[MUD-Dev] Foods (was Character evolution)

[Marian Griffith]

On Sun 17 Aug, Richard Woolcock wrote:
> Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

> > On Sun, 17 Aug 1997 05:01:44 PST8PDT, Richard Woolcock
> > <KaVir at dial.pipex.com> wrote:

> >> Players will be at liberty to eat whatever they want - but if they don't
> >> eat SOME good food, they will eventually run into problems. Oh, and they
> >> need to eat things that won't make them ill, of course. Since you can cook
> >> corpses (after cutting off suitable sized pieces if necessary), finding
> >> meat is not too hard while adventuring - but if its kobold meat, and
> >> you're human, you'll be out of action for a while with gastritis.

> Encouraging players to eat certain types of food could also bring the
> art of assassination to another level...poisoning (which IMO is vastly
> under-rated in all the muds I've ever played) could be a very simple
> way to get rid of that "unbeatable swordsman".  Simply sneak into his
> favourite cook's house and poison the food.  If many people were using
> the same cook, this could cause real devastation - and a 'tasting' 
> skill could prove very useful.

Of course there are other reasons why poisoning in muds is rather poin-
tless.  Doing a pityfull 5 pts of damage each round against a character
that has 2000 of them isn't going to kill him anytime soon.

> > I'd suggest an 'edibility index'. Any given type of food is X percent
> > [big snip of edibility index]

> Interesting idea!  Players should certainly be able to build up a 
> tolerance for bad food given enough time.  However, this encourages
> players to constantly eat the worst food they can find all the time.
> How about adding some sort of 'happiness' or 'satisfaction' attribute,
> which goes up when you eat good food?  This might give you bonuses in
> any concentration-related situation, as well as possibly other 
> situations.  This means a good cook could make a fortune by selling
> their dishes to other players (as well as rich mobs, who would try
> and buy the best food they could afford).

Maybe a better solution would be to give poor food a lower sustenance
quality, and have what makes  'good food'  defined according to race.
Creatures can theoretically stomach about anything but not everything
they eat will help them much, if at all. E.g. humans may need a fair-
ly balanced diet with sufficient fruit, vegetables and some meat.
Trolls, on the other hand, thrive best on (raw) meat.  They too could
eat potatoes  if particularly pressed,  but it would mostly serve  to
numb their hunger and won't help them much in any other way.
This also opens up the interesting twist to the game that a character
can be suffering from severe malnutrition without being hungry. Hung-
er is after all only a signal that your stomach is empty.  If you eat
anything,  as long as it is enough to fill,  the feeling will be gone
again.  If you use sand to get rid of the feeling of hunger your cha-
racter will still eventually starve to death.

> Another possibility would be an 'ettiqutte' type attribute, which 
> be both good and bad.  Low rating would mean you had awful manners,
> and thus be likely to accidently insult people, whilst high rating
> would mean you could only stomach the finest of foods.  I like the
> idea of attributes which are both good AND bad, because it means
> there is no 'perfection' - just a matter of choice.  So for example
> your 'strength' might actually be 'muscle' which slowed you down,
> but made you more powerful.  But thats getting a bit off-topic.

This is a very nice idea,  though I think you must take care not to
make things too confusing to the players. After all unless a player
is insulted by a display of poor table manners  this has little im-
pact on the game,  and forcing this detail away from the player and
into the game might not be approved by the majority of players.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey