all that better because it simply got on my nerves and did nothing else.)

If we really wanted to RP eating, then we also did that even if our PCs weren't really hungry at all, though.

So as long as I'm not a new player who has no idea how to get gold at all and just lost gold due to dying somewhere alone et cetera and has to beg for it (fun, great fun), I fail to see a real worthy addition to just anything by a food & drink & bathroom system..

Maybe you only need food in wilderness areas? That way you won't be bothered in the middle of in-town RP. Besides, "survival" only really counts in the sewers or in the wilds.

A while back I was playing a character who tried to have a picnic ready for whenever the current group was pausing, like at the end of a static. While playing her, Sanctuary had a food crisis and the price of food went up nearly ten fold. I think was the only player who even noticed. I tryed to drum up some panic, and everyone was just, "meh". This could have been more 'fun' for everyone. And by 'fun' I mean torturous and painful, which is what passes for 'fun' on this bad-ass-high-casualty-hell-in-a-box server. It adds to the gritty, harsh and dark feel of EfU.

Although I would agree with you, I don't think the majority would've. Remember the plague? Most people did not like it. who most would've been affected by the prices? The newcomers, rather than the well established characters.

Staring Death

who most would've been affected by the prices? The newcomers, rather than the well established characters.

I agree, this will push many out of EFU. Myself, I started hunting rothe worrying for the poeple in lower, so they could have food. I've done it a lot, and sometime it drained time, but others did not care. I think people should be more aware of the hunger, but not have more penalties not like food scripts. It really drives off new comers.

And not everyone came from Arabel, I came straight to EFU. I checked on Arabel, and the food system annoyed me straight away. I don't want to RP my char goes to bathroom.

Oh, and it is a metaphor.

Thank you for you answers. It was intresting to read them. I still can't decide what I would prefer though, a food and drink system or not. On one hand I believe it adds some feeling that I like, that you character -is- mortal, he actually needs to eat and drink. On the other hand I can agree that it isn't necessary, that it probably will cause more lag and so on.

So... I guess I will leave with the same thoughts as I did when I posted this topic :wink:

Eating should come into the picture only when it is relevant. Like having famine. At every log in all the char gets CON decrease, which can be temporaly lifted by eating (the prices will go up for food of course). When the famine is considered to be over this script is simply removed.

I've been to servers with starvation and exhaustion scripts, and it never really seemed that off-putting. As long as the script doesn't fire really frequently, it's just something you have to keep in mind: have a bit of food in your pack.

Without the script, though, I love it when other characters have meals while sitting down to talk. It adds a bit of flavor to roleplaying situations, and what sorts of food and drink another character consumes tells a lot about them as a character.

I remember I loved the hunger script on zombie survival servers. But if you ever played those, you know that scavenging and hunting for food in the zombie infested ruins was all that was there to do to pass your time, really. On EFU there's however plenty other things to do so I wouldn't like it.

I'd presume that since meals are included with an inn room--that resting at an inn would let you skip having to buy food.

Good thing the soup at *spoiler* is free.

^_^

Thats not soup thats clearly people.

ExileStrife Occassionally, the need to feed will pop up in the longer DM quests, but otherwise, I wouldn't expect a scripted hunger system for some time. We all just assume your PC eats, sleeps, bathes, and defecates -- you don't need to roleplay that if you really don't want to.

how cool is that? can i role play defecation?

*squates in a dark alley with pants around ankles making grunting noises* "hey, anyone got a useless 0 level scroll they are not using, please"?

on a more serious note i am of the opinion that the "feeding" script is really waste of dm/modder/scripter time when the world is awesome as it is

What?!

You mean the server never penalizes me for not eating or drinking?

(runs off to log in all her characters and dump the 2 pounds of food and drink each carry in their inventory...) :twisted:

Thats not soup thats clearly people.

The soup has people in it? Then whats in the free drink?

When we were originally setting up the server, this was talked about a lot. The only way it was likely to go in was if there was really limited resources so people would have to go find food, not just go spend 1gp. Places that sold food would have been limited based on quests. (Exampler, how much rat stew could be sold would depend on how many rats were collected.)

In the end it was decided it wasn't worth it, and we'd like players to concentrate on other things.