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Pretext
This is not in response to Takyon's thread, but simply an alternative suggestion that was made in response to the topic being brought up.
A TL;DR is near the bottom, obviously marked.
The goal of this revamp is to both expand the hunger system, while also keeping it simple on the user side. It's meant to turn the means of survival into a real struggle. One of which takes time to remedy, and relies less on "in the moment, panic response" and more on "consistent, preemptive planning" on a character's part.
The primary goal here is to:
1. Make starvation and dehydration something that must be constantly considered, while also not barging in the way of roleplay. (Engaging, but not overtly difficult.)
2. Make starvation and dehydration that which encourages people to seek out sources of food often (and thus creates RP for food sources such as restaurants and stores) while making sure to not make the acquisition of said food a constant matter of life or death that detracts from other RP, allowing players to spend plenty of time roleplay should they choose too.
3. Enhance the hunger system to be more than a matter of "eating a few food items" and being alright. Starvation and Dehydration doesn't just apply negatives. It turns hunger into a more realistic system, while still keeping it incredibly simple for the end user, and allows those who practice good use of the system to even improve their character stat and attribute wise.
A quick note on TIME.
Time is critical for any hunger system because the rate of which values change reflects how fast characters may need to get food or water. For the sake of this entire post, it is assumed that the average play time session on a character is 4 hours a day. This reflects 4 hours out of a citizens whole day, and for the sake of eating and drinking, these 4 hours reflect the character's eating and drinking habits for the rest of the day.
The Basic Components
Starvation and Dehydration utilizes four values:
1. Hunger. The feeling of hunger in your body, and how much food your body has in you to continue processing. This value is visible.
2. Thirst. The feeling of thirst in your body, and how much water your body has in you. This value is visible.
3. Nutrition. Your body's overall energy reserves and how much nutrients your body has to work with. This value is hidden.
4. Hydration. Your body's overall water reserves. This value is hidden.
Hunger
Thirst
Nutrition
Hydration
Note that values DO NOT change if a character is tagged AFK.
User Interface
The following is how these values are presented to you.
Hunger is constantly visible in your F1 menu. A simple food symbol shows up at 25 or less Hunger. At 0 Hunger, text will notify you in chat that you are feeling hungry. If it rises above 50 Hunger, it will notify that you are satisfied, if it drops below 50 Hunger, it will notify that you could go for a meal. At 100 Hunger it will notify that you are full.
Thirst is constantly visible in your F1 menu. A simple water symbol shows up at 25 or less Thirst. At 0 Thirst, text will notify that you are feeling thirsty. If it rises above 50 Thirst, it will notify that you are no longer thirsty. There is no notification once it drops below 50. At 100 Thirst, it says you feel bloated on water.
Nutrition is visible via three methods. A simple yellow bone symbol shows up at 15 Nutrition, and turns red at 5 Nutrition. The second method is via text reminders for each tier. It will notify you of positive tiers (and 50 Nutrition) when it rises to or above a tier, but not when it drops below them. It will notify you of negative tiers when it both drops below and above a negative tier. The final method is the F1 menu, which will not give you a value or bar, but will tell you what tier you are at.
Hydration is the exact same as Nutrition in showing you info. A simple yellow skull symbol shows up at 20 Hydration, and turns red at 10 Hydration. These numbers are higher than Nutrition because Hydration falls much faster. Notifications work the same as Nutrition, but Hydration only has two positive tiers, that being 50 and 100. The F1 menu details exactly as the Nutrition value does.
When you are at 1 Hydration or Nutrition, your screen will begin to fade out. The fade out will stop if your Hunger or Thirst is at 50 or above, clearing up. By 0, the screen should be black, followed by a death and PK, telling you why you died.
Value Interaction Implications
The entire point of these four values is to allow for both a sense of necessity, while not holding the threat of death over you constantly. This allows:
- People to RP extensively without having to stop to use a food/drink script.
- People to RP using a food/drink script without having to worry about dying soon.
- People to RP the effects of starvation and dehydration over time, in each stage of the process, even in the death stages since it'd likely take 30 - 90 minutes at "5 Hydration/Nutrition" to RP death or desperately consuming food/drink.
- People to rely on food and drink sources such as restaurants without making it incredibly necessary to the point where a source not being available could spell doom. Encourages interaction, does not force it until far later.
- Is simply more realistic. Allows for hunger and thirst to exist without it being in your face and screaming at you to fulfill it.
- It allows people to further character develop by making the state of fitness, starvation, or hydration a state of person unlike traditional systems which assumes that you are fully nourished after simply filling one hunger bar.
Example Foods and Drinks in this System
Food and Drinks mostly alter Hunger and Thirst, but some could have no effect after a certain point, or perhaps in very rare situations, alter Nutrition and Hydration directly! Here some examples:
Player Interaction | ----------------(TL;DR SECTION)----------------
This is a lot of info, so in the end, how will your average player interact with such a system? What will the average day look like for a character? THIS IS A TL;DR. With that being said, I ask that criticism not be made off the TL;DR alone.
Simply put:
- Players will not have to worry about all the details and values.
- They simply must do what should already come natural, which is to eat food and drink liquids.
- No instruction is needed for this system because it teaches by experience. A character is told when they are hungry, as well as when they are satisfied. Furthermore, if they ignore needs that are presented to them, they will eventually be told of the issues they are facing.
- A player will still need to eat and drink during a session, sometimes more than usual if they play for longer than 4 hours as that is what the times here were balanced around.
- Players still need to interact with food and water, but are no longer under a threat of immediate death should they not interact. With the means to regain nourishment and hydration taking just as long as it takes to lose it however- the immediate danger and threat of not eating or drinking is like a debt, effecting you later rather than immediately.
- Rations will be able to maintain players, but only in a very short term. Supplements at average level are meant to get you to maintain, but it still requires a player to interact with other food services such as shops and more if they want to improve. This is imparative, with the only exceptions being in loyalist supplements and/OR Civil Protection supplements.
- Certain factions will not use this system. Namely Dispatch, OTA, and Xen creatures. If it is not possible to disable it for them, they need an item only they can use that refills all stats to 50 immediately. These are not factions that benefits or are needing penalty because they either literally do not eat, or are not on enough to justify such a system.
In the VERY short: Player characters must eat food and water throughout their session. The impact of such needs are gradual and delayed, but still necessary if being played. Food no longer is an instant fix, but instead a temporary and gradual fix that must be upkept like real life.
Conclusion
Please consider this system. I know this is a lot to develop, perhaps, but I see it as a preferable and desireable system that improves roleplay and adds depth to HL2RP as a whole. Of course, any values and whatnot are simply for presentation and concept, and may be altered as the devs see fit to best work in the system and remain balanced, so long as the general idea is maintained.
Mentioning important individuals:
@Atle
@Gr4Ss
@Imperator RAD-X
@Robert
@RedHotGinger
@Mullin
This is not in response to Takyon's thread, but simply an alternative suggestion that was made in response to the topic being brought up.
A TL;DR is near the bottom, obviously marked.
Starvation and Dehydration
The GoalThe goal of this revamp is to both expand the hunger system, while also keeping it simple on the user side. It's meant to turn the means of survival into a real struggle. One of which takes time to remedy, and relies less on "in the moment, panic response" and more on "consistent, preemptive planning" on a character's part.
The primary goal here is to:
1. Make starvation and dehydration something that must be constantly considered, while also not barging in the way of roleplay. (Engaging, but not overtly difficult.)
2. Make starvation and dehydration that which encourages people to seek out sources of food often (and thus creates RP for food sources such as restaurants and stores) while making sure to not make the acquisition of said food a constant matter of life or death that detracts from other RP, allowing players to spend plenty of time roleplay should they choose too.
3. Enhance the hunger system to be more than a matter of "eating a few food items" and being alright. Starvation and Dehydration doesn't just apply negatives. It turns hunger into a more realistic system, while still keeping it incredibly simple for the end user, and allows those who practice good use of the system to even improve their character stat and attribute wise.
A quick note on TIME.
Time is critical for any hunger system because the rate of which values change reflects how fast characters may need to get food or water. For the sake of this entire post, it is assumed that the average play time session on a character is 4 hours a day. This reflects 4 hours out of a citizens whole day, and for the sake of eating and drinking, these 4 hours reflect the character's eating and drinking habits for the rest of the day.
The Basic Components
Starvation and Dehydration utilizes four values:
1. Hunger. The feeling of hunger in your body, and how much food your body has in you to continue processing. This value is visible.
2. Thirst. The feeling of thirst in your body, and how much water your body has in you. This value is visible.
3. Nutrition. Your body's overall energy reserves and how much nutrients your body has to work with. This value is hidden.
4. Hydration. Your body's overall water reserves. This value is hidden.
Hunger
Hunger in Starvation and Dehydration is your immediate food intake This value would be represented by a bar in your F1 menu. To improve hunger, you must eat food. Going from 0 to 100, it has 3 states:
0 = Hungry. Your body has no food inside it and is in need of more. When your Hunger reaches 0, your Nutrition is decreasing at its fastest rate, and will continue to do so until you reach 50 hunger.. The rate of which you lose Nutrition depends on how far below 50 your Hunger is.
50 = Satisfied. Your body has no, or very little food inside it, but is working off that which it just ate. When your hunger is at 50, your Nutrition is neither decreasing or increasing. You are simply maintaining your current nutrition. This is equivelant to eating your daily recommended amount of food. Once hunger lowers to 50, it decreases at a fixed rate all the way to 0.
100 = Bulking. Your body is satisfied, and has a surplus of food inside to continue gaining weight with. When your hunger is at 100, your Nutrition is increasing at its fastest rate, and will continue to do so until you reach 50 Hunger. Your hunger lowers (gets worse) much faster past 50, lowering faster the higher it is. Nutrition, like when Hungry, will increase faster the higher above 50 you are, but will rise slower and slower until you reach 50, where you are back to maintaining.
Time Factor
It should take around 3 hours OOC (on a character) to reach 0 hunger from 50, and one hearty meal (3-4 food items) to refill to at least 50, though this can change depending on the type of food it is. It should take around 2 hours OOC to reach 50 hunger from 100, and another hearty meal to fill another 50 (food values do not change regardless of Hunger).
0 = Hungry. Your body has no food inside it and is in need of more. When your Hunger reaches 0, your Nutrition is decreasing at its fastest rate, and will continue to do so until you reach 50 hunger.. The rate of which you lose Nutrition depends on how far below 50 your Hunger is.
50 = Satisfied. Your body has no, or very little food inside it, but is working off that which it just ate. When your hunger is at 50, your Nutrition is neither decreasing or increasing. You are simply maintaining your current nutrition. This is equivelant to eating your daily recommended amount of food. Once hunger lowers to 50, it decreases at a fixed rate all the way to 0.
100 = Bulking. Your body is satisfied, and has a surplus of food inside to continue gaining weight with. When your hunger is at 100, your Nutrition is increasing at its fastest rate, and will continue to do so until you reach 50 Hunger. Your hunger lowers (gets worse) much faster past 50, lowering faster the higher it is. Nutrition, like when Hungry, will increase faster the higher above 50 you are, but will rise slower and slower until you reach 50, where you are back to maintaining.
Time Factor
It should take around 3 hours OOC (on a character) to reach 0 hunger from 50, and one hearty meal (3-4 food items) to refill to at least 50, though this can change depending on the type of food it is. It should take around 2 hours OOC to reach 50 hunger from 100, and another hearty meal to fill another 50 (food values do not change regardless of Hunger).
Thirst
Thirst in Starvation and Dehydration is your immediate water reserve. This value would be represented by a bar in your F1 menu. To improve thirst, you must drink water, or any water based liquid. Food also replenishes a little bit of thirst depending on what type of food, but this is usually not reliable enough to live off of.
Thirst works almost exactly like Hunger, but with some key differences:
- Thirst influences Hydration instead of Nutrition.
- Where Hunger decreases faster if it is above 50, Thirst decreases at a fixed rate all the way down.
- Thirst decreases at a much faster rate than Hunger, reflecting the need to drink water more often than you need to eat food.
Time Factor
It should take around 4 hours OOC to reach 0 thirst from 100, and around 4 cans of water to refill completely. This may not seem like as much as Hunger, but you will find that this value is much more critical when Hydration is explained.
Thirst works almost exactly like Hunger, but with some key differences:
- Thirst influences Hydration instead of Nutrition.
- Where Hunger decreases faster if it is above 50, Thirst decreases at a fixed rate all the way down.
- Thirst decreases at a much faster rate than Hunger, reflecting the need to drink water more often than you need to eat food.
Time Factor
It should take around 4 hours OOC to reach 0 thirst from 100, and around 4 cans of water to refill completely. This may not seem like as much as Hunger, but you will find that this value is much more critical when Hydration is explained.
Nutrition
Nutrition in Starvation and Dehydration is your energy reserves and food storage. This value is hidden completely, but the status it gives you is portrayed in the F1 menu. To improve Nutrition, you need to be above 50 Hunger, preferably at 100. 50 is not enough, as this will only maintain your nutrition. Nutrition will slowly fall if your Hunger is below 50. Nutrition is incredibly important, as once you reach 0 Nutrition, you die. Nutrition also has tiers, depending on what numbers you have reached.
Nutrition is a value ranging from 0 to 100. The tiers of Nutrition are as follows:
50 Nutrition = Nourished. You are nourished in body, in that you are not malnourished. You also aren't strong or fit either. You are simply average.
Negative Tiers - Negative tiers provide penalties to your attributes as your body lacks important nutrients and eats itself away to stay alive.
35 Nutrition = Thinning. You are not exactly malnourished, but you are quickly losing weight. -1 to Strength.
25 Nutrition = Malnourished. Your body is beginning to lack its most crucial nutrients. It aches, and grows tired quickly. -2 to Strength, -1 to Agility.
15 Nutrition = Diminished. Your body is now lithe, your muscles wasting away and your energy depleted. -3 to Strength, -2 to Agility.
5 Nutrition = Dying. Your body has run out of all reserves, and is beginning to shut down. -5 to Strength, -5 to Agility. Your health max is lowered by 20 for each point below 5.
0 Nutrition = Death. You fade into a painless sleep, your body finally giving up. Character is PK'd.
Positive Tiers - Positive tiers provide boosts to your attributes, your body improving as you work in the factories or carry out personal training. It can also be roleplayed as fat if you'd like.
65 Nutrition = Healthy. You are not just average, you are healthy! You have a great amount of energy. +1 to Strength, +1 to Agility.
75 Nutrition = Fit. Your body is now toned, your arms now capable of putting out significantly more power. +2 to Strength, +2 to Agility.
85 Nutrition = Muscular. You are officialy strong. Your muscles are sizeable and admirable. +3 to Strength, +3 to Agility.
95 Nutrition = Bulked. You are massive. A true force to be reckoned with in hand to hand combat by strength alone. +5 to Strength, +4 to Agility.
Time Factor
Unlike Hunger, Nutrition takes much longer to influence. It should take 40 hours at 0 Hunger to go from 50 to 0 Nutrition. This represents a semi-realistic decline in the body, while adjusting it to be meaningful. Going by the original time statement, it'd take 10 days of 4 hour sessions to starve to death from 50. HOWEVER, it takes equally as long to improve Nutrition! Healing from malnourishment is not a quick task, nor is increasing fitness! This means that characters will still need to eat regularly and sufficiently to maintain a healthy character.
Nutrition is a value ranging from 0 to 100. The tiers of Nutrition are as follows:
50 Nutrition = Nourished. You are nourished in body, in that you are not malnourished. You also aren't strong or fit either. You are simply average.
Negative Tiers - Negative tiers provide penalties to your attributes as your body lacks important nutrients and eats itself away to stay alive.
35 Nutrition = Thinning. You are not exactly malnourished, but you are quickly losing weight. -1 to Strength.
25 Nutrition = Malnourished. Your body is beginning to lack its most crucial nutrients. It aches, and grows tired quickly. -2 to Strength, -1 to Agility.
15 Nutrition = Diminished. Your body is now lithe, your muscles wasting away and your energy depleted. -3 to Strength, -2 to Agility.
5 Nutrition = Dying. Your body has run out of all reserves, and is beginning to shut down. -5 to Strength, -5 to Agility. Your health max is lowered by 20 for each point below 5.
0 Nutrition = Death. You fade into a painless sleep, your body finally giving up. Character is PK'd.
Positive Tiers - Positive tiers provide boosts to your attributes, your body improving as you work in the factories or carry out personal training. It can also be roleplayed as fat if you'd like.
65 Nutrition = Healthy. You are not just average, you are healthy! You have a great amount of energy. +1 to Strength, +1 to Agility.
75 Nutrition = Fit. Your body is now toned, your arms now capable of putting out significantly more power. +2 to Strength, +2 to Agility.
85 Nutrition = Muscular. You are officialy strong. Your muscles are sizeable and admirable. +3 to Strength, +3 to Agility.
95 Nutrition = Bulked. You are massive. A true force to be reckoned with in hand to hand combat by strength alone. +5 to Strength, +4 to Agility.
Time Factor
Unlike Hunger, Nutrition takes much longer to influence. It should take 40 hours at 0 Hunger to go from 50 to 0 Nutrition. This represents a semi-realistic decline in the body, while adjusting it to be meaningful. Going by the original time statement, it'd take 10 days of 4 hour sessions to starve to death from 50. HOWEVER, it takes equally as long to improve Nutrition! Healing from malnourishment is not a quick task, nor is increasing fitness! This means that characters will still need to eat regularly and sufficiently to maintain a healthy character.
Hydration
Hydration in Starvation and Dehydration is how much water your body has to work with, and is arguably the most critical and important value. This value is hidden completely, but the status it gives you is portrayed in the F1 menu. Like Nourishment, you improve it by having your Thirst above 50. Unlike Nourishment however, it does not provide bonuses above 50. Instead, 50 - 100 is simply reserve water. The reason this is, is that Hydration decreases much, much faster than Nourishment. If you reach 0, you die.
The tiers are as follows:
50 Hydration = Hydrated. Your body has sufficient fluids, incurring no penalties.
35 Hydration = Parched. You can feel that you are thirsty. This still incurs no penalties, but acts as a warning in the F1 menu.
25 Hydration = Dehydrated. You feel parched, your body in serious need of water. A brain fog has settled in. -1 to Perception, -1 to Intelligence.
15 Hydration = Severe Dehydration. Your body is in dire need of fluids. You feel dizzy, sleepy, and may faint (IC, not OOC). -3 to Perception, -3 to Intelligence.
5 Hydration = Withering. Your body is beginning to shut down as you can barely stay awake. -5 to Perception, -5 to Intelligence. Your health max is lowered by 20 for each point below 5.
0 Hydration = Death. You pass out, your brain overheating as you die shortly after. Character is PK'd.
Time Factor
Hydration takes longer than Third, but still decreases much faster than Nutrition. It should take 20 hours to go from 100 Hydration to 0. It'd take 5 days of 4 hour sessions with no water to die. From 50 to 0 is 10 hours, which is about 2.5 days. Like Nutrition, it takes equally as long to improve it. This makes water a much more important and critical resource than food, especially pure water, as liquids like alcohol, juice, and soda would not give nearly as much Thirst points. This means that, to balance out, water should be more common than food, which is usually done via vending machines.
The tiers are as follows:
50 Hydration = Hydrated. Your body has sufficient fluids, incurring no penalties.
35 Hydration = Parched. You can feel that you are thirsty. This still incurs no penalties, but acts as a warning in the F1 menu.
25 Hydration = Dehydrated. You feel parched, your body in serious need of water. A brain fog has settled in. -1 to Perception, -1 to Intelligence.
15 Hydration = Severe Dehydration. Your body is in dire need of fluids. You feel dizzy, sleepy, and may faint (IC, not OOC). -3 to Perception, -3 to Intelligence.
5 Hydration = Withering. Your body is beginning to shut down as you can barely stay awake. -5 to Perception, -5 to Intelligence. Your health max is lowered by 20 for each point below 5.
0 Hydration = Death. You pass out, your brain overheating as you die shortly after. Character is PK'd.
Time Factor
Hydration takes longer than Third, but still decreases much faster than Nutrition. It should take 20 hours to go from 100 Hydration to 0. It'd take 5 days of 4 hour sessions with no water to die. From 50 to 0 is 10 hours, which is about 2.5 days. Like Nutrition, it takes equally as long to improve it. This makes water a much more important and critical resource than food, especially pure water, as liquids like alcohol, juice, and soda would not give nearly as much Thirst points. This means that, to balance out, water should be more common than food, which is usually done via vending machines.
Note that values DO NOT change if a character is tagged AFK.
User Interface
The following is how these values are presented to you.
Hunger is constantly visible in your F1 menu. A simple food symbol shows up at 25 or less Hunger. At 0 Hunger, text will notify you in chat that you are feeling hungry. If it rises above 50 Hunger, it will notify that you are satisfied, if it drops below 50 Hunger, it will notify that you could go for a meal. At 100 Hunger it will notify that you are full.
Thirst is constantly visible in your F1 menu. A simple water symbol shows up at 25 or less Thirst. At 0 Thirst, text will notify that you are feeling thirsty. If it rises above 50 Thirst, it will notify that you are no longer thirsty. There is no notification once it drops below 50. At 100 Thirst, it says you feel bloated on water.
Nutrition is visible via three methods. A simple yellow bone symbol shows up at 15 Nutrition, and turns red at 5 Nutrition. The second method is via text reminders for each tier. It will notify you of positive tiers (and 50 Nutrition) when it rises to or above a tier, but not when it drops below them. It will notify you of negative tiers when it both drops below and above a negative tier. The final method is the F1 menu, which will not give you a value or bar, but will tell you what tier you are at.
Hydration is the exact same as Nutrition in showing you info. A simple yellow skull symbol shows up at 20 Hydration, and turns red at 10 Hydration. These numbers are higher than Nutrition because Hydration falls much faster. Notifications work the same as Nutrition, but Hydration only has two positive tiers, that being 50 and 100. The F1 menu details exactly as the Nutrition value does.
When you are at 1 Hydration or Nutrition, your screen will begin to fade out. The fade out will stop if your Hunger or Thirst is at 50 or above, clearing up. By 0, the screen should be black, followed by a death and PK, telling you why you died.
Value Interaction Implications
The entire point of these four values is to allow for both a sense of necessity, while not holding the threat of death over you constantly. This allows:
- People to RP extensively without having to stop to use a food/drink script.
- People to RP using a food/drink script without having to worry about dying soon.
- People to RP the effects of starvation and dehydration over time, in each stage of the process, even in the death stages since it'd likely take 30 - 90 minutes at "5 Hydration/Nutrition" to RP death or desperately consuming food/drink.
- People to rely on food and drink sources such as restaurants without making it incredibly necessary to the point where a source not being available could spell doom. Encourages interaction, does not force it until far later.
- Is simply more realistic. Allows for hunger and thirst to exist without it being in your face and screaming at you to fulfill it.
- It allows people to further character develop by making the state of fitness, starvation, or hydration a state of person unlike traditional systems which assumes that you are fully nourished after simply filling one hunger bar.
Example Foods and Drinks in this System
Food and Drinks mostly alter Hunger and Thirst, but some could have no effect after a certain point, or perhaps in very rare situations, alter Nutrition and Hydration directly! Here some examples:
Citizen Supplements - Citizen Supplements, at the average rate, are meant to provide enough to sustain you but nothing more. +20 Hunger, but will add nothing past 50. It will notify you if you eat it after 50 Hunger. Higher grades of supplements can provide more hunger points and/or fulfill hunger past 50.
Meats, Breads, Dairy - Meats, breads, and dairy are often hearty, and can refill large amounts of Hunger. Generally, it can range anywhere from 10 - 20 Hunger points, and a measly 1 or 2 Thirst (Capping at 50 Thirst). You're meant to eat three to get MOST of your average meal. There is no cap to most meats, breads, or dairy.
Fruits and Vegetables - Fruits and Vegetables are often cheaper and in greater quantity, but don't replenish as much Hunger. They do however give more Thirst points back. It would usually range from 5 - 10 Hunger, but a good 3 - 10 Thirst, capping at 65 Thirst and 85 Hunger. You're usually meant to eat one serving with each meal to finish out at 50+, though are not hearty enough to really take you beyond 85 Hunger.
Candies - Candy is not really hearty or nutritious, mostly being for RP. Candy could be +5 Hunger, capping at 40. It can at least slow your Nutrition loss, but is only good in a pinch.
Cooked Foods - Food prepared by someone with Cooking skills can provide a lot more, from 15 - 30 Hunger points! This makes chefs very good to work from and interact with, along with the attribute boosts you get from cooked food items.
Alcohol/Soda/Juice - Anything that isn't pure or flavored water can hydrate you, but not efficiently, and may even dehydrate you! This is more difficult to implement, so to make it easier, the following apply: Alcohol - +10 Thirst. Caps at 65. Soda - +20 Thirst. Caps at 75. Juice - +30 Thirst. Caps at 85.
Antlion Extract - This is presented to show an item that is exceptional. The Antlion Extract, if eaten, raises your Hunger and Thirst to 100, immediately. It also raises your Hydration by 25 Points, and your Nourishment by 5! If cooked by a Chef? It can increase Hydration by 50 Points and Nourishment by 10! This is on top of any attribute boosts and HP benefits! This makes the Extract incredibly valuable to humans. A truly prized possession.
Meats, Breads, Dairy - Meats, breads, and dairy are often hearty, and can refill large amounts of Hunger. Generally, it can range anywhere from 10 - 20 Hunger points, and a measly 1 or 2 Thirst (Capping at 50 Thirst). You're meant to eat three to get MOST of your average meal. There is no cap to most meats, breads, or dairy.
Fruits and Vegetables - Fruits and Vegetables are often cheaper and in greater quantity, but don't replenish as much Hunger. They do however give more Thirst points back. It would usually range from 5 - 10 Hunger, but a good 3 - 10 Thirst, capping at 65 Thirst and 85 Hunger. You're usually meant to eat one serving with each meal to finish out at 50+, though are not hearty enough to really take you beyond 85 Hunger.
Candies - Candy is not really hearty or nutritious, mostly being for RP. Candy could be +5 Hunger, capping at 40. It can at least slow your Nutrition loss, but is only good in a pinch.
Cooked Foods - Food prepared by someone with Cooking skills can provide a lot more, from 15 - 30 Hunger points! This makes chefs very good to work from and interact with, along with the attribute boosts you get from cooked food items.
Alcohol/Soda/Juice - Anything that isn't pure or flavored water can hydrate you, but not efficiently, and may even dehydrate you! This is more difficult to implement, so to make it easier, the following apply: Alcohol - +10 Thirst. Caps at 65. Soda - +20 Thirst. Caps at 75. Juice - +30 Thirst. Caps at 85.
Antlion Extract - This is presented to show an item that is exceptional. The Antlion Extract, if eaten, raises your Hunger and Thirst to 100, immediately. It also raises your Hydration by 25 Points, and your Nourishment by 5! If cooked by a Chef? It can increase Hydration by 50 Points and Nourishment by 10! This is on top of any attribute boosts and HP benefits! This makes the Extract incredibly valuable to humans. A truly prized possession.
Player Interaction | ----------------(TL;DR SECTION)----------------
This is a lot of info, so in the end, how will your average player interact with such a system? What will the average day look like for a character? THIS IS A TL;DR. With that being said, I ask that criticism not be made off the TL;DR alone.
Simply put:
- Players will not have to worry about all the details and values.
- They simply must do what should already come natural, which is to eat food and drink liquids.
- No instruction is needed for this system because it teaches by experience. A character is told when they are hungry, as well as when they are satisfied. Furthermore, if they ignore needs that are presented to them, they will eventually be told of the issues they are facing.
- A player will still need to eat and drink during a session, sometimes more than usual if they play for longer than 4 hours as that is what the times here were balanced around.
- Players still need to interact with food and water, but are no longer under a threat of immediate death should they not interact. With the means to regain nourishment and hydration taking just as long as it takes to lose it however- the immediate danger and threat of not eating or drinking is like a debt, effecting you later rather than immediately.
- Rations will be able to maintain players, but only in a very short term. Supplements at average level are meant to get you to maintain, but it still requires a player to interact with other food services such as shops and more if they want to improve. This is imparative, with the only exceptions being in loyalist supplements and/OR Civil Protection supplements.
- Certain factions will not use this system. Namely Dispatch, OTA, and Xen creatures. If it is not possible to disable it for them, they need an item only they can use that refills all stats to 50 immediately. These are not factions that benefits or are needing penalty because they either literally do not eat, or are not on enough to justify such a system.
In the VERY short: Player characters must eat food and water throughout their session. The impact of such needs are gradual and delayed, but still necessary if being played. Food no longer is an instant fix, but instead a temporary and gradual fix that must be upkept like real life.
Conclusion
Please consider this system. I know this is a lot to develop, perhaps, but I see it as a preferable and desireable system that improves roleplay and adds depth to HL2RP as a whole. Of course, any values and whatnot are simply for presentation and concept, and may be altered as the devs see fit to best work in the system and remain balanced, so long as the general idea is maintained.
Mentioning important individuals:
@Atle
@Gr4Ss
@Imperator RAD-X
@Robert
@RedHotGinger
@Mullin
