Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.


Although the central place for design discussion is ##crawl-dev on freenode, some may find it helpful to discuss requests and suggestions here first.

Spider Stomper

Posts: 247

Joined: Monday, 10th November 2014, 21:32

Post Thursday, 6th October 2016, 20:48

Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.

Seriously. Why is this a thing?

For this message the author milski has received thanks: 8
Arrhythmia, chequers, dowan, duvessa, Rast, tedric, xbon, ydeve

Tomb Titivator

Posts: 909

Joined: Thursday, 3rd January 2013, 20:32

Post Thursday, 6th October 2016, 21:45

Re: Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.

I presume it's a legacy from before "fainting" status existed, when there was a chance that a multi-turn action at "starving" would kill you...?
Wins (Does not include my GrEE^Veh 15-runer...stupid experimental branch)

Lair Larrikin

Posts: 29

Joined: Thursday, 13th March 2014, 16:44

Post Sunday, 16th October 2016, 23:59

Re: Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.

I also don't quite understand the design choice behind this since auto eating chunks would fulfill the condition needed to not be starving anymore.

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1694

Joined: Tuesday, 31st March 2015, 20:34

Post Tuesday, 18th October 2016, 15:47

Re: Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.

Well, theoretically you could have a royal jelly or a choko in your inventory, as well as a chunk, and be one turn away from starving to death (before fainting status existed). If you automatically ate the chunk, you would die because you wouldn't finish in time. If you ate the choko or the jelly, you would survive.

This situation can't happen at starving anymore, although I guess it could still happen at fainting.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 4432

Joined: Friday, 8th May 2015, 17:51

Post Tuesday, 18th October 2016, 15:52

Re: Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.

Recent versions removed stat death, drowning. What about starvation? Can we make "starved" character slow (even Formicid), pass turns randomly, lose 50% AC/EV/max HP/weapon damage etc. instead of death?
Underestimated: cleaving, Deep Elf, Formicid, Vehumet, EV
Overestimated: AC, GDS
Twin account of Sandman25

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1694

Joined: Tuesday, 31st March 2015, 20:34

Post Tuesday, 18th October 2016, 17:21

Re: Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.

Not a bad idea, perhaps, but think about what sorts of characters end up starving. They are the weak characters who can't keep up with killing enemies fast enough to keep themselves fed. If they are having that much trouble without any penalties, how can they ever hope to get back on track if they are made even worse? Also, in this model, would they be unable to cast spells?

I suppose it could make an interesting choice sometimes. specifically under gozag, where you choose to fight with a handicap to avoid buying a food shop... but that's a pretty wild corner case.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 4432

Joined: Friday, 8th May 2015, 17:51

Post Tuesday, 18th October 2016, 17:24

Re: Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.

dowan wrote:Not a bad idea, perhaps, but think about what sorts of characters end up starving. They are the weak characters who can't keep up with killing enemies fast enough to keep themselves fed.


I don't remember starved characters but I remember characters who had the most problems with food:
Troll of Gozag, Spriggan Berserker and several characters who were lucky to find 5+ rods. None of them was weak, quite the opposite. Probably it could be fun to play them at permanent "starved" status as challenge.
Underestimated: cleaving, Deep Elf, Formicid, Vehumet, EV
Overestimated: AC, GDS
Twin account of Sandman25

For this message the author VeryAngryFelid has received thanks:
dowan

Slime Squisher

Posts: 395

Joined: Monday, 28th April 2014, 19:50

Post Tuesday, 18th October 2016, 21:20

Re: Don't disable auto-eating chunks when starving.

xbon wrote:I also don't quite understand the design choice behind this since auto eating chunks would fulfill the condition needed to not be starving anymore.


There used to be a bug where "you are now hungry" would interrupt the auto-chunk-eating that happened right as you became hungry. So the game would say "Player's hungry? better eat a chunk. Oh wait, player's hungry! Interrupt what they're doing to warn them of this!"

Return to Game Design Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 24 guests

Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by ST Software for PTF.