Quality of Life Improvements for Cooking

[Dot_Warner]

@Kyronix

I'm not asking for easy button changes, though I am asking for a some of the tedious things to be lessened. Since cooking really isn't a game changing system, this stuff should have little ripple effect impact.

First of all, STACKING. Every food or ingredient that can stack, should stack.

• Chocolate ingredients
• Pizza (there is already a stacked graphic for uncooked, cooked pizza should stack as well!)
• Baskets of green tea
• A bowl of X (peas, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, etc.)
• Yeast, based on resistance
• etc.

The Wooden Bowl Paradox
We have to buy "prepared food," eat it, then use its bowl to prepare other food. From an economic standpoint, that's crazy. Please add wooden bowls to the carpentry menu requiring one board.

The Sugar Conspiracy
Big Sugar has Sosaria by the testes... We can get it from paragons (rarely) and growing it from seed (after collecting them from some of the most obnoxious creatures in the game). The bags are ONE USE(!) even though they are the same size as a sack of flower. (Does Mylan have the patent on insulin in Britannia?)

• Have sugarcane grow seeds. If it was possible to make cocoa trees grow seeds, then surely its possible for sugar.
  • Sugarcane is the ONLY growable, resource-giving plant that doesn't produce seeds
• Make sacks of sugar have multiple uses like a bag of flower have (say 10--15)
• Sell sugar on cooks in quantities of 500.
• Allow honey to substitute for sugar

Consume Mass Quantities
NPCs need their quantities increased. Selling in lots of 20, especially for items such as green tea baskets, is painful. Very. Painful. Nobody sane enjoys working up NPC stock, especially if they have limited play time. Please increase stocks of ingredient foods and all reagents to 500 with instant price-adjusted respawn. (FYI: Great Lakes seems to have only one NPC who sells green tea baskets. ONE.)

Tribal Tedium
Contrary to what Mesanna said on Hokum Hokuto, tribal berries did grow on trees. There used to be several growing just SE of Borgthorn's castle in Ilshenar, but now they are just charred trunks. (They were peach trees with added tribal berries.) So there IS valid UO lore. The berries have to come from somewhere, after all.

He instance on there not being a way to grow them, or a coffee-plant-like berry giver is...perplexing. The savages are 18 year old content, so giving us more ways to get berries isn't going to invalidate them as content...time did that already.

Just upping their spawn rate, and the quantity in which they spawn, is a Band-Aid at best.

 

[Pawain]

@Kyronix

Three of the cooking large BODs can't be made exceptional. Sweets, fruits and Pies.

There are no useful rewards after you have turned in 5 250 point BODs. Allow 250 or less points to give a stack of ingredients like tailoring does.

Those rewards could be sugar or tribal berries. Or turn all tribal berries into plums and use plums.

Nice post Dot.

 

[Grace of Minoc]

The tribal berries into plums is a Brilliant idea!

 

[Dot_Warner]

I like the idea of sugar and tribal berries being cooking BOD rewards. I'd set them at the 25-50 point range for 15 units apiece.

Then maybe a much larger cache (commodity deed) of them at 250 points, say 100 or 150 of each.

 

[Dot_Warner]

One thing I forgot to add to the original post: Wheat.

Since we have BODs asking for exceptional flour, we need a steady supply of wheat. Lots of it.

There are:
5 fields of it in Britain.
1 in Skara Brae.
2 on Verity Isle.
1 SW of Yew.
1 in Delucia.

None of them spawn more than 5 (usually less) harvestable wheat at a time. In fact, the fields are mostly barren and don't look farmed at all.

Could wheat production be upped to something appearing sustainable so we can harvest?

 

[Cailleach]

One thing I forgot to add to the original post: Wheat.

Since we have BODs asking for exceptional flour, we need a steady supply of wheat. Lots of it.

There are:
5 fields of it in Britain.
1 in Skara Brae.
2 on Verity Isle.
1 SW of Yew.
1 in Delucia.

None of them spawn more than 5 (usually less) harvestable wheat at a time. In fact, the fields are mostly barren and don't look farmed at all.

Could wheat production be upped to something appearing sustainable so we can harvest?

There's a couple fields on Moonglow island as well, down on the east side and across the bottom and up the west. But yeah, not nearly enough of the stuffs.

And, please could we have a water source in the bakers in Zento? Most of the other baker type shops have a water trough, but that one doesn't. Not helpful, as I don't keep green tea as it doesn't stack, so just grab some from the inn and make it in the bakery shop.

 

[Dot_Warner]

More things for cooking:

(Maybe) Simple things:

• Add ham to the loot table of pigs and boars, replacing cuts of ribs when carved.
  • Add a chance for strips of bacon?
• Allow pigs on a spit to collect up to 10 charges. (1 a day makes these nearly pointless to use for RP)
  • Allow pulled pork platters and pulled pork sandwiches to stack.
  • Allow us to remove the logs from the spit by targeting them with an axe (they are extremely annoying)
• Add a pear tree deed as a BOD reward for 500 points.
• Allow both facings of ginger to stack.
• Reduce the weight of miso soup to a more realistic 1 stone (from 4 ea), allow weight reduction for stacks
• Allow the two sizes of banana trees and/or the banana horde to produce bananas, including a rare chance for a perfect banana.
  • Rename the banana horde to banana hoard, the correct word
  • Make the edges of the small hoard, not the center pile, passable.
• Add raw turkey (currently available from Horns of Plenty) to turkeys when carved to replace the uncooked birds.
• Add dates to farmers, dates from stealing/begging cannot supply enough.

Somewhat more complex additions:

Tribal Berry Bush:
(as a BOD reward at 500 points)
Reuse the art for the 2004 Decorative Topiary (ID: 9080), just hue the ornaments blue.
Rough Example:

Stores 10 berries.

Chicken Coops Produces Eggs:
Since the Battle Lizard thing never really took off, allow us to house 10 chickens (easily tamed with JOAT) in the coops, then a context menu option to set it to "egg laying mode" so we can double click to collect their eggs (respawn the same as fruit trees).

Could also use the Nest with Eggs graphic (ID: 2415) as a BOD reward that produced eggs as fast as the fruit trees.


Additions to the cooking menu.

Cheese:
Ingredients:

• 1 milk
• 1 cloth

Makes 1 wheel cheese. (Exceptional chance?)

Mushroom Pizza (Uncooked and cooked):
Ingredients for uncooked:

• 1 dough
• 3 miniature mushroom (from Heartwood)

Makes 1 mushroom pizza, can be exceptional.

Roast Pig:
Ingredients:

• 4 ham
• 1 apple

Makes 1 roast pig, can be exceptional.


Additions to the distillery:

Rum
Ingredients:

• Yeast
• Sugar
• Water

Additions to the fermentation barrel:

Ale
Ingredients:

• Yeast
• Hops
• Wheat Wort

This would require hops, which should be added as a resource to the hops plant (the art for such already exists: ID 6818). Hops would also need to produce seeds.

Mead
Ingredients:

• Yeast
• Honey

@Kyronix

 

[Pawain]

 

[Uriah Heep]

If you have cooks in an inn...have a oven to cook on there also!

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

Wonderful ideas, all of it!

 

[BeaIank]

I thoroughly approve of this idea.
Specially the being able to brew rum with the distillery. How come I can brew my own rum irl and not in the game?
Treason, says I!

 

[Uvtha]

All of this is excellent!

 

[Cailleach]

I thoroughly approve of this idea.
Specially the being able to brew rum with the distillery. How come I can brew my own rum irl and not in the game?
Treason, says I!

*eyes bottle of Woods Old Navy*


Yup. We have coffee now, which is the perfect partner for a glass of rum, so we should be able to brew rum!


(But not OVD. *shudders*)

 

[Lily Grace]

I don't really have anything to add. I just wanted to thank Dot for this fabulous thread full of GREAT ideas! The 2004 Topiary, probably one of my most favorite pieces of UO art. What a great idea to have these grow the Tribal Berries! And don't change that you can walk through them! I love using what I have left of the originals to mark and cover where the teleport tiles are in the house.

Lil

 

[Merlin]

If you want to really make cooks more useful, give us new recipes that allow cooks to make final products that give stat bonuses. Items that are easier to make than the fish pies, but offer less of a bonus.

 

[Cailleach]

It would just be nice if cooking was an essential part of UO life. Y'know, eat or starve to death ...

 

[GarthGrey]

More things for cooking:

(Maybe) Simple things:

• Add ham to the loot table of pigs and boars, replacing cuts of ribs when carved.
  • Add a chance for strips of bacon?
• Allow pigs on a spit to collect up to 10 charges. (1 a day makes these nearly pointless to use for RP)
  • Allow pulled pork platters and pulled pork sandwiches to stack.
  • Allow us to remove the logs from the spit by targeting them with an axe (they are extremely annoying)
• Add a pear tree deed as a BOD reward for 500 points.
• Allow both facings of ginger to stack.
• Reduce the weight of miso soup to a more realistic 1 stone (from 4 ea), allow weight reduction for stacks
• Allow the two sizes of banana trees and/or the banana horde to produce bananas, including a rare chance for a perfect banana.
  • Rename the banana horde to banana hoard, the correct word
  • Make the edges of the small hoard, not the center pile, passable.
• Add raw turkey (currently available from Horns of Plenty) to turkeys when carved to replace the uncooked birds.
• Add dates to farmers, dates from stealing/begging cannot supply enough.

Somewhat more complex additions:

Tribal Berry Bush:
(as a BOD reward at 500 points)
Reuse the art for the 2004 Decorative Topiary (ID: 9080), just hue the ornaments blue.
Rough Example:
View attachment 59123
Stores 10 berries.

Chicken Coops Produces Eggs:
Since the Battle Lizard thing never really took off, allow us to house 10 chickens (easily tamed with JOAT) in the coops, then a context menu option to set it to "egg laying mode" so we can double click to collect their eggs (respawn the same as fruit trees).

Could also use the Nest with Eggs graphic (ID: 2415) as a BOD reward that produced eggs as fast as the fruit trees.


Additions to the cooking menu.

Cheese:
Ingredients:

• 1 milk
• 1 cloth

Makes 1 wheel cheese. (Exceptional chance?)

Mushroom Pizza (Uncooked and cooked):
Ingredients for uncooked:

• 1 dough
• 3 miniature mushroom (from Heartwood)

Makes 1 mushroom pizza, can be exceptional.

Roast Pig:
Ingredients:

• 4 ham
• 1 apple

Makes 1 roast pig, can be exceptional.


Additions to the distillery:

Rum
Ingredients:

• Yeast
• Sugar
• Water

Additions to the fermentation barrel:

Ale
Ingredients:

• Yeast
• Hops
• Wheat Wort

This would require hops, which should be added as a resource to the hops plant (the art for such already exists: ID 6818). Hops would also need to produce seeds.

Mead
Ingredients:

• Yeast
• Honey

@Kyronix

Stop coming up with all of these great ideas, you'll confuse these Devs that don't actually play the game,otherwise as designers (lol) they would have thought of all of this themselves.

 

[Lily Grace]

For sure the wheat spawning at the Brit and Skara farms needs to be increased. If a player is willing to run around and harvest the stuff they shouldn't have to stand around and wait so long for it. I was going to say the same rate as the cotton spawning in Moonglow would work but I just went and checked that out. And the spawn there dried up for way too long after I picked the 5 or 6 bales found there. It didn't used to be that slow.

Sooo...same spawn rate as the sheep at the Yew farms? Yeah, that'd work.


Lil

 

[Eric Ravenwind]

Great suggestions! im on board

 

[Uvtha]

For sure the wheat spawning at the Brit and Skara farms needs to be increased. If a player is willing to run around and harvest the stuff they shouldn't have to stand around and wait so long for it. I was going to say the same rate as the cotton spawning in Moonglow would work but I just went and checked that out. And the spawn there dried up for way too long after I picked the 5 or 6 bales found there. It didn't used to be that slow.

Sooo...same spawn rate as the sheep at the Yew farms? Yeah, that'd work.


Lil

It should just respawn right away. Or let us grow it ourselves.

 

[transcendent]

How about new recipes for pet food that will give the pet a Slayer damage bonus?

 

[Kirthag]

hrm...

okay, as with all games, there has to be a bit of reality to make the concept stick and be worthwhile.
i know i put this in a thread somewhere... but will reiterate and add some more...

SUGAR
producing sugar on a large scale does not use seeds, but shoots from existing plants.
collecting seeds from any grass plant (yes, sugar cane is a grass) is one of the most tedious things to do - we tried that once here in Hawaii, it is utterly NOT economical
With those facts in place, just finding a sugar cane seed would be a rarity at best... and fits in with the game.
HOWEVER
I do agree we should be able to cultivate sugar in game once we have a plant - but not with seeds. We should be able to save a shoot or two from an existing plant so as to grow new sugar cane bunches with which to harvest. Now, since this is a real tedious process (hence why sugar cane is now dead in Hawaii) - perhaps instead of guranteed 8, like seeds from other plants, it could be a choice...
harvest the sugar, make a deco, then when using the clippers, use to make new shoot for growing, or to make clippings for natural dyes.
And since harvesting sugar cane shoots that are successful to grow is not always an exact science, the child plant may not have the chance to produce a child... or something along those lines.
Since sugar cane does not come in colors (I've yet to see one in anything but plain), I would accept a smaller success of subsequent generations from a single plant - makes sense, and provides a reason to still hunt/collect the seeds from current sources. Do not want to have 5k sugar cane seeds... have enough of the other resource plants... actually been giving them away.

TRIBAL BERRIES
I do remember those trees, and felt very lucky to be able to harvest tribal berries when they were available.
I think by now, the horticulturalists of Sosaria would have figured out a way to cultivate a tribal berry plant.

COFFEE TREES
The coffee trees IRL only produce fruit for coffee seeds once a year - it boggles my mind that the coffee trees in Sosaria produce copious amounts of seeds 100% of the time. Perhaps adjust this a bit to be more in line with the reality... I know too many coffee growers here in hawaii who would just NOT produce if the plants were this successful - the market would not support so much beans! Even the most luxurious Kona beans!

WHEAT (yet another grass plant)
This one does have large seeds, enough to harvest and actually grow. We've been doing that in reality for hundreds of years, why not in Sosaria? I would support a new family of seeds - Wheat, Rye, Barley - for food as well as distilling. Yes, would love to make me some real whiskey! Perhaps a chance of harvesting from the current sources would produce a seed of one of those grains? Low chance, but still a chance!


I would also like to see some other farming techniques... animal husbandry perhaps? Or is that too much?

And yes, at one time in the earliest of days, we had to eat... a lot... to survive in Sosaria. I really wouldn't mind that coming back into play in some way. I was utterly in love with the fact that I had to eat or would experience temporary stat loss. I still have the habit of eating immediately after a resurrection - it is part of makes this a rpg after all. Would give cooks something more to do other than just fill BODs all the time.

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

In my country we grow a certain beet root for sugar. And Stevia for sweetening food without using sugar I think it comes from south America originally? Maybe sugar beet root would be better atleast they have seeds if you leave them in the groud till next year..

 

[MalagAste]

Mmmm..... beets.... Yes we should have beets! Beets for Sugar beets for eatting.... Beets greens for salad!

 

[Kirthag]

In my country we grow a certain beet root for sugar. And Stevia for sweetening food without using sugar I think it comes from south America originally? Maybe sugar beet root would be better atleast they have seeds if you leave them in the groud till next year..

yeah... sugar beets is what killed the sugar industry in Hawaii... almost ruined the state's economy. Our ground is too wet for beets and they are much more economical in producing sugar.