I’ve solved this issue another way: Keys are now individually collectible for each player (when you collect a key, it disappears for you but other players can still see it). Keys do not spawn at all for zombie players.
Changed in v.102 
Idea
Changed in v.102 Idea
Changed in v.102 Idea
For a long time it had no clear purpose, since the mechanic “collect food to gain missiles” was removed. I thought about making it a secondary currency, but I decided against it (that’s why it’s directly convertible to keys now).
Having said this, I recently got an idea about food. In v.102, as part of overhauling the Overdrive mechanic, I plan to add a “Booster” slot in each spacecraft. This slot can be customized with which mechanic will be used for short-term boosting of your weapon power (what is currently Overdrive). Potential selections:
- Empty (default)
- Overdrive (as it is currently in the game)
- Kill charges (killing enemies charges the boost; similar to About the current state of spacecraft in the game - #33 by GgWw1175)
- Food charges (collecting food charges the boost)
- (maybe) Food gains special weapons (classic episode behaviour)
I really don’t want to have yet another method of control. The UI code is already complicated enough.