What exactly does the cooking skill do? Do they just fill up hoppers? btw.. seems like my guys spend an enormous amount of time hauling food to hoppers....
Yes, at the moment this skill does only that.
How many hoppers do you have? Maybe there are too many because the will fill up every one if it's not full. I'm going with 3 hoppers pretty well.
hmm... actually I started with 3 or 4... down I only use one.. maybe two in order to try to cut down on filling all of them...
I use two hoppers and have removed the cooking skill from all but two people (also my indoor farmers). When everyone had the skill they would waste so much time hauling potatoes. Would like to see something added where they only haul when they reach a certain level (maybe a slider bar).
So, cooking is not working yet?
I mean, butcher's table and Cook stove are doing nothing in the current release, right?
Quote from: VeTaL on March 11, 2014, 08:12:51 PM
So, cooking is not working yet?
I mean, butcher's table and Cook stove are doing nothing in the current release, right?
The Cooking skill is indeed used by colonists working at the butcher's table and the cookstove, and you can butcher corpses and cook meals.
Quote from: VeTaL on March 11, 2014, 08:12:51 PM
So, cooking is not working yet?
I mean, butcher's table and Cook stove are doing nothing in the current release, right?
Eh I made the same mistake. You have to create "bills" to have the butchers and stonecutters table as well as the cook stove do anything. If you create a bill watch the range option, only within that range will resources be used.
Generic topic, so I don't think I'm derailing things here...
Does the actual cooking act, never actually increase the cooking skill level? Butchering seems to do, but cooking does not.
Quote from: letharion on March 12, 2014, 05:26:47 AM
Generic topic, so I don't think I'm derailing things here...
Does the actual cooking act, never actually increase the cooking skill level? Butchering seems to do, but cooking does not.
There is a bug which is adressed that at high levels cooking decreases faster as it increases.
At low levels cooking does rise.
I have checked with colonists at cooking levels 6 and 7 (and I think also at level 3) while cooking simple/fine meals respectively, while they were cooking ~10 meals in a row. The cooking leveling progress (number, not just the visual bar) did not increase by a single digit.
Since butchering does not happen very frequently, even though I had only two designated cooks doing all the work, were never able to raise their skills to level 7 to produce fine meals, until a slave trader sold me someone with high enough skill to do so.
Quote from: Pirx Danford on March 12, 2014, 04:41:22 AM
Quote from: VeTaL on March 11, 2014, 08:12:51 PM
So, cooking is not working yet?
I mean, butcher's table and Cook stove are doing nothing in the current release, right?
Eh I made the same mistake. You have to create "bills" to have the butchers and stonecutters table as well as the cook stove do anything. If you create a bill watch the range option, only within that range will resources be used.
Can you provide a bit more info? I have cooking table and provide it with electricity, where can i create those "bills"?
Ah, i found "Bills" menu. It is hidden quite good :)
Should i do something else?
I set up several guys as cookers, set infinite amount of food, but still see "some colonists are idling"
Quote from: VeTaL on March 12, 2014, 02:36:40 PM
Should i do something else?
I set up several guys as cookers, set infinite amount of food, but still see "some colonists are idling"
Just means they don't have any jobs to do, either because they haven't been assigned a particular task, or can't be assigned a task (check in overview), or they've completed all of them.
Quote from: Monkfish on March 12, 2014, 03:26:42 PM
Quote from: VeTaL on March 12, 2014, 02:36:40 PM
Should i do something else?
I set up several guys as cookers, set infinite amount of food, but still see "some colonists are idling"
Just means they don't have any jobs to do, either because they haven't been assigned a particular task, or can't be assigned a task (check in overview), or they've completed all of them.
In this particular case i have 3 planters and 4 cookers due to Overview. I have a cooking table with infinite bills, electricity, tons of raw food, but 4 cookers are just idling.
Only one cook works at any table at any time - do you have 4 cooking tables?
Ahh, ok. What cooking skill level are your colonists? You need at least level 7 to make fine meals, but only level 3 to make simple meals. If you've billed infinite fine meals, they'll never be made if all of your colonists are below level 7. Check and bill simple meals if you haven't already, then your colonists will start cooking. Also, be sure to check the radius of the bills too. The default is 15 tiles so if there aren't enough resources within that radius then they also won't cook anything. I usually leave the radius at 15 and have a raw food stockpile nearby.
Also, be mindful if you set infinite cooking, if you don't watch what the colonists are doing you'll end up with all of your raw materials gone and a shitload of cooked meals scattered throughout your complex. ;D
Quote from: FowlJ on March 12, 2014, 04:38:38 PM
Only one cook works at any table at any time - do you have 4 cooking tables?
I have 1 table and it is always empty.
Quote from: Monkfish on March 12, 2014, 04:47:49 PM
Ahh, ok. What cooking skill level are your colonists? You need at least level 7 to make fine meals, but only level 3 to make simple meals. If you've billed infinite fine meals, they'll never be made if all of your colonists are below level 7. Check and bill simple meals if you haven't already, then your colonists will start cooking. Also, be sure to check the radius of the bills too. The default is 15 tiles so if there aren't enough resources within that radius then they also won't cook anything. I usually leave the radius at 15 and have a raw food stockpile nearby.
Also, be mindful if you set infinite cooking, if you don't watch what the colonists are doing you'll end up with all of your raw materials gone and a shitload of cooked meals scattered throughout your complex. ;D
Ah, that's the point, thanks. I did exactly as you described: i made infinite fine meals, but cooking levels are about 2-3. Thanks :)
Quote from: VeTaL on March 12, 2014, 04:25:13 PMIn this particular case i have 3 planters and 4 cookers due to Overview. I have a cooking table with infinite bills, electricity, tons of raw food, but 4 cookers are just idling.
I frequently have this as well, it's almost always because the bills has a search range that's low enough that noone finds any resources to use. In theory I guess a very high search range could have performance problems, but I haven't seen any problems with setting the range to 9999, aka "search everywhere".
In practice though, a lower range can be useful if you want to limit how much of a resource if consumed.
Quote from: letharion on March 13, 2014, 01:53:59 PM
Quote from: VeTaL on March 12, 2014, 04:25:13 PMIn this particular case i have 3 planters and 4 cookers due to Overview. I have a cooking table with infinite bills, electricity, tons of raw food, but 4 cookers are just idling.
I frequently have this as well, it's almost always because the bills has a search range that's low enough that noone finds any resources to use. In theory I guess a very high search range could have performance problems, but I haven't seen any problems with setting the range to 9999, aka "search everywhere".
In practice though, a lower range can be useful if you want to limit how much of a resource if consumed.
The low default range was a usability mistake on my part; it now defaults to 9999.
Quote from: letharion on March 13, 2014, 01:53:59 PM
In practice though, a lower range can be useful if you want to limit how much of a resource if consumed.
Wow, this seems like a really good idea.
I've been trying to find a way to set it to "Cook whenever the meal stock drops below x" since it'll spoil if I just keep cooking, yet it runs out so quick if I stop cooking. Maybe if I can manipulate the range and stockpiles in such a way I could do that.
Quote from: Semmy on March 12, 2014, 07:27:00 AMAt low levels cooking does rise.
Interesting, that is not the behavior I'm seeing. My cooking skills, even on the lowest ranges, never see any increase at all from cooking meals. Butchering yes, cooking no. I assumed this was a known bug. I'll verify it's not caused by a mod I have, open a new one in the appropriate thread.
Quote from: Sholf on March 14, 2014, 02:08:26 AMI've been trying to find a way to set it to "Cook whenever the meal stock drops below x" since it'll spoil if I just keep cooking, yet it runs out so quick if I stop cooking. Maybe if I can manipulate the range and stockpiles in such a way I could do that.
What I do is I keep a single stockpile of food right next to the cooking table. Sooner or later (often later), the stockpile will run down to 0, in which case the final meal being cooked is very likely to end up occupying the stockpile. This halts further food production until the meal has been eaten. It's far from ideal, but it's the best way I've found of controlling food production without micromanaging it.
Quote from: VeTaL on March 12, 2014, 05:15:37 PMbut cooking levels are about 2-3. Thanks :)
Notice that if cooking levels are below 3, even simple meals are below the threshold and nothing will happen. Getting the colonist to butcher is the only way (I know of) to remedy this.
Quote from: Tynan on March 13, 2014, 09:31:18 PM
The low default range was a usability mistake on my part; it now defaults to 9999.
Yeah, how dare you assume that players would establish their food ingredient stockpiles near their kitchens. How dare you.
Quote from: letharion on March 14, 2014, 03:56:24 AM
What I do is I keep a single stockpile of food right next to the cooking table. Sooner or later (often later), the stockpile will run down to 0, in which case the final meal being cooked is very likely to end up occupying the stockpile. This halts further food production until the meal has been eaten. It's far from ideal, but it's the best way I've found of controlling food production without micromanaging it.
That sounds like it might actually work, I'm gonna give it a shot later. Thanks for the tip! :)
That's a good idea, I might try that, although I'd set the stockpile to not allow meals so that they don't block it up.
One way to control the speed of meal production is to place the meat stockpile at a certain distance. Try placing it 10 or 20 tiles away from the stove. Experiment.
Quote from: Monkfish on March 14, 2014, 03:26:54 PM
That's a good idea, I might try that, although I'd set the stockpile to not allow meals so that they don't block it up.
I think you misunderstand. The meal blocking up is the point. It's a (very crude) attempt at controlling production in a way that doesn't require micro managing it, yet still not leaving someone permanently making food.
Yeah, I realise this now, I set a stockpile yesterday and let it run for a short while. Ended up swimming in cooked meals. ::)
If I read through Tynan's release notes properly, it looks like we'll be able to do the following in the next version of RimWorld:
QuoteFebruary 27
Disallowed building very close to the map edge. This discourages weird building patterns that exploit edges and corners and stress game systems.
Added basic music system. Added Al’s guitar sting for game start.
Resource lister now counts meals.
Added target amount for bills; colonists won’t do the bill if you have more than the target amount in storage.
Started automatic hunting. So far, colonists can go kick animals to death. Doesn’t work so well for boomrats.
Moved JobDefs into XML.
Job reports like “Hauling Metal.†or “Eating meal.†are now in JobDef, not code.
1) Create a stockpile near the cookstove set to accept meals, food, meat, etc. Make it a proper pantry!
2) Make an infinite meal bill, set the limit in stock setting to say, 10. This should mean that meals will be created infinitely as long as there is less than 10 meals in stock.
As long as someone is set to haul the prepared meals so they properly register as being in stock, and as long as there is sufficient raw food within the cookstove's range, it should be easy-peasy to create a smoothly functioning kitchen requiring no micro-management.
Eager for the new version to give this approach a try!
I was very glad to read those improvements to cooking in the patch notes.
On a similar note, if it were possible for colonists producing food/stone for a bill to be made to put such produce on a specific stockpile, it would neaten things up a fair amount. I appreciate that they will be hauled if such becomes the priority task for a particular colonist, but it's a little hit or miss depending on what else is going on.
Even better would be food racks/fridges/canteen facilities etc. Anyone know of any plans in this regard?
I think with A3 those sorts of mods may be possible