Over the course of playing Dwarf Fortress for the first time in Adventure Mode, I have been learning quite a lot so far—primarily about vegetation since that is what I have been looking into the most. I discovered that there are an abundance of vegetables that are not edible, there are many leaves
as pointed out by many that could have been used to brew tea, and there are several vegetables that are not edible but should be edible as well as vegetables that are edible in Fortress Mode through the skill called 'Herbalism' which is unavailable to Adventurers in Adventure Mode.
Herbalism reminds me of the foraging Botanists and Explorers do for medicinal and edible vegetation, and this is something I believe is vital to Adventurers since they need to search for sustenance through their world's flora if fauna available for hunting or stashed good are unable to be found. Herbalism could allow Adventurers in Adventure Mode and Dwarves in Fortress Mode to identity poisonous vegetables which should also be consumable—rhubarb leaves being one many poisonous vegetables.
The more well-versed an Adventurer or NPC is at Herbalism, the more descriptive a fruit, plant, or vegetable will be when inspected with "l" or inspected within the Adventurer's or NPC's inventory. Herbalism can be further trained through changing licking to a mechanic that is used for testing vegetation through licking, nibbling, biting, or eating a vegetable—each method providing more skill gains based on the amount consumed and the risk involved from the amount consumed.
Poisonous vegetation also has the potential to be incorporated into the upcoming major Villains update through expanding the Alchemy and Cooking skills' capabilities by allowing Adventurers or NPCs to poison beverages or to brew medicinal or poisonous concoctions to give or throw at other NPCs.
With regard to rationing, the same mechanic—excluding licking—mentioned above can be used for eating portions of our food, in addition to identifying their properties based on the amount consumed, rather than eating the food entirely:
- Nibble results in partially eating something edible. (i.e., Partially-eaten peach.)
- Biting results in eating half of something edible. (i.e., Half-eaten peach.)
- Eating something edible results in Dwarf Fortress's default behavior.
Partially-eaten edibles stack with other partially-eaten edibles of its type and the same applies to half-eaten edibles of the same type. This will allow Adventurers and Dwarves in Fortress Mode to ration their consumables similarly to the way Adventurers drink an unit of water from their waterskins or from much bigger containers capable of holding water. Similarly to the aforementioned eating mechanic, this can also be done with liquids through sipping, drinking, and gulping:
- Sipping samples a liquid in an attempt to identify its properties. (Sipping does not quench thirst.)
- Drinking a liquid results in default Dwarf Fortress behavior in addition to an attempt to identify its properties.
- Gulping a liquid will consume the necessary amount of units needed to quench the entity's thirst. (Gulping does not identify a liquid's properties.)
This mechanic will help test an unknown liquid's properties to ensure it is not contaminated or poisoned if "l"ooking at it is not enough which can be tied to a new skill, the Alchemy skill, or the Chemist skill (I am not really sure if this should be a baseline thing for everything that is not a vegetable or tied to a skill if Herbalism does not cover it).
These suggestions can also be incorporated into Fortress Mode as well since... I realized that I covered some things that do not exist in either mode. I believe these mechanics will allow us to interact with edibles, liquids, and vegetation in a more realistic manner in addition to adding a little expansion to what will be possible through villainy.
(Special Credits/Thanks for the Above Ideas)
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Topic: Herbalism (Adventure Mode & Expansion), Poisonous Flora, and Rationing (Read 890 times)