Cooking Potage and Stews

[Shrez]

takes ages for NPC's to craft!!

[Badben]

I can't see a reason to even build a tavern because of how slow it is. Sewing also is ridiculous, they'll make maybe 1 linen thread a day.

[Lailantie]

Yes it takes ages, and still they feed the village. I have more than 30 people and my three cooks which aren't so very skilled in crafting are fast enough so I don't have to cook myself ever.

[NickTwist]

It took my 3 innkeepers to make ONE potage a whole season....lol

[grapplehoeker]

I only employ my people in excavating/lumber, farming and hunting/gathering, so no tavern keepers, crafters or storage managers.
I do all of the cooking every night and on the last night of the season, I'll cook all night and use up all of the meat, fish and veggies to make meals. I'll store all of it away before daybreak. That way, I hardly ever get any rot.
I trade most of the potage throughout the year and that pays the taxes as well as making me richer every year.

[sigpi2004]

Yes. The problem is, that all workers that need craft skill do not improve their skills. So they stay between 1-3.

[Capuzzi09]

Originally posted by sigpi2004:

Yes. The problem is, that all workers that need craft skill do not improve their skills. So they stay between 1-3.

They do improve their skills. The real problem is, it takes way too much time for the crafters to improve.

[CellNav]

Originally posted by NickTwist:

It took my 3 innkeepers to make ONE potage a whole season....lol

If you are playing version 0.1.2.4, that ONE pottage you see in food storage at the end of season is ONE extra remaining, not one per season. Seconds after the prepared meal is produced, it will be consumed, and last a few hours depending on the food demand rate ... example :

My food demand = 19.8 nutrition per hour.
Pottage (cabbage + meat) = 30 nutrition.
Stew (3 carrots + meat) = 35 nutrition.
Soup (2 beets + meat) = 35 nutrition.

After pottage is crafted, it drops into food storage and a moment later it will disappear, that will last for 1.51 hours before they get hungry again. Can worker craft pottage faster (per hour) than that?

After stew (or soup) is crafted, it drops into food storage (then disappear if hungry), that will last them for 1.76 hours before hungry again. Can worker craft stew/soup faster than that?

If the answer to my questions is NO, when timer expires (they get hungry after 1.51 or 1.76 hours), they will eat the next highest nutrition food ... example :

Cabbage = 7 nutrition

If they get hungry with no prepared meal available, they will eat 2.83 cabbage per hour. Well, they cannot eat a fraction of a cabbage, so we round up to 3 cabbage per hour while they wait for next prepared meal to be crafted.

3 cabbage = 21 nutrition. That is higher than 19.8, that means the 3 cabbage will last them for 1.06 hours (1 hour, 3.6 minutes game time).

Big question ... Can my workers craft stew/soup/pottage faster than they consume cabbage?

Side note :
Multi-Grain Bread = 75 nutrition.
Meat Pie = 70 nutrition.

Believe me, I sat in front of my food storage for an entire working day (8am-6pm) and watched the whole process. If Racimir sleeps at 7pm, no food is consume until 7am the next day. If Racimir did not sleep and no prepared meals available (higher than 7 nutrition), then during the next 14 hours (worker free time) they will eat cabbage. 14 x 3 cabbage = 42 cabbage each night (during free time), but actually 39.6 (40 per night rounded up).

How can they keep up with prepared meals? The answer depends how the player wants to roll with it.

[CellNav]

If people are playing version 0.1.2.4, then I will remind you that they added a new feature to this version which allows placing food in the NPC house (including Racimir). I do not know if you need to place food in all of the house storage, but you can if you want. Remember, food in the house storage will be consumed BEFORE the food in the food storage.

Using my example above, let's see what happens :

Since my people eat 3 cabbage per hour, I can place an entire seasons worth of cabbage into the house storage ... that would be 216 cabbage.

Lets say my workers produce 1.0 Pottage per hour, that is 10 pottage per day, or 30 pottage per season. Since my people are eating "snack food" first (cabbage in house), then at the end of the season I should have 30 pottage to sell.

Well, if I do not want to sell the pottage next season, I could transfer that 30 pottage to the house storage to be eaten next season. At the beginning of the next season, I will do that and transfer the 30 pottage to house storage ... But why?

Well, remember my food demand was 19.8 per hour. The one day demand is 475.2, which equates to 15.84 pottage per day. I can see that my 30 pottage (albeit lower durability, but still eatable) meets the demand for almost 2 full seasons. I do not want to place that many pottage into house storage for over a season, it will rot faster, so instead I will transfer 16 pottage to house storage and leave the other 14 pottage in food storage.

EDIT: ... At the end of the next season, I will have 30 new pottage plus the other 14 old pottage in food storage. A ton of food that can last almost 3 seasons now (shy 4 pottage).

Note the little work I perform (by Racimir). His role was "stock boy" that was perform once per season (every 130 minutes real time playing).

Wouldn't it be nice if my 7 year old son could be "stock boy" ???

That would be a feature I would request from the developers, and not a request to increase production or skill level of worker crafting. I would like to see their skill increase faster because it seems to take 5 to 10 years to level up, but then again that worker will be with Racimir for 40 years perhaps? Can I expect a +4 level increase before the worker drops dead?

Big mystery for me.

[CellNav]

Oh, one more post to conclude the lesson of food production. I apologize if it sounds rude or might insult people, but sometimes kicking people in the butt can make them jump ahead of the game without too many feathers getting ruffled ...

Am I the only player that reads the patch notes and creates a domino effect with food production by planting ONE "seed" with cabbage in the house?

Indeed, one sack containing 216 cabbage resulted in pottage being over produced?

Nobody has to use my method, there are many solutions to the problem. Whichever works for the player (and they are happy?) is the method that works best, IMO.

[bewest169]

they do get faster as time passes and their skills increase

[CellNav]

Originally posted by bewest169:

they do get faster as time passes and their skills increase

I'm glad to hear that ... :)

The problem is that players might be standing around stomping their feet instead of getting the apprentice workers into gear. Start them crafting ASAP, or forever hold their tongue that it's takes forever to level them up ... :P

We are creating a dynasty, not a "pop and fresh" instant Ramen noodle soup in the microwave.

[WumpusRat]

I've got 3 workers in the rtavern, but I don't really rely on them for making food since they're so abhorrently slow. I think my villagers have learned not to order anything from the tavern, either, they just go across the street and eat out of the food storage, and order stuff from the tavern to make the innkeepers feel needed. :)

Also, milk is the single best food source in the game. I have 3 goats that are being milked and I've got like 120+ milk in storage. One bucket will completely refill my water bar, and give me 60 food. Plus I get a free bucket out of it.