Although many of the food items listed below may have had their own topics in the Xbox 360 suggestion forum, I would like to expand on them and combine them into one post. Now each of the food items that will be suggested not only add onto existing items in the game, but may also serve as aesthetic blocks for world generation as well. In addition, I would like to go over an idea for how the food system can be overhauled to balance all food.
New Food using Existing Items:
Caramel- Caramel can be created by placing sugar in a furnace.
Caramel Apples- Caramel apples can be crafted by placing a stick, an apple, and caramel onto a crafting table to produce one caramel apple.
Cooked Egg- Cooked eggs can be created by placing an egg in a furnace. Cooked Eggs would finally allow players to consume eggs without having to craft a cake or pumpkin pie.
Chocolate Cake- The crafting recipe for chocolate cake would be almost identical to normal cake except one milk bucket must be replaced with cocoa beans.
Milk/ Chocolate Milk- Now this requires 4J to allow us to place milk into empty glass bottles in order to craft this item. I have come up with two ideas on how the feature can be implemented in game:
1. The player can place milk into a cauldron and pick it back up with three glass bottles.
2. The player places 3 empty glass bottles and a bucket of milk onto a crafting table to produce 3 milk bottles.
Once crafted, the 3 milk bottles can be placed in a brewing stand and cocoa beans would be placed in the ingredient slot to produce 3 bottles of chocolate milk.
New Containers/ New Food using New items:
Glass Jars- Glass jars can be made by placing 5 glass blocks on the crafting table in a U-shape to create 2 glass jars. They are used primarily to store strawberry jam and honey. Glass jars are placeable blocks, being slightly bigger than a brewing stand, and have up to 3 uses like the cauldron, before having to be refilled again.
Large Clay Pots (LCPs)- LCPs are made by placing 5 clay bricks on a crafting table in a U-shape to create 2 LCPs. They can be used to hold any of the 2-block tall flowers and the new strawberry plant. Any plants inside the LCPs can be trimmed with shears to obtain part of the plant without the removal of the plant itself. Therefore, players could place strawberry plants in LCPs and easily obtain strawberries without removing the plant itself.
Strawberry Plants- Strawberry plants can be found in forests and along rivers. The strawberry plant will drop 3-5 strawberries when a player uses shears. Now unlike other crops in the game, the strawberry plant cannot be farmed. I chose to not let it be farmable because it would be a common block to find and any player would only require a few to serve their purposes. The strawberry plant can be broken with any tool or fist to drop the plant itself. Strawberry plants can be placed on grass blocks or inside the new Large Clay Pot.
Strawberries- Strawberries can be eaten alone to restore a small amount of hunger. However, 3 strawberries can also be crafted with a glass jar to make strawberry jam. Jam can be combined with bread, up to 3 times, to make 2 strawberry sandwiches per use (No Sprite Art Yet). In addition, strawberries can be placed in a brewing stand to produce strawberry milk, with strawberry replacing the cocoa beans in the ingredient slot.
Seaweed- Seaweed can be found in both river and ocean biomes. A player can collect seaweed bits by breaking the block or collect the whole plant by using shears. In order to create more seaweed in their world, players would just have to place seaweed bits into water and allow it to grow back to full size.
Seaweed Bits- Seaweed bits can be combined with raw fish, raw salmon, or pufferfish to produce sushi rolls. No crafting table necessary, as the recipe only requires 2 seaweed bits and one raw fish to produce 2 sushi rolls. The saturation of each roll would be based on the fish used, with raw fish have the lowest and pufferfish having the highest. To balance this out, pufferfish sushi rolls would have a 25% chance of causing Nausea and Poison for at least 30 seconds.
Beehive- Beehives can be found in almost every biome except for snow and desert biomes. The beehive can be found on trees and must be broken in order to obtain 2-3 honey. Yet, breaking the hive will cause a swarm of bees to chase you until you get outside a 20 block radius from the original location of the beehive or by hiding underwater for at least 10 seconds. The bees would then relocate to another tree within a 20 block of the original tree and form a new beehive. This process normally takes two to three Minecraft days to finish. Beehives can only be obtained through the use of silk touch, yet players cannot get honey unless they break it.
Honey- Honey can be placed on the side of trees to entice bees to build their hives on that specific spot. However, honey cannot be eaten by itself and must be placed inside a jar in order to eat it. The recipe would be 3 honeys and 1 glass jar produce 1 honey jar. The honey jar can then be combined with bread, up to 3 times, to produce 2 honey covered bread (No Sprite Art Yet).
Truffles- Truffles are a new mushroom that have a 2% chance of being found well digging through the top 2 dirt blocks of any area. Truffles can serve as a substitute in mushroom soup and fetch a couple emeralds from villagers as it is a prized delicacy. Players can use pigs to locate truffles by watching for when pigs start smelling the ground (kind of like how sheep eat grass). Truffles can be found within a 5 block radius of a “smelling pig.”
Food System Overhaul:
If you made it this far down into my post, this will be the final part . . . I promise. The main issue with food in Minecraft is saturation values. Why would anyone carry watermelons or cookies, when they can easily fill up their hunger bar with food such as steak or pork chops, which also have high saturation values. I feel that each food group should have their own special perks that would allow players to choose food that would best suit their needs before they max out their hunger bar.
• Fruits & Vegetables- All food items within this category would boost health regeneration for a limited amount of time. Times ranging between 5 to 30 seconds. Drawbacks for using foods in this category would be low saturation values.
• Meats- All food items in this category will increase stamina, basically the player can do more things before he starts to get hungry again. Drawbacks for using foods in this category would be no additional perks.
• Sweets- All food items within this category would provide a speed boost for players for a limited amount of time. Times ranging from 5 to 30 seconds. Drawbacks for using foods in this category would be once again low saturation values.
• Dairy- All food items within this category will erase all potion effects on a player.
• Mushrooms- All food items within this category would have high saturation values and also have a random perk when consumed.
• Combos- Any food items that combine multiple items into their recipes from any of the other groups will have those items individual perks stacked up.
• Notable Exceptions- Cooked eggs will fall under meats group, honey will fall under sweets, and bread will be neutral unless combined with jam or honey.
Attach to this thread is the sprite art for each of the items mentioned. Until I figure out how to post images onto the thread itself, I hope you guys can make due with this. By the way, the pink seaweed in the attachment is coral but I will save that for another post.
I don't think food should provide any additional perks, such as speed or health regen, since this will conflict with the purpose of potion-brewing. Nevermind that you mentioned some effects would last for 30 seconds. That's completely OP.
I can find other flaws with this suggestion too, but I don't really care enough to address them. I personally don't see the point in adding tons of new food items. Replenishing stamina is nice mechanic in the game, but I don't waste my time crafting cakes and pies to do it. And I probably won't waste time making honey bread or jam either. I have a 9x9 carrot patch and in literally a few seconds have 2 full stacks of them. And with my automatic cow-cooker getting food is as easy as opening a chest and grabbing it. (If only I can automate breeding...)
I do like the idea for large clay pots, though. You should roll with that. Get rid of everything else.
I don't think food should provide any additional perks, such as speed or health regen, since this will conflict with the purpose of potion-brewing. Nevermind that you mentioned some effects would last for 30 seconds. That's completely OP.
Most food items would only give at least 5-10 seconds before their perks expire, compared to the time that most potion effects have on a player before they expire, I don't feel its OP. I intended for the perks to be an early game features for players to take advantage of until they were able to start brewing potions which would of course offer better benefits.
The only item that would actually give up to 30 seconds would be the cakes, assuming you ate the whole cake all at once. 6 pieces x 5 second speed boost = 30 seconds worth of speed boost.
I can find other flaws with this suggestion too, but I don't really care enough to address them. I personally don't see the point in adding tons of new food items. Replenishing stamina is nice mechanic in the game, but I don't waste my time crafting cakes and pies to do it. And I probably won't waste time making honey bread or jam either. I have a 9x9 carrot patch and in literally a few seconds have 2 full stacks of them. And with my automatic cow-cooker getting food is as easy as opening a chest and grabbing it. (If only I can automate breeding...)
I will never understand why adding new food into Minecraft is considered a taboo in the forums unless it provides something new to the game other than variety. But you're proving my point. Why craft any food that takes more than a couple of seconds to make, when you can just farm the hell out of just a couple. This is why I feel the food system is flawed in the first place. Plus, be honest with me, when the new rabbit stew or beet root soup possibly comes out in the next update, do you feel you'll ever craft them more than once?
I do like the idea for large clay pots, though. You should roll with that. Get rid of everything else.
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So...add stuff that basically removes most potions? No thanks.
Can you explain how this would remove potions?
The food system is...all right as it is. Adding a whole mess of things and tacking on bonuses won't really help improve it any.
Also, what identifies as the top two dirt blocks for an area? Can I just keep placing and breaking dirt since this seems to behave like flint?
In a way, truffles can behave like flint. But the top block must always be a grass block in order to find a truffle, sorry for not stating this in the post. Therefore, you can clear a whole area of its top two layers of dirt, but you have to wait for the grass to grow back in order for a chance to find more truffles. Therefore, an area devoid of any grass blocks will not yield any truffles.
I like the idea of milk in a glass jar like potions go into. I never carry around a bucket of milk to negate status attacks from witches, as that's just one more (at least) block of inventory taken up "just in case". And if you don't carry around multiple buckets (for whatever reason) then that space is still taken up if you ever drank the milk. Or at least make it two to three uses like Lon Lon milk in Zelda. But if you can put it in glass jars, at least once you use it, the empties stack. (Though I have issue with how a bottle with a cork in it stacks empty but not full. At least buckets make sense that they stack empty.)
I also like the egg being eatable itself. But I'd simplify it even more. Why can't it be eaten raw, so I can carry a stack (ala most food in this or eggs in Resident Evil) for hunger. They could even make it where it fills hunger more cooked then raw like fish, but still the option to just eat or cook the egg rather than baking cakes as it's only use.
I wouldn't be object to more foods, it's no skin off my teeth, but I am not sure I'd really use it. Like UpUp_Away I have wheat potatoes or carrots in most major structures I have and use that as food. I rarely kill animals, fish, or "craft" food, outside of something as simple as wheat to bread.
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Bettie Mae Page "Queen of Pinups" April 22, 1923 - Dec. 11, 2008
“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing. ” -- Charles Bukowski
Before I say anything else, let me first say this:
I actually DO like some of these ideas. But there's a certain feel to vanilla MC and I'm not convinced they fall in with it.
Potions are meant to be a mid-game item since they can dramatically alter the pace and style of gameplay. Adding buffs pretty much from the start takes away from potions. Even if they are only for a few seconds, the ease with which you can get/make food compared to brewing makes it so that potions would be practically obsolete. Why would anyone bother brewing if they could simple eat another food item after 5-10 seconds?
As far as just adding new food... I was only stating my opinion on the matter. They can add whatever they want, I won't b****h about it. But while the Full Stamina ---> Health Regen mechanic works, I find that actually gathering food is a hassle. Hence, easier equals better. For me. As far as the rabbit stew... since it restores the full 10 haunches of stamina, I might keep one in my inventory in case I'm in a pinch. But then again I'm not usually short on food to begin with.
Syenoyx makes good points. I didn't brew or enchant until about a month ago or so. And had no intention of it. I started playing Minecraft for the building aspect, and never minded that there were other mechanics in the game I never used. I also build very basic and functional structures. I don't decorate or anything. I've only traded for the achievement. (Though finally a little while back I took a tour of the tutorial and marveled at the detailed castle and house.) I managed to "complete" the game, minus the Wither (that I didn't know about until recently) with no potions and no enchantments. The Enderdragon and survival was manageable to me on normal without using the two. Of course since I didn't brew, I didn't explore the Nether much. But I am rambling, sorry.
The point I was trying for is, potions and enchantments only seem to be needed on either harder difficulties or just for **its and giggles. I personally use swift a lot now just for the aspect of getting from one place to another on the map, as it's fast and doesn't have a set course like a track. I think the key in adding anything to the game, as I've played so far, is to make it an added benefit for those that want it, but not make it a necessity for progress for those that don't. In that Minecraft has achieved things that other games can't. Like that stupid key you can't find in title x game to beat random boss, then the game is over if you can't find it. Whereas with Minecraft the Enderdragon, Nether, and Wither are all optional and don't take away from the game if you don't want to complete those tasks.
If I were to offer an opinion on these foods with benefits I would say making them non stackable, like stew or potions, would allow a benefit to a player without the benefits of the food negating the use of potions, or making tasks normally a challenge, no challenge at all. It's why I can still make runs to the Nether for fortress treasures and sometimes still die or at least exhaust the potions I take with me by the time I get back to my portal. Potions make the Nether easier to transverse but not as easy as walking top side during the day. I think Minecraft does great at presenting challenges when you want them, and making it a nice relaxing and peaceful game when you want it to be.
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Bettie Mae Page "Queen of Pinups" April 22, 1923 - Dec. 11, 2008
“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing. ” -- Charles Bukowski
I can understand why it would be OP to introduce potion-like effects in the form of fleeting buffs provided by food, but I think it would be in keeping with the vanilla feel of Minecraft if they were implemented properly. For example, as you mentioned, the current "Full Stamina ---> Health Regen mechanic works" so it would prevent players from spamming food to gain potentially infinite effects. As well as this, instead of stacking a buff, eating multiple items that provides a buff could simply reset the allotted timer. I would be willing to accept an overwrite system, whereby eating another type of food removes the current buff and replaces it with the new one associated with the last eaten food.All fair points. Though rotten flesh can be used to drop the hunger bar quickly enough to enable successive eating. "Overwriting" buffs will work, but I despair at the thought of that function overlapping onto potions. All said, still not sure gaining buffs from food is balanced.
I feel like it should at least be considered, as I know many players who have never shown any interest in, nor are willing to express future interest in potions and brewing. However, they could still benefit from minute effects by eating specific foods. This may even have the effect of causing some players to at least entertain the idea of brewing in the future.
There are many mechanics in the game that some players just don't deal with, such as brewing, enchanting, trading, end-game bosses, beacons, etc., so this could simply be a perk added to a standard mechanic that most players have to use if they play on anything other than peaceful. Respectfully, I have to disagree with this opinion. If a player does not utilize features in a game that's their perogative. They should not be given free perks because they have electively distanced themselves from portions of the game. I'm sorry but this is a weak argument to make. If you want a speed boost or health regen that's what potions and beacons were created for.
Wow! I completely forgot about rotten flesh, thank you Deskepticon for reminding me.
As you say, rotten flesh could allow players to continue to gain buffs from eating food due to it causing food poisoning. But to counter that I say players would not be able to gain buffs until the food poisoning effect has finished, which is a good 30 seconds, or by immediately drinking milk to negate the effect. Thus, in addition to having to carry food and rotten flesh, players would have to carry multiple buckets of milk in their inventory to take advantage of rotten flesh. Besides there's already food that provides negative effects such as rotten flesh and spider eyes. As well as food that provides op effects such as both types of golden apples. What's wrong with the rest providing some sort of positive effect.
I am completely on board with the overwriting idea, so long as food items that give the same buff don't overwrite each other out. As for stacking buffs, I say it should be capped at 30 seconds max. I believe that players would not waste their time constantly eating to maintain a buff, since the amount of time needed to consume the food would constantly cut into the time granted by the buff itself. Therefore, a player would have to eat more food than necessary in order to reach the 30 second cap of any given buff.
Although many of the food items listed below may have had their own topics in the Xbox 360 suggestion forum, I would like to expand on them and combine them into one post. Now each of the food items that will be suggested not only add onto existing items in the game, but may also serve as aesthetic blocks for world generation as well. In addition, I would like to go over an idea for how the food system can be overhauled to balance all food.
New Food using Existing Items:
Caramel- Caramel can be created by placing sugar in a furnace.
Caramel Apples- Caramel apples can be crafted by placing a stick, an apple, and caramel onto a crafting table to produce one caramel apple.
Cooked Egg- Cooked eggs can be created by placing an egg in a furnace. Cooked Eggs would finally allow players to consume eggs without having to craft a cake or pumpkin pie.
Chocolate Cake- The crafting recipe for chocolate cake would be almost identical to normal cake except one milk bucket must be replaced with cocoa beans.
Milk/ Chocolate Milk- Now this requires 4J to allow us to place milk into empty glass bottles in order to craft this item. I have come up with two ideas on how the feature can be implemented in game:
1. The player can place milk into a cauldron and pick it back up with three glass bottles.
2. The player places 3 empty glass bottles and a bucket of milk onto a crafting table to produce 3 milk bottles.
Once crafted, the 3 milk bottles can be placed in a brewing stand and cocoa beans would be placed in the ingredient slot to produce 3 bottles of chocolate milk.
New Containers/ New Food using New items:
Glass Jars- Glass jars can be made by placing 5 glass blocks on the crafting table in a U-shape to create 2 glass jars. They are used primarily to store strawberry jam and honey. Glass jars are placeable blocks, being slightly bigger than a brewing stand, and have up to 3 uses like the cauldron, before having to be refilled again.
Large Clay Pots (LCPs)- LCPs are made by placing 5 clay bricks on a crafting table in a U-shape to create 2 LCPs. They can be used to hold any of the 2-block tall flowers and the new strawberry plant. Any plants inside the LCPs can be trimmed with shears to obtain part of the plant without the removal of the plant itself. Therefore, players could place strawberry plants in LCPs and easily obtain strawberries without removing the plant itself.
Strawberry Plants- Strawberry plants can be found in forests and along rivers. The strawberry plant will drop 3-5 strawberries when a player uses shears. Now unlike other crops in the game, the strawberry plant cannot be farmed. I chose to not let it be farmable because it would be a common block to find and any player would only require a few to serve their purposes. The strawberry plant can be broken with any tool or fist to drop the plant itself. Strawberry plants can be placed on grass blocks or inside the new Large Clay Pot.
Strawberries- Strawberries can be eaten alone to restore a small amount of hunger. However, 3 strawberries can also be crafted with a glass jar to make strawberry jam. Jam can be combined with bread, up to 3 times, to make 2 strawberry sandwiches per use (No Sprite Art Yet). In addition, strawberries can be placed in a brewing stand to produce strawberry milk, with strawberry replacing the cocoa beans in the ingredient slot.
Seaweed- Seaweed can be found in both river and ocean biomes. A player can collect seaweed bits by breaking the block or collect the whole plant by using shears. In order to create more seaweed in their world, players would just have to place seaweed bits into water and allow it to grow back to full size.
Seaweed Bits- Seaweed bits can be combined with raw fish, raw salmon, or pufferfish to produce sushi rolls. No crafting table necessary, as the recipe only requires 2 seaweed bits and one raw fish to produce 2 sushi rolls. The saturation of each roll would be based on the fish used, with raw fish have the lowest and pufferfish having the highest. To balance this out, pufferfish sushi rolls would have a 25% chance of causing Nausea and Poison for at least 30 seconds.
Beehive- Beehives can be found in almost every biome except for snow and desert biomes. The beehive can be found on trees and must be broken in order to obtain 2-3 honey. Yet, breaking the hive will cause a swarm of bees to chase you until you get outside a 20 block radius from the original location of the beehive or by hiding underwater for at least 10 seconds. The bees would then relocate to another tree within a 20 block of the original tree and form a new beehive. This process normally takes two to three Minecraft days to finish. Beehives can only be obtained through the use of silk touch, yet players cannot get honey unless they break it.
Honey- Honey can be placed on the side of trees to entice bees to build their hives on that specific spot. However, honey cannot be eaten by itself and must be placed inside a jar in order to eat it. The recipe would be 3 honeys and 1 glass jar produce 1 honey jar. The honey jar can then be combined with bread, up to 3 times, to produce 2 honey covered bread (No Sprite Art Yet).
Truffles- Truffles are a new mushroom that have a 2% chance of being found well digging through the top 2 dirt blocks of any area. Truffles can serve as a substitute in mushroom soup and fetch a couple emeralds from villagers as it is a prized delicacy. Players can use pigs to locate truffles by watching for when pigs start smelling the ground (kind of like how sheep eat grass). Truffles can be found within a 5 block radius of a “smelling pig.”
Food System Overhaul:
If you made it this far down into my post, this will be the final part . . . I promise. The main issue with food in Minecraft is saturation values. Why would anyone carry watermelons or cookies, when they can easily fill up their hunger bar with food such as steak or pork chops, which also have high saturation values. I feel that each food group should have their own special perks that would allow players to choose food that would best suit their needs before they max out their hunger bar.
• Fruits & Vegetables- All food items within this category would boost health regeneration for a limited amount of time. Times ranging between 5 to 30 seconds. Drawbacks for using foods in this category would be low saturation values.
• Meats- All food items in this category will increase stamina, basically the player can do more things before he starts to get hungry again. Drawbacks for using foods in this category would be no additional perks.
• Sweets- All food items within this category would provide a speed boost for players for a limited amount of time. Times ranging from 5 to 30 seconds. Drawbacks for using foods in this category would be once again low saturation values.
• Dairy- All food items within this category will erase all potion effects on a player.
• Mushrooms- All food items within this category would have high saturation values and also have a random perk when consumed.
• Combos- Any food items that combine multiple items into their recipes from any of the other groups will have those items individual perks stacked up.
• Notable Exceptions- Cooked eggs will fall under meats group, honey will fall under sweets, and bread will be neutral unless combined with jam or honey.
Attach to this thread is the sprite art for each of the items mentioned. Until I figure out how to post images onto the thread itself, I hope you guys can make due with this. By the way, the pink seaweed in the attachment is coral but I will save that for another post.
I don't think food should provide any additional perks, such as speed or health regen, since this will conflict with the purpose of potion-brewing. Nevermind that you mentioned some effects would last for 30 seconds. That's completely OP.
I can find other flaws with this suggestion too, but I don't really care enough to address them. I personally don't see the point in adding tons of new food items. Replenishing stamina is nice mechanic in the game, but I don't waste my time crafting cakes and pies to do it. And I probably won't waste time making honey bread or jam either. I have a 9x9 carrot patch and in literally a few seconds have 2 full stacks of them. And with my automatic cow-cooker getting food is as easy as opening a chest and grabbing it. (If only I can automate breeding...)
I do like the idea for large clay pots, though. You should roll with that. Get rid of everything else.
So...add stuff that basically removes most potions? No thanks.
The food system is...all right as it is. Adding a whole mess of things and tacking on bonuses won't really help improve it any.
Also, what identifies as the top two dirt blocks for an area? Can I just keep placing and breaking dirt since this seems to behave like flint?
Stay fluffy~
I like the idea of milk in a glass jar like potions go into. I never carry around a bucket of milk to negate status attacks from witches, as that's just one more (at least) block of inventory taken up "just in case". And if you don't carry around multiple buckets (for whatever reason) then that space is still taken up if you ever drank the milk. Or at least make it two to three uses like Lon Lon milk in Zelda. But if you can put it in glass jars, at least once you use it, the empties stack. (Though I have issue with how a bottle with a cork in it stacks empty but not full. At least buckets make sense that they stack empty.)
I also like the egg being eatable itself. But I'd simplify it even more. Why can't it be eaten raw, so I can carry a stack (ala most food in this or eggs in Resident Evil) for hunger. They could even make it where it fills hunger more cooked then raw like fish, but still the option to just eat or cook the egg rather than baking cakes as it's only use.
I wouldn't be object to more foods, it's no skin off my teeth, but I am not sure I'd really use it. Like UpUp_Away I have wheat potatoes or carrots in most major structures I have and use that as food. I rarely kill animals, fish, or "craft" food, outside of something as simple as wheat to bread.
Bettie Mae Page "Queen of Pinups" April 22, 1923 - Dec. 11, 2008
“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing. ” -- Charles Bukowski
Before I say anything else, let me first say this:
I actually DO like some of these ideas. But there's a certain feel to vanilla MC and I'm not convinced they fall in with it.
Potions are meant to be a mid-game item since they can dramatically alter the pace and style of gameplay. Adding buffs pretty much from the start takes away from potions. Even if they are only for a few seconds, the ease with which you can get/make food compared to brewing makes it so that potions would be practically obsolete. Why would anyone bother brewing if they could simple eat another food item after 5-10 seconds?
As far as just adding new food... I was only stating my opinion on the matter. They can add whatever they want, I won't b****h about it. But while the Full Stamina ---> Health Regen mechanic works, I find that actually gathering food is a hassle. Hence, easier equals better. For me. As far as the rabbit stew... since it restores the full 10 haunches of stamina, I might keep one in my inventory in case I'm in a pinch. But then again I'm not usually short on food to begin with.
Syenoyx makes good points. I didn't brew or enchant until about a month ago or so. And had no intention of it. I started playing Minecraft for the building aspect, and never minded that there were other mechanics in the game I never used. I also build very basic and functional structures. I don't decorate or anything. I've only traded for the achievement. (Though finally a little while back I took a tour of the tutorial and marveled at the detailed castle and house.) I managed to "complete" the game, minus the Wither (that I didn't know about until recently) with no potions and no enchantments. The Enderdragon and survival was manageable to me on normal without using the two. Of course since I didn't brew, I didn't explore the Nether much. But I am rambling, sorry.
The point I was trying for is, potions and enchantments only seem to be needed on either harder difficulties or just for **its and giggles. I personally use swift a lot now just for the aspect of getting from one place to another on the map, as it's fast and doesn't have a set course like a track. I think the key in adding anything to the game, as I've played so far, is to make it an added benefit for those that want it, but not make it a necessity for progress for those that don't. In that Minecraft has achieved things that other games can't. Like that stupid key you can't find in title x game to beat random boss, then the game is over if you can't find it. Whereas with Minecraft the Enderdragon, Nether, and Wither are all optional and don't take away from the game if you don't want to complete those tasks.
If I were to offer an opinion on these foods with benefits I would say making them non stackable, like stew or potions, would allow a benefit to a player without the benefits of the food negating the use of potions, or making tasks normally a challenge, no challenge at all. It's why I can still make runs to the Nether for fortress treasures and sometimes still die or at least exhaust the potions I take with me by the time I get back to my portal. Potions make the Nether easier to transverse but not as easy as walking top side during the day. I think Minecraft does great at presenting challenges when you want them, and making it a nice relaxing and peaceful game when you want it to be.
Bettie Mae Page "Queen of Pinups" April 22, 1923 - Dec. 11, 2008
“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing. ” -- Charles Bukowski
Wow! I completely forgot about rotten flesh, thank you Deskepticon for reminding me.
As you say, rotten flesh could allow players to continue to gain buffs from eating food due to it causing food poisoning. But to counter that I say players would not be able to gain buffs until the food poisoning effect has finished, which is a good 30 seconds, or by immediately drinking milk to negate the effect. Thus, in addition to having to carry food and rotten flesh, players would have to carry multiple buckets of milk in their inventory to take advantage of rotten flesh. Besides there's already food that provides negative effects such as rotten flesh and spider eyes. As well as food that provides op effects such as both types of golden apples. What's wrong with the rest providing some sort of positive effect.
I am completely on board with the overwriting idea, so long as food items that give the same buff don't overwrite each other out. As for stacking buffs, I say it should be capped at 30 seconds max. I believe that players would not waste their time constantly eating to maintain a buff, since the amount of time needed to consume the food would constantly cut into the time granted by the buff itself. Therefore, a player would have to eat more food than necessary in order to reach the 30 second cap of any given buff.