hrm, @glyph: if cooking and chemistry split, would you call the chemistry wing something else?
Also: it takes a certain level of knowledge to improvise, and a certain amount of science to discover the uses of new ingredients.
[quote=“GrizzlyAdamz, post:21, topic:3554”]hrm, @glyph: if cooking and chemistry split, would you call the chemistry wing something else?
Also: it takes a certain level of knowledge to improvise, and a certain amount of science to discover the uses of new ingredients.[/quote]
Glyph doesn’t want to split them, so the question is moot.
Aaaah.
Why doesn’t he? Cooking and Chems are a totally different thing, and require different Knowalges.
Knowledge wise yes, they are different things (which is why I feel like that some time in the future it might be worthwhile to split them) but as for what you actually do to perform them they are almost identical. The only real difference between the two is that in cooking:
- The chemicals you use are nowhere near as dangerous
- The end goal is to produce something fit for consumption
Other then that they are both the same, they both involve mixing ingredients, they both involve careful measurements, they both involve the act of cooking/heating objects… they are really the same thing just applied to different objects when you are actually doing them (as opposed to analyzing them).
Yeah, because cooking meat and/or vacuum packing them will make a master chemist. But yeah, I see your point.
That’s not so much the fact that they are the same skill, that’s more the problem of how doing a low difficulty craft over and over again makes you a master in the skill (which it really shouldn’t).
Just as much as making acid makes you an expert in induced biological mutation, or disassembling flashlights makes you a master roboticist, or carving sticks makes you an adept metalsmith.
Or more directly: Isn’t it weird that hitting a zombie with a baseball bat also makes you an expert at hitting a cougar with a baseball bat? omg, they are totally different and should be separate skills! Cougars behave totally differently and are shaped differently and it’s just not the same at all![ / sarcasm ]
This is a pretty specious objection, all the more frustrating for the frequency it is uttered, and the fact that it is both completely lacking as a justification for a skill split and irrelevant to the actual topic of this thread.
Damn it, Glyph always makes me feel dumb.
Y U DO DIS
The big problem is finding a balance between realism and enjoyment. Because if you wanna get technical, and this is just an overview provided by someone who you wouldn’t be able to understand without spellcheck half the damn time but…
“Cooking” could technically mean…
Cooking Fast Food, cooking italian, cooking mexican, cooking german, cooking hooman, skillet cooking, fryer cooking, pot cooking, etc etc… There’d be /some/ overlap but really you can’t go "LOOK I CAN MAKE A PB&J and /instantly/ know how to make Mac & Cheese out of the box. They’re both simple to do but at the same time you still have to worry about burning the cheese, etc…
Meanwhile, “Chemistry” could be…
Making Drugs, making acids, making gases, hell gasoline
Do you really want to break down all the skills into their own little category? A handful of recipes in CDDA are the kind you just know (Like how you /know/ if you put Peanut Butter and Jelly on bread, ta-da PB&J) but the rest of the recipes aren’t a matter of discovering them, but rather learning them from a book; following a recipe. Some things, Mac & Cheese for example has the recipe on the box and logically you’d be able to follow it right there and then. Others, mutigen for example you’d ideally need the book in your inventory to make it properly. (Or you can try to make it from memory with a failure chance that decreases the more you do it, or is eliminated with the “Memory Banks” Bionic)
overall “Skill” still comes into play here, instead of it being a number assigned to how many recipes you can you it’s more a thing of what you know. EG Knowing how to safely combine chemicals, how to operate the machinery needed, etc, etc.
Like I said, it’s a balance between fun and realism. Personally, I think the system is fine as is.
A little bit of expansion on my thoughts of needing Recipes to make stuff, the more experimental recipies (Mutigen for example) could be found in labs as notes EG:
Lab Notes - Mutigen
Lab Notes - Mini-Nuke
Lab Notes - CBM: Power Storage MKII
and so on. A handful of recipes can only be made after disassembling something:
Personal Notes - CBM: Power Storage
Personal Notes - CBM: Alloy Plating
I however note the distinct lack of reply to anything i said. Like the we’re not going to split the skill which are together and probably form some sort of balance issue just because I dun like the idea. 
Just what is your question? I think the only one that’s yet to be answered is the one the topic is about. I2amroy stated the two “skills” will not be split, Gylph explained why.
I didn’t have a question. I had statements.
Ok, so, they won’t be split,
Huh, huh?
[quote=“GrizzlyAdamz, post:34, topic:3554”]Ok, so, they won’t be split,
Huh, huh?[/quote]
…Acceptable under the condition the high level crafting books are removed from regional schools. As a result of the public ejumacation system I can assure you my vocabulary isn’t the greatest. XD (Not to mention my grammar…)
Bartenders use the term mixology when treating beverage making as a science. It’s basically really anal retentive bar tending. But these are the people who also make flavored vapors and stuff like that. My point is, while not specifically being about cooking foods, it does combine cooking and chemistry. We could steal the term.
The key problem here, I think, is that there isn’t any word that covers both cooking and chemistry and better than cooking itself. Particularly because of Breaking Bad, since anyone who’s seen it will additionally associate cooking with the chemistry type of cooking. I think it’s more than acceptable to leave it as is with no changes.
I didn’t see a a need for change so I still like Cooking. It does imply cooking home-made drugs.
If there is going to be a change, I vote for Concoction. This word can be a verb for cooking food and sounds sciency enough to imply science too.
If we are technicians, we should not call the skill Mixology.
I agree with Endovior and Rask. If it must change, Concoction is imo the best suggestion so far.
Both concoction & mixology imply we’re dealing with liquids.
a kebab != liquid