What does cooking do?

[Red Dragon]

I know how to cook, but the logic behind it is often still a mystery to me and pzwiki.net isn't much help when it comes to this topic.

It seems the more ingredients I put into soups or frying pans the more my unhappiness and boredom from eating that cooked food rise?! (instead of shrink how one might expect)

My impression so far is that using more than 1 meat or fish item and in general using more than one of the same vegetable or food item has a negative impact on happiness+ boredom. Another thing I'm unclear about is if you can be positively happy at all aka. is there any point at all to do something that makes you happy or less bored if you don't have one of the moodles active that say you lack one of those. Basically if I am neutral (no unhappiness moodle) will doing something that makes me happy count against a future negative happiness hit?

My reason for asking is that I make all this damn shebang about cooking food on a campfire that you have to maintain, but often it seems like I can get almost similar food values out of just eating the ingredients raw and individually (veg I mean, raw meat is bad obviously). Taking all the effort and especially the time of cooking anything instead of just stuffing your face with veg seems almost pointless and cooking seems underpowered . I bet it's much better at higher cooking skill but who the hell plays a cook when the apocalypse hits, even at 2 skill levels into cooking it seems underpowered considering all the effort that goes into it and the endless waiting around when cooking something.

[Crohns Racing]

It creates better foods, like soups late game are going to be the best thing ever for you.

[Axelord1942]

Generally speaking, soups and stews stay fresh longer than individual meals. Sandwiches also last a good while.

What no one talks about cooking is how it pays off at the higher levels...max Cooking allows you to salvage some rotten food (the idea being a skilled chef can identify if any parts on the "rotten" food are still usable). This can be a boon to late-game survival.

The negative stuff starts happening if your cooking skill is too low and you put too many ingredients into a recipe, the idea here being that an unskilled cook would be unfamiliar with proper portion sizes (too much salt ruins anything).

You can (and will) be eating single servings of veggies for a while. Basically eat how you like.

[Red Dragon]

Originally posted by axelord1942:

Generally speaking, soups and stews stay fresh longer than individual meals. Sandwiches also last a good while.

What no one talks about cooking is how it pays off at the higher levels...max Cooking allows you to salvage some rotten food (the idea being a skilled chef can identify if any parts on the "rotten" food are still usable). This can be a boon to late-game survival.

The negative stuff starts happening if your cooking skill is too low and you put too many ingredients into a recipe, the idea here being that an unskilled cook would be unfamiliar with proper portion sizes (too much salt ruins anything).

You can (and will) be eating single servings of veggies for a while. Basically eat how you like.

That's actually a pretty deep system, cool. Do you get more xp for larger meals though? Seems it would make sense.

Any idea about the happiness question I crammed in there?

[Axelord1942]

I'm not sure about the xp earned with small/large meals...as far as happiness goes, that's tied to having low cooking levels. As far as I've noticed both negatives appear at the same time so I've been assuming it's tied to screwing up the meal somehow...I guess who would be happy eating a burnt chicken sandwich with too much salt. Or worse, a half-cooked chicken sandwich with too much salt.

Best way to maximize xp is to read skill books, as always. Honestly? I love cooking in this game; packing a few sandwiches before going on a loot run feels natural. Once you get to the higher levels you can make really high-quality soups and stews that last 3-5 days (depending on your settings) that make you happy and reduce boredom, in addition to the usual benefits.

Can you say "Soup Party"?