Meatballs shouldn't be a staple

[Lumine04]

Another post cause my brain is a touch frizzy right now. In my opinion, well more like I got reminded while reading, meatballs always bugged me. Now I do not think they should give less hunger or take away health or anything like that, but rather they have too many ways to make it.

This became more apparent after bunny stew was added, allowing a use for ice beyond meatballs by including a dish that heated the player up while providing okay hunger. The only issue is that it requires 0.5 meat value to make the stew, which should be increased to 1 meat value + ice. Eliminating the nostalgic ice-balls traditional creation method. 

Finally, despite my former disclaimer, I do believe meatballs should only give hunger. Not the little health and sanity it provides. But what do you think, is the problem something else regarding meatballs or is their a problem at all?

[Dextops]

The problem is meatballs are really eh, and i think that's fine. They're good for noobs but once you get better you are able to make stable farms and get better food sources.

[Lumine04]

1 minute ago, Dextops said:

The problem is meatballs are really eh, and i think that's fine. They're good for noobs but once you get better you are able to make stable farms and get better food sources.

Your absolutely right, its just sometimes the immediate "Im starving and meatballs is the best choice" never sat right with me. But its just a personal grip, just wanted to hear another opinion.

[00petar00]

Meatballs are fine, players need to be encouraged to gather meat because you usually fight creatures for it.

5 minutes ago, Lumine04 said:

"Im starving and meatballs is the best choice" never sat right with me

I don't see why players would need to think too much about what to cook, majority just cook the same few food recipes as the crockpot system is not that interesting for anyone except Warly, its just about managing your stats.

[SapoLover]

I don't like meatballs. I think the recipe exists to avoid too many goop recipes, like ratatouille, but meatballs are very much more better.  But I think it's necessary for beginners to not starve in winter.

[Baark0]

I agree, could you imagine swallowing one of these?

[SecretPizzaMan]

3 hours ago, Lumine04 said:

Finally, despite my former disclaimer, I do believe meatballs should only give hunger. Not the little health and sanity it provides. But what do you think, is the problem something else regarding meatballs or is their a problem at all?

The 5 health and sanity always comes in clutch when I'm fighting deerclops, literally best healing in the game, Klei pls no nerf.

Spoiler

I'm someone who overuses meatballs because I'm just too lazy to feed the bird some eggs and make bacon and eggs instead.

 

[Notecja]

I dislike meatballs, but at same time there are characters that dont care about health/sanity from food, and eat only to refil hunger, and there are characters probably forced to concentrate more on sanity and healing food and/or diversity. So for certain playstyles meatballs will be more way to go than any advances recipes, as well opposite. 

[W0l0l0]

Meatballs is a staple in the same way mushlights are a staple: They solve a problem that is likely already solved by the time you get to it, and trivial usually even before then. I think it'll have much more utility in servers with lots of people, and I guess it goes pretty well with the tent.

[HumanBean150]

4 hours ago, W0l0l0 said:

Meatballs is a staple in the same way mushlights are a staple: They solve a problem that is likely already solved by the time you get to it, and trivial usually even before then. I think it'll have much more utility in servers with lots of people, and I guess it goes pretty well with the tent.

meatballs, the classic endgame food with a recipe locked behind a raid boss.

I only use meatballs in the endgame, when I finally have the abundance of resources I need, and can switch off of early game recipes like meaty stew.

 

Meatballs are such a widely used dish because they give the option for changing small amounts of food into something far more effective. 

They're only a staple recipe for the early game, when they give more use to the rather small amount of resources you have.

I don't think that meatballs should have a direct nerf, because the good efficiency of hunger allows for groups of people to feed themselves effectively without being slowed down too much by gathering food.

I do think that there should be incentives for having a varied diet in general; giving people who want to put effort into cooking a bonus without punishing people who want to do other things sounds like much more fun to me.

[Cheggf]

We should nerf wet goop because it has even more ways to make it than meatballs. 

[Bumber64]

We should be able to cook wet goop into dry goop.

[MostMerryTomcat]

It's ok, there will always be a "default meta" as lowest common denominator in anything. If not Meatballs, then the "next best thing" as low effort cooking goes, in this case. Because let's be real: almost all of us pick lowest effort payoff if achievable, in a consistent manner - more-so if living off of land. Yet for those who really want mandatory food variety / dietetic constraints, Warly exists (and is rock-bottom popular with player-base at large, alongside Wes and Wurt - so that's that for dish assortment).

[Wonz]

I don't think you can have this many dishes and balance them easily.
I'd imagine if there was some extended cooking system that takes more time yet yields unique benefits outside of HP/Sanity/Hunger which could be this time designed to encourage variety.  

The current cooking would stay but I would compare it to living off berries/kelp/stonefruits/cactus while new cooking would be comparable to farming. Both styles of cooking, simple and not extended still exist together yet one being quick one for people who don't like spending much time on such things and another who like stuff that has more depth to it and adequate reward.

Also new cooking or not a bunch of balance is needed. No way dish like fruit medley should be so bad. If it takes at least 3 pomegrenates which could heal me 60 to make 20hp dish which provides less of everything than ingredients while getting 1 value fruits isn't as easy as getting stuff for pierogi then there should be at least some value changes.

[PrincessProblem]

Or, and hear me out, we let people enjoy the game. 

If you don't like meatballs, don't make them. Let people eat them if they like them. And by "let" I add "without complaing about it".

[EighteenXVIII]

Meatballs actually aren't that good as far as the extra hunger they provide, with the exception of the monster meat + ice recipe. Butter muffins and froggle bunwiches, when made as cheap as possible, are actually much better value compared to the common 1 meat + 3 berries/mushrooms recipe. And meaty stew is even better, it more than doubles the hunger value of its ingredients.

Meatballs are mostly just a very useful way of condensing food into a single stack early game. The ice recipe is also one of the things keeping newbies alive in winter. There's no mushrooms, no berries, no honey. Hunting gets challenging due to the cold. The recipe fills an important niche in that sense. Of course being the pro that I am I'll have three stacks of honey by the time winter comes, but the average player isn't that efficient, and I certainly remember meatballs being a core part of my strategy when I was stil a newbie myself.

[GelatinousCube]

Once you have honey set up properly or a birdcage with a good source of morsels or whatever meat (monster meat, small fish, frog legs you name it) theres really no reason to cook meatballs ever again as Honey Ham/Nuggets or Bacon and Eggs are vastly superior. Hell I'd cook up a bunch of pierogi over meatballs even, they'll last MUCH longer and will restore health as well as hunger and the same tiny amount of sanity. 

I feel like Food spoilage rate doesn't factor into discussions about best recipes etc anywhere near as much as it should. I know that bundling wrap/gift wrap exists and I do plenty of food bundling don't you worry but I still always factor spoilage rate as one of my main concerns into anything I cook. I generally keep most food bundled except for a half stack of whatever I'm currently eating and I keep that stack either in Ice Chester or on my person - the longer this food lasts and stays fresh the better.

I really wish Wig's favourite food wasn't Turkey Dinner because I ain't cooking that unless I'm going to eat it more or less right away, it spoils so quickly. 

I think meatballs are totally fine as they are and they are certainly only a staple of the lazy or newer players, there are far better options once you are set up. Hell even cooked veggies will outperform meatballs a lot of the time. So long as you aren't Wigfrid or Warly chugging raw honey is easier and more beneficial if you can pull it off (not at all hard to setup and only a concern in winter). 

EDIT: that all being said I wouldn't mind if a few of the ways Meatballs are made instead made other new dishes but this is purely for varietys sake. I love the meal sprites and having different dishes available to eat at all times for some variety is always fun. The more meals the better honestly. I think Rabbit Stew was a huge move in the right direction and would like to see other similar dishes in the future.