Chef Archive

Hullo,

I'll start out with a cavaet: I am not a Chef. I'm a Doctor. I've been thinking of possibly taking Chef as a secondary Profession (probably not though, cause it'd just be way too much crafting to do both hehe). Anyhow, I was reading through the post from the Devs responding to the Chef Top 5 Issues list. One of the items addressed was food buff durations.

From what I've heard from other players, and from your issue list, it DOES sound like food buff durations are too short. However, just as something for you chefs to consider: you probably really don't want buffs to last any longer than they NEED to to be effective.

How long is long enough? And why wouldn't it be beneficial for chefs for them to last a long time? First question first: "Long enough" should probably be defined in terms of two things: cost/benefit, and 'digestion speed'. That is, the food has to last long enough that the average player feels it's worth using, when compared to how much it costs. Perhaps moving it from 5 minutes to about 15 minutes might do the trick. Secondly, it has to last long enough that the player doesn't have a huge wait before they can eat again.

As for why you might not want the buffs to last too long: Simple, the longer the food buffs last, the less often people need to consume food/drink. Which means fewers sales of food items for you guys.

One last consideration: Doc Buffs vs Chef Buffs (or why Doc Buffs really do need to last long times, like 1 hour+). I think it is good that Doc Buffs last as long as they do, simply because Doc buffing isn't easily done in the field. For one thing, a lot of groups won't have a Doc with them to rebuff them constantly, and only Docs can apply Doc Buffs. 2) Doc buffs are best in a medical center - if a Doc tries to use their buffs outside a medical center, they suffer penalties to their buffs. If Doc Buffs wore off after 10 minutes, because of this reason, they would be of much lesserdesirability for most players.3)Anyone, on the other hand,can eat/drink. So they can buy a bunch of food/drink from a Chef, ahead of time, and eat/drink in the field as they need it.

Duration problem wouldn'teven be so bad if the buffs lasted for 5 minutes. Most foods don't even last 5 minutes. More in the3-4 minute range.

I think the optimum duration would be in the 15-30 minute range (depending on effectiveness - - shorter duration for larger effect).

/agreed

15 to 30

(probably not though, cause it'd just be way too much crafting to do both hehe)

Yes it is!

As a doctor and chef, I agree that doctor buffs are overall pretty well figured out and should not be changed too much. However, I do think chef buffs should lastmuch much longer, and would sell much better if they did. I mean more than 5 minutes (though many of our buffs are just one minute), more like an hour. The reason being people have a limited inventory space and cannot carry enough food to stay continually buffed, so they tend to just not use food at all. I'd be perfectly happy with buffs that were not nearly as strong as doctors (i.e. 500 vs. 1500) but lasted at least as long. For short, strong buffs in high pressure situations, go with spice.