Spoilage and crafting

[Supified]

Spoilage is a thing that happens to food now in this game. 

Crafting is also a thing that happens in this game.

Arm does not have a system for giving you hints on how to craft something or what you can craft with something except analyze and looking at physical descriptions.  This works mostly because items we want to craft usually do and while sure you can guess, that process is tedious at best.

With the advent of spoilage though this becomes in my view a bit of a problem, cooking crafts, now that those crafts will spoil, cannot be used as easily for example pieces for analyze and thus will be easier forgotten.

I've brought up before how I think the game should really give us more hints with code on what we can craft and how, but I think now that cooking crafts will spoil this is a bigger thing.  Those crafts (and the objects they make) are positive for the world and I would hate to imagine that some or many even are simply forgotten because no one remembers how to craft x or y and it simply effectively ceases to exist.

[Lizzie]

The "craft" command works for raw materials. Combine that with physical descriptions, and you should be able to figure out MOST cooking crafts through *educated* trial and error (rather than wild guessing).

A stuffed belshun fruit - main description suggests some kind of meat, and savory spices.

So you know it needs a belshun fruit.
Type "craft belshun" and you don't see that stuffed one.

So how about looking into common meats (since it's a fairly common recipe and therefore wouldn't need rare meats).

craft belshun carru
craft belshun gurth
craft belshun tembo
craft belshun (don't bother with spider - consider the source. It's a gellid mass of nastiness. Totally not suitable for stuffed anything).

While you're working on it, it's very likely you'll find all kinds of recipes you never would've thought of. So maybe you won't find THAT recipe - but you might find the "savory tembo-stuffed belshun pastry" that you wouldn't have discovered, if you hadn't been trying to look for something else.

This discovery is part of what makes it fun, at least for me.  Of course if your boss says "I need a stuffed belshun fruit and it better be the right one because someone is paying us for it" then yeah it could be a bit of a downer. However you could also RP out a frustration in not knowing the recipe and see if the boss's customer can give you a hint on what KIND of meat is in the stuffing.

[Supified]

Thanks Lizzie, but this does bring up part two of our crafting system and what I wish was different.

The fact everything is based on item id, as in exactly that item and no substitutes.  Not a terribly realistic system when some things should absolutely be substitutable.

Granted, now we're wandering in to the realm of probably unrealistic expectations of code, if we weren't there already (well overhaul anyway, I know some games do allow for substitution in their crafting).

[solera]

For food, the north/south grocer could occasionally have a craftable food item on offer. Not very often, because it is fun to learn a new recipe from a PC, but I assume there have been some that have not been known for a generation?

[Harmless]

Guessing what magic item id is the key ingredient for a recipe really kills the fun of crafting for me, but being able to analyze objects is a nice feature. I wish I had started a recipe book, I would have a bunch of (boring) recipes stored if I had over my last five or so crafters.. but is that a gameplay mechanic that we want or should crafters be able to (perhaps) see more recipes possible with some form of research ability?

[bardlyone]

I prefer crafting systems where anything in your inventory and/or the room parses as what can be crafted from it, when you type 'craft' by itself, like on the now-defunct Dark Isles and how it did with tailoring at least. It's not like you wouldn't be able to use 'analyze' on the item later to see what it used to make it.

[Lizzie]

I prefer crafting systems where anything in your inventory and/or the room parses as what can be crafted from it, when you type 'craft' by itself, like on the now-defunct Dark Isles and how it did with tailoring at least. It's not like you wouldn't be able to use 'analyze' on the item later to see what it used to make it.

I agree, to some extent. Given the limitations of the game code though, there'd need to be a way to include objects in specific containers. The code doesn't allow for the inclusion of any items INSIDE containers. If it was possible, and the code just dumped you a list of every possibility of every craft you are able to do, with every item in the room including every item in every container...

You'd probably freeze your own screen and never bother to try it again if you were a crafter in a location where there were trunks and chests and boxes and bins and crates and bags and packs filled with raw materials.

However if you could type something like:

Code Select Expand

craft *me.linen + 2.crate

and get every combination of things you can craft using any/all linen in your own personal inventory, plus anything contained inside "2.crate" - that might be pretty sweet.

[Armaddict]

Spoilage kind of ruined a lot of things based around cooking and food as it pertains to character behaviors in the game.

I haven't really seen much of the benefit of it, yet, but I've been assured it's there every time I bring this up.

[bardlyone]

Spoilage kind of ruined a lot of things based around cooking and food as it pertains to character behaviors in the game.

I haven't really seen much of the benefit of it, yet, but I've been assured it's there every time I bring this up.

This. I was opposed to it before it went in. I'm still opposed to it.

I'm curious if any single person, at all, has any positive stories or anecdotes about it. Or if it is simply negative and not enjoyed by most as it is by myself.

I had a perfectly preserved flower which was carefully dried and preserved to last indefinitely ffs that spoiled and disappeared. A dried flower.

And that's not to get started on special food items in clan halls for certain noble houses that you can't get from the clan cook that just spoil and you're out of the chance to use/have them until the next time the game reboots.

[nauta]

Adding to the feedback:

I've also noticed that, at least in the clans/roles I've played in since the code was implemented (rinthers, indie hunters, delves, and human tribal) there is still more than enough meat/food. It is just specialty RP treats that have become rare. 

So, assuming one of the goals here was to make it more challenging to survive, I'm not sure it has had this effect.  (I'm not sure if this was a goal, either.)

I think the other goal was to encourage people to gather ingredients / hire people to gather them, rather than relying on what is stockpiled inside the clan.  This is an admirable goal, which is why I liked the idea of spoilage, but I do think the time-to-rot on items should be tweaked a bit (see below).

Pets used to rot too, but I think that's fixed.  Thank you!

Perhaps its time to tweak it a bit.

My suggestions: 

o Decrease the time-to-rot on most of the non-raw meats by about five-fold (that is, anything that has been crafted into something new, allow it to rot, but have it take 15 days rather than 3, or whatever the number is now), even if this is a bit unrealistic.  Reasoning: specialty food items are often created for an RP scene, and sometimes schedules are such that you'll make the item one week, and not have that RP scene using it until a week or more later.  I've had to just toss my hands up and go virtual a couple of times due to this.

o Increase the time-to-rot on meats left in the sun by about five-fold.  Reasoning: there's a lot of meat out there.

o Less (quantitative) meat: not every skinning yields meat -- frankly, even setting the Vrun chalton aside, there's about two or three times too much meat gathered on an average hunt.  (Sorry Akariel! I love the variety, but I think there's too much meat.)  (This would only be relevant if the goal is to make surviving more difficult, of course.)

o Plants should produce less fruit.  (If our goal is to make surviving harder.)

[bardlyone]

I love a lot of the building/changes/projects lately, but I'm right there with you. If you spend 1k coins on a box of candy, you don't want that shit to rot before you can eat it. And if you have to get it sourced from another settlement, through a third party's hands, then into yours, well, hope it's not a gift for someone you only see occasionally. >.>

[Armaddict]

For me it's been repeated cases of:

"I made this for you." or "I brought this for you."

Followed by a flimsy explanation that breaks down to the OOC communication of "But you didn't log in yesterday, and yesterday was my big day to play, so it went bad and you don't get it anymore."

It's just kind of a waste of a lot of the things we sunk into making the cooking skill about more than 'I cooked a steak!'.  With how it behaves versus how players behave, it results in a lot of wasted time and effort as far as trying to turn it into anything good.  It didn't make hunters sell their food to more PC's.  It didn't make things more interesting.  It didn't make hunters more necessary to clans (where I guess now hunters are gone completely).  It doesn't even increase costs for an indy who doesn't join a clan with a cook; it just makes it so that if you log in, be sure to set aside some time to hunt for your food for the week, which while 'real', makes an involuntary OOC chore.

It just seems like a good trial run that had its live test and should now be rolled back as ineffective towards its stated purpose and non-contributory.

[BadSkeelz]

Well as the old saying goes, "Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker except when it comes to spoilage."

[nauta]

I love a lot of the building/changes/projects lately, but I'm right there with you. If you spend 1k coins on a box of candy, you don't want that shit to rot before you can eat it. And if you have to get it sourced from another settlement, through a third party's hands, then into yours, well, hope it's not a gift for someone you only see occasionally. >.>

Right.  Meant to add: if you assess some candies and food items, you'll notice they've been set to 'norot' or something to that effect.  (My personal preference though is to just make the rot really really high, since I do think its nice to go out and get the ingredients; but there's also a need for an 'exemplar' copy for new clan mates, or at least to have the recipes posted somewhere.)  So another suggestion (which is already in place, to be fair):

o See something, say something.  Ask your clan staff if they can adjust the rot-time on certain items you feel fall into that class of specialty RP food.  Bear in mind, we don't want everything to be no-rot, because I think it's good to hire people to get the ingredients -- but I think some things could be set to take longer to rot to allow for the RP scenes.  I've had success here with a couple items (pets in particular) that I asked staff about.

[bardlyone]

Eh. Honestly? The only time I don't carry every bit of food I have on my person in game now is when I'm playing a hunter and want a meta excuse to go kill something. That sounds like an asshole confession but it's true. While some people may want to feel a coded need to go hunt, I don't. While some people may want to spend all their login hours tending to food and spoilage issues or literally digging shit, I don't. YMMV, but for me and others (ala Armaddict), it hasn't added anything but a pain in the ass. I'd rather see it rolled back or scrapped altogether, or simply see the times made 1-2 rl weeks than spend yet MORE time engaging with that, by using bug or idea on each individual item in game.

Literally, the biggest effect I've seen of this is that now people leave the meat to rot, and the ones who don't are giving shitloads of free food out so it doesn't spoil.

I don't see how this adds anything to the idea of harshness or resource scarcity.

But if you like it, that's awesome. For you.

[Akaramu]

I think some things could be set to take longer to rot to allow for the RP scenes.  I've had success here with a couple items (pets in particular) that I asked staff about.

Wait. Pets now rot as well? 

[tortall]

I think some things could be set to take longer to rot to allow for the RP scenes.  I've had success here with a couple items (pets in particular) that I asked staff about.

Wait. Pets now rot as well? 

They were probably coded as a food item, much like the babies of yesteryer were. Oh, the days when you could have a half eaten baby!

[Hauwke]

I think some things could be set to take longer to rot to allow for the RP scenes.  I've had success here with a couple items (pets in particular) that I asked staff about.

Wait. Pets now rot as well? 

They were probably coded as a food item, much like the babies of yesteryer were. Oh, the days when you could have a half eaten baby!

Wuuuuuuuuuut! O.o

[a french mans shirt]

For food, the north/south grocer could occasionally have a craftable food item on offer. Not very often, because it is fun to learn a new recipe from a PC, but I assume there have been some that have not been known for a generation?

There was a day when me and Albie traded food recipes, that was fun. It was also a little sad because there is literally no other way to learn these 'hidden' recipes than to be so lucky enough to find the creator/one of their friends and be in a position to be able to ask.

[Akaramu]

I think some things could be set to take longer to rot to allow for the RP scenes.  I've had success here with a couple items (pets in particular) that I asked staff about.

Wait. Pets now rot as well? 

They were probably coded as a food item, much like the babies of yesteryer were. Oh, the days when you could have a half eaten baby!

Wuuuuuuuuuut! O.o

This is just wrong. Plz change 

Objective to obtain a pet ingame: suspended

[a french mans shirt]

I love that spoiling happens. What I think should be a thing is a common container which halves the rate of spoilage for Houses/important people holding events, and some way to rediscover recipes that haven't been in circulation for a while. Like that blue and white bread, for example. It was everywhere for a total of three days, and then you couldn't find it anymore.

[Seeker]

Pets absolutely should spoil.  It should be in months (for roaches) to years (for birds and snakes), but they don't get to be immortal.

[Akaramu]

Pets absolutely should spoil.  It should be in months (for roaches) to years (for birds and snakes), but they don't get to be immortal.

That seems fair if their spoiling timers have been adjusted from 'normal' food items.

[IntuitiveApathy]

I also like the spoiling code. 

I do agree that there could be some sort of food-saver container that the super-rich (or more likely their servants) can use to help prolong freshness, but food spoiling leads to the idea that cooked, fresh food is even more of a special thing that should be savoured and valued - a noble that didn't eat their fancy, cooked food that day?  Well, they're so super rich they can afford to leave their food to rot, that's how damn rich they are.

As a commoner?  Well you should be working to get your food - and if you've somehow obtained more than you can eat in the next few days, why are you complaining?

From an OOC perspective, I think the spoilage does help with the mass clutter of skinned items (but agree, there could just be a simple reduction in the chance to get a good cut of meat from a corpse), and I don't see it as needing such a huge adjustment from before that you should just hunt or purchase or cook on a more spread out basis that matches your character's rhythm.  It hasn't seemed to me that spoiling occurs that crazily fast to really be as obtrusive that everyone seems to make it out as being (or either that, some foods rot a lot faster than the ones I see), but maybe that's me.

As for crafting, one idea that popped into my head the other day was to allow master crafters an "Inspiration" command.  You could only use it on a certain interval (once per RL day?  once per RL week?), and it would return a random recipe that your character can craft using the same output as analyze code for the specific craft you had mastered.  It would be nice if the random recipe is one that the crafter hasn't ever crafted before, but I recognize that would be extra code which may not be even possible with the current framework, so that would just be a super nice bonus.  It would also be nice if it would only return results for crafts your character can actually craft (ie. exclude clan exclusive crafts for clans you aren't in).  This command would simulate a crafter figuring out how to make something without the benefit of analyze and/or simply being inspired to come up with something new (to them).  This is basically impossible to play out in-game unless you as the player have played that craft before and have encountered various recipes which you've OOC'ly saved, or unless you're mastercrafting, which in itself is a nice system but a somewhat different idea as the Inspiration command is meant to allow the player and the PC to come up with existing recipes. 

The other way to do this is to allow this kind of thing to be doled out via request commands, but I assume no staffer wants that extra workload.

> inspiration leatherworking
You realize that to make a bitchin' coon hat:
That appears to be made from a bitch and a coon.
You would need a fire to cook that.
Crafting this would be easy.

[John]

At the moment (based on the release notes) we have 54 hours (2 days) before raw food inside in a cool room in a food container spoils beyond use. While we have 74 hours (3 days) before preserved food inside in a cool room in a food container spoils beyond use.

I think this could stand to be tweaked dramatically. I'd easily increase have cool rooms increase the timer by 1.5 and have a mastercrafted food container (easily bought from Kadius or master toolcrafters who know the recipe) that increases the timer by 1.5. Give all noble estates (and MAYBE one or two apartments in Allanak) a cool room to keep food in.

I'd also double the timer on preserved food. That should last MUCH longer than raw food does.

[Miradus]

Some preserved food does last a long time.

I've got some dried meat in-game right now that's lasted longer than some of my characters.

[Akariel]

There are containers that help with the preservation of food. Find them IC (or mastercraft them).

[manipura]

As a commoner?  Well you should be working to get your food - and if you've somehow obtained more than you can eat in the next few days, why are you complaining?

This has been explained fairly well already, but the people who have issue with food spoilage don't really have problems with being unable to stockpile days and days worth of food.  Or being unable to make a living off of hunting or whatever other reasons have been suggested before.  I don't think anyone has ever really said something like "I don't like the food spoilage code because now I can't pile up 107 flanks of chalton meat."

The issue is when you have a particular food item for someone and then because your play times don't match up for a few days, it spoils before you can give it to them.  Presumably in your PC's virtual time, and in their virtual time, you have had time to see each other, but because you haven't been logged in together, the food in question spoils.

I've had people ask my character for specific food items, and I've had people want to give my character food items.  But because play times haven't lined up the food in question has spoiled, when in reality the characters would have been able to see each other during virtual time.  After the third or fourth time of play times failing to line up, I lose interest in doing the same thing over again, and I don't want to be the person asking another player to ride across the world yet again for the same thing they've done three times already.

[Akaramu]

I'd also double the timer on preserved food. That should last MUCH longer than raw food does.

Not having assessed a whole lot of IC food lately, I assumed this was already the case. There are food items which literally have 'lasts almost forever' in their description. Desert rations come to mind. Realistically, some food types like hard cheese should last months, if not years.

[IntuitiveApathy]

As a commoner?  Well you should be working to get your food - and if you've somehow obtained more than you can eat in the next few days, why are you complaining?

This has been explained fairly well already, but the people who have issue with food spoilage don't really have problems with being unable to stockpile days and days worth of food.  Or being unable to make a living off of hunting or whatever other reasons have been suggested before.  I don't think anyone has ever really said something like "I don't like the food spoilage code because now I can't pile up 107 flanks of chalton meat."

The issue is when you have a particular food item for someone and then because your play times don't match up for a few days, it spoils before you can give it to them.  Presumably in your PC's virtual time, and in their virtual time, you have had time to see each other, but because you haven't been logged in together, the food in question spoils.

I've had people ask my character for specific food items, and I've had people want to give my character food items.  But because play times haven't lined up the food in question has spoiled, when in reality the characters would have been able to see each other during virtual time.  After the third or fourth time of play times failing to line up, I lose interest in doing the same thing over again, and I don't want to be the person asking another player to ride across the world yet again for the same thing they've done three times already.

But there were people complaining about having to hunt at inopportune times?

The other issue brought up sounds just more an issue that playtimes don't line up.  That's an issue that wrecks a whole lot of things, not just being able to pass over food before it spoils.  I wouldn't be opposed to extending the rotting time overall which might help mitigate that problem, and sounds like there already are food-saver type items that also might help, but having things last forever as it was before just so that you can do (food -> playtimes don't match up) as opposed to (lots of other things -> playtimes don't match) up just doesn't seem like a good enough reason to scrap the whole code when it has other benefits besides. 

[Armaddict]

But there were people complaining about having to hunt at inopportune times?

No, you're talking about me listing off the pros and cons of what this addition has thusfar added, particularly in respect to the discussion beforehand of why it would be nice.  Most of the pros from that list are not realized at this point (i.e. They're not happening on any noticeable scale), and it has actually resulted in -less- interaction between people on the food front at least in my experience.

That is not a complaint.  That is part of a synopsis of why I think it is not a suitable addition to keep around (I notice that you ignored the rest of that list of observations and reduced it to me just wanting to stockpile food).  It's not a terrible idea.  It's not unrealistic.  I just don't think the pro and con level up necessarily in a favorable way, and as in many things, just because it was put in or taken out doesn't mean that it can't be undone when it shows less 'good things' than expected.

Is it going to break my will if it stays around?  No.  Am I throwing a fit over it?  No.  I just posted about my experiences with the change and why I don't find them 'worth it' in terms of gameplay versus gameworld.

[IntuitiveApathy]

But there were people complaining about having to hunt at inopportune times?

No, you're talking about me listing off the pros and cons of what this addition has thusfar added, particularly in respect to the discussion beforehand of why it would be nice.  Most of the pros from that list are not realized at this point (i.e. They're not happening on any noticeable scale), and it has actually resulted in -less- interaction between people on the food front at least in my experience.

That is not a complaint.  That is part of a synopsis of why I think it is not a suitable addition to keep around (I notice that you ignored the rest of that list of observations and reduced it to me just wanting to stockpile food).  It's not a terrible idea.  It's not unrealistic.  I just don't think the pro and con level up necessarily in a favorable way, and as in many things, just because it was put in or taken out doesn't mean that it can't be undone when it shows less 'good things' than expected.

Is it going to break my will if it stays around?  No.  Am I throwing a fit over it?  No.  I just posted about my experiences with the change and why I don't find them 'worth it' in terms of gameplay versus gameworld.

I didn't specifically address every one of your points, and you haven't addressed every one of others' (or mine), or they've been glossed over and dismissed?  Do we really need to exhaustively argue about every little thing and every little point to have a discussion about something?  Nauta didn't either, when responding to my post as well?

Certainly, code has been rolled back in the past - you and Nauta don't like this code, I happen to.  There's people on both sides of the fence it seems.  I put in my two bits, but I'm not staff - ultimately they make the call.  I'm just voicing my opinion, like you have yours.

[Armaddict]

I didn't specifically address every one of your points, and you haven't addressed every one of others' (or mine), or they've been glossed over and dismissed?

No, and you didn't really provoke a need to respond until you said:

But there were people complaining about having to hunt at inopportune times?

Having it expressed in this way made it feel appropriate to clarify that no, it's not about stockpiling meat.  It's about an altogether non-contributory status in comparison for what it takes away from the game, which has not been glossed over throughout the thread.  I was clear to say that that's in my opinion, but the other side that you're talking about hasn't really discussed what it's -added- so much as said 'Hey, I like it.'  Unless, as you say, some sort of valid boon to it being this way has been stated somewhere else and glossed over.  But as I said, the general purposes outlined in why the change was put in (or at least the discussion thread of the change, where staff answered questions) have not thusfar been satisfied

This isn't and hasn't been to demean the other side of this fence you speak of.  I'm talking purely in terms of addition/subtraction to the roleplay vs gameplay experience.  Objectively, that is the point of discussing changes made to the game, isn't it?

Do we really need to exhaustively argue about every little thing and every little point to have a discussion about something?

No, we don't have to at all.  I'll just keep presenting that idea that it's not really giving us much in trade.  The only reason why I returned to posting here was because I saw you answered someone with the response of 'Someone was complaining about hunting', which is a twisting of what my entire point actually was.  So I restated it.  I'm betting you'll likely come back and restate your side as well.  Isn't that how this works?

[nauta]

But there were people complaining about having to hunt at inopportune times?

No, you're talking about me listing off the pros and cons of what this addition has thusfar added, particularly in respect to the discussion beforehand of why it would be nice.  Most of the pros from that list are not realized at this point (i.e. They're not happening on any noticeable scale), and it has actually resulted in -less- interaction between people on the food front at least in my experience.

That is not a complaint.  That is part of a synopsis of why I think it is not a suitable addition to keep around (I notice that you ignored the rest of that list of observations and reduced it to me just wanting to stockpile food).  It's not a terrible idea.  It's not unrealistic.  I just don't think the pro and con level up necessarily in a favorable way, and as in many things, just because it was put in or taken out doesn't mean that it can't be undone when it shows less 'good things' than expected.

Is it going to break my will if it stays around?  No.  Am I throwing a fit over it?  No.  I just posted about my experiences with the change and why I don't find them 'worth it' in terms of gameplay versus gameworld.

I didn't specifically address every one of your points, and you haven't addressed every one of others' (or mine), or they've been glossed over and dismissed?  Do we really need to exhaustively argue about every little thing and every little point to have a discussion about something?  Nauta didn't either, when responding to my post as well?

Certainly, code has been rolled back in the past - you and Nauta don't like this code, I happen to.  There's people on both sides of the fence it seems.  I put in my two bits, but I'm not staff - ultimately they make the call.  I'm just voicing my opinion, like you have yours.

I like spoilage.

[nauta]

Pets absolutely should spoil.  It should be in months (for roaches) to years (for birds and snakes), but they don't get to be immortal.

I agree too.  (a) It encourages the pet trade; and (b) you'd be forced to mourn the death of your precious pet.  (You can pretend both of these right now, admittedly, just as you do with your mounts.)

I'd rather they 'age' rather than 'spoil'-- a partially spoiled, golden-tipped hunting hawk sits on a shoulder.  Actually, that makes sense but with an equivocal use of the term 'spoiled'. 

I wonder if the code has the nuance to allow you to adjust the term used, so foods go from 'lightly spoiled' to 'spoiled' whereas pets go from... 'lightly aged' (?) to 'aged'... huh, that doesn't sound right either.

Also, IntuitiveApathy, I love the inspiration idea.

[Supified]

Personally I like the spoilage code in that it makes crafted cooked items more valuable and more interesting.  If they are timed to consume a treat gift is more meaningful than it was before.

What I hate is the crafting code.  This has just made the crafting code (as it pertains to cooking) that much more frustrating.

Arm was one of the first games to implement crafting and it was at that time amazing, but since then it feels like everyone has made crafting and it's really evolved in the world of mudding, but literally seems to have stood still on arm. 

We need a crafting overhaul IMO and adding stuff like spoilage while itself a good idea (again IMO) it puts additional stress to a system which is now a good two decades old and frankly well beyond showing its age.

[bardlyone]

What I hate is the crafting code.  This has just made the crafting code (as it pertains to cooking) that much more frustrating.

Arm was one of the first games to implement crafting and it was at that time amazing, but since then it feels like everyone has made crafting and it's really evolved in the world of mudding, but literally seems to have stood still on arm. 

We need a crafting overhaul IMO and adding stuff like spoilage while itself a good idea (again IMO) it puts additional stress to a system which is now a good two decades old and frankly well beyond showing its age.

I think the best crafting system I've ever seen was on a mud that it was almost wasted on, as it's based around sexual rp, and so very few people wear the clothes and so the system sees little use. Basically if you want to make a thing, you type 'make' or 'recipe and it brings you into a menu which allows you to pick a narrower and narrower array of stuff with all the recipes accessible for anything you can make. You buy (as an example for tailoring) a bolt of cloth and a bolt of thread. Each item takes up X amount of cloth and X amount of thread. It makes a basic/base item that you have to have about 60% 'tailoring' ability to change for a flourish and customize some with 'masterstyling' and 'embellishing' and 'dyeing'. 

So for instance you'd (to use the below example) 'make apron' (or even 'make 50 apron' if you wanted to make 50 without spamming the command). Then you get 'a <material: silk, cotton, whatever> apron' when it finishes. If you have 'masterstyling' you can pick up to 5 words from a list of preapproved words, which you can arrange any way you like with the base item's name included in there (ie you can change 'a apron' to 'an apron', and add key words to it, like 'a knee-length, black leather apron'. Embellishing would allow you add to or change the 'look description' or mdesc of an item (this one would admittedly be abusable, but would be possible to only hand out to people with a master skill level and send the items to a place the mdescs would have to be preapproved, etc. Anyhow, it allows for almost unlimited customization, and it's amazing, while the master styling list as a way to change and edit things within preapproved parameters on the fly would be amazing.

A picture example of the menu is available full sized below.

[nessalin]

I wonder if the code has the nuance to allow you to adjust the term used, so foods go from 'lightly spoiled' to 'spoiled' whereas pets go from... 'lightly aged' (?) to 'aged'... huh, that doesn't sound right either.

Yes.

Different food types have different aging messages, changeable on the fly.