Could be some merit to this..
Thread titled 'Nerfing! Nerfing! Who's up for a good nerfing! You know you want it!' in the alt.games.everquest newsgroup. Should mention someone started saying this is an urban legend in the thread, and others came to disprove it. I'll post both people's opinions and you can decide. Thread is also November 2002 and no one mentions exact time frame this happened. Interestingly enough they mention higher consumption rates when encumbered. Here's the thread quotes:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...4Qps%5B1-25%5D
Quote:
Water is consumed much faster in NRo and Oasis than normal. That I've
observed far too often to even be bothered by your ignorant jab. I
suspect SRo also consumes water faster, but I've never spent more than
a few minutes at a time there, so I can't say for sure. But most of my
characters have started in Freeport. Most of them have moved into NRo
early in their careers, eating and drinking the same food/drink. Every
single one of them has had their water (or milk) consumed about 50%
faster in those particular desert zones.
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Quote:
I spent a long time in the NRo area myself way back when, and didn't
notice any faster consumption of food or water.
I classify the whole thing as a myth.
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Quote:
I've noticed that, in Oasis, water is consumed WAY faster than
normal.
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Quote:
100% guaranteed you go through water faster than normally there and in
the two Ros.
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Quote:
I know that water and rations are normally consumed at the same rate
by my human. I know that after a couple hours in Oasis I hate fewer
water flasks left than rations when I went in with the exact same
number of both.
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Quote:
If you did not sit down and actually time it, then you don't know that.
That goes for the rest of your "observations".
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A potential problem is, as is mentioned in the thread, if you right click then your food/water that is 'in your belly' lasts half as long as if you rationed it naturally (without right clicking). Could be people loaded up on water at the vendor and right clicked, and just noticed the higher consumption rate.
Who knows for sure, will try and dig up more stuff.