Cooking stuff

[Ghost]

Does not that bother you to burn the meat in the process 15 times and still not learning to cook it properly?  IRL I have just once, or maybe twice burned the meat.  I might not be agood cook, and the dinner I cook might  not be very delicious, but I still dont burn.  I think people learn cooking fast enough not to burn it thrice.

[Dakkon Black]

Well what it sounds like here is that your char is a moron. I haven't burned more than maybe 4 or five things. I guess you just suck. Sorry. But on a happier note don't just assume its getting burned. Make new crap up, maybe it fell through the ribs of the grill, or you dropped it in the sand? Or the grill went apeshit and the flames caught on old fat and burned four of your steaks at once??

[Rindan]

I tend to agree that the cooking skill is too butal for its own good.  Everyone should be able to cook a piece of meat.  Perhaps not perfectly, but more often then not.  Further, I don't think that the cooking skill should be a function of class.  If a warrior wants to become a master cook, he should have just as much capability to do so as a merchant.  It isn't exactly an overpowering skill.  It is a basic thing that all humans do, even people who wear armor.

I think failure for trivial things like slicing fruit should be removed, everyone given the ability to max out their cooking skill and advance at the same rate, and for the starting skill of everyone to be higher then it is.

[Anonymous]

I think the answer is to change the result of a failed attempt at cooking meat.  Just the description.

It's hard for me to imagine having to cooking 40 pieces of meat in RL before I figure out when it's about to become charcoal.  But, to get it just right and not end up with a dry piece of tough meat is another story all together.

So a success would mean a succulent piece of tender, juicy meat like we already have.  But a failure would net a piece of tough, dry meat with the same stats as the charred junk, but a description that makes the cooker person feel slightly less like a massive idiot.

[Angela Christine]

Noooooo!  Trust me, you do not want the "easy" things made easier.  You will already fail at slicing fruit much less than you used to, which may make you feel less fumble-fingered, but in the long run makes cooking harder.  You have to burn some meat if you ever want to be able to make apple cobbler.  That doesn't necessarily make sense, but that is how the crafting code works.

I hate to resort to numbers, even fake numbers, but it's easier to express that way.  Ok, suppose everyone without a cooking subguild starts with 1% in cooking.  Roasting roots and making kalan cobbler might take, say, 10% cooking skill to attempt.  If you don't have enough skill, trying to craft the ingredients tells you that you can't make anything out of them.  If the simple 1% things are easier, or fail-proof, then you will never get to 2% much less 10%.  You can only learn if you fail.

To me cooking is already one of the most forgiving crafting skills.  With many crafts you are left with nothing if you fail, but failing at cooking meat isn't catastrophic, you are still left with some edible food, it just isn't very good or worth much if you try to sell it.  Since it is still edible it isn't charcoal, it is simply poorly cooked.

I agree with CRW, adjusting the description of the meat failures might be the best way to go.  

AC

[sacac]

Oh.. I know what you mean.. you must have bad wisdom.. anyways..
The only way you gain experience is by learning how not to do things.
Yes.. you might not beable to make handfuls of flour everytime.. But last I checked no city is entirely empty. Yes.. I know sometimes you might cut the fruit wrong and the Arm client is looking for perfectly sliced fruit?
I don't know. But Again.. you never gain experience by winning every time.

[Bestatte]

On the other hand, I bugged this almost two months ago, and it hasn't changed so I can only guess that it's not a bug. Or that they just haven't gotten to it. Or that they're looking into it, or that they don't think it's a big enough deal to deal with.

The cooking skill doesn't just involve cooking. Slicing fruits isn't cooking, it's slicing fruit. You're not putting the fruit on a grill. You're sticking it with a knife, or tugging segments apart (depending on how you wish to RP it).

There's this one type of root-substance. Using the "craft" command, it says you can make a certain thing with it. This thing doesn't involve -any- "cooking" at all. Basically what you're doing is rolling the thing, applying pressure to loosen the pulp, then shaving the outer edge off a small part of it to let the stuff inside trickle out.

I've tried to craft this particular substance hmm..probably around 30 or 40 times now. I've counted FOUR successes in total. I mean - I'm making carru steaks and dried tembo strips and beef jerky and freaking LOAVES of bread here..

And I can't manage to thin the shell of a bulb with a fingernail more than 4 times out of 30 or 40? C'mon that's just...wrong.

[Rindan]

I understand your point AC, but I would rather fail at meaningful things over stupid things.  If they made cooking easier then another tweak might simply be to increase the rate at which cooking goes up, that way when you fail at making something more complicatd then a hunk of meat, you learn something.  As it stands, I really dislike how a character that spent 10 IC years cooking was just starting to pull off a decent scrab steak before he died.  The guy learend how to kill muls with his bare hands but couldn't cut fruit for the life of him.

[EvilRoeSlade]

There's this one type of root-substance. Using the "craft" command, it says you can make a certain thing with it. This thing doesn't involve -any- "cooking" at all. Basically what you're doing is rolling the thing, applying pressure to loosen the pulp, then shaving the outer edge off a small part of it to let the stuff inside trickle out.

I always wondered about those things.  I'd gather up a bunch, try to craft them from substance A to substance B.  I never emoted what I was doing, because I didn't KNOW what I was doing.  I was just so curious that I had to see what the success message was, in hopes I'd have some clue as to what was going on.  I never got it though.

[Anonymous]

If i become good at cooking tubers, will that transfer into me being able to cook meat well? and out of ooc interest, does skill level rise according to what i make?

[Bestatte]

From an OOC mechanical number-cruncher perspective, I have no idea what the answer is to the tuber vs. meat question, Guest.

But from a logical, IC and OOC point of view, think about it.

Okay so I've become the absolute best at boiling potatoes. Ain't nobody makes boiled potatoes better than I do. In fact, people e-mail me from all over the world for orders of these puppies, and pay a premium for them as well.

Does this mean I somehow know how to cook a filet mignon? Fuck no. I don't know shit about steak. I'm the potato guru. You want a meat freak go to a butcher. You want the best damned spuds you'll ever lay your fork on? Come to Bessie, she'll treat you right.

Does that help?

[jmordetsky]

I've burned meat like the last 50 times....I think it's just silly....I keep making up reasons why...

Wanna know what I think.....?  

Well....I don't care I'm telling you anyway...

I think there should be more messages then just burned meat. I think some of these messages should cause you physical harm. For example:

>Craft meat into fat juicy steak
You begin crafting....

>an emote here, an emote there

In the process of cooking your meat, you manage to drip some of the grease onto your skin. Ouch! (OC -1 hp)

-or-

In the process of cooking your meat, you lean over the fire and the edge of your desert-colored great cloak catches fire.

You are now on fire.

You feel the fire on your skin and suffer. (OC -3hp)

You feel the fire on your skin and suffer. (OC -3hp)

In a panic, you manage to put the fire out. But you still have low wisdom. Go buy a new cloak...dumb ass.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

HAHA.

No.

But, HAHA.

[jmordetsky]

No.

Yea...you're probably right.

Darn.

[Anonymous]

i was the guest before, oops.

But from a logical, IC and OOC point of view, think about it.

yep, ok, fair enough. i still have trouble knowing what thoughts i have are the same in the game...patience please!

another question...(ducks)

if i do craft <something> <something>, will it matter which order the somethings are in? or if they can be combined does the order not matter?

[jmordetsky]

You're still a guest

...and just an aside, I feel your pain on the issue, I was just being a dumbass...sorry didn't mean to come off like I was picking.

[Booya]

oops, here i am!

sorry didn't mean to come off like I was picking.

hahaha