/tg/Station 13

Haven't you ever had a desire to eat something very specific? Instead of just fried food or "insert food catagory that your species likes".

Well, the idea is that here, a non-intrusive neutral moodlet will appear mentioning that you feel like eating a specific food, for instance, A pizza that contains tomato sauce. You can eat the exact qualified pizza for a great mood buff, or you can eat just any pizza for a decent mood buff, or you can just eat tomato sauce for an okay mood buff or something.

Because at the moment, people are not rewarded at all for making high quality foods or making specific orders for people who request them. Kitchen, instead of being a diner, is literally "Throw all of your food so people eat it" which is very unrealistic and isn't very interactive. In addition, you could make it so species tend to crave their own special cuisine more often, encouraging chefs to learn the new lizard/moffic cuisines instead of just making incredibly easy to cook pizzas.

Perhaps, also, there could be a mood buff for eating a recently cooked/crafted food (like 2 minutes), to perhaps encourage stuff like reheating food or what not.

Of course, you can add quirks and stuff to interact with this sorta thing. Some poor random hardcore mode player is gonna end up with a trait that penalizes them for not satisfying their cravings, or something.

These are all good ideas. I am looking forward to their immediate implementation.

In particular, I really like the idea of adding some semblance of realism to food. That is, not just scarfing down what's on the chef's counter, but actually ordering food. And if, as you mentioned, each species would crave their own cuisine it would mean that the chef would be incentivized to cook a variety of foods and not just the basics. That would also mean they could either make a buffet of sorts or do custom orders, depending on how they feel at the time. The effect this change would have is that players are more engaged in the food they eat, and chefs are encouraged to diversify their cooking.

And if the implementation is a non-intrusive moodlet like you suggested then there are few downsides to those who don't want to satisfy their cravings. I suppose though that the moodlet buff has to be good enough that it's actually worth eating and making the food—both players and chefs need to benefit from it. From a balance perspective that means tweaking the buff so as not to be too powerful; however, it can't be so meaningless as to be casually ignored by all except the most ardent powergamers.

The chefs also need some way to extract wealth from customers for specialty foods. (I think they do now but I don't know for certain offhand) Perhaps meal tickets or something similar could be added, with a credit chip embedded in it, payable upon delivery of the food. Or, if the chef chooses to instead opt for a buffet-style offering, a counter that is unlockable after purchasing a voucher could be used to store—and maybe warm—food. Think your standard Chinese buffet but each item needs a credit card swiped on it before food can be taken.

All in all, I think these changes would be beneficial for everyone. And if care is taken they can also be balanced too.

Have ingredients readily available (i.e. ungimp the produce console) and people will be able to order specific foods.

Would sound great!

Sounds neat, gonna give it a go?

Additional idea: Food allergies. Inject an epi-pen to alleviate if triggered

continues to be neat, but also requires someone to implement

Reminiscent of the Vice system that has been used historically.

Fix the underlying problems with food availability first before penalising people with mood debuffs because the game rolled an ultra obscure and difficult to get ingredients for meal for their character to crave.

For example, let me order from a digital menu/UI with credits and have the ingredients dropped into the cook to put together.

Interdepartmental cooperation is all well and good provided it doesn’t hamstring departments, like it does the kitchen.

In actual fact the cook should be setting the menu and the prices and a UI should keep track of the orders for them (and create a sense of urgency, because people need to eat when they need to eat), and they should have the option of buying any ingredients they need whenever they want using the produce console, with the only limitation being the kitchen budget and an overarching goal of making the kitchen profitable.

Then you could have a craving system which incentivised people to order some of the cool-looking and obscure dishes we have instead of just basic and quickly prepared staples like burgers. Bonus points if the harder to prepare and less common dishes buffed your character (such as through beneficial reagents) in some way.

doubleposting in my forum, disgusting

Did I?