Grimrock

...and, just when you think your food supply about to be depleted again, you discover the land of seemingly endless azure blue t-bones and you're set for another few levels.

The game does a good job of keeping you stocked. It's surprising well designed in regard to food and potion resources.

I like it, in that you feel pressured for a while, without that there wouldn't be any worry about the food resource at all.

Daniel.

If there was abundant enough food that you could wander around for really long periods of time not advancing and still not even be worried about your supply, what would be the point in having the food mechanic in the game at all? Might as well just eliminate it entirely if running out is not even a possibility. It's not there to look pretty, it's there to be a problem you need to deal with.

jfunk wrote:If there was abundant enough food that you could wander around for really long periods of time not advancing and still not even be worried about your supply, what would be the point in having the food mechanic in the game at all? Might as well just eliminate it entirely if running out is not even a possibility. It's not there to look pretty, it's there to be a problem you need to deal with.

Well, consider that the less skilled you are at the genre, the more likely it is that you'll run into food problems. People who are really good fly through puzzles and combat with ease, with tons of food to spare. People who keep dying, falling down pits, and getting stuck will run out of food. Is it not punishment enough for these players to keep falling down pits and getting lost? The feature has virtually no effect on skilled players (more of just an annoyance to keep checking if you remember to feed all your characters).

jfunk wrote:If there was abundant enough food that you could wander around for really long periods of time not advancing and still not even be worried about your supply, what would be the point in having the food mechanic in the game at all? Might as well just eliminate it entirely if running out is not even a possibility. It's not there to look pretty, it's there to be a problem you need to deal with.

You're missing the point, I'm not asking for an over-abundance of food, it's just that I suspect the designers based the supply on an over-familiarity with their own dungeon. When you know how a puzzle works and repeatedly pass through an area, over time an assumption is built up that you should only need "X" amount of time and therefore "Y" amount of food; when someone comes along and then plays through that area for the first time, maybe hampered by being tired, suffering a brain-fart, or just plain dense, it suddenly becomes 2, 3 or maybe 4 times as long to figure out a puzzle. Yes, the game should be a challenge, but if it becomes impossible it also becomes unenjoyable; as it stands, my only hope is that the designer has left me enough food to get through level 5 and reach a plentiful supply on level 6, so all I was asking was for some way to overcome that difficulty. You know what I mean, having a problem and being able to deal with it?

If you have a problem and no way to deal with it, it becomes a wall to your progress.

hapro wrote:Well, consider that the less skilled you are at the genre, the more likely it is that you'll run into food problems. People who are really good fly through puzzles and combat with ease, with tons of food to spare. People who keep dying, falling down pits, and getting stuck will run out of food. Is it not punishment enough for these players to keep falling down pits and getting lost? The feature has virtually no effect on skilled players (more of just an annoyance to keep checking if you remember to feed all your characters).

Clearly you think food should be eliminated. Why not make all combat easier too? How about we eliminate puzzles so people can't get stuck at all?

Seriously, this forum is filling up with "I had trouble with X, thus the game needs to be changed".

Combat is too hard. Food management is too hard. Puzzles are too hard. Timing challenges are too hard. Oh yeah, and it also needs gamma correction because it's too dark. And it needs to run well on my laptop from 1998 that has no external mouse and the right quarter of the screen is broken.

If everything that people said was too hard on here were eliminated from the game, it would be a non-interactive walk through a well-lit corridor that contained nothing but ambiance (JUST the right ambiance too...so as not to offend anybody's personal taste).

jfunk wrote:Clearly you think food should be eliminated. Why not make all combat easier too? How about we eliminate puzzles so people can't get stuck at all?

Seriously, this forum is filling up with "I had trouble with X, thus the game needs to be changed".

Combat is too hard. Food management is too hard. Puzzles are too hard. Timing challenges are too hard. Oh yeah, and it also needs gamma correction because it's too dark. And it needs to run well on my laptop from 1998 that has no external mouse and the right quarter of the screen is broken.

If everything that people said was too hard on here were eliminated from the game, it would be a non-interactive walk through a well-lit corridor that contained nothing but ambiance (JUST the right ambiance too...so as not to offend anybody's personal taste).

That's not what I said at all. The only thing worse than people complaining about the game is the elitism about how everything is perfect. I am playing on Hard and I've never come close to running out of food. Every now and then I just eat some meat on each person and then forget about it for 30 minutes. Food's ONLY purpose is to punish players who are playing poorly - players who are playing poorly are already punished by their poor play through lack of progression. It doesn't make sense. I don't mind it's inclusion to enhance the flavor and atmosphere of the game, but if people are outright permanently losing their game due to lack of food, then those players most definitely are not having fun. Challenging puzzles are good. Challenging combat is good. Eating food is not difficult at all! In fact, your ability to eat food depends on your performance in how good you are at puzzles and how good you are at combat. Food is not filling a role - it's duplicating one. If you're bad at puzzles you won't progress. If you're bad at combat you'll keep dying. If someone is willing to put in 10 hours to solve a puzzle that takes someone else 1 hour, more power to them. The game shouldn't say "no, we're not going to let you play if you take that long."

regomar wrote:There is a regenerating supply of food on floor six (snails) If you can make it there you'll be fine.

That said, I'm on the last level of my first playthrough and I've had so much excess food that I've been using it for pressure plate puzzles. No idea how people can run out of food that quickly ~shrugs~

Uh oh, I left that door open, that whole floor is going to be crawling with snails!

hapro wrote:The game shouldn't say "no, we're not going to let you play if you take that long."

I suspect that's what jfunk wants, though, he wants to be able to laugh at people for not being able to complete a game he apparently breezed through.

At the first time in dungeon, try to avoid eating when you´re food-meter is not at yellow. That saves you pieces of food
And tont forget to jump in some holes, there is often xtra food^^
(This was the case in DM times, too.)

Me too, had those hunger-fear at level 5.