Chef Archive

Okay, my turn to get yer brain cranking (if that's a skill a Wookiee posesses).

Since I first hit a decent cheffing level and opened my cantina up (waaaaay back in July), I've did alot of comparison of the old schematics. What I've done so far, is picked our best stuff out of the 90-something schematics we had.

We were dealing with ALOT of repeats, useless crap that no one would buy (gotta love that some of the higher level foods/drinks were more expensive to make, and less effective than some of the lower or same level foods/drinks), and just plain stuff that wasn't worth making for other than pet food. (i.e., anything in the dom arts tree basically, save for Teltier Noodles, I still had requests for these, and Starshine)

What I had going was a nice clean menu of around 35-40 foods/drinks that I alone could keep up with (almost, **edit** Fishak), and did a rather keen job of keeping them stocked, even when the resources to make the stuff weren't up to my normal par. (plain and simple, if Flavor and OQ weren't 750+, I didn't use it for final recipes unless I HAD TO to get it stocked, and preferred 900+, of course)

This was wonderful. I managed to refine a nice lil resource shopping list, schedule out my factory time, and did pretty good keeping my vendor stocked with lots of stuff. (again, fishak, BoH, and other stuff is constantly selling out)

Now...after patch, this will be way different.

Minus drink containers and other component schematics, we're looking at around 75 Schematics, most of which could be deemed useful by someone. (bofa treats? maybe...)

Even if I managed to trim down that 75 to 50 (which I doubt, people will want to take lower level, less filling food items to stack with higher level stuff and thier skill mod food), I'd still have TONS of stuff to stock. 2.5x the previous menu items I had listed. Thats ALOT of cooking.

Now, the vendor space is said to be thinning soon, and I think Chefs will be in the same boat as tailors with that big bork up...

Plain and simple, I didn't always sell the best stuff, but at least I have always tried to have it stocked, and my prices were always really low. Now, I can't see my pricing staying low, or stocking all of these buffs being one guy. Of course, I've always needed a bit of help from the BE's and Scout Hunters, but its looking like I will have to redouble my efforts with them, or become a BE myself. As far as the other electronic components for barrels and tailor components for casks, still no biggie, but the list is starting to pile up isn't it? Now add myself in another type of factory for making power handlers and what not, and I'm really hurting for lot space (seeing as how i've already got 8 factories down).

I have never minded joining forces with folks to work with. However, with the cross-dependencies for cheffing, now combined with the sheer volume of stuff that we're going to be able to make is going to make any chef who's stocked all the useful stuff,with good to excellentquality, work thier furry butts off (okay, maybe scaled, bald, or fishy butts). And keep in mind, your resource hunt will be a little tighter as well, seeing as how more resource stats come into play with the new stuff. I just can't see stocking 60-75 items like I have been my 35 or so without help. Whether or not this is a good or bad thing..../shrug. (sometimes help can be....not helpful lol)

In the past, I've used a database to work out factory time, pricing,costs, component needs, and to keep track of my customers, and I hope this lil bad boy helps after the patch goes live.However, anyone doing the same thing I've been doing is in for a "work your fur off"treat. Get ready to either hire extra folks, buy some more SWG accounts, or make sure your PA is ready to assist you in what is going to be the largest P.I.T.A. to keep a GOOD BREADTH of stock on your vendor.

Most likely, I'll be standing right in front of it when it does, and so will you. Prepare for /tell hell and LOTS of repeated questions too! (will be like game release month all over again)

I'd like to hear what everyone's plans are. Perhaps we can collectively come up with helpful ideas for eachother. I'd really like to polish up my dumb lil access database, and pass it along to you guys so you can see if it helps you like it's helped me. However, I'm in the middle of modifying all the recipes, so that will have to wait. So for now, I'd love to hear how you plan to keep up.

Unitarius, a.k.a.,
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Cookie the Wookiee (TIA)
Lowca, Naboo, Moenia
Master Chef, Architect, and Artisan
Merchant 3/1/3/3
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I'm nervous too. I can't keep up with sales as it is; I have a real life which doesn't allow me unlimited time to play the game, and sometimes I like to do other things besides make schematics and stuff the factories. I've kept up similar to how you do it, by obsessive planning and record-keeping and outstanding time management. But I don't think even all this will help post patch. The complexity of the recipes is being reduced, so our factories will work faster, and we may not need more lots. But I can only spend so much time making schematics, can only gather so many resources, and if I keep track of any more stuff my head will explode.

I've actually been talking with a fellow master chef about partnership. If the list of useful buffs proves to be long, we could split the menu down the middle and each have specialty products. Would be less of a headache for both of us. If that doesn't work out, I'll probably just stick to a few items and let someone else cover the rest. It's important to me to have a consistently stocked vendor, so I need to stick to a number of products I can handle.

The BE dependence worries me too. There are three master bio-engineers in my town, but two just do pets, and the third has a lot of RL stuff going on right now. And where I'm going to get hundreds of thousands of units of meat is beyond me. I'm a crafter, not a hunter, so I'm entirely dependent on others in this regard.

As for the vendor limits, I'm a master merchant, so if all else fails I can always whip another vendor or two out. Perhaps organize them by stat buffs/skill buffs, or normal food/enhanced food.

I'm actually planning to take the cowardly route, and take a couple of weeks off from cheffing after the patch. I'll make a few samples of food for people to try, then take a well deserved vacation while people figure out what's useful and what might sell. If we get some popular food out of this, I'll start making it. If not, I'll be re-considering my professional calling.

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Kier Lyndall -- Master Merchant -- Master Chef -- Starsider
-- Kier's Buff Bar -- Lake Wild (4708 1043), Dantooine --
Over 30 different foods now in stock!
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I feel ya, Unitarius, I spend most of my game time (like 99%) on chef-related activities - surveying/sampling/putting down harvesters, buying resources from the bazaar and resource vendors, making schematics and keeping the factories going, taking down orders and neogtiating pickup arrangements on finished orders, stocking and restocking the vendors... whew! And I'm a hardcore gamer too.

What I have done is to make friends with up and coming chefs and train them, and now that they're masters they are still my buddies. We're sharing resource wps with each other which really helps a lot in time and effort! It takes a lot of trust to do this, but I have found it very personally rewarding to work with people rather than trying to compete against people.

And I think we might just have to start specializing if we see a lot of demand for more variety than we can stock. Perhaps one chef will do all the skill buffs, and another all the stat buffs, or we'll have pastry chefs, bartenders, and restaurant chefs.

The good thing (in a way) is that everyone will be going through the same thing, so some kind of solution will develop organically. I'm just going to wait and see how everything plays out.

Best wishes

Haala's Twinloch Tavern & Petting Zoo, Twinloch City, Talus: -1083 -5060. Master Level Foods and Quality Entertainment.
- Tarquinas Server -

Ihave another wrench being thrown into the mix. Not only am I having to learn all the changes, but because I was worried that the changes would force me to redesign my operation anyway I decided a while back to not enter the chef scene untilthe changes were in place. This has needless to say been somewhat overwhelming between learning the newbie stuff..plus the new stuff along with everybody else. Some references that chefs who have been doing this for a long time mean absolutely nothing to me, as well as lacking some of the basic understanding of experimentation ranges before as opposed to post-patch.

I've been managing however, but it seems like each time I peel back a layer I find another discouraging layer underneath. By nature, I very much dislike being dependant on other people. I also help to run an already-established shop that has a reputation for dealing in bulk and always being stocked. This reputation is important to me and becomes exceedingly difficult to maintain the more dependant you become on outside sources.Additives are killing me right now. BE is the one thing that I cant handle internally so therefore am forced to seek outside sources. The amount of meat required is insane in a bulk environment...yet it seems like food just isn't worth buying without them. I'm not at all worried about the cost of acquiring meat or passing the cost of it on to customers..the worry is simply supply. Does that much meat even EXIST..let alone that much good quality meat. With a short supply of course prices go up on the existing supply on top of our competition with the doctors and eventually push to the point where cost becomes the new reason that they cant be used.

These buffs just arent worth this effort or cost. Spice takes a large supply of resources..but the resource quality doesnt matter and the resource categories are broad. Spice is frankly incredibly easy and that is how buffs should be. These are consumables and, given the current economy, neccessities...not luxuries. Things should be easier. Leave things how they are now and simply improve the buffs and add the new variety as well as making the changes to milk. Not even doctors or weaponsmiths or armorsmiths are completely dependant on not one..but two other professions for components on their products...and their products/markups might actually be worth that sort of effort. Chefs just arent.

I dont know what I'm going to do..I'm waiting to see how things end and go from there.

Phredrick GhostHunter