Trends

[sakasiru]

How much do you try to fulfill trends and does it even make any financial or reputational impact? I think this mechanic could balance out the problem with only using the same top tier ingredients all the time, however, it doesn't work that way for me.

I regularly look at the current trend and then decide to not bother. The main problem is that they are only valid for a week. By the time I would grow the favoured ingredients and brew beer with them, the week is mostly over. And unless these ingredients give a truly huge boost to the selling price, buying the ingredients and altering my usual processes with the risk of sitting on the leftovers just isn't worth it for me.
Maybe if these trends would be for a whole month and mainly use seasonal ingredients, that would be more of an incentive?

The other problem is that these trends mostly require recipes that I don't have yet and also can't unlock yet. I'm just level 14 so far, if 8 out of 9 trends are for recipes that are level 15+, yeah, I'll skip that weeks trend. Also buying a specific recipe in the first place, as I won't spend those fragments on a food thing I will probably use for a week and then never again.
Since there are so many items, maybe the first line could be very simple things that don't need to be unlocked, the second low to mid-tier recipes and the last line high level stuff? That way, lower level players would not feel so left out of that mechanic.

Lastly, I'm still not sure to what extend offering a trendy item even makes any difference. Will people eat more of it? Will they pay more for it? Will your reputation rise? Will more people come to the tavern? If I make that investment to grow, brew and cook special meals, I would like to know beforehand what I'll get out of it. If it for example just increases the number of customers but I haven't expanded my tavern, it will all be for naught.

[Ruala]

I pay absolutely no attention to trends, but I have no objection to accidentally following them.

Kinda like real life.

[Suzaku]

Originally posted by othiym28:

I pay absolutely no attention to trends, but I have no objection to accidentally following them.

Pretty much this. Drinks could be harder to make use of unless you keep a large stock and large variety of pre-aged drinks, but food is much simpler since it can be made in a couple hours.

Trends increase the price of certain dishes/drinks. Get some nice combinations and you can really see the price of items soar (though I don't know the exact difference). Like one of your drinks might sell for a normally mediocre amount, until it turns out the customers want a rice lager, made with rice, flavored with melon (an actual combination they want from me right now), then you could make a pretty penny. My customers also want onion rings, made with onions, and rice breadcrumbs.

Doing a quick test just now between the trending meal and non-trending on different saves:
Onion rings (trending) and onions (trending). Prices are in silver.
Onion ring base price is 4.56 when trending. 3.32 when not trending.
Using corn breadcrumbs in both since I didn't have rice to compare in the old save: 7.78.
Sunflower oil for the same reason. 4.72.

Trending total price: 4.58
Non-trending total price: 3.35

With really only the base meal being buffed by trends, I see a nearly 37% price increase. If I had the appropriate ingredients across both saves, I'm certain there would be an even larger gap between trending and non-trending prices.

[Rodagu]

You can see the trends for the current week and the next 3 weeks. One week should be enough to grow the ingredients and age the drinks.

[Doc Savage]

If you make a good variety of things you will hit most of the trends without even trying.

At least they pay decent now. Before I hardly noticed them. I do now... Shame money is irrelevant so soon, it would be a nice spiff if we actually needed cash.

I agree with the above sentiment. I make no effort to hit them, but I make enough to hit them by accident and that's just fine with me. I make more than enough to appreciate it when it happens, so it isn't just some transparent thing, and I like that...

Cheers..!

[Zelynda]

"I pay no attention to trends, but have absolutely no problem accidentally following them" also sounds like my attitude (and my real life--like, a few times I have ACCIDENTALLY started wearing a clothing item that was fashionable, because I just happened to like it. Difference is, I _keep_ wearing it after it's NOT fashionable, because I still like it).

I make whatever I have the ingredients for, try to remember to buy/plant the ones I don't have (onions. It's ALWAYS hecking onions!) and get a decent variety. The clients get what they get. Sometimes I notice that certain items are really popular, but are they trending right now, or are they popular because they're a fancier recipe in general? I never know.

I can tell you that for a tavern, the townsfolk really love to drink them the frick out of some tea (instead of booze). It's the most fly-out-of-the-keg drink I sell. XD

[Calico Witch]

I take a glance at the trends every so often but make no attempt to follow them. Sometimes I have the items in inventory, sometimes I don't.

[Fae Queen Of Gaming]

I used to make some effort to hit the trends, but at a certain point I just start ignoring them, especially once money is no longer an object.

[tinga1911]

I haven't really bothered checking if it makes a financial or a reputational difference, but I do follow them. I think I'd be bored with the game a lot faster if I didn't, they make running the tavern actually challenging and fun instead of just keeping the most expensive stuff constantly in stock day after day. I love going through my recipes to see where I can add trending ingredients and planning my drinks ahead, making sure I have what I need a few weeks later.

Before the update when you could only see one week ahead it was very difficult to follow the trends, especially early on but now that you can check 4 weeks trends at a time it makes planning a lot easier. I write the trends down in my phone to have easy access without running to the calendar all the time. I'm in the autumn of year 2 so money and supplies aren't really an issue for me anymore; the trends, planning and optimizing my tavern are what keeps me going.

[Doc Savage]

Used to be able to do all that on your own. Make special stuff and all. Make menus. Make seasonal stuff.

Still can. But I cannot get excited for things not my own.

It's my Tavern, I should get to choose my own menu items and addons and flavors and....

I really miss those days.

Cheers..!

[monkeypunch87]

The controls of the trends overview with a controller isn't really working, so I ignore it.