A6 - Supposed Famine!

[Arch-Mage Solberg]

I'm playing through the demo of A6 again and would like to bring up something. There's supposed to be a famine of sorts going on, yet the characters you play find a lot of food around! Is this just how it is in the begining and food gets scarcer as you leave the Great Cave or is it just this way for the characters?

 

Post #481

[Erebus the Black]

You mean outside of the food depot?

[Earth]

Yes there are fruits and mushrooms occasionally at ground to pick up but you find enuf food not to worry about it or need to buy it and there are few quests related on food.

 

As you go occupied lands ood in ground mostly disappears and on some areas which Avernum controls no much food on ground.

 

I find it odd that we kill cave lizards and others edible monsters but party can't chop off few steaks from those.

[Dikiyoba]

Your party can find lots of food because you're fighting bandits and other groups of people lawless and powerful enough to horde and steal food, plus you can get food from food depots since you're part of Avernum's army. You're really well off as far as food is concerned. Your party would be in a much worse condition if you were farmers or refugees instead of adventurers.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Triumph]

In fact several times people, or the narrator, mentions how well you off are as soldiers, having easier access to food.

 

Something else to consider is that vast portions of Avernum's population have already fled through the Great Portal, so the proportion of food to people is not as far out of balance as it once was.

[Arch-Mage Solberg]

What I was trying to say is that there is supposed to be a famine of sorts going on, but the playing characters find not only enough food to survive, but much more than enough. My first game where I did everything possible in the demo, I had about 30 bags of meal, 15 units of Dried Meat, 11 units of Fruit, 17 units of Meats, 9 units of big Mushrooms, 15 units of small Mushrooms, 8 units of Bread, 14 units of Rolls and 21 units of Fish. With a famine going on, my party was able to scrounge up enough to seemingly feed an entire army! What I was wanting to know was since the Great Cave is stacked on food (apparently), are the other areas nearly as stacked on food?

 

Post #482

 

Edit: Also, if only the mushroom plants are inedible, why is there a famine with so much other choices for food?

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Arch-Mage Solberg

Edit: Also, if only the mushroom plants are inedible, why is there a famine with so much other choices for food?

Because they're the staple food crop. Nothing else is as productive.

Anyway, Jeff has said that the ready availability of food is for gameplay reasons: he didn't want the party to actually be in real danger of starving as long as they weren't reckless about carrying food around, he just wanted a constant reminder that food is a valuable resource.

[So Much Killing]

To answer the question in your original post, there is a lot of food throughout the game. As long as you collect what is available, you will have more than enough to get you through. And you can sell or give away (for experience) all of the bags of meal that you find.

 

If you're an obsessive collector (like me), it's easy to finish with more than 100 items of several different types of food.

[Khoth]

The real reason for the famine is that a group of soldiers are running round Avernum obsessively hoarding every scrap of food that they can find.

[Earth]

lol@Kloth

 

famine's effects are different on other parts of Avernum (for example that area where that drake is) while at central Avernum there's more food.

[Arch-Mage Solberg]

Originally Posted By: So Much Killing

To answer the question in your original post, there is a lot of food throughout the game. As long as you collect what is available, you will have more than enough to get you through. And you can sell or give away (for experience) all of the bags of meal that you find.

Thanks SMK, this is what I wanted to know!

Originally Posted By: So Much Killing

If you're an obsessive collector (like me), it's easy to finish with more than 100 items of several different types of food.

I am a total completist. Every nook and cranny must be searched and every storyline exposed before I can rest!

Originally Posted By: Khoth

The real reason for the famine is that a group of soldiers are running round Avernum obsessively hoarding every scrap of food that they can find.

Dang...was that me? Maybe King Starrus will send some other adventurers after me to get me to stop hoarding!

Post #484

[Tirien]

He already did send more adventurers after you, but they ended up starving to death (thanks to you!)

[Earth]

or got killed by sliths while being starved.

[Tirien]

Or killed some sliths, were forced to eat them, and got food poisoning from eating them, THEN died. Guess we'll never know.