The new cooking mechanic really slows down gameplay

[Bobby]

Like the title says, I really don't like the new cooking system. The idea is good, I understand why it is implemented but in my opinion it really breakes the pacing of the already slow game.

Waiting for a timer to go down isn't fun, it's a chore. I started in on the game a year ago and I loved it so much, I was addicted to the exploration and mood and I still like it. But everytime I start a fire and have to fiddle with cans and wait for timers to go down I end up wanting to turn of the game.

I don't know how the rest of the community feels about the change but I would much like to have the option of the old cooking system back. I can´t imagine hunting down a bear and cooking the meat with the time involded in such an enterprise.

I would prefer more crafting options or more learning/training mechanics than making the already slow stuff even slower.

Love The Long Dark!

[H34VY_R41N]

What prevents you from pressing Space to skip time so it will work like the old cooking mechanic?

[Bob The Tomato]

The new cooking mechanic is fantastic and it's here to stay.

[BESt]

Originally posted by CBF RAIN:

What prevents you from pressing Space to skip time so it will work like the old cooking mechanic?

Exactly!? You can pass time until cooked, if you don't want to watch the timer

[cT917]

I feel like the new cooking system is faster.

Using a large stove to cook 6 pieces at once, or using mulitiple cook fires to have additional cook surfaces going. Boiling water while you cook meat. It saves time and speeds things up.

The pass time option isn't obvious until you select the item cooking.

Just make sure to pass time on the item that will be done first.

[mark]

At level 1 cooking, a can of water takes about 30 minutes - collect a few sticks, break down a couple of branches, repair an item of clothing, split a piece of birch into arrow shafts, or break down a crate. At level 5, 1.5L in a cooking pot takes an hour and 2 minutes - put a pot on the stove, turn round and do an hours fishing - or read a book. If a fish takes 35-40 minutes to cook, interrupt your fishing (though you've got spare time before it burns, so don't need to unless you want to maximise fuel efficiency).

If there's really, really nothing else to do, click on what's cooking and "wait until ready". But there's almost always something you could be doing.

[russmiller4445]

I agree with you Bobby, but it seems we're being out voted. Some maps like Des. Point only has one burner, so cooking takes up over half of your game time. I liked it better when I had time to go out hunt & explore. Sadly, I don't play the game any more. It has become boring. As a person who has 1400 hours in game, I am attached to the older mechanics of the game. It would have been nice to have been given a choice in this big make-over. When something works, don't mess with it, is an idea that as not caught on. We wanted new contend and crafting to be add but got a new mechanics to the game instead. Oh well, I got my money worth out of the game. Another great game over thought out by the Dev's.

[mf187doubleg]

with 2 or 3 fired it goes very fast and if you harvest an animal you can also cook - this is cool

[iwasa]

Muliple cookfires, the six burner stove in the farm house, etc. are work-arounds and particular opportunities present in the game as a result of New Cooking. I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with that.

In its first pass, the time to cook meat essentially tripled (nearly quadrupled) or about one kilo per burner per hour instead of three or four, and to cook fish sextupled (6x) or about one fish per burner per hour instead of five or six. Making water from snow went from about fifteen minutes per 1/2 liter to almost 30 minutes.

In that first pass, the flexibility for parallel tasks was front-end loaded into the process. That was great for anyone with a parallel task, such as mending or crafting or reading, that they wanted to do, but for anyone else it meant that much more time, whether spent staring at the cooking food or using pass time had to be devoted to the process.

In the second pass, the times were tuned with the cooking times roughly cut in half and the time to burn/boil away increased which back-end loaded the time that could be used to carrying out a parallel task. At least now the player who has essentially nothing to do didn't have to spend as much time just waiting for the food to cook.

We're not going back to Old Cooking and the tuning of cooking times has substantially helped (in my view) with letting people carryout lengthy tasks that generally cannot be interrupted while not inflicting a time penalty on anyone else who does not.

After the second pass, I find I am much happier about New Cooking (I have not yet tried the don't eat raw meat rather than put it on the fire thing). It does provide more opportunity to do alternate things while not punishing me for not having lengthy things to do. At this point, it seems to have hit, for me, a happier in-between point.

[russmiller4445]

To iwasa: sounds like you haven't broken away from the cozy PV farmhouse. Try making it in Des. Point, even ML is no cozy spot. Perhaps I wouldn't be so disgruntle about the change if they had gotten rid of all the single burner pot belly stoves in the houses.

[jswilliams]

Once upon a time the whole world was one-burner stoves. It was a time of wonder giddily watching the whirlygig as 5L of water one after 'nother went into inventory. So awesome to watch it turns as kilo after kilo of meat was cooked with care one at a time, our attention fixed, nay, outright CAPTURED, unable to look away so beautiful the sight was to our gaze.

[EN16M471C]

Originally posted by russmiller4445:

To iwasa: sounds like you haven't broken away from the cozy PV farmhouse. Try making it in Des. Point, even ML is no cozy spot. Perhaps I wouldn't be so disgruntle about the change if they had gotten rid of all the single burner pot belly stoves in the houses.

As already mentioned there's an easy workaround - just make multiple campfires outside. Find a nice spot shielded from the wind (outdoor cave preferably) and make 2-3 campfires. That's 4-6 spots to melt/boil/cook. Another bonus of outdoor campfire is that it burns longer than indoor fire, so you get more cooking time out of your firewood supply.

Plus outdoor cooking helps with cabin fever "issue" if you have it enabled ;)

[russmiller4445]

Still seems like a lot of real time work managing a bunch of fires. Thanks, I'll keep it in mind if I ever decide to play again. Other games have my interest at the moment. But new ideas are appreciated, I loved this game once.

[iwasa]

Everybody has to find their own reality as far as New cooking goes.

I found the first pass New cooking to make cooking meat and fish a real drudgery. On balance, the capacity to craft or read for an hour was not the kind of trade I'd want. This is not to say that there was no value in allowing for parallel tasks, it is just that I didn't see myself doing a whole bunch of them. So I'd end up staring at the fire.

With second pass New cooking, the cooking time starts to fall back into some semblance of what I was used to especially now that I have more pots. The shorter cooking time also means I stay busier - checking the upstairs stove where the meat is cooking in pots, rushing to the downstairs stove to see how the pot of water is going, checking the fire durations, adding sticks as needed, dropping cooked meat outside (the Camp Office) maybe picking up some more to take inside and upstairs, repeat as needed.

I do a similar but more abbreviated routine at Carter Hydro. I make much more use of the place function that had been introduced - it really helps in this case.

The second pass tuning has made New cooking, in my mind, better. If I do decide I want to read a book or mend something then I have the margin to do so. If I don't then I don't have to spend the extra time due to elongated cooking times. I can get on with the game.

This now works for me. You may choose differently.

[Уединение]

100% didn't add anything to the game. The players want new survival tools, weapons, better options to repair tools. Game could be so much more than it is.

[JiffyPopKids]

I have a split opinion on it. a moose steak shouldn't take an hour and a half to cook, but I do like the way the cooking happens. I like that you have to actually cook it, but the times are way too long. It doesn't take 10 minutes to warm a cup of tea, it takes maybe 3 or 4.