Chow Time

[sarahjc]

Here is something that kind of bothers me. In most military operations and the working world, there are designated eating times. I am surprised that I don't see more of this on Zalanthas. Especially in Noble house and Merchant house clans. Isn't it sort of a waste to have food around 24-7? I mean don't the VPC cooks get tired of having to cook food -all- the time?  Why not create a 2-3 meal a day system, and if you miss the meal.. Well, you'll just have to wait until the next one. It just seems irrational that there would always be hot meals available.  Any thoughts?

[spawnloser]

I like this idea, actually.  I say write up an email to the mud and idea it in game.

[Armaddict]

Erm, except that it's not predictable when you'll get hungry.

We get hungry at meal times during the day...so that's when we get food.

In game...hunger can just come out of the blue, right in the middle of a conversation, or anything.  I -assume- the point of the houses feeding you is that you'll not go hungry, and stay happy in their employ.  Start making them buy their own so that they don't go hungry for hours, thus going back on your word to feed them...isn't exactly cool.

Unless you want people -hoarding- food from now on.  But that's just the same amount of expense.

*shrug*

I think it's a playability thing.

[John]

Here is something that kind of bothers me. In most military operations and the working world, there are designated eating times. I am surprised that I don't see more of this on Zalanthas

Some clans do, some clans don't. From what I've seen, the more rigid the timetable, the more strict the cooking NPC is.

In game...hunger can just come out of the blue, right in the middle of a conversation, or anything.

It's possible to get around that though. A problem is, you probably aren't eating until your full. Your probably eating until your "no longer hungry." IRL at meal times I tend to eat until I'm "full." If you eat twice or three times a coded day during the "meal times" eating until your "full" each time. You probably won't get a "your hungry" status until meal time comes along, if at all. The problem with that is, when you go out and can't get food at "meal time" you'll probably start getting hungry, but that should be something you consider ahead of time

When I think of it (which is rare) I also tend to have little nibblies in my inventory or pocket or something for when I'm talking to people.

What I'd like is to get more echoes for thirst and hunger. I'd like echoes saying "I'm no longer full" and "I"m a little hungry". I'd also like echoes in the other direction, so when I eat it says "your no longer starving" and "your no longer hungry." That way I don't have to type score constantly (which is something I don't do thanks to having my stats in my prompt).

[jhunter]

I'm with you John, I think this is a good idea so long as the same message doesn't keep popping up repeatedly...just once, until it drops down to the next "level".

[Sacac's ghost]

People already horde food. Just incase it becomes rare. I don't like this idea, because some people log off hungry and log back on hungry, so that means they could possibly miss that time of day.

[ramble]Ok, in an environment where you are hungry by nature. And people die of hunger everyday.

You get the "You are hungry" And alright, so your hungry. I don't like the hunger code.
IMHO
Most people in zalanthas are wiry thin, Which means a body that isn't accostemed (?) To eating more then needed, even though it is possible.

When you get that message and decide to eat, you have to devour
a lot of food to get the you can't eat anymore. Let's take the nice MEk steak, People in a country like Ethiopia, could survive a week on that steak, but it only keeps them full for a day or so, Wow! Of course, I could be wrong, and probably am, But I really hate having too eat soo much food.[/ramble]

[sarahjc]

OK so to the hunger argument.

First you should be able to eat three times a day or so. So figure once in the morning, once mid day and once at dusk. Normally people log in for more than a half an hour so you will probably hit on one of those times.

Secondly, I didn't say that there should be -no- food available, just not "prepared" meals. Meaning if you want the good stuff that the house cook makes, you best get to chow time, on time. Otherwise it's a bag of seeds from the pantry again.

Thirdly if you work for a house, why is your character ever very hungry.  Carry a snack in your pocket if you are afraid of dying from hunger. But I would say it's a foolish person that works for a Imm run clan, that goes hungry very often.

This works for both merchant and noble houses for two reasons.

Noble houses:

This is a military type structure, people should be following a set schedule for -everything-. I don't see why you have to spar at dawn, have gate duty at mid day, maintenance in the afternoon, but yet you can eat whenever the hell you want.


Merchant houses:

Houses like merchant houses, the schedule is not so ridged. But there is a lot of hunting, this would also help rid the place of all that extra meat, fruit and all other hunting finds.  I'm not say thing that you couldn't get food, it just may be that you have to give it a shot and try to cook it yourself. Since the house cook isn't your 24-7 beck and call.

Plus it would make for some good house social interaction, bringing people together to eat at the same time.

It's just a thought..

[Crashloft]

Gahh, it's lunch time I gotta hurry up and log into Arm so I don't starve!!!!

[Carnage]

Here is something that kind of bothers me. In most military operations and the working world, there are designated eating times. I am surprised that I don't see more of this on Zalanthas. Especially in Noble house and Merchant house clans. Isn't it sort of a waste to have food around 24-7? I mean don't the VPC cooks get tired of having to cook food -all- the time?  Why not create a 2-3 meal a day system, and if you miss the meal.. Well, you'll just have to wait until the next one. It just seems irrational that there would always be hot meals available.  Any thoughts?

There's more likely than not different shifts and waves of meals. One division comes in for breakfast at dawn. The next at early morning. The next at late morning. Then lunch at high sun, early afternoon, late afternoon. Dinner at dusk, late at night, and early in the morning.

Although I wouldn't really separate Zalanthan meals into breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'd presume you'd be eating whatever was available for breakfast, whether it was scrab meats or some Tektolnes-O's in a ceramic bowl with kumiss.

[sarahjc]

I supose that I could see that Carnage,  but I still would like to see it more uniform. Maybe even on a PC basis if not a coded one..

[Bestatte]

I don't think I'd want to get rid of cooks in clans. But reading through these posts gave me this wacky idea:

During dawn, high sun, and dusk, the cook menu would be as they are now.

The rest of the time, the menu would have a limited menu: fruit, bread, cheese. May change the types of fruit/bread/cheese that are normally available, or make available only slices rather than full loaves and whole pieces of fruit.

There are some clans that don't have cooks. But those clans are more geared toward hunters who would be able to provide for the clan anyway.

[sarahjc]

As your sig states..

Bravo, brilliant Bestatte..

That would be a very good idea.

[Impska]

I've played in a rigid military clan which has code in place which closes the kitchen at night. It was actually -really- annoying. We'd CONSTANTLY be caught needing to be somewhere for an extended amount of time, and we'd usually be aiming to leave at the crack of dawn.

But wait... The cook didn't open 'til early morning.

So we'd sit there, frustrated, waiting 20 minutes so we could eat and get travel bread, or whatever. Sure, we could leave and pay for food, but is that cook -really- going to tell a templar and a unit of military "I'm not open! Go buy your own food if you're that hungry!" No, he wouldn't. In fact, he'd start cooking early if a military unit had somewhere to be at dawn, so that they could eat before the sun rose.

If it was codeable, I'd be happy to see meals only available at certain times, for realism, with like chunks of stale bread or un-worked fruit available at all times. But that sounds like it might be annoying to waste time coding. If I walk into my kitchen, there's always something I can eat at all times. It's not ginka-sauced tregil meat, but it's something. With the excessive amount of food most organizations go through, I would expect that the cook always had something on hand that was edible.

edit: Bestatte beat me to it. Serves me right for skipping the last two posts.

[sarahjc]

You could also have a pantry for snacky type foods.. Seeds, fruit, dried meats, travel cakes.


I'd like to see more dried, salted meats anyway. Maybe I'll write some up..along with a pantry cupboard object.  

[ashyom]

With the time being stabilized, thanks to Tiernan's hard work, it'll be easier to eat regular, timely meals.  I like the idea of implementing a cook that doles out food at mealtimes, but also have the option of giving out day-old bread or something in between hours.  This is ideal for clans that have rigid schedules.

I'll be talking to our scripters to see if this is doable.
Ashyom

[creeper386]

I'm kind of against it. If I'm eatting out of the meal setting. Ussually it's going to be left overs from the previous meal. Also, the cooks are payed to cook. They are going to be there cooking. They are cooking for large orginizations. Bound to be left overs. They are going to be around to continue handing out food.

If cooks were shut down completely, or I'd have to get my own food. I probably would have troubles going hungry in clans as when my characters get hungry they eat at the next oppurtune time. Ussually that amounts to hitting the meal times, but if I log in hungry and have to go do something RIGHT THEN, alot of times I'll quickly hit the cook's place grab some food, and chow it down and then go do whatever I have to do that may take a few days.

I think it'd be a fairly big inconvience for the most part. I could see the higher ups having NO problems getting a warm meal, maybe even freshly cooked, while the recruits get cold left overs. If you code in something like that, it just sort of takes away from that whole, RP thing you know? Yeah. It does. I'm against it.

Creeper

[spawnloser]

Okay...something someone said convinced me otherwise from my earlier comment in support of this idea.

Okay, in a noble house, the guards...do you think they all get off at one time to eat?  Who is left guarding anything while they are eating?  I'm leaning towards leaving it the way it is for that reason...maybe make it like shopkeepers where they are 'off duty' at night instead of closed and leave it at that?

[sarahjc]

I can see that. And I am not saying that food should never be served on off times, just not the hot stews and steaks. Plus I am sure that those who have to stand guard at meal times would rotate. Heck it may even be a punishment to have to stand guard at meal time. But it just seems a bit much to have meals served at all hours of the day with no order to it.. I like Bestatte take on it the best.

[Angela Christine]

Traditional stew -is- available all day, every day.  The pot of stew stays on the fire all the time, with ingredients added daily.  The pot is never empty, and it never gets washed.  Yum.  It avoids breeding food poisoning bacteria by staying hot all the time, keeping food hot is easier than keeping it cold in low-tech environments.  That is the whole point of stew, it is a low maintenance food that stays hot and "fresh" with minimal supervision.  You don't need a cook, ladle in hand, standing there waiting to serve it, even a Byn Runner can figure out how to put stew in a bowl.    Ok, no one wants to read an essay on stew, so I'll just wrap up with the note that I have some great aunts that kept a traditional stew going all winter when they had kids and a farm.  A nice rabbit, beef, moose, bear, pork, and vegetable stew.  Talk about mystery meat.

Steak and stuffed ginka fruit I can see only being available at set times, or at least only being available durring the day.  That's not true, I can't see stuffed -ginka- fruit being availble to common employees at all.  A ginka fruit retails for over a hundred 'sid, who the hell spends that kind of money feeding low-class common employees?


AC

[Cuusardo]

Not all clans have cooks in all their holdings.  Some clans have refused to get cooks for their barracks, forcing people to find their own food.

Not everyone gets hungry all at the same time.  Not everyone's work schedule is the same.  Having a cook that can prepare what you need when you need it is a good thing in this case.

Since survival is a lot more difficult on Zalanthas than it is on earth, and it is MUCH easier to get food in our society than on Arm, having scheduled meal times is a moot point.  People eat whenever they can, period.

[John]

I can't see stuffed -ginka- fruit being availble to common employees at all.  A ginka fruit retails for over a hundred 'sid, who the hell spends that kind of money feeding low-class common employees?

I always assume it's their for the nobles (or Senior Merchants) and the only reason I can have access to it is so I can get it for a Noble (or Senior Merchant).