Be able to move while cooking

[Trandor]

I would love to be able to do stuff while waiting for my water to boil or my meat to coook.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that time speeds up and you continue once said task is finished, but i'd much rather be able to harvest or repair stuff in the inventory in the meanwhile, because usually, by the time I ate, drank and repaired, it's time to go to sleep and then start eating and drinking all over again. :mrgreen:

[robdoar]

The moving while melting snow does not make since, as you would be out collecting snow.

Boiling and cooking food, I could see that. Perhaps an option to eaither fast forward, or let it cook, while you move around.

[Trandor]

Well, but you wouldn't stoke a fire then go outside and grab some snow. wouldn't you gather the snow, take it with you inside and then start your fire?

But that fast forward or letting it cook option does sound excellent.

[Bill Tarling]

Well, but you wouldn't stoke a fire then go outside and grab some snow. wouldn't you gather the snow, take it with you inside and then start your fire?

But that fast forward or letting it cook option does sound excellent.

You would need to have a lot of containers and tubs to just bring in all the snow first. Need to remember that one reason melting the snow uses up so much fire time is because it takes huge amounts of snow just to get small supplies of water [i made that same mistake at first too], so you're constantly gathering more as it melts down.

Good Experiment for players to try this winter (at least for those who get snow) -- fill a pot with snow, and melt it and boil just that batch... You'll see there's not much water left by the time you bring it to a full boil.

[Trandor]

That is a valid point indeed. Also, when gathering, stay away from yellow snow.

[Sioux]

I would like to be able to melt/cook etc.; and do other things at the same time too.

I would never stay and watch that snow melt for hours and hours IRL, I would fill my time with other usefull stuff to do.

I know it takes a lot of snow to melt IRL, but for gameplay's sake we could ignore that fact. Just let it melt by it self and let me do other stuff.

I would also like an option to let it melt in real time. The cooking/melting etc. always speeds up gametime. I would like to be able to switch to real time; sometimes I'd like to use the time by my fire just to think about my situation and what I should do next. But atm time flies by when cooking, I know it's often convenient; but I would like an option to switch to real (game) time.

[Bill Tarling]

I would never stay and watch that snow melt for hours and hours IRL, I would fill my time with other usefull stuff to do. I know it takes a lot of snow to melt IRL, but for gameplay's sake we could ignore that fact. Just let it melt by it self and let me do other stuff.

They could have dropped it to real time and let you go back and forth carrying handfuls of snow, melting it, collecting more snow, adding it, melting it... If you want real time to "fill my time with other useful stuff to do" then you likely won't have much water at the end, but you'll be collecting the snow for a good hour or more of real time.

I repeat:

Good Experiment for players to try this winter (at least for those who get snow) -- fill a pot with snow, and melt it and boil just that batch... You'll see there's not much water left by the time you bring it to a full boil.

The snow melting time in the game is based on real calculations, and modified slightly in the players' favor so it doesn't quite take as much time and calories as actual time would.

It's not the most exciting tasks, but it is within reasonable accuracy... and it's also a very mundane task even though it's critical. That's why I'm thankful there is a fast forward time shift, otherwise you wouldn't have time to do anything but collect the snow for hours back and forth in real time.

It may not be a fun part to consider, but it is a necessary component to consider for time and resource management when surviving.

[Sioux]

No, I would like to ignore the 'carrying hands full of snow' bit and just focus on the melting bit. Just pretent that there is enough snow on the fire. And I'd like to have the option to do it in real time, because I like it a lot, when I finally get a fire going, to relax and think about my situation and plan my next move. Now time just flashes by when doing cooking/melting; no time to enjoy the fire and the cooking. Hope you'll understand what I mean, sorry if its not clear.

[robdoar]

Snow will not magically appear in the pot. There's no realistic way to mimic melting without locking the character.

However, like I said, for boiling and cooking meat, I wouldn't mind having the option to place and walk away, or fast forward.

In the scheme of things, there's bigger fish to fry, but a good one on the "Nice to have" list.

[accurize2]

How about we forget about the melting/boiling part since there is a bit of contention on how it could be implemented. Instead, we could focus on the doing other things things while cooking. I like this idea. It adds responsibility to the player. Leave it too long on a burning stove or fire and you burn/ruin your meat. Pull it off too early and you have a chance of getting food poisoning.

Good idea from the OP!

[robdoar]

I like this idea. It adds responsibility to the player. Leave it too long on a burning stove or fire and you burn/ruin your meat. Pull it off too early and you have a chance of getting food poisoning.

Get out of my head.

[Jedra]

Agreed on this one!

[levism84]

Another option would be to reduce the time for certain activities to account for the fact the player cannot multitask. This would "free up" more time for doing other things.

Alternatively, a system such as the one implemented in Mine Craft for "cooking" and other activities requires a bar to fill until completed. It doesn't seem unreasonable for there to be an extension to the bar for "leaving it on the fire" which would result in the item being ruined if it is left on the stove too long. The only downside to this system is it assumes a 100% success rate, while activities such as cooking should have some margin for failure.