Is food even needed at all?

[Digital Wino]

I know in other games you needed to carry food around with you, but so far it doesn't seem my party is eating food. So do I need it, or can I just sell it?

[Lilith]

Short answer: no. Long answer: naaaah.

 

You can use food to recover a small amount of HP. That's about it.

[Kendroxide]

Huh, for some reason I thought that you needed food for some type of hunger mechanic. Well, I guess I'll stop hoarding food like it's the eve of Y2K.

[Acky]

Are you thinking of Avernum 6? That was Jeff's only game that made you eat food.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Master Ackrovan

Are you thinking of Avernum 6? That was Jeff's only game that made you eat food.

The Exile series made you eat food as well, and the first three Avernum games (plus BoA) consumed food when you rested.

[Randomizer]

There are a few places where you can use certain types of food as bribes, but you don't have to.

[Men are from Slars]

Both Nethergates are in the same category as the First Trilogy games, as well.

[Digital Wino]

Yeah, I remember needing food in the first Avernum when resting, and I know that A6 required food when wondering around, and seeing as how this one had food, I assumed it was the same. But as I said, I didn't notice it getting eaten. So I'll just sell off the stuff worth money and throw the rest away.

[Kinsume]

The original Exile required food if I recall correctly. I've played other games that have done it as well so I end up carrying several slots worth of food around with me that I find in my travels out of sheer habbit.

[esquivalient.abacot]

i found food useful on a couple occasions early on. i just stick with mushrooms and sell the sellables.

not useful later.

[Kinsume]

I've always been fond of little things like needing food to travel on the world map or your party dies or something. Sure it is seen as just an annoyance by most people but to me it just gives you something else you're forced to think about and consider when making a decision.

[Digital Wino]

I agree. I just finished playing Legend of Grimrock, and food was essential. If you're characters food level got too low, you wouldn't regen health or mana at all, even while resting. So carrying food around was important. I was also very excited when I had heard about the need for food, water, and sleep in New Vegas. But I quickly realized that food and water were real easy to come by and it was a total non-issue.

[esquivalient.abacot]

food is routinely used in rpg's as a mechanism of setting a pace to the game. it forces a time dimension onto you so you have to take time as a resource too. in a game of limited resources such as aeftp this would mean that you'd have a limited number of turns to complete the game.

or, if food respawned it would mean that you'd have to come back for it all the time (since you spend a lot of time in remote areas in this game and there's no town portal scroll here).

or that cave lore would slowly produce food for your party to eat.

or a create food spell (always loved those... not.)

or something else

either way, i never liked food in any game. didn't bring anything meaningful...

[Kreador]

Early in this game I find carrying a bit of food useful for topping up the health of characters between encounters. Saves spell points and potions and the time to wander back to the nearest town. I usually keep a specific kind of food on each character. Also handy when hitting teleports in the dark into rooms that appear identical. ;-)

[Marak]

Unlike in the original trilogy (and Avernum 6), food in this game is really just stacks of weak healing items.

 

If that's useful to you, great. If not, you can skip picking it up entirely.

[Digital Wino]

There is not a limited supply of food in the game. There are vendors that have an unlimited supply of cheap food. And you can always wander around outside looking for stuff to fight to earn a little extra cash (which I do, also for the xp). Besides, A6 required food, and I never had an issue there. I ran all over the place (didn't always use the pylons), and I was fine on food. As for using it to heal, that didn't really seem needed. If I got hurt and needed to heal but didn't want to spend mana, I'd step outside, walk back and forth a few times and I was full health again.

 

Now don't get me wrong, I still love the game, but it does feel as if it's being overly simplified. I remember in the first game you needed a light source in dark dungeons. You used to need food when resting. But to make things simpler, they got rid of that.

[Marak]

It's a double-edged sword, isn't it?

 

*Jeff takes out needing Food to rest and makes an engine that means Light Sources are optional*

 

Old timers: WTF? Game is so damn watered down and simplified and casual-friendly now.

 

*Jeff leaves in needing Food to rest and tweaks the engine so unlit dungeons are really damn dark again.*

 

Newcomers: WTF? Game is so damn nitpicky, this is 2011, you shouldn't need crap like Light Sources and a food/hunger mechanic? Puh-lease.

 

*Jeff facedesks for a while because he can't win*