Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Food should spoil otherwise why have so much?

Food should spoil after an number of Long Rests depending on the type. I don't dislike that you need food for a full rest but it's so easy to find food that it's odd that it's even part of the game at this point. I think if raw food goes bad after a couple of long rests it would make more sense plus you could add in a Survival check to extend food life (make jerky out of meat that sort of thing). At first it sounds a little micromanagement-y but right now there's really no point to the food thing since it's never an issue unless you forget to send some stuff to camp.

+1
Current implementation of food supplies is just for justifying your long rests spamming. No random encounters while resting, food is everywhere, so at least something needs to be done

+1 ...

In perfect world fresh food would provide better nourishment, but it would spoil fast ...
Processed food would provide worse nourishment, but it would spoil slow ...
And we would get option to "pack" our processed food into Camp Supplies, where it would spoil and rot all at once in time.

Nope, I hope not. This is just as stupid and unnecessary mechanics as destroying equipment. Something like this fits in survival games, not RPGs.

I agree, although I wouldn't have put it like that.

Imo the issue is the ton of food you can pick everywhere. The food supply system is mostly useless because of this.
But I ABSOLUTELY do not want to have to manage my items/inventory even more.

Only you know in the 5th edition there is a spell like create food and water.
When we reach level 5 technically, any supplies should be completely useless.

Agree!

I cant help the feeling that Goodberry should have the exactly same effect ... and it doesnt. :-/
(And i hate it.)

I feel like this is a temporary EA issue that will change, either in a subsequent patch or at full release. As if Larian is still balancing the amount of food they want to have available.

But what does it matter if the game cannot allow the player to soft lock anyway?
This means that eventually he will have to be able to rest before a more difficult fight. Which means that ultimately it won't be a limitation anyway.

I don't know what soft lock means?

Not using a level 3 spellslot in combats to create food and water when you rest looks like ressources management.
Useless is not what I'd say.

Agreed.

It does feel odd to me, though, that the food found on the risen road next to the upturned cart is (and stays) fresh and edible. Fruit and vegetables don't take that long to spoil, especially if they're strewn on the ground, presumably bruised and with broken skin.

The game already has assets for rotten produce. I hope they get used more often, perhaps as part of an effort to balance food supply.

Why bother with food anyway, when there are no toilets?

Thanks for the responses guys

For me the food thing isn't bad, I don't actually dislike it, it just needs some attention to it to give it some meaning. I can imagine that food will be much less accessible, without stealing or purchasing it, when we actually get to Baldur's Gate and I did notice there was a lot less food to be had in the Underdark but because it's currently so accessible it hasn't really been anything other than window dressing for the game.

So, my take on it would be to add a spoiling mechanic where food sent to camp only lasts one long rest then spoils unless it's preserved. Food you keep on you wouldn't spoil but you'd have to carry it... Things like wine wouldn't spoil but have a higher re-sale value so you'd have to choose between keeping for supplies or selling it for cash. You'd only be able to preserve when at Camp with a successful Survival roll and any failures would make the food useless. Preserved food never spoils and has half the weight but only half the value (round up) of fresh food.
I would also add in a mechanic where if you spend a small amount of food while taking a short rest you get a bonus to HP recovery or something like that. This way you are encouraged to keep some food with you rather than send everything back to camp.

For most of the game food shouldn't be a big issue but they've teased a long journey at the end of EA and there's also the possibility of traveling to other realms so that could be an interesting opportunity to use food to add an extra level of difficulty to the adventure so I'm not advocating removing the mechanic enterally. However, for some this would be just an annoyance so I would also add in an option to remove food enterally for people who just don't want to bother.

Anyway I'm curious what people thing and what other option short of removing food sound reasonable.

A very good idea gameplay- and world-wise imo !

The same here! If you don't want to collect / store food, just sell it. Buying supply packs is also more than enough. Of course you can also find spoiled food parcels or the like in the wilderness. That means even supply packs can rot... But in a magical world, I expect my camp to have a "magical refrigeration system for storing food". I would find it super annoying to just run to the vendor to buy a new fresh supply pack and that's what happens before I rest, I don't stockpile food to rot. However, with the introduction of rotting food, it would be a consequence. In other words: The supply pack sellers are just becoming my new "fridge" because the food is rotting in my camps store... Now imagine if everyone alternatively uses "supply pack sellers as food storage" then there is no need to store apples, bananas etc. at camp. The individual groceries are easily sold or traded for a fresh supply pack, which is also easier to manage in storage / inventory than dozens of individual groceries. Or I abuse the skeleton guy in the camp by selling him food and buying it back from him to rest.

PS: Or alcohol is only collected and stored because it lasts for decades...

I would be fine with food spoiling. I don't think there should be a spoilage rate difference between food we carry or food left at camp, if someone has Survival (or frost spells?) they would be able to preserve food a bit longer no matter where it was. They could add in recipes as well for preservation, like smoked meat and dried fruit for example. Perhaps just a button to assign someone to it while at camp, there don't need to be extra animations for it or anything. Something similar to the Pathfinder games where you select a party member and select a recipe and it happens over a long rest.

Would like there to be a special food storage chest as well, perhaps this would contain only the preserved food. This could be something the game auto removes food from for a long rest, but if we wanted to use fresh food then this would need to be in our inventory first. I think the stupid send to camp function should not work on this storage chest because it would only hold what we preserved, but this food would be auto added to the chest.

And obviously there would need to be an option for people to turn off the spoiling mechanic.

-1 I don't really see the point of food spoiling. Works in other genres, but in BG3 it would be adding a tacked on mechanic, to what already is a tacked on system.

I like the concept, but I must say, after further thought, if they don't improve item management, it's just going to be really annoying.

Time to throw out all the spoiled food... One item at a time... Slowly... Painstakingly...