Rotting food

[Manhattan]

A timer could be set on a new-purchased/crafted food item....that after the time limit, the food begins to rot. And it could be in several stages of decay too. What's really cool is, larders in-game can be used to extend the shelf-life of food.

No more cramming scrab steaks in your backpack without it stinking up your other knicknacks!

[Halaster]

This is something we'd like to do, one day.  However, I'd hate to see people start losing all their food and no way to get more.  The first step, IMO, would be to make sure there are ways in place to acquire food on a regular basis.

[My 2 sids]

I'd put this idea under "too realistic".  I already have to worry about cooking, cleaning, working at my job, sleeping, finding restrooms, and monthly visits from Aunt Flo.   Although I can appriciate the realism in game I also don't want to log in and spend the majority of my time playing house.

[Beux]

I'd put this idea under "too realistic".  I already have to worry about cooking, cleaning, working at my job, sleeping, finding restrooms, and monthly visits from Aunt Flo.   Although I can appriciate the realism in game I also don't want to log in and spend the majority of my time playing house.

Agreed.

[Halaster]

I'd put this idea under "too realistic".  I already have to worry about cooking, cleaning, working at my job, sleeping, finding restrooms, and monthly visits from Aunt Flo.   Although I can appriciate the realism in game I also don't want to log in and spend the majority of my time playing house.

For the record, no one has to sleep unless injured, nor find restrooms.

I agree and we'd have to balance it so people aren't spending too much time having to do this sort of thing.

However, there are a couple of thoughts behind making food degrade which would be to combat some unrealistic things that take place, such as stockpiling obscene amounts of food.  I'm not saying people are playing poorly, but you can go hunt meat, cook it, and put it in your apartment (or clan warehouse) and it sits there forever.  People bring in more than they consume, and before you know it, there are 50 pieces of cooked meat in a chest.

Another reason would be to further emphasize the striving for survival which the game is supposed to be about, in part.  Again, we definitely don't want to make people have to spend most of their time just gathering food to eat - there'd definitely be some balancing between playability and realism.

[Shadows and Dust]

I'd love to see this. As Halaster pointed out, survival is way too easy right now in my opinion. There are definitely ways to make it so it's not too harsh (like the old Krrx blood-code) and where it's just harsh enough to where I have to hunt more often with my ranger. Right now I can literally hunt for a real life hour and the meat I get from that will last me damn near a real life fortnight. That's pretty unrealistic.

[Beux]

I'm not sure it is that realistic. Realistically, if you spend a day out hunting, and come back with ONE bull duskhorn, you -should- get enough meat off it to feed you for a fortnight - hell a month (if you salt it   :wink: ), or your entire tribe for a few days.

You don't realistically get anywhere near as much meat as you should from hunting. I wanna catch a hawk, and have a whole roast hawk for dinner, not a morsel of fatty wing meat.

[ObsidianSoul]

Probably just have to leave the meat out in the sun, on a rock, and have it dried.

That's how I assume travel-cakes are made. The flour is mixed with water and made into a dough, and they're left out in the sun to dry. Wouldn't take long, possibly only an hour or two, tops.

Editted to add: That's really how bread was cooked in biblical times, anyways.  Has anyone heard of essene bread? That's it.

-'SidianSoul

[Halaster]

I'm not sure it is that realistic. Realistically, if you spend a day out hunting, and come back with ONE bull duskhorn, you -should- get enough meat off it to feed you for a fortnight - hell a month (if you salt it   :wink: ), or your entire tribe for a few days.

You don't realistically get anywhere near as much meat as you should from hunting. I wanna catch a hawk, and have a whole roast hawk for dinner, not a morsel of fatty wing meat.

That's another issue we'll have to address.  Animals in general would have to yield more food than they currently do.  Right now, it sort of evens out because we don't have food degradation.  An inix (2-ton lizard) should be able to provide enough food for several people for a month, but it doesn't.  So, if we did make food degrade over time, we'd have to up the amount of meat taken from animals.

[Beux]

I like the idea, if food degridation also equalled a more realistic amount of food being gathered from each kill. And if you find a fruit tree....it has more than one fruit on it. And perhaps a littering of half rotten ones at it's base. Stuff like that.

Ooo. Climbing trees to get to the top ones. With a chance of falling.  :oops:

But not everything should rot. I reckon travel cakes would be long lived, dried meat, cured meat, tons of stuff isn't coded to rot. And if I'm going travelling, I usually try and stock up on stuff that I think people -would- take on travels. Smoked/cured meats, anyway, rather than bowls of stew etc.

[spawnloser]

I will make the assumption, since food decay has been discussed before, that the staff is already aware that some food should decay faster than others.

[Manhattan]

I'd put this idea under "too realistic".  I already have to worry about cooking, cleaning, working at my job, sleeping, finding restrooms, and monthly visits from Aunt Flo.   Although I can appriciate the realism in game I also don't want to log in and spend the majority of my time playing house.

you wont have to worry about food degradation if you stick with travel cakes, which are basically crackers that last forever.

also, those air-tight food bins in the clan compounds can finally be put to good use!

[Angela Christine]

you wont have to worry about food degradation if you stick with travel cakes, which are basically crackers that last forever.

also, those air-tight food bins in the clan compounds can finally be put to good use!

What?  I thought those were to keep out mice and bugs, not keep food fresh.  Locking moist food in an air-tight container in a hot, dry climate might actually make it rot faster.  If the food is lying on the table it will dry out, possibly becoming crusty instead of rotting.  If it is in a sealed container it is going to stew in it's own juices, potentially making mold a bigger problem.  Rotting food can release gasses, so an air tight container might even explode.   :shock:

On a related note, how about coding in vermin, or virtual vermin, who nibble away at anything edible left sitting around?  Instead of your travel cake turning into a rotten travel cake it turns into a half-eaten travel cake.