Geralds lack of eating and drinking.

[536vvprim]

Geralds lack of eating and drinking.

Hello CD Project team,
I found it curious that in TW2 Gerald is unable to buy food for health and drink for making the world sway.
Food is all there is to buy in the pub at Flotsom or Vergen while Dandelion and Zoltan are drinking away.Food cannot be eaten and is classified as "junk". What to do with bought food but get rid of it?

 

[saintmagician]

I don't like eating and drinking mechanics in games. I've played very few RPGs where this is done well and I can't imagine why it'd be useful.

That being said, since food does already exist, it seems very silly that we have dedicated merchants for it and we can't do anything with it. Either get rid of the food, or make it do *something*
- Maybe they can be used as potion ingrediants?
- Maybe one or two quests can incorporate the need to buy an item of food and do something with it
- Maybe you can eat them, when out of combat, to regain HP. This means there's no effect on actual combat balance, but means the food actually does something.

Or we can just get rid of it, i'm all for this.


'Realism' in RPGs is only helpful if it's realism that players can enjoy.
Otherwise we end up in a slippery slope of realism to having piss and crap meters.

 

[drunknmunkey666]

I love TW1 because I can get pissed and participate in drinking games to get access to quests and items - strange that TW2 doesn't have that.. It was a nice touch concerning roleplaying, that I was able to step into an inn and get hammered...

 

[dragonbird]

To me, one of the biggest improvements in RPGs over the last 10 years isn't the graphics, or the combat techniques, it's that someone, I don't know who, decided to scrap eating/drinking/sleeping requirements. I hated all the constraints that it used to place on moving the game forwards.

And my biggest dislike about TW1 was the strain on inventory management due to food and drink.

Guess we all have different tastes

On this one, I agree with saintmagician, as long as any quest avoids the DA2-style "Heroic Quest: Find someone's hat and return it"

As far as I'm concerned, food's just there to be sold, and the merchants who sell food are there mainly to buy stuff from you when you start to get overloaded. (Except for the dumb blonde in Vergen, who is there for the wonderful LOL.)

 

[yayodeanno.831]

I suspect food was ment to do something in game but the feature got left out along many others. It's very sad when you compare this to TW1 where there was abundance of drinks and foods to be bought from innkepers and many of those items could be used in side quests or for some other purposes. As much as I love TW2 I'll always think it's an unfinished and un-complete game, it starts rich and then gets poorer and poorer as you progress. And stuff like unusable food has just no excuse in such an ambitious game.

 

[Aver]

I suspect food was ment to do something in game but the feature got left out along many others. It's very sad when you compare this to TW1 where there was abundance of drinks and foods to be bought from innkepers and many of those items could be used in side quests or for some other purposes. As much as I love TW2 I'll always think it's an unfinished and un-complete game, it starts rich and then gets poorer and poorer as you progress. And stuff like unusable food has just no excuse in such an ambitious game.

Well, CD Projekt had financial problems during development of TW2. It may be cause of "un-complete game" feeling.

 

[yuikami]

I really like the food in TW1 too, they are so collectible [like doll house food] and restore of HP and energy, still, the drinking game was awesome and would be nice to have something like that in TW2 but I understand why things like that isn't necessary and inventory arranging in TW1 sure was painful... I wouldn't want to imagin doing that in TW2 too with all the foods and drinks x_x.

 

[username_3497665]

To me, one of the biggest improvements in RPGs over the last 10 years isn't the graphics, or the combat techniques, it's that someone, I don't know who, decided to scrap eating/drinking/sleeping requirements. I hated all the constraints that it used to place on moving the game forwards.

And my biggest dislike about TW1 was the strain on inventory management due to food and drink.

Guess we all have different tastes

On this one, I agree with saintmagician, as long as any quest avoids the DA2-style "Heroic Quest: Find someone's hat and return it"

As far as I'm concerned, food's just there to be sold, and the merchants who sell food are there mainly to buy stuff from you when you start to get overloaded. (Except for the dumb blonde in Vergen, who is there for the wonderful LOL.)

I'm with you on this one. I didn't care about the food&drink in TW1, it just stuffed my inventory unnecessarily, I preferred to restore HP with elixirs but I collected those items anyway because they could come in handy in some quests. But I found that rather tiresome. And all those drinking games weren't that much fun for me.

And that Vergen girl who has trouble with her boyfriend is priceless!

 

[Garrison72]

The food vendors are a weird addition, maybe they're even a joke, poking fun at an old RPG convention. Drinking I would like back, for the drinking games, alchemy base, bribing, getting drunk, etc.

 

[Aditya]

And that Vergen girl who has trouble with her boyfriend is priceless!

seriously! that is still one of my most fav and best moments!
(if im not wrong, it can be observed on both paths since she is outside the main part of the city)

 

[saintmagician]

It's even better because in so many other RPGs, you'd have this kind of thing, where the hero offers to help by doing something mundane like going to talk to the boyfriend.

 

[Blothulfur]

Vittles in Ultima 7 were a pain in the arse until you got the everfull cup in the serpent isle but the system did seem to add a lot to the world from the origins of silver root to adding a spot of realism when you went to a tavern and saw food and drink being devoured. Betrayal at Krondor's system of just having packs of rations that were stackable and you could buy at any inn or the ocassional farm was a nice middle ground, it let you know that food was an important part of the world while not encumbering you with micromanagement and irritation.

However inns in the witcher had a certain charm what with each landlords different personality, his use as a supplier of beverages and food and the opportunity to rest and meditate at their fireplaces while they swept up, sat on their stool behind the bar or butchered meat for meals. The inns in Assassins of Kings felt a bit lifeless in comparison, maybe you could rent rooms in the witcher 3 where you can store equipment and meditate out of the flow of people as well as get frisky with Triss and maybe even get disturbed from your meditations by thieves or assassins thus opening up a quest or chase.

Like horses and cloaks it's not a needed thing in rpg's but I do find the addition of these elements adds a certain depth of immersion to the setting, the unbelievable becomes believable when rooted in reality. That's why I loved simply wandering through Flotsam and Vizima.

Plus getting rat arsed with the lads and being dragged back to your rooms is always fun, in game or out.

 

[squigette]

I could skip the eat/food part, BUT I would LOVE to see booze and DRINKING back in the game like in TW1!

 

[chromie92]

Gawd it's GeraLT!

 

[jonesy1138]

The great thing about eating/drinking in TW1 is that it was optional, they were just very short duration buffs to vitality or endurance regen (vitality didnt regenerate off-combat and endurance did so very slowly). This meant that, if you are like one of the peeps above who dont care about the nice, little touches like food&drink, you could get by not bothering.

Its a shame we lost that option for TW2, although there are hints that at some point they were going to include it (all the unusable 'junk' food) and got scrapped for whatever reason. Its a far superior system compared to the (forgiving) automatic and instant health/vigor regen of TW2.

 

[whiplash27]

Yeah, the food in TW2 is useless and it boggles my mind where there are so many merchants that sell it. In TW1 food was useful because it would help restore vitality, endurance or something. Especially since in TW1, vitality took forever to restore. The way it was in TW1 was good because if you didn't eat, it wouldn't hurt you, however, if you did eat, it would only help you.