Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Suggestion for food

Right now the effect of food is so small, and it lasts so short that you typically never use it. I suggest making the effect of food either permanent, or 8 hours, but make it so that you can only have 1 food buff on at a time, i.e., consuming another piece of food changes the buff. This would allow food to be a viable way of further character customization.

Yep, good idea, I hate trying to use food buffs on everyone and quickly run into battle!

I don't think eating a pear needs to last 4800 turns. That seems quite excessive. I think the current amount of turns food lasts is fine. If you want to use it for buffs before battle, maybe a small buff to 10-15 turns.

My suggestion for food is that it heals for some amount less than a small healing potion, but it heals that amount each round.

Basically, it would make the choice between drinking a potion for an instant large heal, or a small but persistent heal with a stat buff. I think that's a more interesting choice than the current implementation where right now it heals for a small amount once, and that's all.

To be honest, this is how I would differentiate magic from alchemy, but - since D:OS has food and no starvation mechanics - it could work for food instead of potions.

Like you have suggested, food should give characters long-term-mutually-exclusive-buffs (one buff at the time which lasts minimum for an encounter). But I also suggest the following...

1- Any comestible piece of food should come with a buff as well as a debuff, in order to make eating an interesting tactical choice.

2- The most complicated recipes (the one made through crafting) should have far better buffs then debuffs.

I think this is mostly a crafting thing. Basic food shouldn't give much, but once you get it into a recipe the result will be much much better.

Really only way I prefer crafting (consumables) anyway, gear we get into all kinds of issues that are discussed in other topics.

I'm a crafting enthusiast, but I really wouldn't mind seeing food disappear from the game altogether. The only time I really enjoy food in an rpg is when it acts as a limiting factor on how often you can rest to recharge abilities. Since that really isn't a thing in the OS games, and since the impact is minimal, I could frankly stand to lose some of the raw tonnage of crafting materials the game buries you under.

I'm such an inveterate hoarder, by midgame I'm suffocating under the weight of all the stupid potatoes and apples that I'm never going to do anything with, but couldn't stop myself from picking up.

Ideally, I would like to have my party eat to gain a buff once per play session (so a buff that lasts an hour, maybe?). For me, making sure to eat a little every time I logged on would increase immersion and keep me crafting recipes because I would feel there's an impactful gain. Eating immediately before every battle, though, is a chore and does not seem like a "natural" relationship with consumables. We don't eat as real people only right before we do a task to gain some immediate benefit, we eat habitually to remain in top condition. The game could even balance buffs and debuffs based on the "healthiness" of the food. So maybe meat adds a (relative) lot to strength while debuffing finesse, whereas an apple gives a small boost to intelligence alone, or health regen, or whatever.

The problem isn't limited to just foods in my opinion. The majority of consumables feels pretty useless right now. If you want the benefit of a consumable like a fire resistance potion or a magic armor potion you'll want to drink it before the battle starts. But then the duration starts ticking down immediately which means that you have to engage right after consuming it or the potion will only be effective for 1 or 2 turns (or worse, run out before the battle even starts). This also means you only have time to consume one or two items on a single party member if you want the effects to last for any decent amount of time in battle.

The alternative is consuming these items in the middle of battle, which feels very wasteful. Besides health and invisibility potions few people are going to waste the AP on consumables when they could attack/move/use a skill instead (except for very specific circumstances).

My solution would be to make it so the effect of consumables like Elemental resistance and other potions last for the full duration of an encounter if taken before a fight. Food should probably last for several encounters and for a long time outside of battle as well and even then I'm not sure if the effects are worthwhile. Currently with the "Five-star-Dinner" talent the "Dinner" food gives a one time heal of 30% and an attribute boost of 2 strength, which is a pretty insignificant attribute boost even in the first act. I'd boost the attribute gains but make it impossible to eat food during battle (doesn't make much sense for someone to dine on a pie in the middle of a fight to begin with). But if you forbid eating during battle then you should probably replace all the one-time health restoration effects from food as well, since the Bedroll has made healing from food redundant already.

Potions have such short durations that, aside from healing potions, I never use them. With food having less of an effect than potions, the only time I ever used any was just to find out what effect it had. I think that, aside from Healing Potions, both potions and food could use a buff. For as little as they sell for, I still find it more worthwhile to sell them than to use them.

I might be willing to use them if they had a 0 AP cost. This could be not overpowered by implementing a global cooldown on consumables (per character, of course).

I was going to suggest making the prepared/cooked food worth a little bit more so at least they could serve as a source of income for crafters.

Also it just seems a bit ridiculous that a prepared meal sells for exactly as much as one of the base components..

I love crafting in this game and in DOS1 i spent lots of time crafting food that i never ate

The main problem is the fact that consuming food during battles is just making you losing tempo: you want to spend points making moves and not being passive. I'd like food to still be an option during battles (like an alternative to healing potions) but i'd like the option to buff myself before important encounters which is a thing i never do because at the time the battle starts i'll have the buff for 1 more turn if it's not already gone.

So the suggestion i agree with is to make food effects last longer (like 6 turns instead of 3). You can buff a little bit enemies to maintain the challenge the same..
This would make me caring about food crafting.
At least consider doing this for tactician mode where people want a real challenge during fights: you've to prepare your buffs before important encounters! Would love to craft food if it's not useless


Also this.

All food effects currently last 6 turns...

(except alcohol)

Food (also crafted food) was pretty much just junk in the last game and that isn't any different in the alpha. If Larian doesn't plan on making it useful then they had might as well just remove it.

Sorry i just pulled out a random number as example Make it 10 then :P

Gulping down a pie between swings of a sword has always seemed ridiculously artificial to me. Food giving you at least an hour buff would simulate habitual eating, because every once in a while when you saw your buff was gone you'd crunch an apple to put it back up. You might even carry a few pieces of food in your bag to make sure you ate throughout your time in an area. Cooked food could provide a better buff, giving everyone a reason to cook the food they find.

I'm liking this idea.

They could even add a periodical "starving" debuff to emphasize the need of eating.
Like -1 constitution if a char is starving (or a stronger one: -1 cons every hour to a maximum of -3). The debuff goes away if you eat something.. Every food may have a different duration depending on the crafting required (cooked food in this case lasts longer + better buff).

I don't get the sense this would be welcome in an OS game. I like survival games that are designed around that mechanic but OS really isnt that type of game. If the game doesn't provide some sort of visceral thrill from the act of acquiring food (hunting a deer with a bow in first person for example), then punishing players for not having it just feels like a "fun tax".

Like I mentioned before, some RPGs have "rest" systems to restore "per rest" abilities, in which case food scarcity can serve as a limit on how often you can rest, keeping resting from being a trivial action. In that case, food scarcity systems work. But OS isn't remotely like that.

Or maybe they could NOT!!

If they're too infrequent and/or with too low a penalty, you can ignore them most of the time and therefore they add nothing (GTA 3: San Andreas). If they are too frequent, they are very annoying (see We Happy Few).

I would typically be the guy to argue for a "starving" debuff, but I do not think it would fit the mood of this game. Gelatinous Rube nailed it with his criticism: there's no game mechanic that makes food acquisition particularly interesting. I think adding in a long(ish) lasting buff for eating would offer a reason to do it in a non-obtrusive way, and we can hopefully mod in a survival mode later if we want.