#Cooking prices not very profitable?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

true scarab
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I feel like I must be missing something here, because searching for 'artisan' and 'sell' in the discord says that all artisan prices are much higher, but that doesn't seem to mathematically add up, so I'm really confused. It seems to me like, at least according to the wiki, the prices for the materials are higher than the artisan good cost. Am I missing something here?

To use a really simple example -- Sashimi at base quality has a sell price of 50. It's made up of Wasabi and any fish. But Wasabi alone has a base sell price of 55, making it immediately worth more than Sashimi. Add in the base value of the fish, and it's even worse. To test it, I made a sashimi with 1 bluegill (the lowest value fish I had) and 1 wasabi, and the total value of the sashimi was 50x2 = 100, vs 55+40 = 95. So 5 coins of profit for a lot of extra work combining ingredients. And that was a low value fish -- seems like you would actually lose money on the majority of fish since so many are worth 55 or more (making it a loss to craft them into sashimi.)

Again, let's take another one. Tomato soup. I can't test this one because I don't have a pot yet, but assuming it still produces 2 soups... One tomato = 34 price. 2 soups = 17x2=34. So you're breaking even, barely, despite having to pay for kitchen equipment and spend time cooking. And if you have the crop selling price increase, it gets worse because you're actually taking a 5 coin loss from the higher 39 sell price.

So... Am I missing something? Is cooking just really, really bad? I've never seen a game before where cooking a good makes it worth less than the materials used to make it, usually it's worth significantly more. Especially since, as mentioned, you have to pay for the house upgrade and kitchen equipment just to be able to cook at all.

warm cairn
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I haven't yet explored much of the cooking in this game, so I don't have much input on that. However, just a note about when people talk about "artisan" in game, it is about a specific type of item labeled as artisan, not necessarily the full range of real-world artisan products. Dishes cooked in a kitchen are not considered an "artisan" item (I think it's called a consumable item in game, but I would have to check), so cooked dishes don't follow the "artisan products sell for more than base products" rule of thumb.

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Someone more experienced in the game would have to confirm or deny, but I have the suspicion that cooked dishes are more designed for consuming for buffs or for giving as presents rather than selling.

tiny mirage
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@true scarab Hi,
So you're talking about two different systems here:

  • processing crops/animal products etc. is using artisan machines (like mason jars, kegs, aging barrels etc. ). This brings more profit than selling the crop overall. You get recipe for the machines the more you level up in certain skills. Check out the examples of the artisan goods with the machines here - https://coral.guide/crafting/artisan/
  • cooking is a different mechanic. For this you need an upgraded house with a kitchen and utensils. Cooking isn't to make profit, it's mainly for buffs (grilled fish for example gives 10% boost in fishing XP) and to use as gifts to townies. You can see the recipes with their utensils here - https://coral.guide/crafting/cooking/oven
true scarab
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Yeah, I saw the recipes, I just have never played a farming game before where cooking was a loss, so I assumed I was doing something wrong.

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That's... an odd choice on the devs part, but whatever, guess it gives me reason to never ever engage with cooking.

warm cairn
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Hm, interesting. I didn't realize it was so common for cooked dishes to be sold for profit purposes in other games. The only other farming game I've played is Stardew Valley, and in that game it is highly mixed whether or not a cooked dish is sold at a profit or a loss compared to the base products.

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Selling at a loss isn't good for min-maxxers with pure profit as a goal, of course, but from my experience so far in this game, I don't think the devs were only designing with profit-based gameplay in mind. Personally, I've really been enjoying the more all-round feel of other mechanics being used to advance the story than just currency. But, one of the great things about such open gameplay games like this is also allowing the individual players to choose what aspects to engage with or not!

tiny mirage