Cooking Needs A Revamp

[RCJenn]

I realize that there's benefits to cooked food, but I think Cooking needs a revamp to actually make it a profitable occupation.

As it stands now its more profitable to turn eggs and milk and such to mayo and cheese, wheat to beer, ect, and heck, can make more selling the individual raw ingredients than cooking with them.

In all the hours I've played (over 300) it's the Cooking achievements that I have yet to realize, since I just mass produce a couple of favorites and call it a game. There's just no reason to explore Cooking since it's a convoluted process with a drain of resources or grinding with no profit margin. It's a losing proposition all around, even as gifts.

Cooked food really needs to have its profit/loss ratio bumped up at least double to make it a viable pursuit, IMO, and make Cooking an actual worthwhile goal and occupation.

[V.V.]

Its really not that convoluted. Once you learn the recipe, it tells you what you need and it makes it instantly. But yeah, there really is no point in cooking as a way of making money, it's just purely for personal benefits or gifting. But I really don't see the dev revamping it now.

[Dimensional Traveler]

There are a number of options available in the game that are not the most cost effective but they allow players to play in different ways. There really aren't any "victory conditions" set by the game itself. Its up to the player to decide for themselves what they want to achieve and some want to achieve chefdom.

[RCJenn]

Aye, just pretty much done everything in the game, but my Achievements for Cooking being the one big black hole.

Took my Year 6 character and started growing and producing only things needed for Cooking recipes. Gone from a 1.83m bank account down to 1.28m and am only about 2/3 through the recipe list.

One thing for sure, Cooking is the most work you'll ever do to succeed going from an empire to bankruptcy... Gonna check the Nexus and see if there's a mod that'll at least make Cooking feasible as an ingame profession, or at least allow me to clear out my Cooking ingame/Steam achievements without wiping out my game.

[ChrillBill]

Eggs! I usually have a good supply of them but for some reason I hate to waste 'em on cooking. Same goes for fish.

[RCJenn]

Found this mod, gonna give it a try. Seems reasonably put together so as not to just be a money cheat;

Cooking Food Price and Stat Overhaul
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/12948

[Book]

There's The Love of Cooking mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/6830
and Plentiful Harvest mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/9949. I have not tried these but am considering at some point trying one of them out. Right now I'm just trying to learn how to get my production balanced the way I want it.

[Book]

Originally posted by RCJenn:

Found this mod, gonna give it a try. Seems reasonably put together so as not to just be a money cheat;

Cooking Food Price and Stat Overhaul
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/12948

This one looks interesting. Will take a look at this one.

[RCJenn]

Originally posted by Book:

Originally posted by RCJenn:

Found this mod, gonna give it a try. Seems reasonably put together so as not to just be a money cheat;

Cooking Food Price and Stat Overhaul
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/12948

This one looks interesting. Will take a look at this one.

This one seems to work well. Did a quick install to make sure SMAPI was okay with it, and a quick test run making a tortilla. Originally, it cost one corn at 82g to make one tortilla worth 30g. With the mod the same tortilla using a 82g corn now produces a tortilla valued at 138g.

Much better, and provides another gameplay enhancement where moving crops straight from ground to sell box is the least profitable way to play. Yay modders! God love ya.

[Andralyn de Bagschaghe]

Concerned Ape explicitly said he wanted cooking and sewing to be things to do NOT to make a profit. He didn't want the game to be all about making money. He wanted crafting things to do just for the fun of making different things.

[RCJenn]

Originally posted by Jᴀғᴀғᴀ Hᴏᴛs:

Concerned Ape explicitly said he wanted cooking and sewing to be things to do NOT to make a profit. He didn't want the game to be all about making money. He wanted crafting things to do just for the fun of making different things.

That would be disappointing since that's a whole production chain and play style that is deliberately ruinous to pursue, and thus poorly utilized.

ConcernedApe put a lot of thought and work into recipes, that for the most part, punishes players who pursue that line of crafting. And with 10% or less of players completing those achievements, it shows.

Poor old Gus. Seems that he should be the one character that is constantly facing bankruptcy since anything he cooks is immediately at a 50-80% loss, and I could see why his next game will be a Haunted Chocolatier if CA doesn't believe cooking should be profitable.

[Bob]

Yea cooking mostly sucks. Out of all of those recipes, only a few of them are 'good', and the rest of them are completely worthless at all stages of the game.

[MadDawg2552]

Food goes in the mouth, not the sell bin. Most foods give you buffs, and that's what they are for. The other food just increases the amount of stamina you would get from the individual items and packs them into one space instead of over several.

[I Kinda Fail]

I do agree that Cooking could use a touch-up, but not necessarily be for money-making...

For example, I think there should be foods we make that give 100 energy and 50 health, and foods that give 50 energy and 100 health. As is, most (all?) recipes give a LOT more energy than health.

So "combat foods" like crab cakes should restore more health than energy, but "skilling foods" should restore more energy than health.

Stuff like 1 egg restoring 25 energy, becoming 1 omelet restoring 50 energy, is fine as it is.

I think a simple yet fair "buff" to skill boosts would be to make sure every skill being raised, has a perk.
Like how higher Fishing levels get a bigger fishing bar, so boosting Fishing to 14 actually has an effect.
To my knowledge, Mining doesn't really have an effect when boosted, besides slightly less stamina consumption... Maybe increased coal/stone drops every 4 levels would be fair?

The "maximum energy" buff from certain food/drink is 100% useless. Should be replaced with a slow energy regeneration, so for example, instead of a bean hotpot giving 125 energy and 56 health, have it give 100 energy and 50 health immediately, but restore an extra 5 energy and 2 health every 5 seconds, for the next 50 seconds. If you spam-eat, you lose the "extra" health, but the food is great for peaceful, non-rushed activities.

We could use a few more recipes to quickly consume items. Like salmonberry toast, use 1 wheat/bread and 5 berries for a short speed and Farming boost to start your day. As well as buffing items like the blueberry tart to use, say, 5 blueberries instead of 1, but restore an extra 75 energy to compensate.

Lastly, I think a few of the food buffs and restorations could stand to be swapped around.
More "meaty" stuff like cheese cauliflower, complete breakfast, fried calamari, etc. should boost more health and less energy due to being "heavy" and generally less healthy. Sugary things like pink cakes should restore a lot of energy, but not much health. Healthier items like baked fish and salad should restore a good chunk of both.

[Andralyn de Bagschaghe]

Deliberately ruinous to pursue? Only if you're only concerned with piling up money. In early game you need money, yes, but in later game money jut rolls in, there's no reason to even pay attention to it unless your brain is just wired into pilling up as much as possible. Which is a pretty limiting experience.

Cook people's loved foods to max friendships. Cook things for powerups.
That said, there are some logical tweaks. Asparagus as a crop. Various soups could be added. NOBODY likes mango? No real use for mango at all? That's just weird. That should be fixed. at least 2 people should love mango. Mango sorbet recipe. Stuff like that.

[MrKira]

Nice analyzation friend. I support you for a revamp on cooking