Barkeep
Posts: 3890
Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25
Location: USA
Proposal: remove chunk-eating for satiation purposes
I propose the following—I think all would have to be implemented together, though some things that I'm less sure of have been qualified with "if necessary" etc.
Anyway, here we go.
MAIN PROPOSAL
1.) Only permafood provides nutrition. Eating chunks for satiation purposes is removed. You can still force your character to eat chunks, so (e.g.) mutagenic chunks are still a thing, as are rot-inducing chunks, you just never eat any chunks for satiation purposes.
EXCEPTIONS: Ghoul, Vampire, Mummies, [EDIT: and *Trolls*]. They all do their normal thing. (Any changes to them should be considered separately.)
2.) Corpse generation remains (as currently implemented) for sacrificial purposes, raising undead, etc. Butchering remains (as currently implemented) for chunk-generation for sublimation of blood and simulacrum, and for purposes mentioned in the first point. Hide generation (troll, dragon, animal skin, etc.) remains, you do it through butchering as always. Butchering and chunk-juggling for *eating* purposes however becomes unnecessary for 99% of characters. (Ghouls being the exception, and Vampires with their pseudo-chunk potions of blood.)
3.) Hunger still exists. However, hunger from waiting/resting is *DRASTICALLY* reduced, or else *removed entirely*. Hunger is incurred primarily, or entirely, from the hunger costs of spells, evocables, etc. The out of depth timer remains in effect, of course, as this is what *actually* prevents scumming (not per-turn food cost).
EDIT: Of course there has to be a small non-eliminable (outside of lich-form) hunger cost for melee, firing ranged weapons, throwing, etc.
*If necessary, an interactive display similar to hunger can let a player know when *REALLY* out of depth monsters become *likely* (not just possible) to spawn on a level. This can easily provide a way to let players know that, unlike some other roguelikes, you can't just sit around on D1 forever. (If people think a display is necessary this can be implemented I'm sure, it is not like it will be any more intrusive than having HUNGRY pop up a million times per game.)
4.) Spell hunger is put on a different type of scale, such that level 1 spells have a much lower spell hunger, level 2 spells have significantly less, level 3 spells have less... etc. Level 6 and above (or maybe 5 and above) can stay about where they are now. Evokable items' food cost can, I think, stay where it is now. Ditto with most invokable abilities, *except* the heal other ability you get at the start from Elyvilion should have lessened food costs. This is so that bad luck with permafood generation on levels 1 to 7 doesn't become a major source of frustration, as you can't eat chunks for satiation.
* Perhaps in this arrangement, Sif Muna's channeling ability should have food costs reduced *a bit*, but this kind of minor tweaking can be done afterward, I think much with hunger costs can remain the same or close to the same, with the exception of lower leveled spells and starting god abilities. Because early game is the only time when lack of permafood might be a problem.
5.) Hunger cost of berserk is lowered. Hunger cost of breath abilities and spit poison probably should be tweaked (i.e., lowered) too. All the other costs (exhaustion, slow for berserk, breath timeout for break abilities) remain as they are now, as these are the mechanisms that *actually* balance these abilities in the first place!!
6.) Regeneration has a flat nutritional cost per turn, during those times when it is actually helping you. (I.e., you are damaged and it is regenerating you. If you are at full HP there is no hunger cost.) So can other effects or transmutations, etc., if deemed necessary. Necromutation has same effect it does now with respect to food—it eliminates all hunger costs.
7.) For nearly all characters, you just eat permafood when you get hungry. End of freakin' story.
8.) As for Centaurs, Kobolds, Hill Orcs, Halflings, Spriggans, Demonspawn who get the Saprovore mutation, etc.: This is handled with varying degrees of "fast metabolism" or "slow metabolism" mutation (intrinsic or acquired or demonspawned) which has a *new and different effect entirely*: It either increases or decreases hunger *costs* by a certain percentage, applying to all hunger costs, with 3 tiers in either direction (fast or slow), plus "normal" in the middle. Obviously fast metabolism increases nutrition cost, slow metabolism decreases nutrition cost.
9.) Ring of satiation can decrease all nutrition costs by a small amount, amulet of the gourmand (name change might be in order!) can decrease all such costs by a large amount, and staff of energy can decrease all food costs of *spells* by a large or very large amount or entirely negate them.
10.) If necessary, permafood nutrition is increased +X% across the board, and the elasticity of hunger categories (starving, near starving, very hungry, hungry, satiated, full, very full, engorged) is expanded by +X% as well. If *additionally* necessary, the weight of all permafood is *decreased* by Y% across the board.
I hope the rationale behind this sweeping set of reforms is clear enough.
No race should be distinct on the basis of being less tedious to play. Hunger costs should be a tactical consideration, not a chore, and differences among species metabolism should be reconsidered in that light. The poor "C" and "E" keys on your keyboard should not wear out so quickly.
I know, there is a lot of tweaking necessary, and the devil may well be in the details. But I think there is widespread sentiment that, with victory dancing gone beginning with 0.9, managing trivial hunger costs from walking around and autotravel and resting when no enemies are nearby is probably the most tedious, uninteresting aspect of Crawl gameplay.
I imagine many people will worry about balance issues, and yes this might introduce balance issues, but people had the same worries about victory dancing. I think the only way a qualitative change for the better is going to happen with food is if we do what we did with skill training: Get a *good* mechanism in place, *then* balance. Otherwise we won't get anywhere.
Seriously, the removal of victory dancing in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.9 was the dawn of a new era. Let's make 0.13 the same!
Death to all tedium. Long live Crawl.