Chef Archive

Once the dev's get around to fixing chef's they'll have to decide between a couple of things... power of buffs and how long they last.

We currently have a couple of advantages against each profession, but considerring our buffs suck in comparison balance isn't yet achieved.

The issues:

Chef Vs. Doctor: Our items can be used anytime, anywhere, by anyone. Doctors have to be around, and in the camp, and at the moment, I haven't seen any doctors(apart from multi-profession ones that are members of PA's) hiring out their services to go on trips with strangers to buff them up. On the other hand, doctors can buff up very large amounts,(500-1500) on all pools for very significant amounts of time(30-90 minutes). You can also stack multiple uses together(normally 2 drinks and 2 foods. More if they could fix the flavor experimenting, which is supposed to decrease the fillingness of a buff), which can give some pretty nice combined effects. Doctors also cant enhance all stats.

Chef Vs. Smuggler: Smuggler spices dont come in multiple use stacks. One use per spice, so they can be quite expensive, and occupy a lot of inventory space.They offer significantly higher buffs, for about double the time. They also suffer a very serious downer(which isn't limited to vomitting contrary to popular belief. For a short period of time they give very serious stat penalties. The exact opposite of what they buff I think, but I'm not 100% sure of that).

Our buffs are obviously by far the most convenient. No downtime after use, and very portable. They're also quite flexible, as you can group together four of them to get together quite variable sets of buffs(once I master I'm going to start fiddling about to see what good combinations I can make for different professions that I'll probably sell in bags labelled stuff like "Carbineer booster pack").

However we lose out too much for getting these advantages. Since our profession is entirely dedicated to buffing, we should be overall better then a doctor or smuggler, but we shouldn't make them useless either.

The solution I would propose is some adjustments to buffs(obvious enough). But not as large as some people would like to see... I know ReblSoldier wants to see +1500 buffs similar to tatooine sunburn. That'd be very overkill, since you can use four of them altogether, and they could probably be experimented for even more effect, thus making chef a ridiculously overpowerred profession(and the devs wouldn't do this).

First, try re-arranging the profession so that its internally balanced(tatooine sunburn would get nerfed a bit and brought to master, and stuff like wastril bread would stay at the bottom. Other items that are currently pretty midrange which manage to get themselves into the high tiers brought down to first or second tier).

Second, increase the buffs. Probably do it a bit at a time, rather then instantly quadrupling it, and then at a later date having to nerf it back into line. I'd like to see something along the lines of +400 to a single non-pool stat at master with no penalties, lasting 5 minutes,increasable to +700 or extra uses or twice the time(or a balanced combination of the above) withexperimentation. Pool stats would probably have to get higher bonuses(so maybe 600 increasable to 900 instead). Some items can give higher stat increases at cost of debuffs, or lowerred lasting.

Third, the novice chef stuff is actually ok as it is, since with experimentation it would get too good for a novice item otherwise. It would still have some value, especially to those doing the cooking tree. To make up for the fact that the domestic arts stuff would be better, make it start giving chef xp instead of gcxp in the same way as cdef for weaponsmiths.

No single buff should be more powerful than a smuggler or doctor buff, since we have other advantages over those professions(also, dont forget that we get to place at least four buffs on people, which will likely total out to more).

SirVimes: I'd especially appreciate if you as correspondent could say what you think of this.

Those that think the buffs have to be a lot stronger then I've listed here: Anything stronger would make doctors and smugglers useless, as well as severely disbalancing the game. Consider the effects of someone able to run rampant buffed up with 4 +1500 to pool items. Sure it'd make PvP more interesting... it'd also effectively double or triple their level for PvE because they can stay standing 2-3 times longer in combat, thus dissing out 2-3 times more damage then they could normally. A profession that can instantly triple another professions killing power is overpowerred. There's no two ways about it. The PvP issue is one that should be fairly unrelated to chefs. You can make weapons do smaller amounts of damage in PvP, but you cant destroy the balance of the entire PvE aspect of the game(which many consider more important) just so you can see bigger numbers...

i'd rather like to see food buffs last a lot longer than getting the amount they buff upped.

TS is just plain broken imho, it reverses everything Holo said, Chef buffs are intended to be, i.e. long lasting low amount buffs.

stacking up 4 Cheff buffs should give a max of 500 per stat lasting for a few hours, all they are currently good for is fixing the stat display bug that occurs after woundhealing and getting a regen boost after an incap.

the progression should be:

Novice Chef: few number of stats boosted for a decent amount of time (i.e. 1-2 stats per food buffed for ~100for 1 hour adding up to either ~400 in one stat for an hour or 4 stats boosted for 100 for an hour)

up to

Master Chef: all stats boosted for a great amount of time (i.e. 4-6 stats per food boosted for up 250 for 4-5 hours, adding up to ~1000 single stat boosts or ~600 overall boosts depending on the variaty of foods consumed)

single high stat boosts should hit filling without some realy good experimentation and only last for half the time, i.e. the current TS would not become stackable, maybe get a greater penalty for the mind part and the current boost lowered to ~700 for the 2 statsand last 30 minutes.

note that all those numbers should base on working experimentation, which basicaly means they will field lower for most things due to low skills (until you hit Master)and poor resources.

Marwin T'an- Combat Medic - Gorath

Leowyin T'an - aspiring Chef - Gorath

Really, the main thing I would like to see for Chefs is longer duration on the buffs. I would love a little more increase too, but my main issue I would like to see added is a MUCH longer duration. I was thinking that Chefs would be able to give a long duration on the buffs. I would definitely like to see a big boost inthat area.

JX,

I have seen quite a few doctors running around doing missions with hunting groups, so it may vary from server to server.

I would like an increase in both duration and buff. I think are product will be very useful for PVP situations and when Players can do shots that produce 1000 damage, our measely 100 booster doesnt mean that much anymore. However I also agree with J that I don't want all of our foods to suddenly jump to + 3000 for 4 days. That would cheapen the profession.

from what most people are posting, buff duration seems more popular than buff strengths.

i think both should be increased but id much rather see buffs last longer

I want to chime in and disagree on the 'buff duration is more important than buff strength' theme.

Acknowledging at this point that BOTH are tremendously under-powered.

However I think the buff strength needs to be scaled up more than buff duration. I would like chef buffs to always be shorter duration than a doctor buff.

As I posted in another thread, at master chef think our max buff duration should be in the 30 minute range.

Keeping people chowing down on our foods will keep them coming back for more.

I tend to agree with the duration maxing out at around thirty minutes--maybe a little longer w/ experimentation. If someone gets buffed for 4-5 hours, I can seethat becomingan inconvenience since they will be unable to "un-buff" and might want to eat something else to boost a differentstat. Not to mention they won't have to buy very much food for a hunting trip. We should look at how long, say, the average fight is against a yellow con creature. Our buffs should last at least that long. Currently they don't. And nothing is sillier than hearing a character muching on food in the middle of a heated battle.

Having done some fighting myself, I'd say the ideal duration would work like this: The PC takes 2 destroy missions relatively close by, then eats/drinks. After aminute or so the PC's boosts are maxed. S/he completes both missions. Either during the second or shortly after, the buffs run out. S/he has to eat again to do the next ones. However, a high quality, highly-experimented item could yield a much longer buff, perhaps allowing him/her to complete a few sets of missions without having to eat again.

Like Ssauron said, we want repeat customers--and also customers who'll buy in bulk. If the duration is too short like it is currently, no one will bother too much with food. If it's too long, we won't sell enough of it, IMO.

I agree that the buffs should be for 30 mins tops thats a good time and leave the chef a useful part of the group for rebuffing ..

If anyone played DAOC they would know about buff bots chefs shouldnt become bots for nothing but buffing but remain active.

as for the +1500 I think its a must , so it will be overpowering to eat more then one remove the ability to eat more then one of a food that buffs that much stats have every food past that first wortk at 1/3 effectiveness

So the first one adds +1500 the second one of the same food while still under the originals effect would be +500

that would only be +2000 which isnt over powered at all , even in PvE.. sure you would do alot beter but hopefully they will add harder and harder monsters you could tackle with buffs otherwise you can do just fine with out them right now.

PvP is just as important as PvE , PvP balance is something that harder to obtain then PvE , PvP is starwars for just as many people as PvE is..

And anyone who has been playing PvP currently knows even a +500 mind wont help much you would live 1 and a half shots instead of one and a third.

which still means your dead in two shots..

our buffs should be the best in the game

buffs should be a game balancing issue , the game should be featured at higher levels around buffs.

You dont fight the Krytt Dragons with a CDEF pistol or a stone knife.

This game should based on buffs even more then any other game , because the characters stats never increase as you level up which means monsters stats do you beter have a buff or two too be able to compete.

Rebl: You forget that people can use 4 buffs at a time. Hence 1500 * 4 = 6000, so if you add the base to that, it gives a total of 6500, which IS overpowerred. No single character(except maybe a master jedi, if they everwork)should ever be able to beat a krayt dragon no matter how many buffs they get. They're designed to be beatable by a very large group of players, not one superbuffed character. The PvP issue can easily be reduced by a global divider of damage in PvP without unbalancing PvE at all.

Those advocating longer lasting buffs: The 5 minute for 400 buff at master with increase to double time or nearly double buff with experimentation is a rough guideline I set because a) It isn't in direct competition with doctors(Because we shouldn't be putting each other out of business), and b) There could be items lasting half an hour, but they'd only buff a lot less(e.g 200. With 300-400 at master). Thus people that dont want to spend too much time buffing up could get these lesser, longer lasting buffs, while people who just want to get ready foronelong battle(even a fight with a dark jedi master doesn't take more than 5-10 minutes. I know because I killed one with 3 friends. They have 30K HAM, armor rating 3, and 90% resists to everything, so I doubt anything else could take longer to kill), could eat one of the higher effect, five minute buffs.

Also, I disagree about our current buffs being only useful for fixing bugged stats. They definitely aren't very good at the moment, but they can give you a decent edge and lower your downtime a lot. For example, by eating a couple of well-experimented veghashes(entrees II)before a battle, you'll be negating the effects of most armor, and for armorless people this'll significantly increase regeneration. It isn't a great improvement, but it does give you an edge, and en experienced player who knows the full potential of buffs will use it. Even with current buffs I will often buff up(not just on sunburn) before a fight. They're definitely not as good as they should be, but they're good enough that you can use them to avoid killing yourself with special costs, which is something that a lot of people(especially carbine users) appreciate.

Rebl: You forget that people can use 4 buffs at a time. Hence 1500 * 4 = 6000, so if you add the base to that, it gives a total of 6500, which IS overpowerred. No single character(except maybe a master jedi, if they everwork)should ever be able to beat a krayt dragon no matter how many buffs they get. They're designed to be beatable by a very large group of players, not one superbuffed character. The PvP issue can easily be reduced by a global divider of damage in PvP without unbalancing PvE at all.

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reread my post

I said that the first buff would buff 1500 any food that buffed that same stat would be 1/3 the effective so you could load up on that one stat.

so it would be for eating two of the +1500 food +2000

the problem with the 5 minute duration is that for too many people it's just not worth it.

spending 300+ Credits on a food that doesn't last the mission you are doing is pointless.

it's the choice between 5% of the player base coming and buying food because they think it's cool and have the money to waste and 50% doing so, because it has a noticable, lasting effect.

Inventory space is limited and people are not coming back to buy another 10 food every hour just because they could use that much in that time. i'd rather have them come once a day to buy what they need or even once a week for larger stocks.

I totaly agree on the idea that buffs are way more important in this game due to unchanging player stats but the current Chef buffs just do not live up to that task and they will never, if the only thing you are asking for is 1.000.000 point boosts for 2 seconds.

actualy there is no point in debating over duration or effect.

the number of schematics for chefs is large enough to provide either side with what they want.

it just needs to be balanced so that (resources* points buffed* time buffed) stays the same. Exp is not even a factor in there because for most of the stuff we sell, we never see UXP because it gets eaten on a different Planet, half a day later.

its true, the duration and effect can be scaled a bit so longer lasting = less effective and vice versa.

I think there is a large market for short-term powerful buffs. Tatooine sunburn only lasts 6 and a bit minutes, but I can still sell it for 400 per use easily. That means people are paying me between 1600-2800 for my stacks normally. It only lasts for 6 minutes, but a normal mission rarely lasts any more than that. If it takes you over 6 minutes you're either bleed-shot running, or there's something very wrong. In 6 minutes of fighting you'd be dead. Even against weak stuff. The more powerful buffs can make the difference between life and death for people with high special costs since they want to be able to spam specials to kill their target fast enough, but dont want to take too much damage from doing so. When you get payed 2500 for a high level mission, you can easily afford to spend 500 of that reward on one buff that makes it possible for you to do. Lower level players will also be able to buy lower level buffs which will sell cheaper and thus keep the novice chefs in money while also helping less rich characters do some slightly tougher missions, or do them quicker/with less risk. People will be willing to pay 20% of their mission rewards for buffs if it makes a significant difference to life and death. It doesn't at the moment, but it should, and that is what our problem is.