agriculture

 
That would be cool.

On the other hand, it should be pretty far down the list of priorities. It doesn't really bring more to the game apart from having more items and recipes giving equivalent effects.
 
I wouldn't mind more.. but I just don't think it makes much sense- food right now is very boring/basic most of it is just hunger/thirst numbers .. which is okay but then adding more food ingredients, we'd just make new foods with with more inflated numbers.. I think rebalancing food with more secondary effects would be way more interesting for our diet. -- Imagine if high end foods came with options like.. move speed, temperature resistance, reduced smell, tighter accuracy with guns or whatever else could be. Give us more reasons to have a semi-varied diet.
 
I wouldn't mind more.. but I just don't think it makes much sense- food right now is very boring/basic most of it is just hunger/thirst numbers .. which is okay but then adding more food ingredients, we'd just make new foods with with more inflated numbers.. I think rebalancing food with more secondary effects would be way more interesting for our diet. -- Imagine if high end foods came with options like.. move speed, temperature resistance, reduced smell, tighter accuracy with guns or whatever else could be. Give us more reasons to have a semi-varied diet.

Agree food is basic and not well balanced. I find that high end foods are ignored because once you can make them you don't need the bonuses. Adding in a few more raw ingredients and rebalancing the early food and drink items may be more fun. Having a range of effects at lower levels (with trade offs) would add more decision making into the game.

I would even go so far as to take some high end food items out of the progression list and make them "schematic" only. That way there is that little dopamine hit for searching and then looting a chilli dog recipe (for example) in the early game.
 
I would even go so far as to take some high end food items out of the progression list and make them "schematic" only. That way there is that little dopamine hit for searching and then looting a chilli dog recipe (for example) in the early game.
But would you even make it? Things that require cans are only available in limited quantities (unless you want to go vending machine hopping daily, and I for one don't.)

Even with maxed out cooking skill and the added food loot from that, I don't find enough cans to sustain myself on any particular canned recipe. I probably could (in end game) if I wanted to do various canned recipes, but doing all the prep work for that is just annoying, I'd rather just make a stack or two of something and be done with it.
 
But would you even make it? Things that require cans are only available in limited quantities (unless you want to go vending machine hopping daily, and I for one don't.)

Even with maxed out cooking skill and the added food loot from that, I don't find enough cans to sustain myself on any particular canned recipe. I probably could (in end game) if I wanted to do various canned recipes, but doing all the prep work for that is just annoying, I'd rather just make a stack or two of something and be done with it.
Yeah, I used to spend time making the canned foods - especially spaghetti and that tuna one. But I realized it wasn't worth the effort. Now I almost never touch the cans I find. I just make food that uses only meat and/or vegetables with no cans. There isn't really any reason to bother with anything else. Having more food options wouldn't really change anything... I'd still pick one recipe I prefer to make and use only that recipe all the time once I can make it. If food had different (worthwhile) bonuses, I might consider making different foods. *Maybe* I would consider making one specifically to get a bonus to mining and another specifically to get a bonus to farming and so on. Of course, the effects would have to last a long time because I am definitely not going to carry multiple stacks of different food around just to get different buffs. So they would have to last from when I eat them at my base until I get where I'm going and do what I need to do. Otherwise, they aren't any use to me.
 
I wouldn't mind more.. but I just don't think it makes much sense- food right now is very boring/basic most of it is just hunger/thirst numbers .. which is okay but then adding more food ingredients, we'd just make new foods with with more inflated numbers.. I think rebalancing food with more secondary effects would be way more interesting for our diet. -- Imagine if high end foods came with options like.. move speed, temperature resistance, reduced smell, tighter accuracy with guns or whatever else could be. Give us more reasons to have a semi-varied diet.
I don't mind making food matter, but I would prefer a more natural approach rather than a ham-fisted RPG mechanic that makes no sense. So no tighter accuracy on guns, etc. Simple buffs such as temperature regulation, endurance fortification, etc. I would also bring back a pseudo wellness system whereby eating low tier meals such as cooked meat over a prolonged period of time can give various illnesses to the player which can result in debuffs such as the inverse of the buffs proper meals would offer. I would drastically reduce canned goods from all sources outside of grocery stores and if it were up to me I would have a food spoil option as default with a toggle setting for spoil speed and then add a canning station to the game where you can seal your own food to lower smell and preserve food indefinitely.

This would likely require some rework of the recipes but overall it would make smell matter more with fewer canned goods, it would give a reason to make proper dishes, and would offer a more realistic approach to the system without a dish giving you +Slashing damage nonsense.
 
But would you even make it? Things that require cans are only available in limited quantities (unless you want to go vending machine hopping daily, and I for one don't.)

Even with maxed out cooking skill and the added food loot from that, I don't find enough cans to sustain myself on any particular canned recipe. I probably could (in end game) if I wanted to do various canned recipes, but doing all the prep work for that is just annoying, I'd rather just make a stack or two of something and be done with it.

That is a good question and it comes down to balance. Most players have a food and drink "floor", once they unlock those recipes they just mass produce them and forget about the rest. Once again the food system is a 60% proof of concept and has never been polished. Unfortunately, the water pool negates the smell mechanic but what if higher quality foods had less smell? Would that be attractive enough for players to craft them?

Yeah, I used to spend time making the canned foods - especially spaghetti and that tuna one. But I realized it wasn't worth the effort. Now I almost never touch the cans I find. I just make food that uses only meat and/or vegetables with no cans. There isn't really any reason to bother with anything else. Having more food options wouldn't really change anything... I'd still pick one recipe I prefer to make and use only that recipe all the time once I can make it. If food had different (worthwhile) bonuses, I might consider making different foods. *Maybe* I would consider making one specifically to get a bonus to mining and another specifically to get a bonus to farming and so on. Of course, the effects would have to last a long time because I am definitely not going to carry multiple stacks of different food around just to get different buffs. So they would have to last from when I eat them at my base until I get where I'm going and do what I need to do. Otherwise, they aren't any use to me.

The high end food crafting that is limited by peas and beef stock; really limits the incentive to craft high end food items. There needs to be some simplification and/or a greater "reward" for crafting them.

Your note about "never touching" the cans you have, is interesting. I just emptied my food crate of several stacks of cans that I will never make, so that's a big change for me. I will probably even switch to not bringing them home in the first place. With a wide range of interests reflected in the player base there is room for more and different foods, much like more and varied agriculture. Some players like a little busy work that way and some just like to get on killing zombies.
 
That is a good question and it comes down to balance. Most players have a food and drink "floor", once they unlock those recipes they just mass produce them and forget about the rest. Once again the food system is a 60% proof of concept and has never been polished. Unfortunately, the water pool negates the smell mechanic but what if higher quality foods had less smell? Would that be attractive enough for players to craft them?
I personally only makes steak and potato meal and red tea/mineral water. But now that stews and the like return glass jars, I'll probably start making those, just gotta change my habits.

For me, less smell wouldn't really matter as I turned smell off (I found it annoying...but I have little interest in fighting biome zombies, finding them more of an annoyance than anything.)
 
Personally by mid to late game, I'm only making honey brisket.... because by that point in the game, honey is plentiful, and I'd rather save my water for glue.
 
I am a huge fan of farming both in Vanilla as well as mods that add additional crops and farm based recipes and tables. At the same though, a few people have already stated the fact that crop variety in and of it itself doesn't offer enough to not just find a single recipe and just grind that for hunger requirements. I think 2 underused factors could improve overall use of multiple crops, Traders and Biomes. Again, I'm a fan of farming in the apocalypse, so take this from the perspective of a farm based character player.

Crops that only grow in certain biomes, and can only be grown in other biomes with a perk for instance. Difficulty, grow time and yields varying with overall biome requirement % vs skill level. Why bother? Better, more complex and slow crafting recipes recipes at higher level. Again why? Trade. Higher quality well made food would be worth a lot more than canned food to the Traders, and is a good incentive for farming based players at higher level. You also have the smell mechanic, and more than a few mods over the years have had spoilage and other effects that could also be used.

Additional animals would also be excellent, but would require a bit more work with live animals like horses, cows, goats, etc vs just adding crop growth stage models and icons.

Khaine and I theorized animated animal pens/husbandry based on the existing forge mechanic, using live animated animals in-game, but once captured, transfer to an icon that could be added to a pen. With an animal, water and food added to an Animal Pen (forge/table), the Pen animation for that animal activates, and you get a goat or cow or whatever grazing. Husbandry could be added like a recipe to the pen once you have enough animals. Animals could be butchered there or using additional tables or a butcher option for animal tokens that returns bones, fat, meat at players butchery skill level.

Again probably this is all academic, but its still all possible with mods currently. As a matter of fact, I should probably point that one of my all time favorite overhauls, War of the Walkers, currently has an impressive amount of custom crops. Have a look if you like farming.

Pumpkin
Hop
Super Corn
Corn
Chrysanthemum
Potato
Blueberry
Aloe
Goldenrod
Coffee
Cotton
Yucca
Mushroom
Moss
Apple
Pepper
Cocoa
Onion
Melon
Lettuce
Leek
Cucumber
Tomato
Wheat
Carrot
Strawberry
Blackberry
 
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