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#### EZ Cooking pretty darn difficult

I think EZ cooking might need a tweak. I learned this skill early on but still haven't finished the quest because in order to make everything, I need: spice milling to make salt for the bun, cheffery to make the bun, animal kinship to get the milk to make the butter to make the cheese for the cheese plate. Whew! That's a lot of extra skills to learn to get through a beginning skill quest when those skills are not prerequisites. I think it's fine to have skills that depend on other skills, maybe just not for a really beginning one like this, or make them prerequisites to actually learning the skill.

Posted 2 years ago by FrankenPaula | Permalink

### Replies

- I ran into this problem too, and didn't remember having it last time.
  When I got all the flour to make the bun I was like - crap! I need another skill to bake it!
  You can buy salt, but spice milling is best. I don't know if you can buy buns...
  Is this meant to make us search for the grocery store part and explore the world a little?
  @FrankenPaula - You don't need kinsmanship to get butter, though - you just need to get the butterfly creme.
  Posted 2 years ago by Bingobar | Permalink
- I agree: although you don't necessarily *need* all the other skills, it would certainly be irritating to me as a new player if I couldn't complete one of the first real quests I was given (I've only just got round to butterfly milking and I'm level 8)
  I don't need things to be linear, but I don't want to feel that I'm failing so early on in the game — it feels a little bit like the skill tree should be more rounded at the beginning — encourage people to get a grounding in each of the major areas before they can advance too quickly; don't unlock too many branches of the tree right near the beginning.
  Posted 2 years ago by wurzel | Permalink
- aren't those ingredients available from the groceries vendor?
  Posted 2 years ago by striatic | Permalink
- I couldn't find milk (or butter) at the grocery vendor, I didn't see salt for sale either, but I didn't check uncle friendly, just regular produce & grocery vendors.
  Posted 2 years ago by FrankenPaula | Permalink
- No, I don't think any of those things were available from the vendors this time around.
  Somebody suggested you could buy salt, but I didn't see it anywhere.
  I don't think that's a problem — in fact, getting newbies to make things rather than buy them is a good idea — but making ingredients shouldn't be so disconnected.
  Posted 2 years ago by wurzel | Permalink
- I agree, how exactly do I make a bun? I feel like I am missing something...
  Posted 2 years ago by Ruby | Permalink
- those items used to be sold in thicket in old groddle. I bet that vendor got lost in the shuffle after old groddle vanished.
  Posted 2 years ago by striatic | Permalink
- heh this makes so much more sense now. I just spent an hour trying to find out how to get buns, wished I checked the forums first :-)
  Posted 2 years ago by Berty | Permalink
- Yes, and it seems that the energy you get by eating the food isn't balance with the time spent making it. It appears to me it is simpler just eating the meat/produce/eggs.
  Posted 2 years ago by Suzy Spring | Permalink
- ^ Which is why I haven't bothered with the cooking track at all this time 'round.
  Posted 2 years ago by Eleanor Rigby | Permalink
- yes, the cooking bit is pretty difficult for a quest that's given early on! Through trial and error, you figure out what you must do... but I thought I might kill someone about the buns.
  Maybe after a certain amount of time (two "days" in the game), if you haven't finished a quest the magic rock should offer a hint. Could make you feel like a failure, could give you some wonderful insight into making a gosh darn bun.
  Also, for teleportation.... I thought I needed a new special rock. I searched for quite a while and finally gave up and went to the help forum... where I was told that DUH, the rock at the top center is the magic rock. Maybe some things aren't as intuitive as we think they are....
  Posted 2 years ago by Andi Handipants | Permalink
- I don't believe you actually need spice milling to make spices. it's just easier if you have it.
  Posted 2 years ago by quoo | Permalink
- @Andi: I think fixing some wording inconsistencies will help. I posted in the Bugs forum one that I noticed today, I was told by my rock that I needed a certain "achievement" before I could do a quest, and FINALLY realized that meant it would be one of my Badges: I'd been looking for a list of my achievements. Making the terms agree in all these areas should be an easy once-over for a good editor.
  Posted 2 years ago by Eleanor Rigby | Permalink
- You may be right; this may be a quest where you, BY YOURSELF, cannot complete the quest on your own at the time it is presented to you. However, it presents you with an opportunity to be social within the game. Lots of people do have the spice milling ability and are more than happy to change some allspice into salt for you. Getting butterfly milk is, I admit, more of a challenge. But if the rock advised you to seek help (as it does in some other quests) from other people, that might be enough to get people interacting a bit.
  More and more I keep revisiting the idea of - is this game played by oneself or together? Not coming with a good answer.
  Posted 2 years ago by Atalanta | Permalink
- I find myself needing to traverse the entire world regularly to complete quests. I can't remember where the different spirit types are, so I shuffle aimlessly through all the different levels until I find one. This is one of those quests that just is too difficult for a new player, especially considering that you have no tips on how to get the different ingredients.
  Posted 2 years ago by Dean | Permalink
- Grrr, the butterfly milk. Once you do click a butterfly it does come down to you but then it hovers up and down so fast it is hard to click the right command. That is the part that most frustrating.
  Posted 2 years ago by Suzy Spring | Permalink
- As a new player today, I thought, "Oh, cooking! That should be fun!" Then I spent a couple of hours trying to buy ingredients that I didn't know I could make and vice versa. Seems like a lot of time and exploration for a low-level quest -- along with a lack of explanation that made it frustrating.
  Posted 2 years ago by Herp Derp | Permalink
- Dean - I recommend the Glitch Strategy group for lists on where to find vendors, etc.
  Suzy Spring - I think it's easier if you use the keyboard arrow keys, instead of the mouse.
  Posted 2 years ago by Sasson | Permalink
- One day in the not-too-distant future our maps will have vendor locations. A great day this will be. And, we agree that this quest is a bit difficult for being handed out so early. Tweaks forthcoming!
  Posted 2 years ago by jdawg | Permalink
- @Suzy Spring: Try jumping up to the butterfly and hitting "enter". Then use the arrow keys for massaging and milking. It makes it MUCH easier.
  Posted 2 years ago by Jade | Permalink
- FWIW, the enter key trick was not working for me over the weekend. (Well, strangely, once or twice it did, but mostly, not.)
  MacOSX 10.5.8, Safari 5.0.1.
  Posted 2 years ago by clare | Permalink
- @clare: There has to be a blue glow surrounding the butterfly for it to "see" it. I'm not sure if you had that and it still didn't work. It can be hard to see, with the butterflies being blue as well. I've jumped and hit enter and nothing happened too, but it was because I wasn't quiet close enough. :-)
  Posted 2 years ago by Jade | Permalink
- It seems that when the vendors stopped selling some items, like salt and whatnot, some the the quests became more of a challenge if not downright perplexing since one has to pick up other skills to make the items the vendors used to sell.
  For example, I had one quest (can't recall the names) in which I had to plant so many beans or pet them or something (sorry, didn't write it down, but I know I needed beans for the quest). So, I picked up a bean seasoner (before, I would have just bought the seasoned beans) and got confused when sometimes seasoning didn't work. Then, hours later, I picked up another skill and the quest was to... get a bean seasoner and season some beans! It also explained when I added that skill that I would always be able to season a bean with the skill.
  So, in removing certain items from the vendors, the skill tree could be reworked a little to make up for not being able to buy certain basics. :)
  Or surface auctions in-game a little better, so that people can buy salt and whatnot from others - auctions are kinda not readily apparent. Or maybe we'll get to have our own stores someday - sweet!
  Posted 2 years ago by zeeberk | Permalink
- How does one obtain a bean seasoner? I have searched Kitchen, Hardware and Grocery vendors for something that would season beans, but no joy. I have examined the menus for a fair amount of spices, but have seen no bean seasoning spice. I must be missing the recipe to season a bean, as well, though I have a good coverage of cooking skills.
  Posted 24 months ago by Tamashii | Permalink
- tamashii, ask the help channel in game.
  Posted 24 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- So, the bean seasoner is sold via the Gardening vendor. Along with a couple of pre-seasoned beans. YAY! Turns out, I wasn't aware that "seasoning" a bean is what turned it into the pre-seasoned beans (meaning, I didn't understand that the pre-seasoned beans were actually seasoned beans). Only now, after purchasing the bean seasoner, do I understand what a seasoned bean is AND that it is in complete contradiction with the purpose of the related quest and the tutorial for planting beans at the very beginning of the game (whereby the Rock instructs you to plant a regular, unseasoned bean into the ground and it produces the Bean Tree).
  The quest (Lord of the Beans) should be updated to state, in some fashion, that when you are making to plant beans, they:
  1) are seasoned beans and
  2) a seasoned bean bears the name of the tree it will produce.
  Posted 24 months ago by Tamashii | Permalink