Minecraft Forums

Preface:

I’m gonna be honest with everyone. The readability and good quality of suggestions on this forum has dropped in the past few years, especially since the loss of the original Suggestions Guide. This isn’t entirely the fault of the suggesters: some people aren’t fluent in English and some people don’t or don’t want to read or write as much as others.

I think the best way to learn how to do something is by example, though. And while I’m often content with most of what Mojang throws at us, I think there are some pieces of gameplay that are objectively mediocre or bad. (Example: Even though I think the 1.9 combat is an improvement over the old combat, I still think the combat is meh and could still be replaced with something better.)

The Hunger System is one of these systems that’s not really satisfactory and deserves refinement. And while I don’t expect to write down the be-all end-all to hunger system improvement for Minecraft, I hope to make a system that's somewhat more fun and engaging than the current system.



Food Overhaul


Before I get on to the new stuff, let’s look at why we need change in the first place.

The food system isn’t that great right now. We have two variables, Saturation and Hunger, but rather than some foods filling up more Saturation and some filling up more Hunger, we have easy-to-get foods (Namely: ALL THE MEATS) that will fill up both of those variables very well, and there isn’t even that much progression required to get them, it just takes a little bit of effort to make them easily replenish-able.

This means that there is no real reward for finding and trying new food sources and no punishment for eating only one kind of food. As long as you have a supply of food that fills up both saturation and hunger very well, you won’t have to worry about making any more food and there is no real reward for farming crops that have no uses besides food.


(Potatoes and Beetroot are practically useless if the player has a never-ending supply of Cooked Chicken.)

However, there’s a decent reason for the current state of things: you have to balance making the food system an important, balanced part of Minecraft but you also have to make sure food and farming doesn’t take up all of your playtime. This is why the game doesn’t require you to water your crops on a daily basis or protect them from diseases.

So when overhauling food, we need to also make sure that this new food system doesn’t take up too much of the player’s time that could be spent building, mining or exploring.


Experience Benefits

As you’ll see in the next few minutes, I’ve come up with a system that makes it worth farming and making all kinds of food, but there are still food items the player might never use after all that time.

That’s why, in addition to filling up your hunger, some food will now give experience when eaten. Raw vegetables, fruits or meats will not give you any XP though. You have to cook them in some way.

In the Statistics menu, there’s a new tab for Food. You will see the food item with it’s name, and how long it’s been since you ate that food in Minecraft days and how many times you’ve eaten it. Eating a food for the first time will give you twice as much XP as it’s normal XP Refill value.

Now, before you find the food with the most XP Refill and start preparing to farm it, there’s a catch: you have to wait 10 full days before it gives the full refill value again. Otherwise, it will give you (XP Refill * (Days Since last eaten / 10)) XP rounded down.

This means it’s better to find multiple foods that refill XP in order to maximize the amount of XP you get. This requires the player to find foreign ingredients, and to try cooking new kinds of food.

Nutrition

The nutrition system needs to be improved before I start talking about any food at all. I’ll keep it simple, though.

Rather than two variables, Saturation and Hunger, there are now three: Vitamins, Proteins and Energy, which is the most similar to the Hunger bar.

The Vitamin and Protein values can be seen as red and yellow bars in the inventory, under the main inventory section. Meanwhile your Energy is displayed as your Hunger currently is, as the hunger shanks on your hotbar.

You cannot eat any food while your Energy is full. This means if you’ve been eating food with High Energy and High Vitamins but very little Protein, you’ll have to wait until you can refill your proteins again, and vice versa.

Your Energy Bar has a max value of 20 and will decrease at a constant rate of one full Energy Bar per Minecraft Day or 20 minutes. When it reaches half of it’s full value, you can no longer sprint. When it reaches it’s minimum, you will start experiencing slightly slower movement speed and mining speed.

Your Vitamin Bar has a max value of 100 and will decrease slowly while you mine, build, attack, sprint, etc. However, the Vitamin bar starts out at 50, rather than the full 100. If you do reach 100, you can experience slightly improved movement, mining speed and attack damage. When it reaches zero, you will get an effect called “Starving” and you will start taking damage similarly to the current hunger damage.

Your Protein Bar (Hee Hee… Protein Bar…) has a max value of 100 and decreases when healing damage. Like the Vitamin Bar, it starts out at 50. When it reaches zero, you will not heal any health. When the Protein Bar reaches 100, however, your health will recharge at twice it’s normal rate.

The Protein Bar works a bit differently, though. If a food is not a “Meat” item, it will not add to the protein bar if the bar’s value is 50 or above. This means that if you eat a food that heals 4 protein but is not a Meat item, and your protein value is 48, the value will not change to 52, it will change to 50.

You cannot be healed by Protein if you have the Starving effect.

While your energy bar will decrease relatively quickly, the other two bars decrease rather slowly. If you start with a full Vitamin Bar of 100, it'll be gone by about a Minecraft Season. (We'll get to that later.) Your Protein Bar will decrease by about 1 point per heart lost. If you lose a lot of health early-game, you might be at risk, so a good diet may be just as important in battle as armor or weapons if you like charging in and attacking without thought.

A Fourth Bar???

Now let’s move on to the first type of food: crops. But first...

Seasons

WOAH WOAH WOAH C1ff, SEASONS??? ARE YOU GONNA MAKE IT SNOW IN MY NICE FOREST BIOME? WISHLIST WISHLIST WISHLIST NOOO SUPPOOO… Hold on there!

First, seasons are very important when we’re dealing with farming. If you’ve ever stepped outside, I imagine you’ll find that most plants will die off in Fall and Winter and most trees won’t have fruit or leaves on them. Meanwhile plants tend to grow flowers and blossom in the Spring and Summer.

A lot of people suggest seasons, and a lot of people suggest a lot of changes that would make the game a lot laggier because of all the block updates (such as turning water into ice) and the weather griefing. (snow all over the place)

I think it’s possible to get results that show what season it is rather nicely, and without requiring the player to have a powerful computer or to clean up afterwards.


The way to do that is simple: Rather than doing any kind of block updates, only the textures certain blocks render will change depending on the season. (And whether or not snow covers form in the biomes they already form in. Snow will not disappear for any non-player reason or appear in places it shouldn’t.)

(Also, just for the sake of immersion, the stems of flowers will now change color depending on the season and biome. Flowers in colder biomes will have browner, deader stems, while having alive, but dry and yellow stems in hot biomes.)


In Summer: It will rain in temperate and cold biomes. Snow will not spawn on the ground in cold biomes during this time. The colors of grass, flowers and leaves look the same as always. The game starts on the first day of summer.

This is a picture of both Summer and Spring in a temperate biome. Other biomes change too, but in hot and cold biomes you won't see any texture changes at all.

In Fall: It will rain in temperate biomes. It will snow in cold biomes and snow will spawn on the ground in cold biomes. The colors of grass will turn slightly more blue in temperate biomes, but will not yet match the color of cold biome grass. Flowers remain the same, but the leaves of trees will change color depending on tree:

- Oak Leaves will turn Brown.
- Birch Leaves will turn Yellow.
- Spruce Leaves are Evergreens, and will only change with grass color.
- Jungle Leaves will turn bright Red.
- Acacia Leaves will only change with grass color.
- Dark Oak Leaves will turn Orange.

Yes, I do realize I said that Oak Trees would turn brown. This is for effect.

The leaves in hot biomes will not change color depending on the season. The main reason for this is that I've never actually seen a picture of a Jungle with multicolored fall leaves, and I doubt one exists because I don't think this is a real occurrence.

In Winter: It will snow in temperate and cold biomes. It will rain in hot biomes too. Snow will form on the ground in cold biomes, but not in temperate ones. The color of grass in temperate biomes becomes blueish, similar to cold biomes. Flower Stems turn brown and dry, implying that they’ve died and wilted. All leaves will turn Brown in Winter except Spruce and Acacia.

I don't actually have a good caption for this picture, but I wanted to have some consistency.

In Spring: It will rain in temperate biomes again, and remain dry in hot biomes. Snow still falls and forms on the ground in cold biomes, though. The color of grass and flowers returns to normal and leaves become green again.


How long do these seasons last, though? Well, in order to make sure the player isn’t stuck in one season for the entire time they play on a world, I’m going to assume that the player is playing the game for about 2 hours every play session. That’s six Minecraft days. For the moment, let’s make one season last 20 Minecraft days, or 6⅔ hours.

This means that the player has about three and a half average play sessions to take care of any seasonal changes. Even people that play for 6 hours a day will easily have enough time to get their farming done early on in the season and then get back to mining.

As you’ll see in a moment, you’ll want to react to these seasons when they happen.


Crops

Before I talk about each crop individually, let’s get some information about crops out of the way so I don’t have to reexplain for each one.

(WARNING: This is very detailed, and you may have to read this over a couple of times to fully understand how crops work.)

Crops, the block, will have 16 possible block states like other blocks in 1.13. Because of this, we can have two variables assigned to one block with 4 possible values. These values are:

GrowthStage (1,2,3 or 4. Sadly, crops are limited to 4 stages of growth rather than 8 now.)
Planted Season (1,2,3 or 4.)

The Planted Season variable is set as soon as the crop is planted. 1 for Winter, 2 for Spring, etc. The GrowthStage has a 5% chance of increasing every 60 seconds under the following conditions:

- The crop must be planted on wet soil.
- The crop must have a light level of 9 or over.
- The GrowthStage is less than (Current Season - Planted Season) + 1.
- The GrowthStage is less than its maximum growth.

If the GrowthStage variable does not increase because it’s equal to it’s maximum growth, the crop block will turn into a rotten crop block instead. It might also turn into a rotten crop if the GrowthStage is greater than 1 during the crop’s Death Season or Planting Season. (Which may be the same season.)

The rotten crop block looks like a withered, brown version of the first growth stage of a crop. It has a 85% chance of dropping a crop’s seed item, meaning that you’ll lose crops if they get too old. During the season after a plant’s Death Season a crop has a 50% chance to grow back into a healthy crop with a GrowthStage of 1, but also a 50% chance of being deleted from the world forever.

Bottom line: Know your crops, and tend your crops!


Summer Crops

Carrot:
Maximum Growth: 3
Planting Season: Winter
Death Season: Fall
Seed Item: Carrot
Energy Refill: 3
Vitamin Refill: 12
Protein Refill: 5

Can feed pigs, rabbits and Villagers. Used in Potions. Carrots are dropped by Zombies and frequently found growing in Villages.

Tomato:
Maximum Growth: 2
Planting Season: Spring
Death Season: Fall
Seed Item: Tomato Seeds
Energy Refill: 1
Vitamin Refill: 10
Protein Refill: 7

Can feed pigs and Villagers. Used in making Chili. Tomato seeds are found in Mineshaft Chests and very rarely Villages will have Tomatoes growing in them.

Melon:
Maximum Growth: 3
Planting Season: Winter
Death Season: Fall
Seed Item: Melon Seeds
Energy Refill: 2
Vitamin Refill: 15
Protein Refill: 0

Used in potions, and for making the melon block. Melon seeds are found in Mineshaft, Dungeon and Mansion chests. Clumps of Melon Blocks generate in Jungles.


Fall Crops

Pumpkin:
Maximum Growth: 4
Planting Season: Winter
Death Season: Winter
Seed Item: Pumpkin Seeds
Item does not directly feed player.

Used as a Helmet, in pies and in golems, besides being a decoration. Pumpkins are found in clusters around the world. Pumpkin Seeds are found in Dungeon, Mineshaft and Mansion chests.

Rice:
Maximum Growth: 2
Planting Season: Summer
Death Season: Winter
Seed Item: Rice
Item does not directly feed player.

I wasn’t originally going to include this one, but I decided it was necessary considering I had a lot of other cultural foods and I can’t think of a single Asian dish without rice. Used in Bowl of Rice and Stir Fry. Rice can also be used to feed Chickens and Parrots.

Rice is grown a bit differently from all other plants. It takes advantage of the new 1.14 1.13 water physics and grows in one-block deep water rather than on land. It can be found in Swamps as a “Wild Plant” block. This Wild Plant looks like a fully grown rice crop, but will never rot and drops Rice.

Corn:
Maximum Growth: 3
Planting Season: Spring
Death Season: Winter
Seed Item: Corn/Corn Kernels
Energy Refill: 2
Vitamin Refill: 14
Protein Refill: 7

Can be cooked into Cooked Corn and feed pigs and be used in potions. The crop itself grows to be two blocks tall, although all data is stored in the bottom block. The crop also slows down players traveling through it, though not quite as dramatically as cobwebs. This makes it useful for corn mazes in the Fall.

Corn Kernels can be found in Mineshaft and Village chests. They aren’t dropped by the actual plants, but planting them will still result in a corn plant. You also can’t eat them.

Wheat:
Maximum Growth: 3
Planting Season: Spring
Death Season: Winter
Seed Item: Wheat Seed
This item does not directly feed the player.

Can be made into Flour, Bread, Cake, Cookies and Hay Bales. Used to feed Sheep and Cows. The seeds can be used to feed Chickens, Parrots and Villagers. Only found in Villages. The seeds can no longer be found by breaking tall grass. (This is to make it more valuable when you get into feeding animals later.)

Winter Crops

Potato:
Maximum Growth: 4
Planting Season: Spring
Death Season: Spring
Seed Item: Potato
Energy Refill: 1
Vitamin Refill: 10
Protein Refill: 8

Can be cooked into Baked Potatoes and feed pigs.

Beans:
Maximum Growth: 3
Planting Season: Summer
Death Season: Spring
Seed Item: Beans
This item does not directly feed the player.

Can be used in Chili and Baked Beans. Used to feed Chickens and Parrots. Beans will drop from Zombies, and can also be found in Mineshaft and Dungeon chests.

Beetroot:
Maximum Growth: 2
Planting Season: Fall
Death Season: Spring
Seed Item: Beetroot Seeds
Energy Refill: 2
Vitamin Refill: 12
Protein Refill: 9

Can be used in Beetroot Soup, and to craft red dye. Beetroot Seeds are found in Dungeon, Mineshaft, Mansion and End City chests. They can be used to feed Pigs and Sheep, but not cows.

Sugar Cane, Nether Wart and Cactus still grow as they currently do.


Potions

I wanted to make some small changes to potions as well. Currently Nether Wart is required for almost every single potion, and this shouldn’t be the case. The only thing that comes close to this is wood… but I doubt there’s any real need for wood to have crafting alternatives.

Instead of this, the Thick Potion can be brewed with a bottle of water and Corn and is no longer brewed with Glowstone. (Alluding to High Fructose Corn Syrup.) The Thick Potion can be used instead of the Awkward Potion to brew the Slowness and Harming potions without the need of a Fermented Spider Eye.

(Example: Brewing a Thick Potion with Sugar will give you a potion of Slowness, because brewing it with an Awkward Potion would give you Speed, and brewing a Speed potion with a Fermented Spider Eye would give you Slowness.)

The Fermented Spider Eye is still needed for the Invisibility Potion and the Weakness Potion, and Nether Wart is still required for any positive potion effects.


In addition to this, the Golden Carrot will refill 5E, 12V, 10P, the Golden Apple will refill 6E, 16V, 6P and the Golden Melon will refill 4E, 17V, 9P. While they shouldn’t really have protein values considering they’re just vegetables coated in magic edible gold, I decided to give them a higher protein value in order to keep their value since Saturation is no longer a thing. (None of them are meat items, though.)

Brewing a water bottle with sugar will make Yeast. This looks like a regular glass bottle with a very small amount of brown liquid on the bottom.


Rotten Flesh / Hunger Effect

Before I get into revamping the meat system, let’s talk Rotten Flesh and the Hunger effect.

The Hunger effect is split into three effects: Exhaustion which depletes Energy, Deficiency which depletes Vitamins, and Injury which depletes Proteins.

Injury isn’t used in this suggestion. But Rotten Flesh has an 85% chance of inflicting Deficiency on a player now. However, it replenishes the player’s Energy by 4 points, and gives the player 15 Protein, although it does not count as a Meat item.

Husks inflict Exhaustion rather than Hunger now.

The Spider Eye can still be eaten for 1 Energy and 5 Protein, but it still poisons the player. (Not related to the Hunger effect, but I thought this factoid belonged with the Rotten Flesh when organizing this suggestion.)

And now, we segue to meats and husbandry.


Meats

Meat is already pretty difficult to get manually, but not difficult enough. Plus, there is a way to farm chickens in such a way that you’ll have infinite amounts of meat.

Meats will let you better heal your Protein bar and will make healing from injuries much easier. However, as you can imagine, I don’t want the player to get an eternally full protein bar mid-game by building an auto-chicken farm, or just by owning several thousand cows.

Thus, I’m making some changes to the breeding and animal system.


First, all farm animals that drop meat (Pigs, Cows, Sheep, Rabbits and Chickens) have a “Fat” value from 1 to a maximum that varies between animals. (I called it “Fat” because I didn’t want to get it confused with the boolean “Meat” value that food items have.)

Animals will drop an amount of meat equal to half of their fat value. They spawn by default with a value equal to half of their maximum fat value. Animals spawned by default in the world will not lose or gain fat for any reason.

However, an animal that the player breeds from spawned animals will start out with a Fat level of 1. In order to increase this value, the player can either feed the animal directly or find a troth in dungeons or crafted from iron and wood. (Sure, you could make it craftable from just wood, but I want to add some progression here.)



If the animal is fed directly, it’s fat level will increase by 1 and it cannot eat for another 10 minutes. (½ of a Minecraft day.) It also has a 25% chance of going into Love Mode when fed by hand.

Love mode works a bit differently now. Rather than two animals needing to simultaneously be in Love mode, an animal in Love mode will seek out the nearest non-baby partner animal and mate with it. (Otherwise you would never get any breeding done since it takes forever for animals to become hungry again.)

If you find a troth or craft one, you can fill it up with up to 1 stack of food. Hoppers cannot fill the troth, thus preventing the player from leaving animals entirely unattended. Animals will walk towards the nearest troth and eat one item from it as soon as their “Full” timer is up.

It is possible for an bred animal to lose it’s fat, though. If the animal’s 10 minute “Full” timer is up, and 30 more minutes go by without it eating again, it will lose fat. This means an unattended animal will not give you as much meat as one that’s been taken good care of.

You may notice that earlier on I mentioned that Wheat seeds can no longer be found in long grass. You have to find them in a Village, instead. Until you find a Village, however, you can farm beans to feed chickens for meat, since beans can be found by killing zombies. You can also eat Pigs and Rabbits if you get Carrots or Potatoes, and Sheep if you find Beetroot.

Let’s move on to the individual Animals.

Chicken:
Maximum Fat Value: 4
Raw Refill: 3E, 5V, 15P
Cooked Refill: 4E, 1V, 17P, 4XP

Fed with Beans and Wheat Seeds. Lays Eggs on occasion if it’s Fat Level is above 2. May also drop Feathers along with meat.

Rabbit:
Maximum Fat Value: 4
Raw Refill: 2E, 4V, 17P
Cooked Refill: 3E, 0V, 20P, 5XP

Fed with Carrots and Dandelions. May also drop Rabbits’ foot along with meat.

Pig:
Maximum Fat Value: 6
Raw Refill: 5E, 3V, 17P
Cooked Refill: 7E, 1V, 21P, 8XP

Fed with Potatoes, Carrots, Beetroot, Corn and Tomatoes. Can also be fed Poisonous Potatoes as a way of recycling. A pig may also drop 1 or 2 bones along with their other drops, in order to make them a bit more useful late-game.

Sheep:
Maximum Fat Value: 6
Raw Refill: 5E, 6V, 12P
Cooked Refill: 7E, 2V, 16P, 6XP

Fed with Beetroot and Wheat. While it delivers the least Protein of any animal, feeding the animal more will require the animal to grow a larger wool coat. When sheared or killed, a sheep will drop 2-3 wool if the fat level is less than 4, but 4-6 if it’s above 4.

Cow:
Maximum Fat Value: 8
Raw Refill: 6E, 8V, 20P
Cooked Refill: 9E, 5V, 25P, 12XP

Fed with Wheat. When fed by hand, the cow only has a 20% chance of going into Love Mode rather than a 25% chance. When killed, the cow will drop as many pieces of leather as it drops meat.

A Cow has a 5 minute timer between each time you milk it, now. This is to prevent people from getting a million buckets and spamming the right-click button. The same rule applies to Mooshrooms and Mushroom Soup.

Horse:
Maximum Fat Value: 6
Raw Refill: 6E, 8V, 20P
Cooked Refill: 9E, 5V, 25P, 12XP

Feeding Horses with Golden Carrots/Apples will make them enter Love Mode 100% of the time and will heal them. Feeding it Sugar, Wheat or Apples will heal it slightly, and Hay Bales will fatten the animal.

However, much like sheep, it may be more valuable keeping the horse alive for transportation when a Nether Portal or Minecart is not appropriate for the situation. It can jump taller heights and run faster than a player.


Fruit

There is one fruit in the entire game: the Apple. (Technically with the addition of the Tomato, this will be two, but that’s not really something you’d eat as a fruit.)

As you imagine, this suggestion is going to change this too.

Around the world, you’ll find fruit trees that look something like this:



(Yes, this is an apple tree, and yes, Oak will no longer drop Apples. It’s sad, I know.)

Upon mining the trunk, which is only as thick as a cobblestone wall, you’ll receive a Fruit Trunk block, which can be crafted into two Oak Plank blocks. When you mine the leaves, you have a 40% chance of getting a sapling for that fruit tree. If the tree is in it’s Blooming Season, you will also have a 40% chance of getting a fruit from that tree.

Fruit is a good way of getting a lot of Vitamins, but will return even fewer Proteins than vegetables.


Apple Tree:



Energy Refill: 3
Vitamin Refill: 12
Protein Refill: 2
Blooming Season: Fall

Used in Golden Apples, and is also found in Dungeons. This tree can be found in forests and sometimes in Savanas.

Cranberry Bush:



Energy Refill: 1
Vitamin Refill: 10
Protein Refill: 1
Blooming Season: Winter

Used in Cranberry Sauce. This tree bush can be found in Cold Taigas and rarely on Ice Plains.

Banana Tree:



Energy Refill: 3
Vitamin Refill: 12
Protein Refill: 0
Blooming Season: Spring

Used in Banana Smoothie. This tree can be found near and in jungles and beaches.

The Banana Smoothie is crafted with Sugar, a bucket of Milk, a Glass Bottle and a Banana in the Crafting grid and it refills 4E, 16V, 6P and 7XP.

Orange Tree:



Energy Refill: 4
Vitamin Refill: 17
Protein Refill: 0
Blooming Season: Summer

Used in Hearty Breakfast. This tree can be found in forests and near beaches.

Olive Tree:



Energy Refill: 1
Vitamin Refill: 8
Protein Refill: 0
Blooming Season: Summer

Used in Tortillas. This tree can rarely be found in acacia biomes and even desert biomes. The Olives can act as an oil for your cooking although they don’t do much by themselves.

Chorus Plant:



Energy Refill: 4
Vitamin Refill: 9
Protein Refill: 0

Not really a fruit or a tree, but I needed to put this somewhere. The plant and item work the same way as before, but now the item will replenish certain amounts of Energy and Vitamins rather than Hunger and Saturation.

Flour
Yes, flour.

Grindstones can be found in village blacksmith chests and in the backyard of Butcher’s houses. Grindstones have a GUI similar to the Furnace, but without a fuel slot. Instead, when something is inserted into the input slot, you only have to wait until it comes out.

You can grind corn and wheat into Flour, but Grindstones can also be used to turn Cobblestone into Gravel, and Gravel into Sand. This means you can make both Gravel and Sand when playing Skyblock or in the event that you don’t want to dig up large quantities of sand and you have plenty of cobblestone.

In addition, grinding bones will result in 4 bonemeal, making it more efficient to use the grindstone for bonemeal crafting. You can also recycle glass back into sand, although you will not get dye back from stained glass. (And glass panes can’t be recycled at all.)

Hoppers can put items into the Grindstone and may take items out.

Flour is very useful when cooking...


Cooking Food

Currently Mojang has to avoid “sandwich” or “salad” items. I.E. combining already edible foods into one meal.

The thing is, they’ve already done this with the soups, and the only useful one is mushroom soup in the event that you’ve decided to colonize a mushroom island. Otherwise, you can just eat each Beetroot or Rabbit Stew ingredient on their own.

So… Let’s fix this. Certain foods will now count as a “meal”. Meals cannot stack, and because of that they aren’t really meant for battle situations. In addition to not stacking, they will give you Slowness and Weakness for a short period of 30 seconds. But for all that, they give you a very useful buff, “Well Fed”, for 10 minutes and they will fill your Energy, Protein and Vitamin bars by 50% of their full value. (Though not all of them are Meat items.)

Whilst you are affected by the Well Fed buff, your Energy, Protein and Vitamin bars cannot decrease no matter how much you are injured or how much you exercise. This means after eating a meal you can go about your day for a long time without having to worry about eating.

So how do we get started? First, you’ll need a Cooking Fire. (It’s a bit cleaner to cook in something that isn’t coated in dust, coal and bits of metal.)



The Cooking Fire block looks like a Pot sitting over a bonfire. (I decided to use the Bucket in the crafting recipe since it was similar enough to a pot, rather than making a new item just to craft into this specific recipe.)

The GUI for the pot looks very similar to the furnace GUI, but with four input slots and four output slots. It works about the same when doing basic cooking, though. Put in Fuel, put in food, and it will cook. However, when you aren’t cooking individual bits of meat or vegetables, it’s a different story.

(Fair Warning: I may have had a bit too much fun when thinking of foods you can make from other foods, feel free to tell me if something has way too long of a crafting chain. I mean, you were already free to do that but I acknowledge that I probably went overboard now that individual foods have more value.)

Tier 1 Foods

Meat of any kind will only take five seconds to cook. Easy.

I mentioned the other meats elsewhere, but here’s the stats for fish:

Raw Fish:
E: 2
V: 5
P: 8

Cooked Fish:
E: 5
V: 9
P: 11
XP: 2

Raw Salmon:
E: 3
V: 3
P: 8

Cooked Salmon:
E: 5
V: 6
P: 12
XP: 4

Clownfish:
E: 5
V: 2
P: 8
XP: 20 (The only raw food that grants XP, because of it’s rarity.)

Pufferfish:
E: 9
V: 0
P: 2

Vegetables will take four seconds to cook.

Baked Potato:
E: 2
V: 13
P: 9
XP: 3

Cooked Corn:
E: 5
V: 16
P: 7
XP: 4

Tier 2 Foods

When cooking more advanced foods, you’ll need to watch what’s happening more closely. There will be a 10 second timer that appears as a red bar next to the food in the output slot. If the food is left in there, it will burn and be deleted. Fire and Smoke particles will appear above the Cooking Fire when this happens.

In addition, this is where the four input slots become more important. If all of the slots are filled with identical items, it will cook them into a simple cooked version without question. But if two different items are in the pot, it will see if they can be cooked into one single food. (And if they can’t, it will stop burning fuel and wait for the player to put food in the pot in such a way that it can be cooked.)

These next few foods are not meals, but they can be much better for you than just cooking food. It takes 10 seconds to cook any of them, and all of them can only be stacked to 16:

Bread:
E: 4
V: 10
P: 5
XP: 1

Bread can be made from 1 Flour and 1 Yeast. Simple.

Tortilla:
E: 3
V: 12
P: 4
XP: 2

Tortillas can be made from 1 Flour, 1 Yeast and 1 Olive. They’re used in making the Taco.

Cheese:
E: 6
V: 0
P: 14
XP: 2

Cheese is useful in meals, and is made with 1 Milk Bucket and 1 Yeast. It’s not super healthy on it’s own, although it has Milk’s effect clearing ability… kindof. For each effect the player has, Cheese has a 25% chance of removing it. It’s also useful if all you have it milk and you’re running low on vegetables to feed yourself or your cows.

Fried Chicken:
E: 5
V: 6
P: 17
XP: 4

Made with 1 Raw Chicken and 1 Olive. While it’s not breaded like everyone’s classic idea of Fried Chicken, it is a nice early-game use for Olives before you can get Flour.

Cookies:
E: 10
V: 9
P: 6
XP: 12

Two Cookies can be made with 1 Flour, 1 Cocoa Bean and 1 Sugar. They aren’t very healthy, but they do give a lot of XP if you haven’t eaten them in a while, and you can use them to boost your energy if you’re on the go. (Though vegetables are preferable.)

Baked Beans:
E: 4
V: 8
P: 14
XP: 4
This is a Meat item.

Baked Beans can be made with 1 Sugar, 1 Beans and 1 Bowl. This is a good food item if you want to play the game vegan style for some reason and you still want protein.

Bowl of Rice:
E: 4
V: 11
P: 9
XP: 2

Bowls of Rice are made with 1 Rice and 1 Bowl. It’s used in Stir Fry, but makes a nice dish by itself as well.

Mushroom Soup:
E: 4
V: 10
P: 10
XP: 10

Mushroom Soup is made with 1 Bowl, 1 Red Mushroom and 1 Brown Mushroom.

Cake:
Per Bite:
E: 2
V: 4
P: 6
XP: 5

Cake is made from 1 Cake Dough, which is crafted shapelessly in a normal crafting table with 3 flour, 1 egg, 2 sugar and 3 milk. Unlike other foods, you only have to wait to eat another Cake for the full XP refill after you’ve already eaten six slices of cake.

(So you can eat a full cake and get 30 XP before having to wait to get the full XP from a Cake.)

Pumpkin Pie:
E: 7
V: 11
P: 7
XP: 16

Pumpkin Pie is healthier than some of the other candy items, which don’t fill up your vegetable bar as fast as they fill up your energy. It’s made from 1 Pumpkin, 1 Flour, 1 Egg and 1 Sugar.

Beetroot Stew:
E: 6
V: 25
P: 6
XP: 3

Made from 3 Beetroots and 1 Bowl. The meal gives you lots of Vitamins, but relatively little Protein and little XP. So it’s almost as useless as it is in the current game!

Cranberry Sauce:
E: 8
V: 17
P: 2
XP: 17

Cranberry sauce is made from a Glass Bottle, 2 Cranberries and 1 Sugar. It’s a nice festive food.


Tier 3 Foods (Meals):

With the Tier 2 foods out of the way, let’s move on to the meals. These take 20 seconds to cook, and as mentioned before they cannot be stacked. As a reminder, they give you “Well Fed”, for 10 minutes and refill your Energy, Protein and Vitamin bars by 50% of their full value.

You have to pull these out pretty quick, because you only get 5 seconds after they’re done before they burn.

Hearty Breakfast:
Gives 30 XP when eaten.

Made with an Orange, Bread, an Egg and a raw Porkchop. This is a meat item.

Chicken Sandwich:
Gives 40 XP when eaten.

Made with Bread, Raw Chicken, a Tomato and Cheese. This item is a meat item.

Chili:
Gives 40 XP when eaten.

Made with a Bowl, Raw Mutton, a Tomato and Beans. I would have used Beef, but beef is already used in most of the other foods. This is a meat item.

Taco:
Gives 40 XP when eaten.

Made with 1 Tortilla, 1 Cheese, 1 Beans and 1 Olive. I was going to use Quesadilla instead, since Tacos are kinda meme-ish, but on the other hand I decided it was better to put as few hard to pronounce words in the game as possible. This is a meat item.

Rabbit Stew:
Gives 25 XP when eaten.

Made with 1 Raw Rabbit, 1 Carrot, 1 Potato and 1 Bowl. This is a meat item.

Stir Fry:
Gives 50 XP when eaten.

Made with 1 Bowl of Rice, 1 Carrot, 1 Raw Steak and 1 Beetroot. I didn’t want to add Rice, but at least this gives another use for the Beetroot. This is a meat item.

Chorus Chowder:
Gives 55 XP when eaten.

Made with 1 Corn, 1 Chorus Fruit, 1 Tomato and 1 Bowl. This is one of the most rewarding out of all the foods, but it’s also incredibly late-game. The meal does not retain the Chorus Fruit’s teleport effect.


Villages

The crops in villages are actually not crops, but crop-like blocks that, much like Wild Rice, do not rot in their Death Season.

The first reason for this being that Villagers are often too stupid to take proper care of their crops, and the second reason being that a player might enter a Village in the crop’s death season which would mean the crops instantly rot.

Farmer Villagers can now grow Tomatoes as well as the crops they could grow before, and a Villager can breed if they have at least 10 Tomatoes. (2 less than Carrots or Potatoes because they’re rarer.)


Conclusion

So in the end, while I probably went overboard with food choices, I think this is a definite improvement over the current system. This also means people can suggest a plethora of new kinds of foods within reasonable boundaries, and it’s not just another sprite with a similar function to other foods.

I’ll be the first to admit that my own suggestion might be a little complicated for young Minecrafters. It’s probably best to rename the Vitamin bar to the Vegetable Bar and the Protein Bar to the Meat bar, but I’m sticking with those names for now unless this is a bigger issue than I imagine it to be.

But I also want to show how much fun you can have making a suggestion, and how you can improve your suggestions and presentation. This was actually a multiple day project that I started in LibreOffice Writer rather than directly in the BBCode editor. I used GIMP to help me make some of the images and CubeUpload to upload the images.

(I also had to convert the LibreOffice text into BBCode format manually, though, and that’s not fun. If you know a tool that can help me do this automatically, please tell me!)

With that, I hope you all can improve your own suggestions, and make them great!
(I’m sorry if that sounded condescending… I have no idea how to phrase advice...)

(TELL ME IF ANY FORMATTING LOOKS WRONG, MY BBCODE REFORMATTING JOB WASN'T PERFECT.)

Two things I don't like.

I don't like the vitamin/protein/energy bar thing. I also don't like the fact that crops can rot. You already micromanage a lot in Minecraft. I have to juggle farms, bases, grinders, and explore the world for the materials used to fight the bosses. (ok, I don't HAVE to. But you get the idea)

There's a lot to do, and even if you wind up not exploring the world and fighting bosses, there's still building, mining, and farming to take care of, which can be pretty time consuming if you do it even with a trace of efficiency. I don't really want the added stress of worrying about energy levels and my crops dying.

Other than that, this is great! A ton of variety, and the seasons idea is executed nicely.

That's quite a lot to digest… :hide:

Seriously, there is a lot of information there…

From a first reading the systems presented are interesting, internally consistent, and generally logical derivations from real world conditions.

As noted by the OP, the added complexity may be challenging for younger players… although kids show a remarkable ability to suss out the gist of complex systems when doing so is inportant to the kid.

While I can see this proposal being the basis for aninteresting mod, some of the changes to basic play mechanics do not correspond to my preferred style of play. [This system would seem to require extensive coding changes whichwould tend to make including it as an optional play mode expensive.]

Notable among these differences are:

the seasonal nature of crops; the speed of growth and season-free nature of MC agriculture are certainly unrealistic, but the freedom from needing to schedule tasks (eg. planting and harvesting) is something I find an attractive feature of the game

the need to tend animals; the current system is highly unrealistic. C1ff does a good job of creating a reasonably playable alternative and of minimizing the hassles with the trough – however this is another case where (at the level of realism being proposed) the hassle exceeds the fun [IMO]

I would like to see (and quite possibly to try) a mod based on this system, but would not like to see it as part of vanilla MC.

Within the systems certain things struck me as odd, among them:

• the XP system to encourage farming and eating different foods seems ineffective; one a reasonable XP source is obtained (concevably still through animal breeding as no mention of changing that aspect is made) I don't see the proposed system as providing much incentive

• it would seem to me one ought be able to eat with a full 'energy bar' every so often (and certainly while experiencing a 'starving effect')
• energy usage appears only to be effected by time (IMO sprint/climb/heal should also decrease energy)
• the viatamin bar seems a better candidate [IMO] for a simple time based decrease
• Question: do fall leaves retain their colors when harvested as leaf blocks via Silk Touch?
• Question: Is "Death season" equal to "Harvest Season"?
• if realism is the goal; many crops can be left in the fields over winter wit minimal loss (potatoes and other root vegatables and – to a lesser extent – corn/maize) while tomatoes and grains must be harvested quickly once ripe

[Side note: "troth" used to mean an item for feeding animals should probably be trough "a long, narrow open container for animals to eat or drink out of" ]

Well this is fantastic, I've always thought hunger needs an overhaul but you knocked it out of the park! If this was added I'd actually care about my farms and food choices. XP for rarely eaten foods is compelling, but I think it should be lowered by half, you should still get most of your XP from fighting/advancements. Usually I would be against adding more foods, but the three bar system makes me want to see even more. And bravo for coming up with a way to incorporate seasons without breaking the game. That being said there are few minor problems I have with this suggestion:

1. Jungle tree leaves should not change throughout seasons besides a grass change. TBH hot biomes should never be affected by seasons, but that would overcomplicate things.

2. There is currently no farmable food that is harvested during the spring. I understand most foods aren't harvested during this season, but there should be at least once. Maybe lettuce? It is harvested in summer irl

3. The meals towards the end did get a bit out of hand. I would remove noodles (which also removes spaghetti and macaroni, which don't seem that interesting or suited to the game imo). Hearty Breakfast feels out of place compared to the other meal names, so I think that one should go too. I don't know about the taco... I can see Skydoesminecraft using them for the wrong intentions...

4. The crop system contradicts itself. On one hand you said a crop has 5 stages (the 4 + rotten) and it has a 5% chance every 60 seconds to increase in stage. This would force players to constantly check on their crops, because they might only have 60 seconds to harvest it. Or maybe I'm reading this wrong, it did get complicated here.

Now beyond that it means one crop might be done in a day, while another may take a week. It would to see such a variation between crops, they should all grow together in one motion. However later you bring up planting, harvesting, and rotten seasons. But these would never come into play because a crop wouldn't take over 10 days.

I think a better system would be for the crop to have a fixed growth time. Once a crop is planted a fixed timer begins to tick until it reaches growth. Then it continues to tick until it goes rotten. The timer depends on the crop, but it is intended so that planting a crop on the first day of planting season will yield the fully grown plant on the first day of harvesting season (ex carrots grow for 30 days). This would make setting up a farm a rewarding commitment. The timer can be sped up with bonemeal. You can plant a crop at anytime, however the game would encourage you to plant crops during their planting season. If a crop is growing during the death season there is a high chance it will go rotten, and when harvested in the harvesting season the crop has a chance of dropping more than one items.

But those are all minor suggestions (besides the last). This is a great overhaul and if I saw this is as a mod I'd upload it to the my vanilla based modpack immediately. As for your LibreOffice problem, I use Microsoft Word which lets me copy paste chunks of paragraphs into the editor (though I have to do spaces).

Support.

It is a well written suggestion.

I don't think I was here when we had whatever the old suggestion guidelines were, but when I did read the current suggestion guidelines and went on to use a bullited list of recommended points in my own suggestion, someone questioned my formatting.

Things I like about this current suggestion:

• some incentive to try different foods or a variety of foods.
• seasonal leaf color change, paricularly the orange for dark oak autumnal foilage. This could appeal to players who build and landscape.
• general variety of foods, especially more fruit, grains, vegetables. This would appeal to vegetarian players who don't like the pretendy killing of pixel animals anyway.
• The concept that animals raised for wool, eggs, milk or as back-up companion/pack/riding animals can be fed by troughs while the player is away exploring.
• makes potion making slightly less dependent on the Nether (although that's annoyingly still a thing as only blaze rods power the brewing stands.)
• the concept of the grindstone, including the non-cooking uses for converting stone.
• the concept of cooking.
• the concept of crafted/cooked meals.

Things I'm less sure about, personally:

• whether seasonal leaf color affects only leaves on trees or player-placed shrubberies/hedges/leaf blocks
• does a dead bush found in a hot biome ever become a living bush of some type when transplanted in a temperate biome?
• The seasons may be too fast. I understood rationale that a player should see seasons change within several play sessions, but I think I just disagree.
• the pattern for the trough. In antiquity they would have just been hollowed-stone, maybe something like a stone version of the current cauldron. Modern ones are probably entirely metal. Wood would rot and might be chewed upon by certain animals.

Changes/edits I would suggest:

• quinoa and blue potatoes for Extreme Hills (or the idea that some crops thrive at different elevations.)
• If a seaweed is introduced in 1.13 and this suggestion includes rice, then we should be able to have a sushi roll meal with rice, seaweed, fish, and a vegetable. Good for coastal areas, islands, undersea bases.
• seasons have more relation to real world time. Game uses real date to assign seasons to game world. Traveling some distance is alike to entering another hempsphere. Thus hot biomes remain equatorial like with little change. Spawn area plains or forest may be in spring, for example, but a distant plains or forest biome in the same world may be autumn at the same real time. (Then later those same areas would represent summer and winter respectively.) This enables players to still experience differing seasons in shorter play sessions, but rewards exploration while displaying realistic longer seasons within an area. Also, provides some incentive to keep playing the game throughout a year to see changes in a particular area.
• type(s) of tree(s) that display blossoms in spring.
• nuts as a source of protien and calories.

My internet is not helping me access this site, but while I seem to be able to access this page, I'll answer what I can.

From SmugSmirk:
I don't like the vitamin/protein/energy bar thing. I also don't like the fact that crops can rot.

One thing I've forgotten to mention is that the Vitamin and Protein bars decrease quite a bit slower than regular hunger. You shouldn't really need to worry about them for your first few days in Minecraft, but you'll want to plan out better meals much later on. The 3 bar system is important to make sure that vegetables and meats still have value after you've made a giant vegetable garden or a huge pig slaughterhouse.

Crops rotting is something that I wanted to add because it's too easy to build a gigantic food farm and then leave it unattended until you're hungry enough to need food again. (Which kinda makes the food system an obsolete part of gameplay and not something worth gameplay time once you've progressed far enough.)

Alternatively, you could have crops bloom like fruit trees do, but that still doesn't make them require the least little bit of caring and gameplay time. I could also lengthen the seasons so that they don't have as much of a chance of dying.

From ScotsMiser:
That's quite a lot to digest… :hide:

I see what you did there...

It used to be suggestions were about this size a long time ago, but there's been a recent influx of 3 to 4 paragraph suggestions, which is kinda sad considering lots of people would go to the effort of making images, sprite art, models and sometimes even sound effects for their suggestions.

Notable among these differences are:
the seasonal nature of crops; the speed of growth and season-free nature of MC agriculture are certainly unrealistic, but the freedom from needing to schedule tasks (eg. planting and harvesting) is something I find an attractive feature of the game

True, but I feel like it's worth changing how this works. At the very least, growing a farm and just leaving it alone shouldn't be allowed, unless you were able to automate the farm using ingenuity. The other alternative is random crop diseases, and that's not fun in the slightest. I can extend the length of seasons if anyone would prefer that, though.

the need to tend animals; the current system is highly unrealistic. C1ff does a good job of creating a reasonably playable alternative and of minimizing the hassles with the trough – however this is another case where (at the level of realism being proposed) the hassle exceeds the fun [IMO]

I dunno. If needed, you can get more troughs. Fortunately you don't have to worry too much about getting protein as long as you can avoid damage. (Heck, this change might even make health potions a bit more valuable, because right now natural hunger regeneration makes them a bit obsolete.)

the XP system to encourage farming and eating different foods seems ineffective; one a reasonable XP source is obtained (concevably still through animal breeding as no mention of changing that aspect is made) I don't see the proposed system as providing much incentive

That's true, if you have other XP systems like mob farms and such, you might not need to eat new foods for their XP. I'd say nerf other systems, although that might or might not be fair.

it would seem to me one ought be able to eat with a full 'energy bar' every so often (and certainly while experiencing a 'starving effect')

This is technically an intentional consequence of not eating vegetables, although it might be good to have some kind of potion or item that can bring up your vegetables while you are low on energy. (Although potions are gated behind the Nether...)

the viatamin bar seems a better candidate [IMO] for a simple time based decrease

You could be right, although I don't want Vitamins or Proteins to run out too quickly. The player should be able to survive off of Rotten Flesh for a short period of time before needing to progress food-wise.

Question: do fall leaves retain their colors when harvested as leaf blocks via Silk Touch?

Yes and no. If you mine them and place them somewhere else, they will still have their fall colors until the season changes into another season. Alternatively I could add new leaf blocks that retain their fall colors year-round, although I'm not sure whether or not this is necessary.

Question: Is "Death season" equal to "Harvest Season"?

No. Harvesting happens in the season before the Death Season. The Death Season is when crops will rot because the player hasn't taken good care of them. However, the Death Season and the Planting Season may be the same season, in which case crops that are not 1 season old (Just planted) will die on Planting Season.

if realism is the goal; many crops can be left in the fields over winter wit minimal loss (potatoes and other root vegatables and – to a lesser extent – corn/maize) while tomatoes and grains must be harvested quickly once ripe

Realism isn't the goal, more of the method to achieve the goal of better food/farming gameplay. Now that I think about it, foods with less nutrition could be made to never rot...

From fishg:
Well this is fantastic, I've always thought hunger needs an overhaul but you knocked it out of the park! If this was added I'd actually care about my farms and food choices. XP for rarely eaten foods is compelling, but I think it should be lowered by half, you should still get most of your XP from fighting/advancements.

Thank you!

I can understand lowering the XP reward, considering the main progression (Diamond Pickaxe -> Nether -> Blaze Powder -> End) should be the main source of XP and rewards in general. Although I'm not sure how to do this without making XP rewards from food not be useful. (I could add a fourth bar for food to fill up instead called "Physical Health" which makes grants you certain abilities or effects as it gets bigger... although I'm not entirely we don't already have enough bars.)

1. Jungle tree leaves should not change throughout seasons besides a grass change. TBH hot biomes should never be affected by seasons, but that would overcomplicate things.

I'm actually not sure whether or not leaves in Jungles change depending on season... Does anyone else know more about this subject?

2. There is currently no farmable food that is harvested during the spring. I understand most foods aren't harvested during this season, but there should be at least once. Maybe lettuce?

I could make it so that Oranges and Olives can be harvested in the spring. Maybe it's worth adding a few more types of fruit for this purpose?

3. The meals towards the end did get a bit out of hand. I would remove noodles (which also removes spaghetti and macaroni, which don't seem that interesting or suited to the game imo). Hearty Breakfast feels out of place compared to the other meal names, so I think that one should go too. I don't know about the taco... I can see Skydoesminecraft using them for the wrong intentions...

I can definitely agree with all of these. Should we replace Taco with the less-memeish Quesadilla? (I do think that noodles feel just a tad too modern for Minecraft's time period. If there's another Italian or European food I can insert instead though, that might be nice to know.)

4. The crop system contradicts itself. On one hand you said a crop has 5 stages (the 4 + rotten) and it has a 5% chance every 60 seconds to increase in stage. This would force players to constantly check on their crops, because they might only have 60 seconds to harvest it. Or maybe I'm reading this wrong, it did get complicated here.

It has a 5% chance to increase every 60 seconds, IF it has progressed at least one season since it has last grown. (That's what the Planting Season is for. Crops not planted on time might die in the Death Season if planted too late.)

If you plant a crop in the Spring, once it becomes Summer the crop has a 5% chance of growing into stage 2 every 60 seconds. Once it has done so, it will no longer grow until Fall, when it has a 5% chance every 60 seconds to grow into stage 3.

I might add this paragraph to the OP since people don't entirely understand how this works, but you basically have all of Harvest season (3 hours and twenty minutes) to harvest your crops.

The main reason it doesn't change the very minute a new season happens is so that you can come to a farm in unloaded chunks and watch them grow. (I might have to add some way to better allow farming in other chunks so you don't have to go through your Nether Hub each season to harvest crops. Again, I might have to lengthen seasons just a tad.)

From KaranSeraph:

I'm writing this really quickly in real life, so I'm going to address your major concerns now and I'll read your positive comments later. Thank you for your response!

whether seasonal leaf color affects only leaves on trees or player-placed shrubberies/hedges/leaf blocks

Yes, it affects those to. We could add separate non-changing leaf blocks, though...

does a dead bush found in a hot biome ever become a living bush of some type when transplanted in a temperate biome?

No... This isn't actually a part of the suggestion. It's an interesting idea, although not really in the scope of this suggestion.

The seasons may be too fast. I understood rationale that a player should see seasons change within several play sessions, but I think I just disagree.

I'm definitely going to make them a lot longer, although more time for players to get used to seasons also means more crops that the player has to plant in order to be supplied until the next Summer, Fall or Winter. (I could make Hunting an option in the Spring...)

the pattern for the trough. In antiquity they would have just been hollowed-stone, maybe something like a stone version of the current cauldron. Modern ones are probably entirely metal. Wood would rot and might be chewed upon by certain animals.

True, although all bucket shapes for just iron are taken up by Buckets, Minecarts and Cauldrons. I could make it be made out of stone, but I don't want the trough to be too cheap, at the very least it should be mid-game. (Although the player might be able to get iron ingots long before making an animal pen.)

I'm glad for all the great questions and responses! Thank you everyone!

Quote from C1ff»

My internet is not helping me access this site, but while I seem to be able to access this page, I'll answer what I can.

One thing I've forgotten to mention is that the Vitamin and Protein bars decrease quite a bit slower than regular hunger. You shouldn't really need to worry about them for your first few days in Minecraft, but you'll want to plan out better meals much later on. The 3 bar system is important to make sure that vegetables and meats still have value after you've made a giant vegetable garden or a huge pig slaughterhouse.

Crops rotting is something that I wanted to add because it's too easy to build a gigantic food farm and then leave it unattended until you're hungry enough to need food again. (Which kinda makes the food system an obsolete part of gameplay and not something worth gameplay time once you've progressed far enough.)

Ok. I like the vitamin and protein bars idea better now. They seem pretty manageable, especially early game.

I'm still against crops rotting though. i feel those would be a huge annoyance rather than an interesting mechanic. Just my two cents though.

I completely agree that the current hunger system is boring, annoying, and could be much better. However, I do not agree with all of your proposals in here.

Note: I'm not really going to judge the foods/meals you've proposed, but instead the food system.

For example, you are suggesting that two more bars be introduced. I don't like this because it makes everything seem overcomplicated, even if it is not. I also think having to make yeast to make bread is too expensive, considering it would require the player to have a brewing stand. While yes, bread can be made better by using yeast, the yeast isn't a requirement. I also don't think the yeast recipe makes sense.

Crops needing to be planted in a particular season and rotting away in another season seems to be pointless. I like the idea of seasons, but I think the way crops depend on seasons is too in-depth and involved. This would be confusing for players who don't quite understand the system, and would be frustrating for players who plant their crops at the wrong time. Skills and mechanics should be easy to learn and practice, but difficult to master. Every player should be able to (somewhat) easily grow and harvest crops, but experienced or skilled players should be able to do it even easier or even more efficient.

The experience-from-food thing seems too weird. Experience doesn't need to extend to everything. Since food is necessary, I think awards should be minor extensions to what the food already gives you (like regeneration or saturation).

I'll admit that I don't completely understand that "fat" system, but I do like the idea of animal drop quantities being modifiable. I don't know why we need a trough to feed the animals, though; it could be a useful extension to husbandry, but it shouldn't be necessary.

Also, there are no "banana trees." Bananas grow on banana plants.

Overall, I like the idea of all this, and you clearly thought all of this out carefully (kudos for that), but some of it seems overcomplicated, odd, or hard to learn. I'll give 50% support.

Quote from Wolftopia»

For example, you are suggesting that two more bars be introduced. I don't like this because it makes everything seem overcomplicated, even if it is not.

One bar is gotten rid of, though. The three bar system is necessary to make crop farming and meat farming both be worth the players time even after collecting a large amount of one or the other. (Although I may add a health bar to replace XP rewards if I don't think we have enough bars.)

As I've mentioned in my other posts, but not at all in my OP, these bars decrease a lot slower, and the player won't have to worry about them too much until he's already collected some seeds or vegetables.

I also think having to make yeast to make bread is too expensive, considering it would require the player to have a brewing stand. While yes, bread can be made better by using yeast, the yeast isn't a requirement. I also don't think the yeast recipe makes sense.

Now that I think about it, gating bread behind the Nether probably isn't the best idea... Although I think bread should be more mid-game. Perhaps I'll add "Unleavened Bread" that doesn't need yeast? (Flour can be made with Corn, so you don't have to use wheat, which is meant to feed mid to late-game cows.)

Crops needing to be planted in a particular season and rotting away in another season seems to be pointless. I like the idea of seasons, but I think the way crops depend on seasons is too in-depth and involved. This would be confusing for players who don't quite understand the system, and would be frustrating for players who plant their crops at the wrong time. Skills and mechanics should be easy to learn and practice, but difficult to master.

Good point... Although some people really like this kind of gameplay. Planting them in certain seasons might be a bit ridiculous, and requiring them all be planted in the Spring and having them all die in the Winter is reasonable, although that does mean you have to wait a while before you have new food again.

I'm not really sure how to introduce actual skill into farming, though. There's not much skill involved in planting seeds and waiting... the least I can do is require the player to use timing.

Every player should be able to (somewhat) easily grow and harvest crops, but experienced or skilled players should be able to do it even easier or even more efficient.

Actually, now that I think about it, there is a possible solution by making crops give less produce when rotting, but not actually destroying all possible drops when a crop has rotted... That means there are still rewards for farming correctly and timing your harvests, but an inexperienced player can still learn to farm easily.

The experience-from-food thing seems too weird. Experience doesn't need to extend to everything. Since food is necessary, I think awards should be minor extensions to what the food already gives you (like regeneration or saturation).

Regeneration or Saturation sound okay, although that doesn't really work well with meals. I've thought in another reply about making a fourth bar, but again, this is a little too complicated for new players. (Maybe add the fourth bar to the HUD only after eating a specific food that suggests you've progressed far enough to be ready for a new bar?)

I'll admit that I don't completely understand that "fat" system, but I do like the idea of animal drop quantities being modifiable. I don't know why we need a trough to feed the animals, though; it could be a useful extension to husbandry, but it shouldn't be necessary.

Again, caring for animals shouldn't be something that's cheap and deserves little thought.

You technically don't need the trough to feed animals, that's actually a convenience item so that you don't have to constantly feed animals.

Also, there are no "banana trees." Bananas grow on banana plants.

Looks at Wikipedia...

I've been lied to my whole life...

I could interchange these with Mangoes or change Bananas into a crop that blooms like a tree rather than being planted and harvested like a crop... That might be interesting...

Overall, I like the idea of all this, and you clearly thought all of this out carefully (kudos for that), but some of it seems overcomplicated, odd, or hard to learn. I'll give 50% support.

One thing I'll admit: Part of this suggestion is to fix a problem food has had since we've started introducing new crops like Beetroot or new meats like Rabbit. In the words of Cerroz: "We don't need new sprites to shove into our blocky faces". This is something this suggestion is meant to fix by encouraging the player to seek even foods that might not even have any good practical purposes beyond nourishment.

Wow! This was a great thread. Hope you make more like these

Preface: Very true. I know people are sometimes busy, but still, at least make the threads somewhat decent. Sometimes people don't even take the time to read longer threads.

Food Overhaul: I remember the old days when I would craft a stack of pumpkin pie and be satisfied. Later on, I would realize that it was useless. This is a great idea.

Experience Benefits: Why not? I mean, almost everythign else has an experience benefit.

Nutrition: This is a great idea. However, instead of intruding your inventory they should be displayed different. I think that if the whole hunger system looked less complicated, people would be fine with it. Also, I like the idea of each bar effecting a different aspect of the game.

Energy or Hunger Bar: I like this and it should be displayed as drumsticks as it is in Minecraft right now. Like you said, this would be removed slowly as time passes like real life. I like the idea of remoivng a bar every twenty minutes. If someone walks 1 block, they should have a 3% of loosing a hunger bar and if someone sprints 1 block, they should have an 8% of loosing a hunger bar This would make it less oveprowered and easier to increase the protein and vitamin bars. The hunger/energy bar would only effect movement speed and jump boost based on the amount it is at.

Vitamins or Stamina Bar: Although you call this the vitamins bar, it seems more like an energy/stamina/carbohydrates bar, but that's just my opinion. Instead of being a seperate bar, this should be a yellow highlight over the hunger bar as shown in the attachments. The vitamins bar effects attacking, mining and building only. Instead of having a max of 100, it should only be 20. Every time the player places a block, there is a 3% for he/she to loose a vitamin point. For mining it is 5% and for attacking it is 8%. Players would also loose one every twenty minutes. The vitamin and energy bars are in no way related, but this would be cool.

Protein or Regeneration Bar: This bar would be a higlight over the health bar an be out of 20 rather than 100. The player would loose one every twenty minutes. For every heart a player looses, he/she has 5% of loosing a vitamin point. The player's health cannot regenerate higher thant their amount of protein. If a player's health is at 10 and their vitamins are at 5, they won't loose health. If a player's health is at 2 and there vitamins are at 8, their health will regenerate quickly until it reaches 8.

That's really all I have to say. The rest looks good.

Quote from C1ff»

One bar is gotten rid of, though. The three bar system is necessary to make crop farming and meat farming both be worth the players time even after collecting a large amount of one or the other. (Although I may add a health bar to replace XP rewards if I don't think we have enough bars.)

I meant visible bars. It is better to have variety in which something is communicated to the player. When an animal enters love mode, text doesn't appear saying, "Cow has now entered love mode." Instead, hearts appear. This is more interesting, more immersive, and feels less complicated. Maybe you could get rid of one of the extra bars by having the normal hunger bar change color to reflect its value. Dark could be low, and bright/gold could be full.

Now that I think about it, gating bread behind the Nether probably isn't the best idea... Although I think bread should be more mid-game. Perhaps I'll add "Unleavened Bread" that doesn't need yeast? (Flour can be made with Corn, so you don't have to use wheat, which is meant to feed mid to late-game cows.)

In my opinion, the recipe proposed for yeast doesn't make too much sense. Maybe you could buy yeast from villagers.

Good point... Although some people really like this kind of gameplay. Planting them in certain seasons might be a bit ridiculous, and requiring them all be planted in the Spring and having them all die in the Winter is reasonable, although that does mean you have to wait a while before you have new food again.

I'm not really sure how to introduce actual skill into farming, though. There's not much skill involved in planting seeds and waiting... the least I can do is require the player to use timing.

Actually, now that I think about it, there is a possible solution by making crops give less produce when rotting, but not actually destroying all possible drops when a crop has rotted... That means there are still rewards for farming correctly and timing your harvests, but an inexperienced player can still learn to farm easily.

This would be better.

Regeneration or Saturation sound okay, although that doesn't really work well with meals. I've thought in another reply about making a fourth bar, but again, this is a little too complicated for new players. (Maybe add the fourth bar to the HUD only after eating a specific food that suggests you've progressed far enough to be ready for a new bar?)

I think they are great mechanics for meals. Some foods/meals would make you more "full" (giving you more saturation points), and some would be better for health, such as regeneration. In my Better Soups & Stews suggestion, I brought up these two mechanics as ways to make soups/stews more useful to the player.

Quote from StickyPistonPig»

Energy or Hunger Bar: I like this and it should be displayed as drumsticks as it is in Minecraft right now. Like you said, this would be removed slowly as time passes like real life. I like the idea of remoivng a bar every twenty minutes. If someone walks 1 block, they should have a 3% of loosing a hunger bar and if someone sprints 1 block, they should have an 8% of loosing a hunger bar This would make it less oveprowered and easier to increase the protein and vitamin bars. The hunger/energy bar would only effect movement speed and jump boost based on the amount it is at.

This seems reasonable.

Vitamins or Stamina Bar: Although you call this the vitamins bar, it seems more like an energy/stamina/carbohydrates bar, but that's just my opinion. Instead of being a seperate bar, this should be a yellow highlight over the hunger bar as shown in the attachments. The vitamins bar effects attacking, mining and building only. Instead of having a max of 100, it should only be 20. Every time the player places a block, there is a 3% for he/she to loose a vitamin point. For mining it is 5% and for attacking it is 8%. Players would also loose one every twenty minutes. The vitamin and energy bars are in no way related, but this would be cool.

Protein or Regeneration Bar: This bar would be a higlight over the health bar an be out of 20 rather than 100. The player would loose one every twenty minutes. For every heart a player looses, he/she has 5% of loosing a vitamin point. The player's health cannot regenerate higher thant their amount of protein. If a player's health is at 10 and their vitamins are at 5, they won't loose health. If a player's health is at 2 and there vitamins are at 8, their health will regenerate quickly until it reaches 8.

I don't like the idea of moving the protein and vitamin bars to the HUD. The reason they are in the inventory is because you shouldn't have to worry about them in the short-term. You can fill up your energy with Rotten Flesh early-game for a while, but the player is encouraged to plant vegetables and grow animals later on.

It doesn't really make sense that eating meats and no vegetables would kill you 5 hours after eating it, now would it?

That's really all I have to say. The rest looks good.

Well, I'm not sure about making Protein and Vegetables decrease shorter, but thank you for the positive response!

Quote from Wolftopia»

WOAH Double post! Excuse me, I have been thoroughly ninja'd.

I meant visible bars. It is better to have variety in which something is communicated to the player. When an animal enters love mode, text doesn't appear saying, "Cow has now entered love mode." Instead, hearts appear. This is more interesting, more immersive, and feels less complicated. Maybe you could get rid of one of the extra bars by having the normal hunger bar change color to reflect its value. Dark could be low, and bright/gold could be full.

As I said in my other post, I don't really like showing these to the player in his immediate HUD. They are displayed in the static-looking inventory in order to show how slow-moving they are.

In my opinion, the recipe proposed for yeast doesn't make too much sense. Maybe you could buy yeast from villagers.

Technically it's closer to a way of making ethanol, but it's also the only sensible way I could think of making a crafting recipe for yeast. A Villager trade doesn't sound too bad, though.

I think they are great mechanics for meals. Some foods/meals would make you more "full" (giving you more saturation points), and some would be better for health, such as regeneration. In my Better Soups & Stews suggestion, I brought up these two mechanics as ways to make soups/stews more useful to the player.

Regeneration is a nice potion effect for fast-paced combat, but not a good long-term one. These meals are meant to be eaten as... meals. Something you eat every day to feed yourself. Once the slowness and weakness is gone, you're ready to start working for the rest of the day without having to think about food.

Quote from C1ff»

WOAH Double post! Excuse me, I have been thoroughly ninja'd.

What were you replying to here? The quote from me was empty.

For the bars in the inventory, how about instead they are just numbers? I made an image to explain what I mean.

The upper box would be vitamins, and the lower box would be proteins (you can hover over them and they will explain this). The color of the number could go up and down from red (very low) to green (50) to blue/purple (very high). This would present the information in an simpler way.

Quote from Wolftopia»

What were you replying to here? The quote from me was empty.

I wasn't, I was just pointing out that I was making a doublepost because I was ninja'd and not because I didn't understand the rules against doubleposting.

For the bars in the inventory, how about instead they are just numbers? I made an image to explain what I mean.

I dunno... What about bars with numbers rendered over them?

For new players, they might not understand that certain foods give vitamins or protein. This is why I suggested that the proteins and vitamins are higlights over the already existing hunger and health bars so they culd visualize it happen. You don't actually need to change the maximum to 20, but a highlight would be cool for the player to visualize.

Your're right about the protein/vitamin thing. I didn't math right, but I still like the idea of each bar effecting different aspects of the game.

Quote from StickyPistonPig»

For new players, they might not understand that certain foods give vitamins or protein. This is why I suggested that the proteins and vitamins are higlights over the already existing hunger and health bars so they culd visualize it happen. You don't actually need to change the maximum to 20, but a highlight would be cool for the player to visualize.

You make a good point, it might be a good idea to put this information in the tooltip of each food.

I've decided to update the suggestion: Seasons are now twice as long. They were 3⅓ hours (10 Minecraft days) long before, now they are 6⅔ hours (20 Minecraft days) long. I think this is a decent compromise between making them long enough for people that play Minecraft for long periods of time but short enough for kids with a limited play time.

I might be interested in finding out how much exercise and damage should effect vitamin and protein bars. If anyone wants to volunteer their help, a good idea would be to start a new Minecraft world, play normally on it for about 6 or 7 hours and then open up the statistics tab to find out how much you've walked, swum, jumped and taken damage. I can use this information to balance how fast the vitamin and protein bars should decrease.

Thanks for the change. The season change is also good. This was my basic idea

Energy: Everything having to do with the movement of the player. Crouching would take away the least energy, then walking, swimming, sprinting, elytra!!! (This would slightly nerf the elytra)

EDIT

Vitamins: Anything to do with the left and right click buttons. Building, mining, attacking, using a bow, etc.

Protein: Everything to do with health. Regen and max health.

Quote from StickyPistonPig»

Energy: Everything having to do with the movement of the player. Crouching would take away the least energy, then walking, swimming, sprinting, elytra!!! (This would slightly nerf the elytra)

Protein: Anything to do with the left and right click buttons. Building, mining, attacking, using a bow, etc.

Vitamins: Everything to do with health. Regen and max health.

I'm interested why you think Protein and Vitamins should be switched around... Part of my changes to mobs was to make farming and feeding mobs be profitable for people interested in getting the maximum possible amount of protein. Plus if you kill all the nearby animals by hunting, you can always grow Vegetables without too much trouble.

Plus it's slightly realistic making protein deal with health and bodily repair... Protein is needed in order to make new cells. The reason many of my vegetables fill a little bit of protein is because vegetables actually do have protein in them, but one single vegetable does not have all the kinds of protein that you need on a daily basis.

(By eating a variety of vegetables you can get all the protein you need, although just one type of meat will contain all the proteins you need, in addition to a few other things like cholesterol.)