Cookbook Should be Scienceless Again

[SinancoTheBest]

I know the Cookbook changes have been giving Klei the most headache throughout this beta cycle but I don't think it needed to be reverted all the way to square one. With the latest beta update, cookbook is reverted back to its state in the main branch, requiring a papyrus, carrot, science and becomes untouched by this QoL. Overall, I think it was a very helpful and beneficial move to make it a scienceless craft. I know I was a very vocal disliker of the new crafting recipe but that was because it was a very nonesensical crafting recipe; a toasted seed/cooked carrot, cooked red cap and cooked morsel can not result in a pictured journal of made dishes. It shouldn't be an all or nothing change where it's either scienceless but nonesensical or having a reasonable crafting recipe but requiring science.

The main benefit of the scienceless change went much beyond cookbook itself- it made the cook tab and all its tier 1 science crafts visible to all people. That is such a good change for all players in my opinion.

• Beginner players get to see the food production stations like Crock pot and Garden Digamajig and are given a very tiny nudge in regards to how to survive in the harsh environment. It is a huge help considering how so many first time players struggle to find out what to craft or how to go for in this harsh tutorialless environment.
• Seasoned players do know how to utilize each of the food tab recipes but they shouldn't be forced to memorize all the basic crafting recipes there. A scienceless cookbook allows players to check the crafts in this tab anytime and anywhere, seeing exactly how much materials are needed for structures like Crock pot and garden digamajig to bee boxes, mushroom planters and drying racks, planning their course accordingly.
• Expert players also get to give precise directions and commands to their fellow players thanks to having the recipes accessible at all times, using char or preferably the status anouncements like "we need more crock pots". It is a good change for those in leadership positions in any server.
• Finally aesthetics- it looks better from the get-go and helpful to have Food as one of the initial tabs you have on your screen, as that way there isn't an ugly emptiness between survival and science tabs. It looks full between the tool and fighting tabs, as a nice complete block and as a reminder that food takes priority as a craftable to aspire for.

Overall I know it's not that important of a deal at all but I do think it was the one positive change the devs did to the cookbook in this update to make it scienceless- I believed the overall intention was to help everyone, especially newer players to by making the food tab visible from start. This can very well done without a very wonky cookbook recipe. Why not go with a logical recipe that still gives makes a pun with the "cooked book" like:

4 Reeds + 1 Charcoal + 1 Cooked Red Cap

Thus my proposal is to make cookbook a scienceless craft again, now with a logical crafting recipe rather than a crafting recipe that looks like it came out of a random ingredient generator.

[Frashaw27]

You make some compelling arguments, but I feel you're still forgetting one small fact: The cookbook is still useless as it still needs the crockpot to work, a item locked behind the craft. Regardless of anything like aesthetics or player memory, I don't think an item should be available it it is functionally useless to the player without a craft of a higher tier.

[Well-met]

or just make the cookbook part of the UI, like the map.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2616799130

[Mx-Pain]

Just don't ...

[Pe Dabliu]

I think this item should just be removed and be reworked as a widget, like the mod, but maybe with the widget only being available when near a crockpot, kinda like it works with science machines. The cookbook being an item is as annoying to deal with as it is to access the plant registry by having to wear the hat. It's still easier to just go to the wiki rather than craft an item and have to pick it up and open it all the time to check eventual things.

[Mike23Ua]

24 minutes ago, PeiperPires said:

I think this item should just be removed and be reworked as a widget, like the mod, but maybe with the widget only being available when near a crockpot, kinda like it works with science machines. The cookbook being an item is as annoying to deal with as it is to access the plant registry by having to wear the hat. It's still easier to just go to the wiki rather than craft an item and have to pick it up and open it all the time to check eventual things.

Yeah about that: It’s not supposed to be like the Wiki giving you step by step guides, it’s done that way so you only know what you yourself have learned (without cheating and looking it all up online.)

you can compare it to playing a game with a ton of cleverly hidden little secret rooms- you can actually play the game and find those yourself, OR you can spoil it all by looking it up online.

So I would very much prefer it to remain needing to be crafted/learned first.

I mean- to tell the absolute truth: If a New player to the game can’t figure out how to craft a Cookbook when THE ENTIRE GAME revolves around using crafting tabs, crafting structures, or character specific crafting tabs- Then that newer player is probably NEVER going to catch on anyway.

I hate to sound mean here but Klei shouldn’t have to make everything about the game easy and Newbie friendly- You still very much need to learn how to build an Alchemy Engine to learn how to craft a Thermal Stone & good body armor- and you STILL need to craft a science machine to learn Top Hats, Winter Hats or how to build a Crockpot, Anyone who doesn’t figure that much out Will die many deaths until they do.

the ENTIRE GAME is structured this way, you need to build a structure to unlock the seafaring tab, you need to find structures that are pre-built into the world and stand beside them to unlock the celestial tab, forgotten knowledge tab, and that ancient P word tab I’m not even going to dare try to spell..

Making ANYTHING easily accessible- just means they’re going to be lost when they haven’t figured out the entire game is about using a crafting tab or crafting station.

[Juny Pear]

Your point of the food tab being visible to players regardless of science is a good one, but for that we could probably put something else related to food within that same tab. Either that, or if certain tabs were changed to be shown at all times, just greyed out if no crafts are currently available, you could still view the tab at any time without needing to have an item within the tab require no prototyper.

Showing all unavailable tabs would of course be too much, but certain ones like the food tab are essential enough in my eyes to warrant something along those lines.

[Cheggf]

If the cook book is removed and replaced with a widget that only pops up near a crock pot then how are people supposed to do the "hmmm" animation? Would be a game breaking change.

[Milordo]

18 hours ago, PeiperPires said:

I think this item should just be removed and be reworked as a widget, like the mod, but maybe with the widget only being available when near a crockpot, kinda like it works with science machines. The cookbook being an item is as annoying to deal with as it is to access the plant registry by having to wear the hat. It's still easier to just go to the wiki rather than craft an item and have to pick it up and open it all the time to check eventual things.

No, it's much better this way. I want to play Don't Starve, not Don't Wiki. This problem afflicted the game for too much time. The philosophy of not telling you anything doesn't and didn't work since start. Everyone, especially newcomers always always look for wiki or pick stupid mods that transform the experience into somethign strange, derailing from what really Don't Starve is. You can't understand how much the cookbook changed the game, it's a miracle. Klei should decide to start to give hints to the player, so they can figure out by themselves, not reading a long obscure process and anti-intuitive as reaching the first final boss of the game.

[luvu2bits]

The Klei devs realizing they have to change the cookbook recipe for the 78th time this week

[ArubaroBeefalo]

as always, what isnt broken shouldnt be fixed

was ok with the old recipe and way to work, no need of widgets for lazy players, weird recipes to make it easier(?), neither changing the tier like if people who play dst were handicaped

[Well-met]

5 hours ago, Cheggf said:

If the cook book is removed and replaced with a widget that only pops up near a crock pot then how are people supposed to do the "hmmm" animation? Would be a game breaking change.

what stops klei from making it so clicking the widget starts the player animation tho?

[Pe Dabliu]

12 hours ago, Milordo said:

No, it's much better this way. I want to play Don't Starve, not Don't Wiki. This problem afflicted the game for too much time. The philosophy of not telling you anything doesn't and didn't work since start. Everyone, especially newcomers always always look for wiki or pick stupid mods that transform the experience into somethign strange, derailing from what really Don't Starve is. You can't understand how much the cookbook changed the game, it's a miracle. Klei should decide to start to give hints to the player, so they can figure out by themselves, not reading a long obscure process and anti-intuitive as reaching the first final boss of the game.

I agree with you. I don't hate the cookbook, i do like it. What i don't like is it's current state and how it works. I don't think it being an item is good or convenient, maybe I'm too lazy, but I'd rather if it was a part of the UI, like the mod does, but still having the discovery element that makes it so great. So in the end I'm just annoyed with the fact the it's a literal item, not that it exists. 

[HowlVoid]

The cookbook being scienceless not making sense because the crockpot isn't, isn't actually a problem.

There are people who have never crafted a crockpot because they always use someone elses base. I have met this people, playing solo is a foreign concept to them and they also don't like hosting. The past recipe allowed people fresh from spawn grab a cookbook and ask experienced players tips to fill it. A new player could also just collect food as they head to base and try a whole bunch of stuff in the crockpots provided. The brief time I played in public servers there was almost always crockpots around and given that pubs don't last long, hell, just destroy the ecosystem and try a whole bunch of stuff. Chances are, people will leave food around just before they leave.

You could even host a cooking lesson in a server and teach new players (maybe your friends) the most efficient set of ingredients for recipes.  

The only problem was that the recipe made no sense. All they had to do was have it require grass and logs if they really wanted players to make it as close to spawn as possible.