Looks like a new Angband Dev Blog is up. (17.8.2011)

[Derakon]

How about this as a modified food mechanic? Run out of food, and you don't regain anything by resting anymore, even if you have regen. You can't starve to death, but finding food is still important if you don't feel like relying on potions to keep you going in the dungeon.

[Nomad]

I actually notice the difference in food consumption while wearing regen. If I was looking for something quick and easy to make food more of a factor, I'd scale everything back by 1/2, or in other words, double the consumption rate. It's not an end, but a start.

Food is never going to be very interesting, nor should it be. The point of food is that you have to carry it (or find it) and eat it occasionally to prevent starvation. Right now these things don't happen often enough to make food even mildly interesting or a concern of minor consequence.

I found the food mechanic most interesting back in 3.1.2v2 (or was it 3.0.9?) before starting characters were automatically given a scroll of WoR. Back then I lost quite a few characters, especially trolls, to being unable to make it back to up to the town before starvation got me. Now, the only rare time I even notice it is when I forget to replace dumped food before recalling, and start to get hungry in the middle of clearing a vault.

Hunger's not a problem because food's readily available to anyone but Ironman players. I make a point of never using scrolls or spells of satisfy hunger, and still never end up in any danger. I think those should definitely be removed from the game, and food made more scarce/hunger more frequent. How about a monster attack that makes you vomit and faint like drinking salt water? And/or limiting the amount of food you can carry by some mechanism - making it much heavier, or non-stackable, or giving more monsters the ability to rot your rations.

You could also reduce the food stocks in the general store so it's not always so readily available, since, come to think of it, food is the one thing that you can't get away with scumming for.

[CJNyfalt]

How about a monster attack that makes you vomit and faint like drinking salt water?

While nausea attacks sounds interesting, there is the risk of becoming another paralysis. That is, something that you need resist to. On the other hand, I would trade the need to carry food for another attack with a needed resist.

The idea is at least interesting enough to warrant further discussion.

[Nomad]

While nausea attacks sounds interesting, there is the risk of becoming another paralysis. That is, something that you need resist to. On the other hand, I would trade the need to carry food for another attack with a needed resist.

The idea is at least interesting enough to warrant further discussion.

How about a hunger attack that knocks points off your satiation level, rather than triggering the full on vomiting effect right away. If it makes you hungry in stages, knocking you down from full to normal to hungry to starving, then you've got time to defend yourself by stuffing more food before you get to the danger level. So getting stuck in melee with a satiation-drainer could force you to chow through your whole stack of rations in succession just to make sure you don't reach the point of fainting.

[CJNyfalt]

How about a hunger attack that knocks points off your satiation level, rather than triggering the full on vomiting effect right away. If it makes you hungry in stages, knocking you down from full to normal to hungry to starving, then you've got time to defend yourself by stuffing more food before you get to the danger level. So getting stuck in melee with a satiation-drainer could force you to chow through your whole stack of rations in succession just to make sure you don't reach the point of fainting.

I got the impression that you meant something more like Stinking Cloud in D&D. Still, both ideas has merits.

[Nick]

How about a hunger attack that knocks points off your satiation level, rather than triggering the full on vomiting effect right away. If it makes you hungry in stages, knocking you down from full to normal to hungry to starving, then you've got time to defend yourself by stuffing more food before you get to the danger level. So getting stuck in melee with a satiation-drainer could force you to chow through your whole stack of rations in succession just to make sure you don't reach the point of fainting.

O has a hunger attack, but only gives it to one very weak ghost. I think it has potential.

[will_asher]

O has a hunger attack, but only gives it to one very weak ghost. I think it has potential.

DAJ has it too, but only two or three monsters have it.

[Magnate]

Just thought I would throw in my two cents here. I think most people are looking at the Angband eceonomy and thiking it should be a stable economy, it's not. The town is more like a boomtown, a la california goldrush, dungeon diving is the middle earth equivalent of a get rich quick scheme. All the merchants are there to take advantage of the flush adventurers bearing all that valuable loot. They take it off their hands and then sell it elsewhere for ten times what they paid for it. Adventurers are just happy to get rid of it so they can get back to the dungeon and hope for that big score. Dungeon diving is an addiction as I'm sure you all know. The townspeople are the dregs of society that gravitate to that kind of town or broken down adventurers that can't afford to go anywhere else.

Anyway, that is the way I look at it. It's a boomtown where everything is more expensive than normal and stuff that is rare and valuable elsewhere is nearly commonplace.

Nice. I like this rationale.

[Derakon]

I'd always personally assumed that was how the town operated as well. Why else would you have a town perched on top of a giant pit full of monsters? Thanks for putting it into words nice and clearly, though.