Simple Nutrition System

[Spracky]

Yeah I know nutrition and all that has been mentioned before, but I'm making this thread because a nutrition system is soon being put in the works. In an attempt to help RJ in his search for a good system, feel free to add on to what I say or speak your own ideas. Now that we got that out of the way...

My idea is simple. First off, food shouldn't have a numerical value of how it fills you in my opinion. The moodles tell us generally how our character's hunger stands, and that's how food descriptions should work. Instead of +20, it should be "Fairly filling". Now let's incorporate nutrition. Nutrition would basically work by making nutritious foods stave off hunger for a longer time and maybe boost skills that are physical, while food lacking nutrition would not last long at all and would weaken and add weight to your character.

Take pancakes for example. We can get filled up by pancakes very quickly, but in an hour we're hungry again. So when pancakes are moused over in the inventory it should read, "Very filling" and "Not very nutritious". Now we can work off this system with everything.

Foods that lack nutrition by a long shot like chips could start having effects such as adding weight and loosing strength if they are the main part of someone's diet. Chips would probably fall under "Slightly filling" and "Barely nutritious".

If I were to have a full course meal of vegetables, fruit, and some meat, not only would this fill me up and keep me filled for a long time, I would also get a temporary boost to skills such as foraging, combat, carpentry, and so forth. I hope this was all clear.

Edit: Just saw a thread about the hunger system in general that opened up literally yesterday. Some of the things I said here have been said over there already. I believe Ssavrog mentioned a system similar to mine there, where nutritious food would keep you ful longer. As stated before, feel free to add on to what is said here or make your own suggestions.

[Zorak]

1st thing numbers > descriptions

its just way more clear.

then nutrition needs to be seperate value on all food.

That value may be diferent than hunger one + it can be negative. (like chips -15 hunger, -15 nutrition; cooked chicken -40 hunger +20 nutrition.)

mixing food (by cooking) can add extra nutrition value + some bonus for cooking lvl.

The game have hidden value of nutrition like from -200 to +200. When you eat your current value changes.

When your hungry / starving your nutrition lvl drops.

when you reach high low values in nutrition you get buff / debuff as long as you keep that lvl.

buffs are like - a bit more speed, endurance, swing time etc.

What it changes ?

well now cooking will make sense as the duffs are nice and long term. eating junk food will keep you feed but are not perfect solution coz your nutrition will drop and you will get that debuff. So in short it will make what all of us wanted - buff nice cooked meals and nerf junk/canned food.

[King jjwpenguin]

New mondoid covers this a bit.

[TheBuzzSaw]

I gotta say: I think a nutrition update sorta crosses the line. I love the detail in the Zomboid universe, but I don't like when that detail becomes something I have to micromanage. Realism is great until it becomes a chore and detracts from the excitement of the game itself. I feel that the proposed nutrition system does exactly that. I think the game is great as it is: you need to find food wherever you can find it and stay alive, and different kinds of food satisfy you at varying degrees (with various punishments for eating rotten/old food). The idea that I cannot just eat chips over and over sounds dreadful. I don't think The Sims even monitors this level of detail.

 

I'd propose that the nutrition system as a whole be isolated into a mod or server setting. It's just not a mechanic my group is looking forward to. =/

[EnigmaGrey]

Whole point is long term effects that may be hidden from the user; the very antithesis of micromanage.

[RobertJohnson]

Yup, no need to micro manage here, just be smart, you'll know you'll have trouble if you only eat chips and soda for 2 months, same if you don't eat protein for 2 or 3 months...

 

Results wont be a horrible death, but malus such as sleeping trouble, getting tired/exhausted faster, lose of strength etc...

[TheBuzzSaw]

That's fair I suppose. I still don't like it, but we'll live.