Chef Archive

I don't think chefs should buff HAM stats as much as sub-stats, like Willpower, Stamina, Strength, etc. Doctors can already buff HAMs.

I think it's important that you be able to eat 3-5 different things before you're full, so you can combine effects. Do you want to eat 3 things that each give +400 Willpower, for a total of +1200, or would you rather eat one thing with +400 Willpower, one thing with +400 strength and one thing with +400 quickness?

Also, the buff should last as long asdigestion. If you eat 3 things and are full and the buff lasts 1 hour, then 1 hour later you should be ready to eat 3 more things.

I also think that lower level items should not completely be replaced by higher level items.

Bad:
Novice Chef makes +200 Willpower for 1 hour
Master Chef makes +400 Willpower for 2 hours

Now the novice chef is useless.

Good:
Novice Chef makes +200 Willpower, +100 Strength, +100 Quickness, +100 Strength, +100 Staminafor 1 hour (+600 total)
Advanced Chef makes +350 Willpower, +350 Focus for45 minutes (+700 total)
Master Chef makes +800 Willpower for 30 minutes (+800 total)

So people wanting to diversify their stats eat foods from novice chefs, while people wanting to seriously buff 1 stat will eat foods from master chefs. As you climb the chef tree, make the buffs stronger for 1 stat and stronger overall, but they impact fewer stats. They also last less time out of necessity: you could eat 3 different Master Chef foods for +800 Willpower, +800 Strength and +800 Focus (+2400 overall)and it will last 30 minutes, or you can eat3 of the samefood from a Novice Chef that's a total of +600 scattered across 5 different stats (+1800 overall) and lasts for an hour.

That way everyone from novice chef to master chef can make a great product and one would not make the other useless. Some people will prefer lesser buffs that last longer, other people will prefer stronger buffs even though they last less time.

More thoughts on how it could be layed out:

Entrees -- foods in this tree tend to last a long time and buff your regeneration stats. Willpower, Stamina and Constitution.

Desserts -- foods in this tree tend to last a short time and buff your 'usage' stats. Focus, Quickness, Strength.

Mixology -- stuff in this tree tends to last a shorter time and buff various stats to greater degrees, but with some negatives.

Examples:

Entree I -- +150 Willpower, +150 Stamina, +150 Constitution, +25 Focus/Quickness/Strength for 1 hour
Desserts I -- +200 Focus, +200 Strength, +200 Quickness, +25 Willpower/Stamina/Con for 40 minutes
Mixology I -- +275 Strength, +275 Stamina, +275 Quickness, -50 Willpower/Focus/Constitution for 40 minutes

And to rehash my previous examples of how this would scale up:

Entree IV -- +600 Willpower, +25 Stamina/Constitution for 35 minutes
Desserts IV -- +700 Focus, +75 Str/Quickness for 20 minutes
Mixology IV -- +1250 Willpower, -250Strength for20 minutes

Master Chef -- +1250 Constituion for 15 minutes

(I don't know anyone who wouldn't pay a crapload to have +1250 Willpower for even 5 minutes. Mind heals? No. Super mind regeneration? See a Chef!)

A couple of thoughts.

I actually think it should be reversed. I think food should buff HAM stats, and medics should buff the stats that help you regenerate. Food makes you healthy, medicine helps you heal. Then Spice can buff your endurance stats, making them like steroids or stimulants.

Another thought I had...why does it have to be stat buffs. Why can't their be skill buffs, or burst run buffs, or protection from certain damage buffs. You can have the lower level items (novice chef) concentrate on stat buffs and the higher level items concentrate on other types of buffs, so that the higher level ones are not crowding out the lower level buffs.

It would nerf us to only buff HAM. HAM is the least useful thing you can buff because having +1000 mind pool is not as good as having +1000 willpower.

If you regenerate 10 mind per second and have 1000 mind pool, then over the course of an hour you can use (10 mind/sec * 60 seconds * 60 minutes + 1000 initial) 13000 mind. Giving you a buff of +1000 mind means you now have 14000 mind available over an hour. Hardly an improvement.

Same guy gets a buff that doubles his Willpower, giving him 20 mind per second. Now he goes from 13000 mind available in an hour to (20 mind/sec * 60 seconds * 60 minutes + 1000 initial) 25000 mind.

This is why buffing regenerative stats is far superior to buffing HAM.

This is the same concept from Everquest: having +1000 max manaisn't remotely as useful as having +100% mana regeneration rate.

So please don't ask for us to buff HAM stats rather than regen stats, as that would really be a setback. Besides, what's better for regeneration than a bowl of chicken soup and some orange juice? Not to mention tired athletes don't take aspirin, they drink Gatoraid.

Well, not buff only HAM but mainly HAM. Like +500 to a HAM stat and +100 to another stat.

And I don't see it hurting us because it would be stackable with medicines and spices. So they wouldn't have to choose one or the other, but would choose both. Buffing the regen stats might be better than buffing the HAM stats, but buffing both is better yet.

And while you might be right about the other stats being more important (although I am not sure if I agree) HAM is still the most visible of the stats and just because of that people will be more concerned with buffing their HAM bars.

I also think my total layout will work well for "realism".

At the start of a big hunt, you would probably eat 2 good foods to get your regeneration going. You'd leave room for dessert so you can occasionally pop a treat that gives you a shorter duration boost to your 'usage' stats, so you can fight without tiring so quickly. Nothing like a sugery snack to keep you going.

And you'd bring an assortment of drinks to go with your food, because Mixology drinks are all over the map on what stats they impact.

A rifleman would eat a couple Entrees for his willpower, and sometimes pop a dessert for his Focus, and keep some drinks on hand for temporarily upping his Constitution or Stamina so he can recover faster. He's using all the trees of the Chef simultaniously.

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Also, doctors don't need to buff your regeneration stats. They can simply heal you, so what would be the point of them buffing your regen rates? Buffing HAM gives them more to heal, so that makes sense. Buffing regen rates would be putting themselves out of work.

I have to agree on no HAM increase. Why? Medics heal the current damage, but scars and fatigue will stay. Food NEVER gives you immediate benefit, it helps you function (secondary stats). I think that they should ONLY buff secondary stats but be wary as to how much. We don't want to be the next prof (after CH) to get whacked with the nerf bat to our own accord. Skill in this prof should increase those bonuses and the lenght but MOSTLY the length (or maybe a new stat, how full the food makes you).

Good example how this could work in a real life system:

Two products:

Fries - +100 con -50 will 100s

Soda- +50 quicknes + 50 will 100s

Obiviously those two foods would compliment well due to the bonuses ( i did that on purpose)

Going higher up the tree, you could gain the bonuses for longer amounts of time, less food bar fillings and decrease the penalties (not for those foods but better versions of those foods).

HAM is the most useful buff but it has to be in large large amounts

if its not for over 1000 ham is useless because in PvP most shots are 1000-1500

So a buffs going to need to be big enough to at least absorb 1 shot more or why bother to buff?

Chef buffs are made to augment not protect outright. People use expensive abilities during battle and sometimes need to heal/regen during combat. These buffs that we provide help THAT not the direct damage. This isn't all about pvp either but it applies there too. If a combat medic is healing his buddies his mind is going down the drain but if he has one of our great willpower buffs at least its not going down as fast (opening him up to snipers).

I concur - food's main effects should be placed on secondary stats. Right now a lot of the reason why we're so undervalued is that when resources are tight, a Doctor or Smuggler can give you a better buff to your primary stats - it usually lasts longer too. If we got overhauled in a manner that gave our food decent duration, and decent improvements to make it useful, then it only makes sense that the impact would mainly be on the secondary stats.

As an analogy - I drink a sports drink. I feel faster and my stamina improves - my ability to perform actions only changes because I'm regenerating faster. I eat a well-balanced diet, my ability to heal and my strength improve, but my total physical health is not changed.

If we really want to be useful, then we should be pushing for foods that have longer duration and greater effects on secondaries. We should be THE secondary stat buffing class, on a long-term basis. Smugglers shouldn't be competing against us - their products should only supplement our effects on a short-term basis. Given the significant stat drains due to using specials and wearing armors, long-lasting(8-10 mins at minimum)strong secondary stat buffs would make us truly financially viable and useful in the game.

It's OK for low-level Chefs to have mediocre recipes, but a Master Chef's products ought to be selling as fast as they can produce them. We need an appropriate progression of value within the skill trees - shuffling things like Tattoine Sunburn to the top rather than being available at a level 2 skill investment. Keep all but the most mediocre buffs for the people who'll be serious Chefs, and not just occasional ones.

I think that food should buff everything. I dislike a situation where Chefs buff one thing, Doctors another, Spice a third.

All we can do is make buffs. That's it. Shouldn't we be the best at it?

Therefore, they should be either the only buffs, or the best buffs - in all instances.

-A

I wouldn't be opposed to that, but I would much rather see our focus be on secondary stats.

Having 2000 mind pool and 300 willpower is nearly useless. All that means is it will take half an hour to regenerate.

Having 1000 mind pool and 2000 willpower? Now you're talking!

This is why doctor buffs don't concern me. Buffing my HAM stats just isn't that useful. Give me secondary stats anyday. I swing my sword for the 2 handed area effect and I lose like 150 action doing it! I don't want more action pool, I want more Quickness (so it only costs 75 to swing) and more Stamina (so that 75 action spent swinging will be recovered twice as fast).

More regeneration = more pool points per hour.

That's worth a lot more than increased HAM.

what will insane regen help you with when you get hit by a pistol for 1500health damage using stoping shot?

Then you get head shotted for 1700 damage by a riffleman using head shot 3

What about a bounty hunter that hits you for 2000 damage with an underhand shot?

Regen wont help you , and if you have a good medic or doctor there anyway they can heal you so why worry about regen the heal will be instant..