Chef Archive
Thread: How did you get going?
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sfubar
Wed Jan 19, 2005 3:56 pm
#1
Having mastered chef a few weeks back I decided to take a little rest and get some ideas put together to start out with.
So naturaly I have come to the chef boards to ask the "old pro's" how they started out, and what they did to get attention.
Things like what items to start stocking on my vendors 1st, and any incentives you may have done (like spend 500k and get 50k food free)
When I was an armoursmith I learned a lot about the crafting side to the game, IE best places for vendors etc, But as a new chef, knowing what items prove to be the most popular and which dont need to be re-stocked as often would really help. Thankyou.
Lerning
Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:13 pm
#2
Vasarian Brandy, Ahrisa, Canape, Synthsteak, Veghash and Snow Cake were my starting items and I continue to do well with those items. Bivoli is my number one seller and extremely hard to keep up with demand.
sciguyCO
Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:17 pm
#3
Mind buffs are always a safe item to stock. Brandy takes #1, with Ahrisa and Vagnerian Canape fighting out for #2. I think Canape is more popular for PvP (where the low duration isn't as big a factor but the +willpower is) and Ahrisa for Rifle/Swordsman/Medic/CM players who PvE. Vercupti is also very popular, especially if you can find insect/oil/tubers with high DR/OQ to hit 50 fill.
Other popular items are synthsteak (damage reduction), Pikatta Pie (decreases the amount of attacks that hit you), and Citros Snow Cake (increases accuracy). Veghash is popular with scouts/rangers (increases creature harvesting). Havla (gotta be above 100 heal recovery) and Bivoli (+25 is desired, although +24 does sell) get eaten up by doctors.
Then there's the occasional oddball request. I had one guy ask for as much Ormachek (4% xp gain bonus) as I could give him, he was grinding Pilot xp. Another was looking for Vegeparsine for melee defense.
Restocking is a little tricky. Foods like Brandy have a long duration and high stack size, so a customer can go for a long time before they need to buy more. A crate of 18 use brandy gives a player around 170 hours of buff time (more if they don't double-dose). I doubt even the hardest of hard-core players would need more than a crate per month. Other foodslike Vercupti or BIvoli can have a crate get used up in 4-5 play sessions.
Know your menu (check the two food charts in the "Read this" stick), and (most important) get a good relationship with a BE tissue supplier (or two....or three....or four....). Non-BE foods just don't seem to sell, whatever pricing/advertising model I've tried. I've got some crates of non-enhanced foods that have been sitting on my vendor since the revamp almost 12 months ago.
Higginsis
Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:37 pm
#4
I started in my old guilds city. We were one of the bigger cities on tat. At first i didn't advertise outside of the guild. I learned the prof, getting to grips with all the components, building up my resources, and collecting tapes as they came till i got +2.
At this point i got a offer from 2 other chefs to join them in business. After alot of consideration i accepted. With the extra support of another 2 chefs we could suddenly make alot of food very quickly. We pooled our resources, lots and money to build up the business. From there we've continued to have one of the most stocked food vendor on the server (though about 2 months ago my partners left the game leaving just me, but by then i could more than handle to work load).
Since then my shop has became maybe the biggest chef shop on FarStar, its hard work, but its satisfying.
Its taken me about 10 months to get from a little guild chef to one of the main food suppliers on my server, but anyone can do it with luck and help
Wish you the best in your business.
At this point i got a offer from 2 other chefs to join them in business. After alot of consideration i accepted. With the extra support of another 2 chefs we could suddenly make alot of food very quickly. We pooled our resources, lots and money to build up the business. From there we've continued to have one of the most stocked food vendor on the server (though about 2 months ago my partners left the game leaving just me, but by then i could more than handle to work load).
Since then my shop has became maybe the biggest chef shop on FarStar, its hard work, but its satisfying.
Its taken me about 10 months to get from a little guild chef to one of the main food suppliers on my server, but anyone can do it with luck and help
Wish you the best in your business.
Message Edited by Higginsis on 01-20-2005 12:03 AM
KappaStang
Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:10 pm
#5
I started with fishak...
But honestly, best thing you can do is sell small time at first. Maybe cater to a newer audience. Save up your money as best you can till you can get 12 points. Also, make some of the rarer or harder to find on the server. Ask around. Just because you're a chef does not mean you can only make brandy and canape. Make some veghash for the rangers/scouts.
Good luck.
fish_chef
Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:22 pm
#6
All of these are very good suggestions, one thing I think works well is old fashion customer service. I try to send a personal email (not a mass produced email) to each new customer I get no matter what they buy, I thank them for their order and tell them that I would like to win their future business and to let me know if there is naything else they need. I listen to every customer I have, and put their names in my note pad with everything they have bought so if they send me a tell I can quickly access their information and speak to them on a more personal basis.
It's a little time consuming but I have won over a lot of loyal customers with this technique.
It's a little time consuming but I have won over a lot of loyal customers with this technique.
Eerif
Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:49 pm
#7
I started by explaining to random strangers how fishak and glazed glucose pate helped in conjunction to offer players the ultimate buff, I then showed them an example by fully buffing myself and taking them down with no combat skills (back then nobody buffed, it was easy to just be a tank and let them kill themselves, delivering the final tick on the mind with your cdef). I then handed a free sample and a wp to my shop 
Course back then up until about October-November my med vendor was my top priority, food was always a secondary vendor, until I started making more off it as word spread about the chef profession. Then the two weeks where food would incap you hit and my sales died completely, but I could always sell pet food!
Basically what it boils down to, in order to get real attention you either need to have a charming personality and customer courtisy, have the cheapest prices on the server, have the best quality on the server or spam alot (not recommended).
Cheers!
fish_chef
Wed Jan 19, 2005 11:30 pm
#8
agree with the above post. Also try to align yourself with a great chef on your server, some maybe more receptive to this than others it re3ally depends on the self image and security of the person playing I did that an learned so much more in a few days than several months figuring stuff out on my own as a chef, plus it's fun to run stuff by each other instead of always trying kill the competition, nothing makes happier than talking chef with a like minded gamer. Also they maybe willing to help you by sharing harvesters, factories, lots. The more chef's working together the better IMO.
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