[PROPOSAL] Improving the Kitchen & Cooking System

[Dionis404]

🧑‍🍳 Improving the Kitchen & Cooking System
I’ve written about this topic before, but recent discussions have reignited my interest in sharing a more refined proposal.

1. Kitchen Visuals and Utility
   The current kitchen setup, with many scattered food-preparing buildings, doesn’t feel as polished or immersive as other buildings like the Barn or Heifer, which allow the player to enter them. It would be great to:

Introduce a single upgradable Kitchen building with multiple levels and an "enter" function.

Allow players to customize the interior of their kitchen, showcasing designs to friends and community members.

This would not only enhance the visual consistency of the game but also bring more creative and social engagement.

2. Cooking System and Recipe Progression
   Currently, a large portion of available recipes are barely used, as players mostly focus on high-value dishes based on milk and cheese. While these are great for fast progression, most other food options feel irrelevant, which is a missed opportunity for gameplay diversity.

🔄 Tiered Cooking System:
Introduce cooking levels and tiers with clear experience formulas. For example:

Dough: +1000 XP (not edible, but required for pizza)

Cheese: +2000 XP (not edible, but required for pizza)

Tomato: +500 XP (not edible, but required for pizza)
 ➡️ A pizza made with these ingredients would give 3500 XP.

🔧 Ingredient Substitution:
Allow players to swap ingredients (e.g., wheat dough → barley dough) to adjust the final XP.

🧰 Equipment-Based Recipes:
Introduce tools like Mixers, which are required to make base items (e.g., dough). This adds depth and progression to cooking.

3. Feeding Friends – Social Cooking Feature
   As part of Village Projects, add a feature to organize Community Meals (holiday dinners, party nights, etc.):

Players collaborate to set up a shared table, prepare dishes, and dine together.

Bonus XP is awarded for shared meals.

Could encourage stream events or group activities, especially for players who invite others to join the game.

This would encourage teamwork, deepen the community experience, and introduce new use-cases for cooked food.

✅ Summary
These ideas aim to:

Enhance the aesthetic and immersive feel of the kitchen.

Give meaningful purpose to underused recipes and ingredients.

Introduce a layered progression system in cooking.

Strengthen social interaction and cooperative gameplay.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and collaborate further if this aligns with the roadmap!

[heatedlime]

Seems too complicated for something that doesn’t need to be.

[nhk882]

I agree, this is too complicated.
Just upgrading the option where we can do all our cooking and it will save some space but the rest are impractical.
Keeping it simple is the best.

[Dionis404]

The difficulty is that the recipes will require different ingredients?
At this time in the game, recipes with cheese work the same way.
You make cheese in one place and then pizza in another place.

[Thebyber]

This proposal may seem complex, but I think it's a good idea... it's a matter of adapting dishes and giving more meaning to cooking.

[Dionis404]

This proposal may seem complex, but I think it's a good idea... it's a matter of adapting dishes and giving more meaning to cooking.

I'm thinking about how to avoid the complexity of recipe perception and cooking.
It takes a lot of work, but cooking clearly needs a change

[andrewbell73]

Hi, this is a really solid proposal, especially the tiered cooking system and ingredient substitution ideas. The social cooking feature for community meals would be a great addition too, and I love the concept of an upgradable kitchen with an enter function for better immersion. It would definitely give more purpose to underused recipes and make the cooking system far more engaging.

On a related note, if the game ever introduces equipment-based recipes like mixers or ovens that require maintenance or repair mechanics, I've been impressed with what Kitchen Equipment Repair offers through their website. Hope the devs seriously consider your suggestions. Thanks!