Ideas for additional advantages/disadvantages of consumables

[Dimpy]

(Originally posted under the title "More nuanced consumables")

 

I like the idea of playing in a world where everything you can do has the potential to help or hinder you, depending on the situation, because it mirrors reality and makes more interesting gameplay choices. I thought I'd throw some suggestions out in that line of thinking, specifically with respect to consumables.

 

I'm going to refer to "energy" a lot in this; what I mean when I say that is "how energized the player's character feels". As of A16, this is manifested in terms of increases/decreases in stamina regeneration rate (Not biologically accurate, but that's for another thread).

 

 

Anyway, here are the suggestions in bullet-point form:

 

-Wellness-increasing foods decrease energy for a short while while you digest them.

 

-Certain consumables (painkillers, caffeine, alcohol) used over a long span of time lead to addiction/tolerance, reducing their effectiveness and causing energy-lowering withdrawal symptoms.

 

-Sugary foods can provide a sugar rush.

 

-Energy-increasing buffs have an associated crash later.

*akin to alcohol's hangover.

 

-Negative effects of eating unclean food are reduced when at zero fullness.

*Maybe a buyable perk or the A17 equivalent.

 

-Extra positive effects from eating healthy food when at high fullness.

 

-Having too much energy leads to a loss in dexterity from jitteryness.

[Roland]

I also like give and take mechanics and while items and consumables that only give bonuses seem desirable the game is so much more interesting when you have to balance a benefit with a penalty.

[Garit Jax]

Yep I'm all for this idea... takes away the farm, spam cook and spam eat only 1 type of item.

In the game now you can just grow and cook spuds and drink water and your all good.

Having to think about what you grow, cook and eat is a good idea in my book as long as there is a good balance.

[Dimpy]

Yep I'm all for this idea... takes away the farm, spam cook and spam eat only 1 type of item.

In the game now you can just grow and cook spuds and drink water and your all good.

Having to think about what you grow, cook and eat is a good idea in my book as long as there is a good balance.

 

Hmm, I'm not sure how what I was saying would actually keep people from spam eating one food type.

 

That being said, I do have an idea (albeit clunky) of how spam eating could be prevented: instead of one food meter, you have a calorie meter AND four or five meters that represent different types of nutritional intake. The government used this in an educational game:

https://www.fns.usda.gov/blastoff

 

It might lead to some interesting emergent gameplay where, for example, you're just a excited to find vegetable seeds as you are to finding rare guns. I can see it leading to annoying micromanagement. Nutritional deficiency shouldn't be able to directly kill a player, it should be a quest for players who want to get more out of their food. I'm not sure the extra programming and balancing would be worth it if the mechanic was too trivial though.

 

Besides, now that I think about it, we already do have something that functionally encourages players to try variety. Foods that exist as a combination of different types (meat stew, bacon & eggs) already provide a larger bonus than the sun of their parts.

[Dimpy]

According to Madmole's latest video, drug addictions/withdrawal symptoms are now a thing: My first Pimp Dream has come true.

To honor this occasion, I am shamelessly bumping. Hopefully we have something new to say about this.