And it will say "(fresh)" if you dip it in an unIDed potion of holy water :)

I have to say that the more I think about this feature the less I am for it.

I actually agree that it's kinda counterintuitive, especially how food becomes cursed as it rots. Call me crazy, but "cursed" to me implies that some kind of nasty magical spell has been placed upon it (why else would you find yourself prevented by an unnatural force from removing or letting go of such items?). Now sure, corpses might be generated that way (perhaps the monster in question took a bad drink from a pool sometime and ended up with the Cursed intrinsic), but for them to automatically become cursed as they rot seems... odd. Making the fresh/slightly rotten/rotten status a separate counter from B/U/C makes more sense. But that's a suggestion for a different RFE.

I do not, however, agree that this is a high-impact mechanic. Its effect would be negligible, for reasons outlined in detail elsewhere.

I like the basic idea, but I dislike the approach.

Let's balance things out a bit, shall we? Here's what I'm proposing:

When eating uncooked corpses, raw meat, and other such intuitively-dangerous substances, then there is some chance that it will "taste a bit... funny". Should this happen, a prompt will come up asking "Do you want to continue eating? Y/N". Should you continue eating after this prompt, then there is a risk of getting sickness from the corpse. This is distinct from sickness coming from kobalds and rabid dogs, though. Should you choose to cancel eating, the food item is destroyed with no benefit to satiation and no gaining of any special effects from the corpse.

The probability of it tasting funny could be, say, one in ten for blessed, one in five for uncursed and one in three for cursed. The probability of it then causing sickness could be zero for blessed, one in ten for uncursed and one in five for cursed, giving a 2% chance for appropriate uncursed food and just under a 7% chance for appropriate cursed food. These probabilities could be modified for some corpses - I'd imagine that some of the weirder corpses would always "taste funny", while fresh meat would be less likely on all counts.

With the prompt there, the PC is given a warning that this meal could cause sickness, but it doesn't reveal the BUC status of the food, and it doesn't confuse new players too much, since anyone reading that the food that they're eating "tastes a bit... funny" with a prompt for continuing eating would recognise that it indicates a risk.

EDIT: For a bit more flavour (if you'll pardon the pun), the "tastes a bit... funny" probability could also be influenced by Perception - the net probability of it causing sickness wouldn't change, but the probability of getting the warning would be decreased with increasing Perception, since the PC is more able to tell whether it's really tasting a bit funny in a bad way or it's just a minor variation in flavour.

Simple and effective. I like it.

There have been approximately a dozen different suggestions for implementing a food poisoning system in ADOM. I don't think any of them are practical from an effort/benefit viewpoint, which admittedly is chiefly because I don't see a benefit to begin with. The endorsements are essentially limited to "it would be realistic" or "a fun little extra detail". I can't agree with the former because I think the game already accounts for rotten food - the PC recognizes it's rotten and throws it away. Of course the game abstracts it, but that's because it's a game first, a simulation second. I also see zero fun, and that would be the deal breaker for me. Then there's the suggestion of adding it to a twenty-year-old game with very clear rules about food - only the type of the corpse determines if there's a negative effect or not, not the not-normally-detectable b/u/c status - in the course of what's likely to be last major update of the game ever (as I'm pretty certain Thomas is planning to move on to ADOM II completely after 1.2.x has been refined). At best, it could be a fun little detail that players will hardly notice. At worst, it would require hours of coding and rebalancing throughout the prereleases and 1.2.x.

I'd say that if you want food poisoning that much (I still have no idea what's remotely fun about the concept), you should lobby for it in ADOM II - this isn't the time or the place.

EDIT: If you think that was a "simple" suggestion you probably haven't thought it through nearly as much as you should.

Well, that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it; discussing differing opinions and ideas is after all what the forums are for. But your opinion is also as subjective as the next guy's, and not everyone agrees with you. Myself, I find that increased realism and attention to detail makes the game more believable and more interesting, which in turn makes it easier for me to suspend disbelief and become more immersed in the game world, and less likely find myself thinking, "This doesn't make any sense." In other words, lack of realism makes games for me less enjoyable, and less fun. And that's just as valid as anyone else's personal preference.

That's the Creator's call, not yours.

Yeah? The method I suggested at the beginning wouldn't be any more complex than: "When eaten, if cursed, roll dice. If dice = X, apply poison effect for Y turns". Unless TB is an incredibly inefficient programmer (which I doubt), that looks pretty simple to me. So do enlighten me, which part exactly is prohibitively complicated?

The part where I was referring to Aielyn's suggestion. Yours isn't very complicated to implement, no, but the alternative suggestions came about, remember, because random poisoning 1 out of 100 times you eat any corpse is annoying at best, kills early game PCs at worst, unless they avoid eating corpses altogether, therefore locking away one of the game's very old and very actually interesting mechanics - eating the flesh of once living beings for sustenance and to attain their powers. (I guess cannibalism only becomes properly authentic and immersive once you can possibly get food poisoning from it?) Beginners have more than enough stuff to worry about in the early game without suddenly dying for doing something that seemed perfectly safe a second ago.

Incidentally, if there's a bigger waste of time than pointing out to another forum member that what they wrote is their opinion, I'd like to see it. I guess pointing out to another forum member that they don't get to decide which features get implemented in ADOM or not because that's the Creator's Call comes pretty close.

I've never really found food poisoning to be a fun mechanic.

I am not for this idea. The only thing that could convince me is if every PC, regardless of skill, could identify if an item was (rotten) - even if they hadn't been carrying it, 'seen' it rot, or whatever. If they want to eat it, they know it's rotten. If that were true, I'd be ok with rotting corpses having a small (5%~) chance of poisoning/sickening.

Fair enough. While admittedly Aielyn's version is more elaborate than mine, I still don't see that it would be terribly complex. It'd be a matter of linking a few extra variables/dice rolls together. More specifically: "When uncooked corpse/raw meat is eaten, roll dice. If dice = X (determined by B/U/C), open prompt. If prompt = false, destroy item. If prompt = true, roll dice. If dice = Y (determined by Pe), apply sickness effect for Z turns." Now, whether or not that's worth the effort is debatable... but it's still relatively simple.

You're either forgetting, or else simply ignoring, the numerous times these objections have already been addressed. For starters, it wouldn't be a random 1/100 every time you eat any corpse. It would be zero for cooked corpses, and 1/100 only for cursed and/or rotten uncooked corpses, zero again for uncursed/blessed uncooked corpses. This would translate to substantially less than 1/100 odds overall and a significant chance of the player being forewarned that there might be a *small* chance of *mild* risk. Which brings me back to the part where it's already been elaborated upon again and again how the risk of "suddenly dying" is miniscule and easily avoidable anyway. I'm not going to go over those details again; it's all in the thread already.

Regarding the opinion part, my intent was simply to explain what exactly about the feature some people might actually find fun, as you made it clear that you "still have no idea what's remotely fun about the concept". There was no ill motive involved. Relax.
EDIT: And on that subject, part of what could make it fun is the dynamic of having to weigh the benefits or necessity to eat a given corpse with the potential risk, knowing (as an example) that it's rotten and might possibly be unsafe. Same concept as having to decide if the potential benefit of drinking an identified potion or reading an identified scroll of unknown status outweighs the risk if it's cursed. Strategy, strategy, strategy.

As for the second part, that was simply because I found you proclaiming that this wasn't the time or place for this suggestion, as if that's up to you to decide, annoying. There's offering your opinion, e.g. "I don't like this idea, and here's why" (which is fine), and then there's trying to cram your opinion down someone's throat, e.g. "I don't like this idea, and you shouldn't be suggesting it" (which is not fine).

Agreed; that'd probably be a change for the better anyway. It's not as if it's hard to tell if something's rotten, after all... you'd have to be both blind and have no sense of smell.

I'm against anything that makes eating more of a chore in ADOM! :P Especially a 1 in X chance of a prompt popping up during eating a regular corpse (which could be easily confused with the usual prompt to continue eating during battle and such).

Simple fact is eating happens a lot. Especially unided raw corpses. Especially in the vulnerable early game. And especially by new players. Add any barrier to the simple act of gaining *necessary* satiation and you have a frustrating system for very very very little reward. There are many other areas where the food system could be made more realistic! Most of which I'd probably oppose too ;)

I'm sorry if I gave that impression! It wasn't intentional. You should always assume that if "I think that..." and similar are absent from a post, it's because they were forgotten. Though I actually do think your efforts to implement a feature like this in an ADOM game would be much more likely to succeed if you dedicated them to ADOM II.

By the way - There's addressing a point, and addressing it successfully. I've read the thread, believe it or not. I am perfectly aware that the percentage wasn't set; I wrote "1 in 100" off the top of my head. Yeah, if I go by the letter in your original feature request we're at 1 in 800. The thing is, though, it's not the likelihood of it happening that's the problem; it's the consequences of it happening; it will be either annoying (if the PC can deal with poison) or deadly (if he can't). Just for comparison, rat attacks have a very low chance to cause sickness. It screws over early game PCs when it happens, too, but at least it's caused by one of the game's many hostile creatures, and you can avoid it by handling rat encounters in a different way until sickness is no more than an afterthought (missile weapons for instance). You expect to be screwed by creatures. "lol food poisoning" after you've eaten orc corpses by the truckloads with no ill effects before doesn't encourage any kind of interesting strategy - it would make Cooking or Detect Item Status virtually obligatory before you can do anything with the corpses you find, and cannibalism happens to be one of the game's many actually interesting features.

IMHO the complexity of the discussion proves that the addition would create more problems that flavour.