Cook Won't Cook :(

[silversalmon]

Hey guys!

I did some searching around on google looking for an answer to my problem but came up empty.

I have the hospitality mod installed and recruited two new pawns (Ox & Ler).  I tried to set up Ler as my new cook but he won't use the stove?  Ler is incapable of nothing (cooking is checked as #1 priority)- the colony is not starving and there is plenty of veggies & meat to cook.  Ler's zone is unrestricted.  I right click the stove and there's no option to cook.  If right click with Ox he will cook if i let him. 

As a test I made a fire and set a bill to cook meals and Ler WILL cook meals on the fire.... I'm confused xD  Why won't this little guy use my stove???

Any help is much appreciated - thx guys

[dkmoo]

Hey guys!

I did some searching around on google looking for an answer to my problem but came up empty.

I have the hospitality mod installed and recruited two new pawns (Ox & Ler).  I tried to set up Ler as my new cook but he won't use the stove?  Ler is incapable of nothing (cooking is checked as #1 priority)- the colony is not starving and there is plenty of veggies & meat to cook.  Ler's zone is unrestricted.  I right click the stove and there's no option to cook.  If right click with Ox he will cook if i let him. 

As a test I made a fire and set a bill to cook meals and Ler WILL cook meals on the fire.... I'm confused xD  Why won't this little guy use my stove???

Any help is much appreciated - thx guys

Did you set a level restriction on the stove's cook bill?
did you set a material radius and your meet/veggie fell out side of the radius?
did you have your meal bill on "cook until you have XX and paused until it fell below YY" and you have enough meals that the bill is either filled or paused?

[silversalmon]

Ahhh thank you!!! It was level restriction  

Mucho appreciated my friend!!!!!

[asanbr]

I have a lot of these confusing cases too.

It's usually not a bug but as the firdt reply suggested, there are lots of reasons that this can happen , and the game gives no hint. It's one of many examples of poor UI

[Bozobub]

"Poor" UI?  Ehh.  You realize this is a game based on emergent behavior, correct?  How, exactly, do you want the UI to change to make you aware of this specific type of situation..?

[asanbr]

"Poor" UI?  Ehh.  You realize this is a game based on emergent behavior, correct?  How, exactly, do you want the UI to change to make you aware of this specific type of situation..?

Tell me that you were never confused by being unable to haul, build, or do anything else in this game, when the reason was that it was reserved by someone else, or the zone was restricted, or skill restriction was set, or a hundred other reasons, while the game gave no information about this?


All these checks are done by the game when you click on an object, do determine if you can do an action or not, and to decide what menu options to show.
It can't be hard to reveal some of that information to the player.

[Bozobub]

Ah; I can tell you haven't done much actual UI design .  Let's leave it at that, because we aren't going to agree.

[asanbr]

Ah; I can tell you haven't done much actual UI design .  Let's leave it at that, because we aren't going to agree.

Really?


If you add a bill "Cook fine meal" and right click on the stove with a pawn of skill 3, you will get something like "cannot cook - skill too low"

If you add the same bill and the skill is ok but ingredients not available, you will get a message like "ingredients not available"

In OP's story (I haven't confirmed it, but I have had many similar situations)

I right click the stove and there's no option to cook.

All the game needs is already there. It has the information about pawn level and skill restriction, and the capability of displaying menus of such information.
So tell me, what prevents the game from displaying said information?


Nothing of course. It just hasn't been done and it's not a priority to fix.

[Bozobub]

You're dead set on your insistence, I get it.  We're done here, however, as I said above; if no one else posts, you're yelling into the void.

[Vlad0mi3r]

I guess the game relies on the player being able to work out the puzzle to some extent. I remember having a moment with rotted mush and why I couldn't get it moved.

I was using the wrong stockpile/dumping ground and didn't check rotted allowed.

So I agree with Bozobub its not really an issue with the UI.

[Bozobub]

Exactly.  the UI is already relatively cluttered, as it is.  Furthermore, there ARE already "pop-ups" for the info you needed:  The "Bills" menu is exactly that.  Same goes for the list of allowed items in storage, point of fact.