# Transcribing Recipes from Books

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550>\
**Category:** The Drawing Board\
**Created:** [September 19, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550 "2016-09-19T02:31:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![plazma\_rush](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/plazma_rush/32/3710_2.png) [@plazma\_rush](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/plazma_rush)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/1 "2016-09-19T02:31:17Z")

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So, as it is now, as far as I know, you can no longer learn recipes from reading. In order to learn them you must actually craft them while in the presence of the book before memorizing them.

What if we had the option to transcribe the recipes from the book to a notebook of sorts, in addition to that?  
Say, take the important steps required to make a certain thing and remove all of the excess fluff, background information, etc, and leave only the important main parts of the recipe.  
You’d only be able to do this to recipes that are within your skill levels (or maybe even requiring a level higher than the recipe, for balance reasons) - this would represent requiring knowledge in order to properly condense the information, and having the background knowledge to properly follow the instructions already memorized.

Gameplay-wise, this would mean that you no longer have to drag around a bunch of recipe books to craft things you don’t know yet - you can get the books, transcribe the recipes, and toss them out, meaning you’d save on a lot of inventory space and be able to take the recipes with you.

It would be pretty handy, given that the option to memorize them by reading was removed. If it seems too good, maybe require a notebook per recipe book?

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**Author:** ![Beanzy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/beanzy/32/488_2.png) [@Beanzy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Beanzy)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/2 "2016-09-19T02:56:33Z")

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I think this is a pretty good idea. Maybe let players transcribe to an e-ink tablet too.

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**Author:** ![Zilenan91](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Zilenan91](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Zilenan91)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 3:42am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/3 "2016-09-19T03:42:13Z")

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The gameplay point of you requiring books to craft a lot of things is so you make a dedicated crafting area. Just put a trunk or a pile of books next to where you make all of your things.

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**Author:** ![Valpo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/valpo/32/341_2.png) [@Valpo](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Valpo)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:57am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/4 "2016-09-19T11:57:56Z")

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Adding the recepies to your e-ink would be amazing.

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**Author:** ![Zireael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/zireael/32/956_2.png) [@Zireael](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Zireael)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 1:34pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/5 "2016-09-19T13:34:33Z")

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> [@Valpo](#):
>
> Adding the recepies to your e-ink would be amazing.

Agreed.

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**Author:** ![Coolthulhu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/coolthulhu/32/2446_2.png) [@Coolthulhu](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Coolthulhu)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 3:39pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/6 "2016-09-19T15:39:11Z")

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Honestly I’d rather just allow booklearning back…  
Preferably even easier than before, maybe even automatic after one full book chapter (that is, the moment you finish reading a book, you get all the recipes you meet the requirements for).

I didn’t see a single person comment on book recipe learning with “yes, this is a good change”, but there was a lot of “just fucking why?”.

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**Author:** ![Beanzy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/beanzy/32/488_2.png) [@Beanzy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Beanzy)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/7 "2016-09-19T15:56:02Z")

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I think the new system is better; but that is mainly because it removes (some of) the RNG from learning recipes.

It was annoying having to repeatedly re-read a book in order to glean the one specific recipe you wanted from it before, now I can rest assured that my character can craft what’s in the book if they have the skill level.

That being said, this:

> [@Coolthulhu](#):
>
> Preferably even easier than before, maybe even automatic after one full book chapter (that is, the moment you finish reading a book, you get all the recipes you meet the requirements for).

seems like a pretty good answer.

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**Author:** ![Mecares](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mecares/32/2543_2.png) [@Mecares](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Mecares)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/8 "2016-09-19T19:45:18Z")

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I would like a game option so Players can choose what effect Books have:

- learn Skills and learn Recipes
- learn skills and provide Recipes
- provide Recipes only

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**Author:** ![DG123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@DG123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DG123)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/9 "2016-09-19T20:12:28Z")

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> [@Beanzy](#):
>
> I think this is a pretty good idea. Maybe let players transcribe to an e-ink tablet too.

What are these tablets actually for? I never worked it out.

Ditto the cameras.

Other than taking apart to get the electronics and lenses that is.

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**Author:** ![John\_Candlebury](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/john_candlebury/32/6437_2.png) [@John\_Candlebury](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/John_Candlebury)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 10:33pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/10 "2016-09-19T22:33:25Z")

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> [@DG123](#):
>
> [quote=“Beanzy, post:2, topic:12550”]I think this is a pretty good idea. Maybe let players transcribe to an e-ink tablet too.

What are these tablets actually for? I never worked it out.

Ditto the cameras.

Other than taking apart to get the electronics and lenses that is.[/quote]

You can do this with them:

> <https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/8432>
>
> New items: 
> \- \[X\] Tablet PC with colorful E-Ink display
> \- \[X\] SD-Memory card (en…crypted sometimes)
> \- \[x\] Digital cameras
> 
> \---
> \#### Tablet PC with colorful E-Ink display
> 
> This tablet PC has E-Ink display, thus it consumes energy only when user works with it and when playing music.
> 
> With this gadget you can:
> \- \[X\] view photos
> \- \[X\] play music
> \- \[X\] view recipes
> \- \[X\] view your monster collection
> \- \[X\] download data from memory card
> \- \[X\] decrypt encrypted memory cards
> \###### download data from memory card ( \*\*MC\*\* )
> 
> Insert MC that you found into gadget and try download data. Every MC initialized with random stuff and can be empty, contain family photos, music and/or recipes. Also it can be encrypted. If you lucky, data from MC will appear in your Tablet PC.
> \###### decrypt encrypted memory cards
> 
> Computer skill needed. You can lost data on MC if you failed, but encrypted MC's has bigger chance to contain data.
> \###### view photos
> 
> You collect photos on your device from MC's. Then you can view this photos. It increases your morale, but photos consumes from device (like chapters from funny books), and you need search new MC with photos.
> \###### play music
> 
> Like with photos, you can collect music. Music not consumed from device, but the more music you have, the better for you: maximum of given morale limited by count of songs on device (but can't be more that 100).
> 
> May be we need trait "music lover", that increased max of limit?
> 
> Activating music on device will set \`item-\>active = true\` and starting consume batteries, device will \`sound\` in some radius. If you hear music, your morale increased.
> 
> Important: I added new effect \`music\`. It work like semaphore to all music-devices (this tablet, mp3 and vehicle music).
> 
> Algo:
> 
> \`\`\`
> if (!p-\>has\_effect("music")) {
> p-\>add\_effect("music", 1);
> p-\>add\_morale(MORALE\_MUSIC, , , , );
> }
> \`\`\`
> \###### view recipes
> 
> If you lucky, you can find (and download to tablet) MC with recipe. In this PR I limited recipes with max=3 level of food recipes, one that does not scare, but you can do any other recipe in future.
> 
> \*\*upd\*\*: new rare item - science memory card. always encrypted, has no limit on recipes.
> 
> If your device contain recipes, just select one and it appear on E-Ink display. Now the tablet can be used in crafts like book (but books contains many recipes, but tablet only the selected).
> 
> I slightly updated method \`has\_recipe()\`, now any item in game can contain recipe. Just add tag "HAS\_RECIPE" and set \`item\_vars\["RECIPE"\]="ident"\`
> 
> This gives us the ability to create items (also in realtime) such as:
> \- plain paper with a recipe
> \- writing set to rewrite the recipe on paper
> \- print the recipe on the printer
> \- and even artifacts with a prescription. Just for fun we can add in museum stone with recipe craft of stone knife.
> \#### Digital cameras
> 
> Just for fun. You can take a shot monsters. Photos will produce different quality. Pro camera have better chance to make good photo. You can watch photos on your camera and upload it to MC, then download to tablet PC. You can flashes (do blink) monsters and NPC with camera's flash.
> 
> I do not think of why this might be the case, but I like collecting something in games, and here we will be able to collect pictures of monsters.
> 
> May be we can create quest (NPC) - "take a shot of Hulk with good quality".
> 
> \---
> 
> This increases count of electronics you can use, not just disassemble.

Basically a single recipe book, with an add music player, they are not very useful.

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**Author:** ![Arkenstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Arkenstone](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Arkenstone)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 1:12am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/11 "2016-09-20T01:12:25Z")

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[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:6, topic:12550”]Honestly I’d rather just allow booklearning back…  
Preferably even easier than before, maybe even automatic after one full book chapter (that is, the moment you finish reading a book, you get all the recipes you meet the requirements for).

I didn’t see a single person comment on book recipe learning with “yes, this is a good change”, but there was a lot of “just fucking why?”.[/quote]

I’ll be that one person then. Today I accidentally lost my books after I set off a pipe bomb and a bunch of my recipes.

Annoying as it might have been, I really liked the fact that there were consequences to accidents.

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**Author:** ![Sheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Sheb](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sheb)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 7:29am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/12 "2016-09-20T07:29:11Z")

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Yeah, I like the book recipe change too. I played a wandering game, and deciding which book to keep and which one to discard was sometime difficult.

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**Author:** ![BeerBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@BeerBeer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/BeerBeer)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 11:43am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/13 "2016-09-20T11:43:20Z")

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If we get the ability to add recipes to E-ink, I’d suggest we also have the ability to delete them as well. Just in case.

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**Author:** ![Coolthulhu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/coolthulhu/32/2446_2.png) [@Coolthulhu](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Coolthulhu)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/14 "2016-09-21T04:19:20Z")

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If we give half a shit about realism:  
E-ink would have enough storage space to transcribe all recipes from all books the player could get. Meaning all it would take to remember things would be finding an E-ink, which is a common drop.

If we don’t care about realism:  
Transcribing individual recipes would be tedious as fuck, so it would still be a better idea to allow instant transfer of all of them.  
And since E-ink is a common drop, it would be better to just make it automatic instead of nagging the player with “you could transcribe the recipes but you need to haul that E-ink from your car to do that”.  
Making E-inks uncommon wouldn’t really change things since by the time you haul books around, you have most uncommon-but-not-rare goods around.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zilenan91](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Zilenan91](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Zilenan91)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 5:22am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/15 "2016-09-21T05:22:43Z")

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E-inks aren’t that common. I’ve only found one on my 1-year-long survivor.

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**Author:** ![BeerBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@BeerBeer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/BeerBeer)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 6:32am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/transcribing-recipes-from-books/12550/16 "2016-09-21T06:32:12Z")

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[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:14, topic:12550”]If we give half a shit about realism:  
E-ink would have enough storage space to transcribe all recipes from all books the player could get. Meaning all it would take to remember things would be finding an E-ink, which is a common drop.

If we don’t care about realism:  
Transcribing individual recipes would be tedious as fuck, so it would still be a better idea to allow instant transfer of all of them.  
And since E-ink is a common drop, it would be better to just make it automatic instead of nagging the player with “you could transcribe the recipes but you need to haul that E-ink from your car to do that”.  
Making E-inks uncommon wouldn’t really change things since by the time you haul books around, you have most uncommon-but-not-rare goods around.[/quote]  
Fair enough, but I for one don’t like the recipe clutter. Which is why I’d want a way to control the amount of recipes that I have to browse through. I’m an opportunist. I rarely seek out individual recipes but rather try to make the most out of the ingredients that I have, so I end up browsing the recipe list and think “Let’s see what I could make”. And then I extend that exploration and start looking at the recipes that I can’t craft, trying to spot something nice that would only require one additional ingredient. And that’s when I’m faced with all the recipes I’m never going to touch.

Food and cooking present the same challenge, but the difference is cooking is a recurring event, and that’s when I’m faced with the spam more so than before.

All that being said, present multiple choices, such as

1. Copy all recipes from a book
2. Copy all recipes from all carried books
3. Copy all recipes from all nearby books
4. Copy recipe
5. Delete recipe
6. Delete all recipes (Are you really, REALLY sure?)

I mean, I quietly wanted a way to “forget” recipes. But this E-Ink could be the perfect solution for recipe control. It won’t stop recipe spam from acquired skills but it’s still MUCH better than nothing.

Also, if we go down this recipe copying line, then there are few other devices that could capture written word, such as cameras (and pen&paper). If smartphones ever make an appearance, they should have a camera too. Or is the assumption that the tablet includes a camera? Do they often? I wouldn’t know.

How about a trait called Photographic Memory or Eidetic Memory - memorize recipes instantly at will. Could be a CBM too.

> [@Zilenan91](#):
>
> E-inks aren’t that common. I’ve only found one on my 1-year-long survivor.

Then you’re not looking in the right places, assuming you were actively looking for one, instead of just waiting to run across one. I mean, there’s a difference between waiting to find one and looking for one. You could go grab one in a day with a little bit of reckless driving, or nighttime sneaking. Chosen gameplay settings are a factor too (zombie count, evolution rate, item drop rate).