Food (no ontology)
From Mazeworld
Food is an important kind of item in Mazeworld, and is one of the ways to avoid dying. The primary way to quell hunger, a contestant may eat to avoid dying from starvation, but not too much, to avoid suffocation.
Food is available in high variety and quantities, and may be classed in several types: fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, desserts, fast-food, lunch packs, commodities, and beverages. Every single food item has the same individual weight of 1.
Foods in Mazeworld are of varying quality and status ; some of them may be poisoned, others may have additional effects, and alcoholic beverages may also increase the inebriation rate.
They are usually found at random in the rooms, but may also be bought in a randomly-found dedicated shop: the delicatessen.
Food items may be consumed whole, or in multiple portions, depending on the type of food item. Any amount of portions may be eaten at any moment, but multiple-portion foods allow the contestant to eat one portion per turn, lowering slightly his/her hunger while at the same time preserving time and food quantities - this is perhaps the best solutions for hunger emergencies in the middle of a fight, or when food becomes scarce.
For example, a carrot is a single-portion food item, while a Bento Box is a multiple-portion one, containing more to eat.
Foods are of varying quality, and more often than not, the higher the calorie count, the higher the maximum potential Hunger will go down - this is the quality of a food item. For example, a mere orange is of lower quality than something richer, such as a milkshake.
Those two factors come in play to calculate how much hunger will be quelled. A xdy dice is thrown, where x is the amount of portions eaten and y the quality of the food item consumed. The resulting number is the amount reduced from the Hunger rate.
For example, when a contestant eats an apple, which is a single-portion item, with a quality of 6. This results in throwing a 1d6 die. The result of the dice throw will be the final amount of Hunger quelled.
Because of this system, food may or may not content the contestant's stomach were he/she to become hungry. This is the effectiveness of a food item. Depending on how much Hunger was reduced compared to its potential maximum, the effective quality may be:
- Tasteless if the Hunger quelled was 1
- Bland if the Hunger quelled was under half of the quality
- Good if the Hunger quelled was half or more than half of the quality
- Excellent if the Hunger quelled was the maximum quality.
For example, if a contestant eats an apple and feels that "it tasted good", it means his/her Hunger rate dropped by a number between 3 and 5.
Players will want to stock up on food as much as possible to prevent any Hunger-related problems or in case of a bad luck stroll of Tasteless or Bland items. Any food item is good to keep in the backpack - but it might be problematic to eat "just one more" high-quality food item if the contestant is already in an oversatiated state, then realizing too late he/she is dying from choking.
If a contestant owns cyanide, he/she can spike food with poison, and use it to try and feed an enemy, which will die the instant it eats. (Of course, eating food the contestant spiked himself/herself is a really bad idea.) There is also a possibility that certain food items can be found poisoned, and while certain of those items are obvious, others are not and may be confused for regular food items. Caution is advised.
