Since RuneScape: Dragonwilds launched into Alpha testing, we've been stewing on how to improve cooking. We initially ideated how to create a satiety system where you could eat a few meals at once, with unique additive effects, but feedback was clear that players wanted to consistently min-max slots and the experience felt less RuneScapey.
We've spiced things up a few times before but we're heading back to the kitchen, again. Your feedback around cooking has been clear.
But your feedback has also been focused on how RuneScapey cooking feels, or rather, doesn't feel. So we've gone back to the chopping board... or, drawing board.
Here's Mod Mossdog to talk more about Cooking!
Hello Doom and hello to the greater Dragonwilds community!
As some of our alpha testers may have noticed, we had a completely different food system and no thirst system to speak of prior to our initial EA release. We added these mechanics very late in development, mere weeks before we launched in fact, and as such they weren't really given the space to breath and be iterated on, we also felt we didn't quite hit the mark when it came to replicating that OSRS feel. Now that time has passed and we've received lots of fantastic feedback from our players, we've gone back to the kitchen, revised our recipes and are ready to introduce Cooking 3.0 which we hope players will enjoy a lot more!
Chef in Training
Is there anything more OSRS than Burnt Shrimp? No! That's why we've brought back burnt food as part of players skill progression. Now when you process an ingredient into a cooked ingredient at a campfire or our new Grill processing station (imagine a nicer campfire that can be built in your home and doesn't have a fuel cost to process food!) you'll have the chance to mess up and burn the ingredient. You can still eat burnt ingredients, but they'll restore less Sustenance, or Hunger and make you a bit sick! Burnt ingredients will also come in handy in a future update that sounds like 'Arming.
Plate Up
In addition to the two processing stations (campfire and grill) players will eventually gain access to two Crafting benches, the pre-existing Range and an as yet to be properly named 'Stone Range'. This is where you'll craft different meals and beverages from the items you've previously processed. You'll get far more insight into exactly what you're making and what benefits you'll receive. There's no more throwing random ingredients into a pot and trial and erroring your way into the meal you wanted.
Skill Up to Fill Up
As you progress in your Cooking Skill, not only will you reduce your chance to burn an ingredient, but you'll also gain access to better quality recipes for both Food and Drink, with these recipes offering new Perks to help empower your play. Some of our later recipes have also been reworked to feature DOUBLE Perks which is a new idea that we've been playing with. We're looking forward to expanding on this Perk first approach to Food and Drink as the game grows and expands on our way to 1.0 with new regions offering new ingredients and new recipes to help players survive in those harsh and hazardous locales. We can even imagine a world where recipes become as valuable to players as a new Helmet or Sword.
One to One
We've gotten rid of the 2 to 1 raw to cooked item ratio, so now 1 potato is 1 potato. Hooray! No more stray bits of unusable food clogging up your inventory and storage boxes.
Revised Hunger and Thirst values
We've completely rebalanced our Sustenance/Hunger and Hydration/Thirst values for Food and Drink. While Thirst and Hunger are still important parts of the survival salad, we know players were getting frustrated with how often they were having to eat. At some point we want merely cooking to survive to be less of a concern, and for players to instead to eat and drink for interesting Food and Drink perk combos to help them focus on the activities they want to focus on at any given time. We want to make Food and Drink more about empowerment, rather than punishment.
But seriously... Stop drinking dirty water people!
We hope you're excited about what we're cooking, and we're always listening to your feedback, so please dive in to the Official RuneScape: Dragonwilds Discord and get chatting with us across our socials. The JMods are always ready to hear from you and chat more about all things RuneScape: Dragonwilds! We're on Twitter, BSky, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok too!