This used to confuse me a bit, but once I ate a few foods to see what the stats did it worked itself out.
Either way I think there will be confusion. There will always be an inverse relationship on one end or the other because the stats work in reverse.
It makes more sense to me the way it is (even though I see where the confusion is) I’ve never seen a healing item in any game pop up with a - number.
Now granted most systems when you get poisoned it just does tic damage and you don’t have a range of poison numbers to deal with. You just cast the cure spell or the antidote.
So if it were changed it could also be seen as backwards as well because I naturally see a + as a cure.
I think its more an issue with the way its labeled.
You could reverse the way sickness works and start at 100 as healthy and then the the sicker you get the more points you lose.
This would line all the stats on the markets correctly and logically, but then looking at the HUD it would feel unnatural on that side (plus its just extra work)
I think the simplest solution is to communicate that somewhere in the documentation so its difficult to miss how they work.
+15 hunger (depletes your ability to be full and is a net negative) and +15 health (refills your health bar and is a net positive) still work in opposite directions, so I’m not sure that really solves it.
I naturally consider hunger full at 100 and the closer to 0 you get the worse it is. So a -5 to hunger, to me means, my condition has worsened.
I think it might be a bit confusing when some stats with certain values are positive while others with the same value are detrimental. For example, say I have a food that has 25 Energy, 25 Health, and 25 Hunger, with the above change someone may think the postiive value for hunger is also good (i.e., fills your hunger bar).
I think it would be ideal if stats with a negative value all have a negative effect with regard to the associated stat. So negative always has a bad effect;- blood takes away blood, -fatigue makes you more fatigued, - hunger makes you more hungry, etc.
But my brain works differently from most people so I understand that what works for me probably will not be best for others.
After thinking of this with keeping as is and with changes, my thought is it would make more sense to keep as is. Like other comments, I can see both can be confusing. Staying as is makes more sense to me if I think of playing a mmorpg which is what this is aiming for.
I think keeping it the same is best. + means good for you, - means bad for you - once you get used to that idea, it isn’t very hard to know whats happening. A herb that is -2 is going to make you sick; a herb that is +1 is going to make you feel better.
In rpgs/games that use hunger and sickness stats, they start at 0 bcuz if you are fully hungry at 100, the bar is full which is bad, if you are fully sick, the sickness bar is full which is also bad, a negative to those bars would be removing the hunger or sickness, which is good. All that needs to be done is switch the positive and negative to line up with what the huds meters display.
I would keep things in this regard as they were designed, but make sure that there is a clear explanation of the effects +'s and -'s have. The Good for you, Bad for you is a good way to think about it. Sickness is, of course, Bad for you… Using an Herbal preparation that is + for Sickness means you get better, not worse
adding an amount to an empty meter, you use a +, if that meter is bad to be filled/added to, that is bad. so you would want to - from that meter/stat. a + in that stat would be bad.
There is a way to leave the + & - alone and make it easy to see which is good/bad. Add green or red color to the numbers for good (green) or bad (red).
Thats an easy comprimise to do actually. Showing the colors on the marketplace item stats to determine if it’s good or bad for you just to name yhe concept of + is good and - is bad for new players that don’t know the concept.