Thread about Cooking

[GrayHood]

Hello-hello.

My favorite activity in game is growing crops and cooking, by now. Unfortunately, cooking and food here is not quite balanced. So, my public talk will be about Cooking mechanics and how to improve it.

At first, I'd like to mention that some RP game about adventures in space (won't give name of it here) displays a nice quirky message to chat once your character consumes some food. Simple food and expensive/unique dish may provide same energy to your character, but second option may give a more expanded and colorful message to your chat, while first option shows more brief message. Of course, you may pose your character as fan of plain rice balls.

I start with these four recipes:

Code:

Rice Ball
Ingredients: Rice (x2)
Energy: 100
"Some fluffy rice. A staple of Shengese diet."
Energy: 100
Vitality: 1


Bread
Ingredients: Wheat (x2)
Energy: 100
"Dry, whole grain bread! A staple of Britannian diet."
Energy: 100
Vitality: 1


Tortilla
Ingredients: Corn (x2)
Energy: 100
"Thick corn tortilla. A staple of Gehennan diet."
Energy: 100
Vitality: 1


Baked Potato
Ingredients: Potato (x2)
Energy: 100
"A simple plate of baked potatoes."
Energy: 100
Vitality: 1

They are mechanically almost equivalent, BUT you definitely won't spend rice to make riceball. 
Just like wheat, for making bread.

Two portions of wheat and two portions of rice may be used more effectively, in other dishes.

So, here are my suggestions:
1. Add an egg to bread recipe and buff up base energy of bread to 200. Also, buff base Vitality to 3 or 4. Bread gives life, you know.
2. Keep riceball recipe as is, but it should be involved in fish recipes.
3. Same applies to Tortilla. Keep its base energy, but include it in a new recipe - Taco. 

Taco - a suggestion of new recipe.
According to wikipedia, Taco has tortilla, and filling, with different variations. The simplest option will be a taco made of Tortilla, leek and two pork chops. Its base energy should be 400, basic vitality 3. It really fits Moxtli style, as well as makes Tortilla useful.

Code:

Fried Eggs
Ingredients: Egg (x2)
Energy: 100
"Fried, sunny side-up eggs."
Energy: 300
Vitality: 2

Jerky
Ingredients: Pork (x2)
Energy: 100
"Baked and preserved salty strips of meat."
Energy: 300
Vitality: 2

A hint for academy kids: Drop Fried eggs around the campus to display your wealth. Osronian noble rich men used to do so, for example. 300-600 energy for flat 40 coins. While it is not reasonable to cook it at beginning of leveling cooking, it may be worth it once you reach 50% cooking. 
But still, nothing is compared with Jerky. You see it when someone rolls for +power bonus, or leveling up cooking - Jerky is just everywhere. 
My suggestion:
Nerf Jerky to Energy: 200 . It is way too accessible to make, compared to Fried eggs.
Fried eggs and Jerky should not provide same energy value, because cost of them is different. Obviously, Jerky is preferred over Fried eggs now.

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Code:

Chocolate
Ingredients: Cacao (x2)
Energy: 100
"A little bit of sweetness can drown out a whole lot of bitterness"
Energy: 400
Vitality: 2

Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients: Rice (x1), Egg (x1), Chocolate (x1)
Energy: 100
"A rich, thick rice pudding infused with creamy chocolate."
Energy: 600
Vitality: 3

Energy value of Chocolate and Chocolate pudding are fine. But they are exquisite dishes now. Spawn of Cacao is much rarer than spawn of important alchemy herbs. Someone has camped it and got about fifty cacao. Maybe it's me, I am not travelling often, but I have seen it only near Grimmore manor, which has gone now.

Suggestion: increase spawn of Cacao to make these recipes viable. They are nice because farmland is not required to make them.

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Code:

Stir Fry
Ingredients: Rice (x1), Carrot (x1), Pork (x1)
Energy: 100
"A delicious pork stir fry."
Energy: 500
Vitality: 3

Oatmeal
Ingredients: Wheat (x2), Corn (x2)
Energy: 100
"A nice bowl of assorted cereals."
Energy: 500
Vitality: 3

Another two recipes which should be nerfed. 
Suggestion: Decrease their Energy value to 400; maybe keep vitality vitality as 3. They are very simple to make.

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Code:

Grape Jam
Ingredients: Grape (x3)
Energy: 100
"A jar of grape jam."
Energy: 150
Vitality: 1

Blueberry Jam
Ingredients: Blueberries (x3)
Energy: 100
"A jar of blueberry jam."
Energy: 150
Vitality: 1

Those two recipes feel like they are unused at all. Of course, you may pose your character as lover of jam (by the way, you may mix Jam with water and drink it. Water is common), but mechanically you'd prefer to choose another dishes.
Suggestion:
They should be used as components in other recipes. Grape jam and Blueberry Jam. By now, they may be buffed to have base Vitality of 3, or even 4. They will become more viable as standalone food.

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Code:

Pancakes
Ingredients: Wheat (x2), Egg (x2), Grape Jam (x1)
Energy: 100
"A plate of delicious, sweet pancakes with jam drizzled over."
Energy: 600
Vitality: 3

Why egg x2? Pancakes now are another exquisite dish. They are too expensive with two eggs.
Suggestion:
Let the recipe be: Wheat (x2), Egg (x1), Blueberry Jam (x1)
Blueberry jam is not used anywhere now, but grapes are too overused, in one form or another. Also, vitality may be increased to 4, because 3 blueberries are used.

Code:

Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients: Wheat (x2), Egg (x1), Pumpkin (x2)
Energy: 100
"A slice of thick and rich pumpkin pie."
Energy: 550
Vitality: 3

Nice and pretty balanced recipe, but why does it have energy value of 550?
Suggestion: keep it on par with pancakes, but vitality should stay 3, because less components are used than in pancakes.

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Ramen
Ingredients: Egg (x1), Mushrooms (x1), Pork (x2), Wheat (x2)
Energy: 100
"Fresh-cooked noodles, rich, savory broth, a few slices of pork and a soft boiled egg. Rejuvinate your body and soul with a bowl of ramen.."
Energy: 600
Vitality: 3

Sandwich
Ingredients: Wheat (x2), Egg (x1), Lettuce (x1), Tomato (x1), Pork (x1)
Energy: 100
"A tall, stacked sandwich with egg, tomato, lettuce and pork."
Energy: 600
Vitality: 3

Two nice and fun recipes to make. Sandwich is a mini-quest.

Suggestions:
It's "rejuvenate", I think.
Sandwich should give 650 Energy and 4 vitality, while Ramen 550. Ramen is generally easier to make. You need to grow only wheat for ramen, while for sandwich you need also Lettuce and Tomato. Also, why are there TWO pork portions in ramen? Maybe, make it only 1?

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Code:

Salad
Ingredients: Leek (x1), Lettuce (x2), Tomato (x2), Vinegar (x1)
Energy: 100
"A handful of vegetables tossed together into a garden salad."
Energy: 600
Vitality: 3

Another great recipe. It offers nice energy (salad does not provide much energy normally, but it is required and important for game, to keep this recipe balanced). Unfortunately, it is unbalanced. It requires now not 100 energy, but:
100 (to make wine) + 100 (to turn it into vinegar) + 100 (to turn mix it into salad) = 300.
Real cost of recipe is: Leek (x1), Lettuce (x2), Tomato (x2), Grapes (x4)
Salads now fall under exquisite dishes, the most expensive, but noone will purchase them for 300-500 coins.
Why do I spill a bottle of vinegar into salad?
Suggestion:
This recipe requires rework of Vinegar. Vinegar should be a special, "portion" item. It should implement a portion counter. Maximum - 4 portions (or other value, but no more than 10). Once used in recipe a portion counter should be substracted by one, and if it turns to zero (all portions were used) then Vinegar bottle is removed from inventory. Real cost of salad will be: 
Leek (x1), Lettuce (x2), Tomato (x2), Grapes (x1)
And energy: (100+100)/4+100 = 50+100. 
Better, I think.
Vitality should be 4, or even 5 as reward for complexity.

[GrayHood]

Code:

Cornbread
Ingredients: Wheat (x2), Egg (x1), Corn (x1)
Energy: 100
"Fluffy, warm bread with corn in it."
Energy: 250
Vitality: 1

This recipe needs to be buffed. This is a more expensive version of oatmeal.
Suggestion:
Buff vitality to 4 (it's a bread). Buff energy to 500.

Code:

Tomato Soup
Ingredients: Tomato (x2), Leek (x1)
Energy: 100
"A lovely, warm tomato soup."
Energy: 500
Vitality: 3

Just look at this! Wow, so OP!
Suggestion:
Set energy as 250 or 300, vitality to 2 or 3 (it has vegetables, and vegetables are useful). If you want to keep its energy on 500, then add two potatoes to recipe. One potato may be fine for energy rating of 400.

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Code:

Spinach Smoothie
Ingredients: Kale (x1), Spinach (x3)
Energy: 100
"Gross, though healthy. A smooth blend of spinach."
Energy: 400
Vitality: 2

It inspired me to dev into carrot smoothie recipe. Neither Kale, nor Spinach are spawned in game, so this recipe is redundant.
Suggestion:
Please, delete it, and add carrot smoothie recipe instead (400 energy, 4 vitality, 4 carrots)

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Code:

Fatty Tuna
Ingredients: Tuna (x1), Rice (x1)
Energy: 100
"A fresh slice of melt-in-your-mouth tuna on rice."
Energy: 450
Vitality: 2

Suggestion: replace rice with rice balls. This meal has a bit too much energy now, but with rice balls it will be balanced

Code:

Maki Roll
Ingredients: Bass (x1), Rice (x1), Seaweed (x1)
Energy: 100
"A favorite in Izhura! Fish and rice wrapped in seaweed."
Energy: 600
Vitality: 3

I post here only one recipe, others are identical. It has now the same rating as sandwich, but sandwich is more complicated
Suggestion: replace rice with rice balls, tone it down to 450, to keep on par with fatty tuna. Vitality 3 is fine, because weed is added.

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Code:

Crab Plate
Ingredients: King Crab (x1), Rice (x1)
Energy: 100
"A plate of boiled crab and rice."
Energy: 425
Vitality: 2

This recipe needs to be buffed, because Crab is rare
Suggestion: Buff energy to 600, or even to 650. Make it EXQUISITE

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Okay, alcohol needs rework. And separate thread.