Realistic hunger, thirst, fatigue, sleep

[Delterius]

AutoReiv I understand your potion of view, but for me it will be always somehow forced. Why don't introduce showers, toilets etc it is also part of everyday life. Carrying supplies of food is realistic but it usually doesn't work. I'd rather leave it all to imagination

 

Because showers and toilets is something you'll find in The Sims, a obsessive simulationist game. Keeping track of rations is a true component of dangerous adventuring and just grows exponentially in importance the more dangerous the story grows. Suddenly starving or suffering due to misfortune is something I can certainly picture in a heroic fantasy novel, taking a dump might be there for comic relief.

 

I'm not saying that rations is needed, but your comparison is, with all due respect, very, very stupid.

 

Another thing is that rations might just turn some decisions more personal. If you come across a starving man, giving him some of your limited food supply (provided the system is well-balanced). then the decision becomes personal because you're taking a risk to uphold your morality. Which would bring me to why morality systems suck lately, but that's another story.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Delterius

[AutoReiv]

AutoReiv I understand your potion of view, but for me it will be always somehow forced. Why don't introduce showers, toilets etc it is also part of everyday life. Carrying supplies of food is realistic but it usually doesn't work. I'd rather leave it all to imagination

I'm not suggesting all this because I want the experience of eating in the game. Let me be clear, I do not want to bog down an awesome game with contrived and stupid mini tasks to perform all the time, with a hundred different bars and stats, ok? That's just stupid. What I'm suggesting is very simple and it's a less contrived way of putting some sense into the rest/sleep function instead of just limiting it to, say, 2 uses per day.

[Undecaf]

I'm not overly fond of this take care of your metabolism stuff. It mostly just comes down to annoying busywork that is either too easy or too frustrating to handle.

 

If there were to be such things, I would tie 'em up to specific locational conditions, like thirst-meter in desert areas, cold-meter in highly cold areas, etc and maybe even have some equipement related bonuses and deficiances, but I would give a pass on a general "needs".

[Wombat]

Sawyer seems to be interested in camping options. I wonder how they are going to differentiate what the players can do in various zones - from totally safe place (player house), relatively safe wilderness to dangerous dungeons. Also, we don't need hanger system to make the resting important.

 

For example, in D&D's case, it uses spell-slot system which require resting at times. Spirit Eater system in MotB didn't affect much on my game-play, since I hate resting each time after battles, but the aim was quite clear. It tried to recover the resource management aspect of D&D. If Eternity's magic system is spell-slot system in it, then, stronger spells need to have longer preparation time. Wonder if it is going to be presented as cool-down timer (from seconds, minutes to even hours and days) or not. Hours of preparation time can almost inevitably require resting or safer place, at least. Alternatively, in easier mode, the designers can speed up the recovery time or vice versa.

 

Another aspect for resource management is items which can be damaged. in Fallout: New Vegas, crafting skills increase their importance in hardcore mode. The skills are, too, nicely divided into various areas of crafting. These skills, of course, can be found in different classes in Eternity.

[Ink Blot]

Second question: As I said to Virgil, I explained earlier in this thread: Let's say there was a common item called "ration" that you could buy at most shops or loot off of killed enemies, and your party consumed one or more of these every time you rested or slept. You'd still be allowed to do it whenever you wanted and how often you wanted but it wouldn't free, and it wouldn't unlimited, and certainly not lame; no hunger bars, no fatigue, just a simple and elegant solution to a problem the developers and many players have underlined.

 

Thing is, I see no benefit to this. All you need to do is buy a crap-ton of rations and you can basically forget about this useless mechanic. So all it introduces is just a bit more tedium at the shop keepers the first time you have enough gold to stock up.

 

At least, that's how I see it. Again, I have no issues with food/water requirements if it's tied to some kind of hardcore option, but I don't want it as something required on every setting.

 

I don't know. I understand that Sawyer's saying he'd like to work on something like this, and I understand people are just throwing out ideas. I'll wait and see if something pops out that looks like it might actually be fun. Then it will get my wholehearted support. But so far, I've not seen any suggestions that make me sit up and say "Wow, that would be cool for gameplay".