The only way drinks will be preferable to foodstuffs is if there is some other small bonus associated with them.
Just to play off of the above post, how about...
Alcohol could be used for health recovery as well as Minor Protection or Minor Resolve.
Tonics for stamina recovery as well as Minor Savagery or Minor Evasion.
Tea for magicka recovery as well as Minor Prophecy or Minor Ward.
That small adjustment would make drinks much more interesting. But I really am curious, why are you so resistant to the idea of stacking? Is there a practical reason?
if u want to make us happy the easy way, let them stack^^
otherwise the idea with major/minor food buffs sounds good too.
Or here is another idea, introduce "meals" which is basicly a combination of food and drink. Give us blue and purple recipes:
blue: increases max and reg of one stat (ie max hp and hp reg)
purpe: increase max and reg of two stats
to keep it simple you can limit the combinations so that max® have to be about the same stat, or if u really want to let us buff whatever we want give us every single combination
At this point unless you're going to add food stacking you can either:
1. Get rid of drinks altogether. Seriously, we're not using them. They pale compared to the buffs (innate or otherwise) that food gives. Food is reliable, you know exactly how many extra skills you can use. Food also gives increases to overall damage. Drinks don't allow that.
2. Hardcode drink-type buffs into a new tier of food items. We have green tier, blue tier, purple tier food items. Make legendary tier, the legendary tier item adding a portion to regen rates. People will go absolutely bonkers to buy this stuff.
3. Make drinks more appealing to use by also increasing damage types. So, for example, a magicka / stamina drink will also increase your magicka and stamina skill damage. Health might also give a small damage absorb every x seconds, etc.
At this point it's important to know what you have right now is utterly useless to us. Drinking is / should never be used when food buffs are better. My vote is for number 2, get rid of beverages and tack on the regen benefit instead to legendary tier food items.
Thanks for the feedback on this! You're also welcome to provide feedback using the /feedback command within the game. If you folks have any ideas on how to make drinks a more enticing choice, let us know those too!
i appreciate your effort. please tell zos to get their head out on simple basic features, that the community actually agrees on. smh
ive collected beverage mats and recipes, not that i use them but who knows maybe 1 day you guys will decide to make drinks better then food, as opposed to viable to food. so try to balance it not just make 1 better then the other.
not everyone plans ahead in aticipation of poor execution in game design.