Why is food needed?

[TJS]

Food is currently pretty boring. When you first start playing it seems important to keep a stack of food rations as you're often in danger of running out, but once you're half decent at the game you just keep a few ?WoR and then you never need to worry about it again.

It could be made more interesting, by having more edible items that have an effect on gameplay. Monster corpses could be edible to different races and have possible side effects that are both positive and negative.

Also instead of just being either fine or starving to death you could have a fatigue rating which when you are low on food your strength and combat skill deteriorate.

The problem is that as the game currently stands there is no point implementing any of these things since the player would just buy food after recall and not bother with any of the food mini-games.

[ThunderToads]

Riiiiight, and if we're going to get that realistic, then dead monsters should leave nice, meaty corpses that I can cook with my flame-branded artifact weapon.

ADOM does this in a good way, but I doubt it is worthwhile to add to Angband.

Hacking up monster corpses for meat is a feature in some bands, I know it's in TOME 2.x at least. I like it for flavor, no pun intended, especially for Half-Orc or Half-Troll types. It has little objective gameplay effect other than to be a fairly reliable way to find food in the dungeon if you run out.

[HailEris]

In POWDER , the various corpses you eat have a decent effect on gameplay , some poison you, some sicken you/give you disease, some grant you a temp. resistance or haste you , I think it would be really cool, and have a strong impact on gameplay. Actually that and a dip/apply action are the only things from powder that I really wish angband had .

[Magnate]

In POWDER , the various corpses you eat have a decent effect on gameplay , some poison you, some sicken you/give you disease, some grant you a temp. resistance or haste you , I think it would be really cool, and have a strong impact on gameplay. Actually that and a dip/apply action are the only things from powder that I really wish angband had .

Both corpse-eating and dipping/applying are much more Nethack than Angband.

[Estie]

I think I died more often because "gorged" let Morgoth double move me than from lack of food. Given that not all characters make it that far, Id prefer healing potions to not nourish. Having to make sure that Im hungry enough before tackling M is a bit silly

[RogerN]

We could also take this opportunity to add some more junk. Diet Potions of Healing! Tastes great and less filling!

[Tiburon Silverflame]

I tend to agree more with the OP's side...IMO, food is pointless. And I strongly disagree with the point that "if we didn't have food, it's one of the first things people would ask for." Not in my experience: FEW games have food as an issue, and I certainly have never missed it. In fact, I go back the other way: one of the things I *detest* about almost any game, is Stupid Ways to Kill the Character. Food is one of those. IIRC, I tried NetHack once or twice...long time ago. Deaths by starvation, because I couldn't find food right at the start? NOT fun.

And, sure, food plays a role in The Hobbit, and *some* role in LotR...so? Yes, waybread adds Tolkien flavor...but that's not enough to justify an entire sub-mechanic.

Finally: those who advocate removing Satisfy Hunger...think about *why* it was put in, in the first place. Could it be, because...most players thought dealing with food was stupid, and NOT really part of the game?

[PowerDiver]

Finally: those who advocate removing Satisfy Hunger...think about *why* it was put in, in the first place. Could it be, because...most players thought dealing with food was stupid, and NOT really part of the game?

I am perhaps the loudest advocate of removing satisfy hunger from mage-casters. I cannot speak for the others, but my opinion is that *if* food is part of the game, then at least half of the classes should have to deal with it.

Saying it's a bad idea, but that's OK because we have a quick hack for spellcasters, seems selfish and lazy to me.

I'd rather see the food mechanic removed entirely, of course.

[Hariolor]

To play devil's advocate: I recently lost a promising character to starvation when my light ran out. YASD? Yes. Totally 100% avoidable? Yes.

But I have to say, aside from being frustrating, it also added a layer of flavor.

While I do feel that food is largely a "press button not to die" function, it does have a purpose. Perhaps the length of time before getting hungry should be greatly extended. As it is, a half-troll in the early game can barely clear one level (or dive through maybe 3) without getting hungry. Starvation should probably be an option that's kept, but maybe triple or quadruple the length of the hunger counter?

Also, worth noting that the game can keep edibles and their side-effects without hunger being a mechanic...

[buzzkill]

While I do feel that food is largely a "press button not to die" function, it does have a purpose. Perhaps the length of time before getting hungry should be greatly extended. As it is, a half-troll in the early game can barely clear one level (or dive through maybe 3) without getting hungry. Starvation should probably be an option that's kept, but maybe triple or quadruple the length of the hunger counter?

I advocated moving in exactly the opposite direction (perhaps in this thread, how old is this???), that is, making food digestion occur much more quickly, as much as 4x or 8x more.

I like that healing potions provide nourishment, however healing potions in particular should not be allowed to cause gorging. I can think of many situations where I was chugging healing potions for nourishment while trying to clear a vault before recalling (cause I typically don't carry food or bother to learn feeding spells). I don't think it would break anything if all potions provided nourishment.

[Lord Fell]

I think that every Roguelike has had a food component, right back to the original Rogue.

I don't see any reason to remove food... while it doesn't play a really serious role in the game, @ needs to eat. If we removed food, we'd also need to cut an inventory slot (and maybe increase encumbrance values to compensate). I think that removing food also puts us on that slippery slope: if we remove the once necessity, why not remove other necessities? Get rid of torches, lanterns and oil.

I assume that @ gets enough sleep, and takes care of his toilette while resting after big fights.

In addition to Lembas or Way-bread, we also need Cram, and Beorning Honey Cakes.

[fizzix]

I'd remove satisfy hunger scrolls and the only classes that would have the spell are mages and priests. In addition, slow digestion would keep the player in a constant hunger state, cannot increase or decrease.

[Timo Pietilä]

Also, worth noting that the game can keep edibles and their side-effects without hunger being a mechanic...

Maybe have mushrooms have much better nutrition value and side-effects that can be prevented by resistances? Less "elven waybread" in dungeon, or make it important somehow. It is a game mechanism that has not been used much. Starvation is IMO useful as game mechanism if we make it a bit less easy to avoid. Like Eddie said, remove "satisfy hunger". Make food more interesting.

[Derakon]

Back in the Rogue days, hunger was effectively a time limit -- there was only a limited amount of food in the game, so if you didn't win before it all ran out, you died. Angband of course has unlimited food, so if we want to make hunger interesting, we'll have to figure out some other angle...or else stop selling food in the stores, which I suspect will make many players angry.

[Whelk]

I wouldn't mind doing away with the regular food, but keep things like waybread and mushrooms that have beneficial effects (doesn't waybread cure poison?). For food-lovers, perhaps have a temporary "well-fed" bonus of some type from eating (maybe something like a small temporary CON boost), but no negative to not eating. Slow Digestion could serve to keep the "well-fed" bonus active longer.

Also, considering the rarity of mushrooms, I've always thought they should have greater effects. They're so rare that you very rarely find one when you need one, and they're not worth wasting a slot to carry since you can never really work up a decent stack of them when compared to potions of the same (or often times greater) effect.

What about jelly pits also being excellent foray spots for "good - excellent quality" mushrooms? Is that possible to code up? I know I'd clear them out if that was the case.