Chef Archive

Well, it looks like food doesn't have any bugs, so now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself. For most of my products, I've been neglecting the quantity experimentation for the past couple of months. With the stuck stack bug, I figured that fewer doses would make it easier to get through the stack in a single gaming session. Then with the buff stacking bug, if someone can only have one on at a time, they'd probably want as high a buff size and duration as they could.

Well, now that neither of those are a consideration, I need to rethink my experimentation balance. I've picked up some fencing skills (no, didn't get a holocron, it just sounds like fun), so I've been getting some experience on the user's side of food buffs, at least for PvE. A duration of more than 5-6 minutes is probably overkill for something actually used during combat, and a stack of 4-6 doses (the quantity I aimed for on most lower-level foods) gets burned through pretty quickly. For recovery foods (buffs to regen secondaries like Veghash, Vegeparsine) you may get more bang for your buck with a higher duration, since the HAM addition gets done more times.

So what kind of spread across the experimentation categories do you all spend your points on? I realize that this is probably different for different foods, like for anything that has an initial Flavor and Texture under 10%, you really can't get more than 1-2% increase per point spent. But what kind of stats do you aim for in order to call a schematic a keeper?

Mr order is this...

Buff Quality

Buff Quantity

Buff Duration

I find that the ratio of difference in the duration due to experimentation appears to be the one least affected for most foods I make. I always aim for even numbers when experimenting onbuff stats (510 being better than 499. I will drop another point to try break that 499 over the 500 mark).

I calculate my prices based on resources used, so naturally my items are more attractive in larger stacks vs. duration to my regular customers.

Whenever I create a food with bio-suppliments involved, I will always neglect the duration, as it has been adjusted naturally by 17% or more already by the suppliment.

I recently made crates of Fishak with +523 mind. The duration may be less than the onesI made previously with 450 mind, but that 523 number will generate the sells.

duration
duration
duration
(Tats)

Smaller stuff:
Quality
Quality
Duration

I spend them based on the food. For some foods you could pump all 10 points into duration and it would get you no where. Others there is no point to put it into quanitity because they already come out very high.

I always try to find a range for the buff that I am happy with ie I like to have my Ryshcates at +395 or so. Once I reach that I experiment on duration a bit and then stack size. If you are searching out very high OQ resources you will generally (at least on the higher tier recipes) have a decent stack size already. TBH what many customers look at is how big the buff is, then how long it lasts, then if they are savvy they look for the quantity of the stack in my experience. But Buff size is king in sales.

Yep...the bigger the boost, the more cash they'll throw your way...

I almost never experiment quantity. Usually I experiment buff size till I get that point of diminishing return, then I pump points into duration. If it's one of those foods where experimenting duration doesn't do squat, I'll max out the buff size then go to quantity. Or if the stack size is pitifully low, I might throw a point into quantity.

The exception is Tat Sunburns, where the buff size is already very high. I sell 2 versions of these - regular, with all points into quantity (9 per stack); and "extra strength" where buff size and duration are experimented instead. These have only 4 to a stack, but end up with nearly 300 more str/quick, a lower focus hit, and over a minute longer duration. The two types both sell well, though the "extra strength" is more popular.

It's been my experience that most people who buy food are higher level fighting types with no shortage of mission cash to throw around, and they are more interested in getting a large buff or being able to eat more than one serving than they are in getting more servings for their money.

Hehe, yeah Olanthe, I've been doing that "extra strength" on my sunburns too. I call them my Sith Sunburns: +1824 str and stam, -83 focus for 430s. I just hope some more 970+ OQ reactive spawns on Chilastra before my current reserve runs out. Or that they fix the fact that experimentation on Starshines has no effect on the sunburn.

Thanks all for your suggestions. Now I just have to grind up to Ad III so I can get some sales other than the bazaar.

Effectiveness is always first for me. I usually put 4-8 points into whatever I make into effectiveness. Typically the rest go into quantity. The only time I push duration is when it means I can add one more minute to the duration in the title.

For my sunburns, I max out the quantity, then duration.

For everything else, I max quality, then duration. However, if a customer wants it a certain way, I'll bend a batch here and there to whatever their priorities are.