food quality reduction

[Illysia]

How about having the food quality go down after time has passed. Right now it has and keeps whatever quality it is first made with. Quality is arbitrary for right now but, how about it reducing from the quality it started out over time to represent food spoiling. I mean you could probably whack someone over the head with the food to give it varying quality but that would only start a food fight.  This would at least give people who will eventually be able make high quality food due to high skill an advantage as their food would last longer before going bad. What do you think?

[khoridor]

I think that how long food lasts has nothing to do with the chef's skills but with the nature of the dish itself.
That is if you meant Quality as edibility... I thought Quality had to do with tasting good, smelling good and possibly looking good.

[Maju]

I think the key quality food should be a new "moral" (not morals but spirit) stat. Which would be a useful boost for combat or work and would grow with the input of pleasant things, such as food or music.

Of course bad quality food would only increase the char's moral a bit, while first quality food would increase it a lot.

Moral, of course, would decrease with time unless new pleasantries boost it.

That would give a real play dimension to the aesthetic jobs.

[Note: I'd also think that chars should be forced to eat now and then not to weaken and eventually die. But that's surely another issue].

[Prolix]

I'm not sure but I think this would entail an extension of the transient tag such that food would decay not only when it is in the environment but continually from its creation. thus an apple would be fresh for several days after it was picked and the pie made with it would turn out best if made before the apples deteriorate too much. Of course then we get into varying rates of decay as nuts in a shell, for example will last longer than an apple.

[Rigwyn]

Would be nice if higher quality food had a greater effect on restoring hp , mana and stamina (It might - I assume it doesnt ) Its value then could be compared to that of a potion that has an equivalent effect. Regarding the idea of introducing decay... A highly skilled chef might be capable of creating a natural food preservative that makes it last much longer.  A unopened wine might age and increase in value while a hot item might cool off .. ?

[Bguy]

If there is deterioration, there should ways to counteract it, besides preserving it. Perhaps there can be "re-heating" (or whatever the case is) that would work like repairing (lowering the max, but making its quality equal to the max).

[Waylander]

I disagree with this topic.  When food does have deterioration it should be independent  of (though perhaps should affect in some cases) quality.

[Illysia]

How would you manage that? And what affect would it have on the food other than maybe a change in description? I look at this as eventually supporting a system where eating food or certain foods can actually have an effect on the character. And come on, you know that spoiled food isn't as good in quality as fresh food. 

Also, I don't think that a reduction in quality should be dependent on game time as game time passes too quickly. The reduction should be based around real time. After a month that food really should be rotten or disappear. 

[Waylander]

True, but quality doesn't go down constantly.  It drop drastically after the first day and then stays about level for a while until it spoils.  And no matter how good you make a cake it'll still spoil as fast as a poorly made cake.

[Illysia]

Sure, there is no need to be rate differences. But as the badly made cake is already lower quality, there will be less of a distance for it to go down before it becomes not worth eating. 

[khoridor]

I don't understand what you call quality.
Hot dishes generally must be eaten hot, therefore lose quality very quickly. Other things get hard, or soft, or whatever... still edible, but not enjoyable.
To me, quality means pleasure, not edibility.

[Rigwyn]

regarding quality, this could be perceived  several ways ( flavor, nutritional value, durability )
One could say that a mcdonald's hamburger is of high quality in that it will look exactly the same a year later if left out on the shelf    

[Illysia]

Quality is the in game mechanics. Trust me, it is better to incorporate as much of existing mechanics in as you can when suggesting addition to what is already around. I think you all are thinking of it too literally. Think of this in terms of the current quality system.

[Socius Rockus]

regarding quality, this could be perceived  several ways ( flavor, nutritional value, durability )
One could say that a mcdonald's hamburger is of high quality in that it will look exactly the same a year later if left out on the shelf    

That's because the quality was  zero to begin with, so it couldn't degrade anymore

Illysia raises a good point about the game mechanics, I don't see it happening ever to have a good and detailed system representing the quality of the food and Illysia's solution is easy and understandale.