Here's a dumb idea. This is more of a thought experiment than a suggestion, because, quite frankly, I'm not sure I'd really want it, to tell you the truth, but here we go. What if there was food in ED? What if you could buy food at stations and certain foods would give you special effects, like, I dunno, slo-mo or zoom or something. What if your performance would go down over time if you didn't eat (It's obvious I've played too much Fallout 4)? What if you needed to carry enough food and water while exploring or risk starvation? What if you could find food while exploring to keep you alive? What if you could equip your Adder with a class 3 hot dog module and fly around selling hot dogs? Or, you could be a pizza pirate! I for one, wouldn't mind the occasional space salisbury steak. Discuss!
Food for thought
- Thread starter Spacecat
- Start date
I thought about that some time ago when I was exploring (food that is), thinking about other mechanics that might add some variety, but then I realised how frustrating it would become after a while. Besides, they would need to break down the units into something smaller than 1 tonne too lol .. otherwise I would just buy one unit and keeping it in hold till it eventually expires.
Maybe there is a valid implementation for it, but I don't really want ED to become Sims in Space so to speak.
Maybe there is a valid implementation for it, but I don't really want ED to become Sims in Space so to speak.
I like to take a cargo rack with me when I go exploring. Food cartridges, water, geological equipment, evacuation shelter, survival equipment...narcotics etc.
Still trying to get my hands on an unoccupied escape pod.
When we have space legs I like the idea of breaking the tonnes into their component amounts. 1/3rd of the weight is the container. 100 food (algae-tea, beer etc.)/t, 10 clothing/t, 5 domestic appliances/t etc etc
.1 credit purchases. 1-2cr minimum daily living costs (rent/hotel+food and water)
I don't mind it being simplified to take the micro-management out of it but I would love to see red on wolf fesh and go berserk pirate numbskull.
Still trying to get my hands on an unoccupied escape pod.
When we have space legs I like the idea of breaking the tonnes into their component amounts. 1/3rd of the weight is the container. 100 food (algae-tea, beer etc.)/t, 10 clothing/t, 5 domestic appliances/t etc etc
.1 credit purchases. 1-2cr minimum daily living costs (rent/hotel+food and water)
I don't mind it being simplified to take the micro-management out of it but I would love to see red on wolf fesh and go berserk pirate numbskull.
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The question is, how much it would add to the game to justify the development time.
For the "normal in-bubble gameplay" (which I guess is what the majority of players do), the benefits would be non-existing. What is there to gain from food consumption, if you dock at stations every other minute anyway and food (and water) supplys can be restored easily?
But let's imagine, it is implemented nevertheless. What impact could (different) food have on the game? Our skills are determined by ower own real-world capabilities. If you want better reaction times, don't drink booze while flying. And I certainly don't want unresponsive inputs due to ingame starving.
Maybe visual effects could be affected, such as the already existing readouts and blackouts. But those are not really related to food, but to physical high-g effects. Maybe some sort of tunnel vision?
Where food and water would come into play would be exploring and I like the general idea of "expedition planning". How much provisions do I need for my planned three month trip? There even could be a cost/benefit evaluation of provition weigth vs. jump range.
But again: what would be the related interesting game mechanics? Worsened vision can not be all. ED is not a surviving game, where finding enough food is a crucial part of game play. And current long-time explorers definitely wouldn't love an artificial limitation of their month-lasting trips - especially without benefits for their gameplay. Maybe on day, when landing on life bearing planets is possible, finding food sources might be interesting. But certainly not now.
Thinking about it... water supply could be a relevant necessity already! With the introduction of ice mining, refilling your drinkwater is possible far away from civilization. Ice rings are incredible beautiful places and interrupting long exploration trips every now and then in order to mine for some time might actually add to the enjoyment. Outfitting a small mining laser and the smallest of all possible refineries might be a small enough requirement for extended expeditions.
However, a gamemechanic like this is already in place!
Exploreres usually do outfit a AFMU for a good reason. It has "provisions" that get consumed, and with synthesis, there is already a benefit of mining (and SRV driving) in order to refill consumed charges.
So, for explorers, the AFMU is factually a food game mechanic. And "starving" means a sad end for careless explorers already.
For the "normal in-bubble gameplay" (which I guess is what the majority of players do), the benefits would be non-existing. What is there to gain from food consumption, if you dock at stations every other minute anyway and food (and water) supplys can be restored easily?
But let's imagine, it is implemented nevertheless. What impact could (different) food have on the game? Our skills are determined by ower own real-world capabilities. If you want better reaction times, don't drink booze while flying. And I certainly don't want unresponsive inputs due to ingame starving.
Maybe visual effects could be affected, such as the already existing readouts and blackouts. But those are not really related to food, but to physical high-g effects. Maybe some sort of tunnel vision?
Where food and water would come into play would be exploring and I like the general idea of "expedition planning". How much provisions do I need for my planned three month trip? There even could be a cost/benefit evaluation of provition weigth vs. jump range.
But again: what would be the related interesting game mechanics? Worsened vision can not be all. ED is not a surviving game, where finding enough food is a crucial part of game play. And current long-time explorers definitely wouldn't love an artificial limitation of their month-lasting trips - especially without benefits for their gameplay. Maybe on day, when landing on life bearing planets is possible, finding food sources might be interesting. But certainly not now.
Thinking about it... water supply could be a relevant necessity already! With the introduction of ice mining, refilling your drinkwater is possible far away from civilization. Ice rings are incredible beautiful places and interrupting long exploration trips every now and then in order to mine for some time might actually add to the enjoyment. Outfitting a small mining laser and the smallest of all possible refineries might be a small enough requirement for extended expeditions.
However, a gamemechanic like this is already in place!
Exploreres usually do outfit a AFMU for a good reason. It has "provisions" that get consumed, and with synthesis, there is already a benefit of mining (and SRV driving) in order to refill consumed charges.
So, for explorers, the AFMU is factually a food game mechanic. And "starving" means a sad end for careless explorers already.
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