Cooking System

[Purist]

First of all, I don't know if this idea has been discussed before, if so, forgive me for not searching around.

Recently I've been thinking about Herbalism, I liked it, well planned system. But then I started to wonder, why not cooking?
Isn't possible to create a kind of...food that works like a potion? This would add more elements to the game, different animals could provide different kinds of meat, new plants, seasons, flavors. The crops on farmlands could be harvested for tomatos, cucumbers, turnips, corn, etc.

Let's see some random examples, all are simple suggestions, they can be implemented with more complexity

The meat of a Dragon, when well cooked, could give bonuses to Cons and/or Str, perhaps even + 2 natural AC;

A simple meat seasoned with garlic could give temporary +2 natural AC against vampires -4 Cha; Currently you just eat bare garlic to have any protection right? (Nobody likes to eat bare garlic, seasoning something with garlic makes more sense to me)

As a salad of some certains vegetals mixed with Belladona could give the same bonus against shapeshangers;

Following a complex recipe, one could cook something to heal diseases. Perhaps cook something to make you immune against diseases for some hours. Like a coctel of medicinal herbs.
And so on.......

Therefore all bonuses would only take place one hour after the meal would be eaten, plus certain foods could take more time to be digested, like, again, dragon meat. And it'd last 2~8 hours. (Suggestion)
Taking in count that the advantage that potions hold above food, potions have instantaneous effect, food must be digested first.


The only cooking that I've seem around takes place when one use meat on a campfire, then one get rations.
I think a new system like cooking could give to us a different option besides Herbalism, not that herbalism isn't enough, but brewing potions just gets old, we could have cookers, and herbalists. Would work more or less likewise. Of course, the effects of a potion still would be stronger than the majority(not all) of cooked meals. Like the flesh of a baddass monster could prove to be really useful.


I know the server and the community has other priorities in hand, but isn't this worth of care analizys?

[Bad_Bud]

Potions don't last very long and are not the easiest things to make.  Potions are more like emergency buffs.

And I don't think we need another buffing system to continue stacking enhancements with.  If there were ever a cooking system, I would imagine it would only be for thrills.  Or at the most, "You just drank milk!  +1 to discipline because of your strong bones!  Congratulations!"

[Ryltar/ Robert Archer]

as i said before i don't think we need buffing if we had cooking more it would be for role play purposes and community run economy which i do believe was the point of all these systems. If any kind of buffing were to come into play i suppose only at the highest lvls of the craft would something come into play maybe a virtue buff resistance buff or something like that plus we could open the doors for locals charging outlanders to milk there cows giving folks something else to do besides dungeoning

actually wait in my example above one could go to a farmer asking for work during the day of course and the farmer would say about having to need his cows milked, the farmer agrees payment of a portion of the milk kind of like how you get a sample of herbs this could also be a boon for local natives having work besides the guard and miltia and such too

what folks think?

[Vespertilio]

Even if the very boring looking rations were reworked to reflect what was actually cooked it would add a lot to the role play. I was disappointed when I cooked up some beggar's caps and got the same 'canned ration' looking icon and it was called rations. No difference from the rations sold in shops or what you get from roasting a deer/bear/ox.  I was hoping it would still look like a mushroom and if not at least be called something like roasted beggar's cap so I could tell it from the other rations in my inventory.  Understandably most of those really spiffy cep icons aren't stackable but I really don't mind that personally and perhaps rather than stacking you could get more than one use from a cooked food item, such as a huge greasy bear roast would feed five?

Milking a farmer's cows or doing odd jobs around a homestead like helping nail boards on all the windows to ward against Old Night would be a nice alternative 'quest' for lowbie pcs (Human since who's gonna hire a daft fey? everyone knows they sour milk and cause miscarriages) who want an option to fighting for 'rewards' and could even make use of the exhaustion system. You just spent the whole day digging turnips and now you're bushed and you get a shiny new turnip for your broken back! It's just like being a peasant!

[Purist]

I don't really mind about buffs in cooking, they could be removed, but like you guys said, simply there are no variations of rations, apart the Chili and another one or two meals.

To make it more consistent, some foods could hold you for many hours without feeling hungry,  "snacks" would feed one up to 2 hours. Funny how a 'shroom feeds the same as a beef.

[Ryltar/ Robert Archer]

have to admit on that aspect certain 'meals' crafted could hold you over for a longer time not that you NEED to do it but if you want to rp it then its there as an option just as now techincly you dont need to rp eating at all of the rations oh on that point you could factor in certain meals healing more then others. Simple rations just heal say 1d4 larger meals healer more etc. What about that?

and i still like my idea of odd jobs for humans natives preferably but outlanders perhaps too

[Heretic]

Its a good idea; there's a lot of possibilities along with fishing and other systems you could possibly think of; however, the factor in all these things is often time, development resources and priorities.


There's many things taking priorities over an idea such as this; which has been thought of before.

  Crafting system. We had a good chat today about crafting/tradeskills, and ways of implementing it that would be fun: things like fishing, cooking, etc.

  A food system. This would add extra hp gain on rest. Right now you don't get all your hp back on rest. If you have food, you would get the option in the rest conversation menu to eat it and gain more hp back. The amount of hp gained would depend on the type of food eaten.

The fishing/cooking trade will possibly be in the upcoming crafting system, which is currently in the works.

If we implemented the trades, then perhaps players will be able to hunt in forests and go fishing at Lake Zarovich or the Vallaki Docks.

if there is anything lacking in this server (which is rare), it is pacifist jobs for exp and gold.

like, Fishing...for fish and a occasional trinket at the bottom of the lake and fish can be sold, maybe help a farm by collecting apples or produce from trees which would respawn after a IG day(s) but enough for a couple of people to do, maybe help a ale maker gather ingredients for his recipe, cooking for a chef, blacksmithing with a master smith,help a town crier for news papers or delieveries through the city, and if we can get a working job system, we could do night shift jobs for NPCs or waiters in the Ladies rest. but closer to the "hub of activity" the better, and make it so people don't farm it and stray from the troubles around in Barovia. Also, make people run from the farm or fishing hole during night, and all shops and jobs close at night as to "rest" before the next day, unless it is a night job.

this would help foster the newbies, and give a special place for characters who aren't warriors

[Bad_Bud]

It's an idea, but an idea that is struggling to find a purpose.  I get the feeling you're picking things that cooking could affect simply because you feel it needs to affect something, but most of these things are effects that have at least been partially carefully balanced at some point in the past.  Resting, hunger, fatigue, etc.  And realize that anything that would modify these would add a third dimension to having to balance it back out, but to what end?  What is the benefit?

The only way I can see it working is to have it do nothing other than make items you can eat, but then we would have a system you would have to spend time gaining experience in to eventually max out for zero benefit.  That, as I see it, would be a feature for the sake of adding a feature... you can already buy different food items and people already pretend to have made them.

Sorry to be such a downer, but I don't think this is a good idea.  When a crafting system is created, you start with a goal.  The craft is built around accomplishing that goal.  Cooking is a craft searching for a goal, and that's not a successful approach.

[ThAnswr]

It's an idea, but an idea that is struggling to find a purpose. 

I kind of feel this way too.  It would be nice, but I'd rather see the effort put into alchemy. 

[Purist]

I'm glad everybody's posting here, be in favor or not, but sadly it took 10 days to get a reply, and probably if I hadn't mentioned about this topic somewhere else, probably there'd still be 0 replies.

Thanks all for posting, this a debate in  the name of the Sacred Holy Saint RP Cause.

[DarkWyvern]

My little dragons and I give this idea a thumbs up. I think it'd be great to have, not so much for the buffs or anything, but the ideal of roleplay it can bring. The frying pan and cook pot could have more RP use. Turnips and bear meat = Bear stew


Would be nice to see. I agree.

[Purist]

Do we already have placable pots/caldrons? Could be nice to RP *cooking*.

Look at this:

A good cleric stands outside the temple with a caldron, serving food, obviously it'd be something simple, not like a super nutritive meal.

[Bad_Bud]

Do we already have placable pots/caldrons? Could be nice to RP *cooking*.

Look at this:

A good cleric stands outside the temple with a caldron, serving food, obviously it'd be something simple, not like a super nutritive meal.

You could request a placed pot, or you could buy a pot and set the bag looking item on the ground while you hand out rations.

[failed.bard]

Belle and Ahri cooked up venison and mushroom stew a week back, and spent a half hour or so RPing doing it, without needing a cooking system in place
  I think for pure RP purposes, having to use a pot or a frying pan on a fire to turn it into a cooking fire, especially if the appearance of the fire could be changed to reflect that, would promote the same RP, regardless of whether you got generic rations from it.

[Mcskinns]

I like the idea of having food have various effects, but not so much in the form of normal buffs.  Consider the character who spent half his day ratting only to have become diseased by one of the dire rats.  Disease is not removed on rest, but eating "chicken soup" could provide a chance on rest to overcome the disease, or to provide a bonus to Disease saves for say 2 hours or so.  Hearty meals could provide a bonus to fortitude saves, and "smart" foods a bonus to will.  Other foods, such as baked sweets or sugary desserts could lessen fatigue for a short duration.  And since you can only eat so often, you would have to decide which food was the best to eat before heading out on the journey.  Further, the food could have a "time stamp" variable saved to it.  Via use of the "Examine" function a player could determine if the item was fresh, stale, or spoiled.  Thusly forcing players to resort to either taking time to cook the food just before eating, or picking foods that will survive a long trip.  Old foods could be potentially poisonous or disease ridden themselves as bacteria starts to grow.

The there is the potential for a set of mundane quests, that provide a small gold reward.  A local kitchen is shorthanded, and players can be "hired" to deliver certain types of meat/herbs for a price (like Petre with the minks), if it was designed as a craft skill like the others already included, then when a player had enough skill, they might be hired on as a part-time cook.  Then they get assigned a random "quest" food delivery.  Where for example, the cook tells them that <NPC X> ordered <Food Y> then the player would need to aquire the proper materials to make the food, cook it, and deliver it to the proper npc for the payment.

Its wouldn't be a priority to implement, but there are tons of ideas that could be worked into the game that are not overly unbalancing.

[Purist]

Well said mister Mcskinns.

The real purpose of this topic, as any others, is that people start to debate over something, and picking the based idea and adding to it or changing, altogether for the sake of best RP

And I probably mentioned that this would not be a priority, but a idea to be considered.

[PrimetheGrime]

I love this idea of cooking and gaining something other than rations! I hope this becomes a reality some day

[BattleCupcake]

This necromancy must have been part of a Pale Master application.


That said, +1'd.

[Purist]

Omg, 10 years ago? I'm sorry, it's been forever since I last checked "replies to your posts", I thought it got revived recently and not 1 year ago. I don't like Pale Masters,but can I get one?

[ILLY6666]

Cooking would be quite welcome with all the spices and stuff that already exist in the world.

[Ard]

how about adding 'cooking' in crafting skills, making something like : Potion + Meat/mushrom = meal with effects of longer lasting potions (until you get hungry and you 'eat food with eagerness') .

Or herbs + meat = idem 1st idea ?

[zDark Shadowz]

There's only two types of food you need, poisoned and unpoisoned.

It'd be easier to do food by poaching the writing system template, add a unique power for eating & generate variant food picture icons labelled as 'Recipe' items.

And you're done. The only skill required is your own writing skills & appropriate RP. Only takes one script, and several picturesque items sharing the same tag to implement.

Only limits are food icon availability and your imagination. No power creep, no bonuses, just pure flavour, like food should be made out of.

Cue everyone making the Mary Sue of chocolate chip cookies.