Cooking

[Jazmyn]

I have been spending some time working with my cook and having a good time with it.    I have been making special cakes and baking cookies, the kitchen smells wonderful.  I'm thinking ooo everyone is just going to love all my baked goods, I will have such a line at my vendor.   I go  running off to the provisioners to grab more supplies as I scroll through the menu my heart starts to sink.  I come to realise I'm waisting time.  The provisioner has a good amount of food stuffs. Players can buy food in bulk around town. The provisioner, baker and the inn.  So here is my wish. If it's possible to remove everything that can be made by players off the npc vendors. This would promote the need for player interaction and give the crafters a bigger role in the community.  This would help all crafters.  Thank you for considering.

~Jaz~

[Aderyn]

I'd like to see player cooks have more demand as well. Even if the items couldn't be removed from NPC vendors completely, maybe having the prices reset to something that it would definitely benefit players more to seek out player cooks. If something like this could be implemented, there could actually be a real demand for player-run taverns as gathering places. I've always wanted to run a thriving tavern/inn sort of establishment, but no matter how often I tried on every shard I've ever played on, outside of specific events like a grand opening celebration, there was nothing to draw people there as a general gathering spot. If food and drink were not easily obtained through NPC vendors, then players might start running into each other when stopping in to purchase food items, end up interacting with each other, roleplaying ensues...

That might be overly optimistic of me. But, If it wouldn't be a complete nightmare to make happen I feel like it might be worth a try

[Fea]

I think many cooks feel this way. When I add up how much it takes to make an item, compared to the NPC prices it is just not economical. I generally go ahead and make up the items. Lower costs where I can and take a loss. Just because I can't bear to leave out anything from my vendors. But it does frustrate me. Cooking is something I love to do in real life as well as in game. So recently I have been trying to put together a few ideas. But with the medication I am on and my internet issues, I got kinda slowed down. Hopefully soon I can come up with something interesting for all in game cooks on the subject. Bear with me though I can be slow... And then it's up to the overworked Admins and scriptors.

[Jager]

I also think it would be good for player cooks to become more in demand but it should go further. I think all food sold anywhere by npc should be removed as well as the magic spell create food.  This will help the player run cooks and taverns greatly.

Jager

[gypsy]

My thoughts on taking things off the npc vendors is this: we are already missing some of the food line on the npcs as is and new players need to be able to buy something right off without having to search for a player vendor and they arent looking for the food and water at the start  anyway.
Lets leave that spell right where it belongs OK  There are lots of players that dont have magery  and also if you are  in an event or a big hunt  a lot of things get left out of back packs to lessen the weight and those with that spell can make the food and drink for the rest of the party.
I had a post earlier here on cooking too about maybe some utencils that do things and name  the food sliced whatever or diced whatever or etc and being able to name the dishes we make but if that was possible to do it would most likely be at the bottom of the things to do list.
Just my thoughts on this

[Aderyn]

I understand the concern for starting characters, and that not all cooked items are available on NPC vendors, but that still doesn't increase demand for player cooks. Since the different dishes don't actually taste different to the player, most player-crafted food items end up being little more than house deco or just trotted out for special events (someone has a party, or there is an occassional quest that requires a player-crafted item, like the ale in the st. patrick's day quest). There is no significant advantage to the player between choosing cooked chicken legs from an NPC or pies, mutton, etc from a player.

One thing tried at the last shard I played on was temporary food bonuses. Player-craftable foods would give temporary skill or stat bonuses. These bonuses lasted about as long as the average potion. One would give a temporary bonus of a few tactics points, or a temporary resistence increase, etc. It seemed to work out well there. People would actually be seeking out players whose vendors were carrying mincemeat pies or apple fritters. This would probably be a much large scripting endeavor than simply removing or changing the prices of items on NPC vendors, though.

Back to the original proposal, I think it would be reasonable to leave, say, fruit and veggies on NPC vendors. Those items don't need to be cooked to eat, and are essential to training cooks who don't have their own gardens yet. Fruit is affordble, but you have to buy a lot of it because you have to eat a lot of it to fill you up.  Gold is pretty easy to come by on this shard (I've never been one to accumulate a lot of wealth on any shards, and even I have built a very nice nest-egg) and new characters start out with good amount.

I think IF something like the changes proposed were ever put into place, it would be good to leave raw food materials on vendors. You could still get flour, raw meats, raw vegetables and fruits.

Cooked food drops off of some monsters, that's good the way it is, I think.

[gypsy]

I remember some foods on different places gave night sight or greater cure or greater heal too and lasted like the potions. Im not sure how any scripting goes but somethings would probably need more than others.

[Thane ir'Wyndan]

Personally I would like it if all things craftable by players were unavailable on NPC's.  Logically speaking the work involved in that is pretty prohibitive so for now I must wait and dream.. 

[Cearbhalyn]

WOOO HOOO New radio and I can Post again!!!!!

I tried to post to this several days ago, however, my internet Radio ( for wireless, we live in the country) was on the fritz ( and has been getting bad for the past 3 or 4 months really).

OK I happen to still have this post in my paste file so it may be a bit dated....Im still posting as is cuase its not much off.


...I have been working on ideas on cooking as well, becuase Im tired of hearing Fenfyre yell at me about the almost uselessness of cooking as a skill of use. I have had to agree with her, pretty much for the same reasons stated here and more.
It actually cost more for a cook to make some of the exact same items that are listed on NPC vendors, NPC vendors sell a good deal of the goods that you can make, and a Huge one actually... The Create Food Spell pretty much makes buying food redundant. It is a first level spell so it takes almost nothing to cast in either regs or mana, and if you happen to have any good amount of LRC might cost you viturally nothing at all.
I know Fen has set up vendors 3 times now out at TCP plaza with food merchants, and set the prices to what she feels is fair ( which for her is barely over cost), and had those merchants simply go poof becuase no one needed to buy food from them. I completely understand why.... there is really no need for a PC food merchant.

I would suggest not only removing the food from the NPC vendors, but also to reduce the create food spell to 1 carrot (which counts as one point of food). This would reduce this low level spell back into what it is meant for..Emergencies when you are without food...not simply THE way to get full easy.

I know Fen and I have other things, and idea we have tossed around, when I get some more data worked in, ill post something....if this radio holds up...got our ISP problems worked out and if this radio does stay working, he is going to replace it next week . ( *listens for the groans of....ooo Not Him Again*)


Now to address some of the other things. New players are given a good supply of apples in the gift bag unless thats changed. More then enough to have the time to get the lay of the land. We could also include a small book or scroll that tells them they need food, and where to look for it.

[Alaric McCree]

I also feel it would be better for NPC's to not be stocked with anything that is player made. I like the idea of the rest of the players being dependant upon the crafters of the world. The only thing I am unaware of is how much scripting it would require. Perhaps in time but until then I do know of some players who choose to buy from player vendors over NPCs.

[Cidran Falastion]

Im neither for nor against this idea. I can definitely see the merits in this and I realize that there can be downsides. However from a scripting point of view this is one of those easy to do things. All that is required is to simply note the items in the script that are to be removed. When you "note" something in a script the server skips that section and moves onto the un-noted part of the script. Like so...

Code Select Expand


public override void OnDoubleClick( Mobile from )
      {
         if ( !IsChildOf( from.Backpack ) ) // Make sure its in their pack
         {
             from.SendLocalizedMessage( 1042001 ); // That must be in your pack for you to use it.
         }


The // points out that the following text on that line is a note and should not be read. So we'd just put the // in front of the items that we want to remove from the vendors.

[Jazmyn]

Since it's not to difficult Cid, is this something that can be voted on by staffers ?

Thanks
~Jaz~

[misstressd]

I like that ideal cause the only things we can really make that the npcs can't is the special cakes, and it would mean more player involvement and give us cooks more to add to the menu per say. And as for the fruit if ya have Lumber jack you can harvest your own.

[Jazmyn]

I just wanted to bring this up again,  I love to work with my cook but it's a mute point when food is so available.  I was kinda wondering if staff had put any more thought to this idea.

Thanks
~Jaz~

[Wolvyn]

This hasnt been talked about for 120+days..   I was just wondering.. as im interested in cooking, well brewing more so.. but if the same results are cheeper on a npc.. whats the point?