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About this mod
Crafting tweaks and re-balancing of Requiem's soups & stews.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
This mod started out as a simple patch to restore the imminently-useful buffs from Requiem's stews to RND's non-buffed versions. I soon found that the stews were a bit too powerful for my tastes, so I went about re-balancing them and making the stews from RND and Hunterborn (both required, for now) more consistent. The tweaks continued and I found myself adding more features until I arrived at a configuration I was comfortable with. I enjoy it, and thought it worth sharing.
I play with Realistic Needs and Diseases for USLEEP 1.01 (should work with later minor versions) and Hunterborn 1.5, so this mod is currently built around and dependent on those two mods -- both add a great variety of stews and ingredients. Thus, it's somewhat intended for hunter/ranger-type characters, though anyone can benefit from it. If there is significant demand I may be able to make a non-Hunterborn version, or a patch for other needs mods.
* Features
Balancing Buffs
The soup bonuses from RND were rebalanced for Requiem. Most stew durations were reduced to last no more than half a day (instead of nearly 24 hours). I attempted to balance stews based on how difficult the ingredients were to acquire, so relatively simple dishes like Vegetable Soup or Rabbit Stew have lesser effects compared to foods like Bear or Sabrecat Stew. I also reduced the output of recipes so you'll only get a single stew from a single cut of meat.
If you want the most powerful foods, you should seek out the biggest and strongest animals in Skyrim. Dragon meat/heart/blood (Hunterborn) also has a few recipes associated with it that are among the most powerful, and have a variety of bonuses to serve every character archetype.
Check the spoiler for more detailed info:
New 'Wild' Recipes
I couldn't think of a better name. BUT, while playing a hunter/druid character, I found myself frustrated that I had to rely on cooking ingredients that I could only acquire in a city (carrots, potatoes, ale, etc.), so I created some 'alternate' recipes for various game animals that utilize only ingredients that can be found in the wilds: flowers, herbs, fish, insects, eggs, mushrooms, berries, and other harvestable plants. I also utilized a few ingredients from Hunterborn's "Foraging" skill (Edible Root was the only decent carrot replacement I could find). At the moment, these 'Wild' recipes will not produce new stews, they're just alternate paths to already-existing foods. I had to get creative, but I tried my best to use alternate ingredients that would at least somewhat match the original recipe (with some added twists for seasonings), while also taking some work/awareness to collect, without being too difficult.
Recipes are made at the cooking pot. I recommend Campfire/Frostfall (optional) to cook while camping. These stews can be preserved as normal (below). Specific recipes are listed in the cooking pot under the same name as the original stews.
If you have any suggestions, or found a recipe I missed, let me know in the comments.
New Preservation Methods
This is probably the part of the mod that took the most work. I've added two new methods for preserving food: Jarring and Dehydrating. For now, I only have recipes for the imminently-useful soups and stews. Since the only other preservation method I've seen (salting meat in RND) is only useful for preserving raw meat to sate your hunger, I tried to make sure that these preservation methods aren't overpowered. Initial testing seems okay, but I may tweak them over time.
*Jarred foods are made at the cook pot, and requires 1 stew and 1 firewood (to simulate the extra boiling time). You must also have a large empty bottle (from RND, the ones that hold 3 drinks and look like wine) in your inventory, but it will not be consumed (represents re-using jars).
*The jarred stew will weigh significantly more (at least double), but will last much longer than normal stews, though not indefinitely. Specifically, it will last the same amount of time as "Fresh Fruits/Vegetables" in the RND MCM menu (default 7 days, instead of 2 for fresh stews).
*When eaten, jarred stews will have the same effect as their fresh counterparts, except that they won't give you a warmth bonus if you're using Frostfall.
*Dehydrated foods are also made at the cook pot, and require 1 firewood. However, the process is inefficient and will consume 2 stews to produce a single dehydrated one.
*Dehydrated stews will last indefinitely, and can be combined with water (RND) at a cook pot to rehydrate.
*While dehydrated stew can be directly eaten, they are meant to be rehydrated first. If eaten dry, all stews have reduced effect and highly shortened durations (about 3-5 minutes), and will also greatly increase your thirst (even more than salted meat). Only really useful in an emergency.
*Rehydrated stews, on the other hand, are almost identical to their parent stews (including spoilage time), except that the buff durations have been reduce 50-75% (usually to around 15 minutes). I felt this made dehydrated food a good option to preserve excess food for lean times, without being easy enough to be the go-to method.
* Compatibility/Load Order
Load this after Requiem, RND, Hunterborn, and anything else that modifies food, otherwise you'll probably lose Requiem's buffs on fresh stews. The preserved food are all new items, so those will still have buffs on them no matter what. The only vanilla records that I modified are the stews and recipes used to make them, the rest is from scratch, so that's the only place it could conflict. I suspect it may conflict with various cooking/crafting overhauls, but if you load my mod after them, it should work for this one at least.
* Other Stuff
None of these recipes should appear in your cooking menu unless you have the relevant stew/dehydrated stew in your inventory.
I preserved the small, unique bonuses some stews had (Beef stew, horker stew, many dragon recipes) in addition to the main regen boosts.
Unfortunately, I don't have any new textures for the preserved foods, so they won't change. I did change the dehydrated foods to use various salts/powders for their textures. The rehydrated stews will revert to the original textures.
Unless you play with food spoilage on, these recipes won't really help outside of roleplaying.
Feel free to use this mod however you like, as long as it's not for profit, and you credit me. I'd also appreciated a quick note informing me.
I play with Realistic Needs and Diseases for USLEEP 1.01 (should work with later minor versions) and Hunterborn 1.5, so this mod is currently built around and dependent on those two mods -- both add a great variety of stews and ingredients. Thus, it's somewhat intended for hunter/ranger-type characters, though anyone can benefit from it. If there is significant demand I may be able to make a non-Hunterborn version, or a patch for other needs mods.
* Features
Balancing Buffs
The soup bonuses from RND were rebalanced for Requiem. Most stew durations were reduced to last no more than half a day (instead of nearly 24 hours). I attempted to balance stews based on how difficult the ingredients were to acquire, so relatively simple dishes like Vegetable Soup or Rabbit Stew have lesser effects compared to foods like Bear or Sabrecat Stew. I also reduced the output of recipes so you'll only get a single stew from a single cut of meat.
If you want the most powerful foods, you should seek out the biggest and strongest animals in Skyrim. Dragon meat/heart/blood (Hunterborn) also has a few recipes associated with it that are among the most powerful, and have a variety of bonuses to serve every character archetype.
Check the spoiler for more detailed info:
Spoiler:
Most stews give HP or Stamina regeneration of +1/s for 3600 second (1 hour of play time). 'Lesser' meats like rabbit, fox, or dog, and most vegetable-based soups give the same bonus for a shorter time (1200-1800 seconds). I valued HP regen a bit higher than stamina, so stews that heal are usually restricted to more dangerous game (bears, horkers, boar, etc), or have more complicated recipes (ex: Wolf Meat stew vs Wolf Cabbage stew)
For magic users, Elsweyr Fondue (and anything with moon sugar) should be useful. Goat meat has also been rumored to boost one's mental fortitude.
A few tougher animals give larger bonuses (+2/s) -- specifically, Sabrecats and Mammoths. These recipes also require an extra, uncommon ingredient: Canis Root and Troll's Blood (Hunterborn), respectively.
Dragon recipes have +3/s boosts, and a recipe similar to Elsweyr Fondue, but stronger. There are also a few unique, minor buffs and other recipes.
Bestial stew still has its massive +3/s stamina regen, but the duration is heavily reduced (1800 sec) and it's also a fair bit heavier than other early-game stews.
Predator's Price regenerates both HP and Stamina. I figured it was only fair, since it takes 3 different types of meat.
Most stews are re-weighed to 1, but the 'higher-tier' stews are 2 or 3 pounds.
Show
Most stews give HP or Stamina regeneration of +1/s for 3600 second (1 hour of play time). 'Lesser' meats like rabbit, fox, or dog, and most vegetable-based soups give the same bonus for a shorter time (1200-1800 seconds). I valued HP regen a bit higher than stamina, so stews that heal are usually restricted to more dangerous game (bears, horkers, boar, etc), or have more complicated recipes (ex: Wolf Meat stew vs Wolf Cabbage stew)
For magic users, Elsweyr Fondue (and anything with moon sugar) should be useful. Goat meat has also been rumored to boost one's mental fortitude.
A few tougher animals give larger bonuses (+2/s) -- specifically, Sabrecats and Mammoths. These recipes also require an extra, uncommon ingredient: Canis Root and Troll's Blood (Hunterborn), respectively.
Dragon recipes have +3/s boosts, and a recipe similar to Elsweyr Fondue, but stronger. There are also a few unique, minor buffs and other recipes.
Bestial stew still has its massive +3/s stamina regen, but the duration is heavily reduced (1800 sec) and it's also a fair bit heavier than other early-game stews.
Predator's Price regenerates both HP and Stamina. I figured it was only fair, since it takes 3 different types of meat.
Most stews are re-weighed to 1, but the 'higher-tier' stews are 2 or 3 pounds.
New 'Wild' Recipes
I couldn't think of a better name. BUT, while playing a hunter/druid character, I found myself frustrated that I had to rely on cooking ingredients that I could only acquire in a city (carrots, potatoes, ale, etc.), so I created some 'alternate' recipes for various game animals that utilize only ingredients that can be found in the wilds: flowers, herbs, fish, insects, eggs, mushrooms, berries, and other harvestable plants. I also utilized a few ingredients from Hunterborn's "Foraging" skill (Edible Root was the only decent carrot replacement I could find). At the moment, these 'Wild' recipes will not produce new stews, they're just alternate paths to already-existing foods. I had to get creative, but I tried my best to use alternate ingredients that would at least somewhat match the original recipe (with some added twists for seasonings), while also taking some work/awareness to collect, without being too difficult.
Recipes are made at the cooking pot. I recommend Campfire/Frostfall (optional) to cook while camping. These stews can be preserved as normal (below). Specific recipes are listed in the cooking pot under the same name as the original stews.
If you have any suggestions, or found a recipe I missed, let me know in the comments.
New Preservation Methods
This is probably the part of the mod that took the most work. I've added two new methods for preserving food: Jarring and Dehydrating. For now, I only have recipes for the imminently-useful soups and stews. Since the only other preservation method I've seen (salting meat in RND) is only useful for preserving raw meat to sate your hunger, I tried to make sure that these preservation methods aren't overpowered. Initial testing seems okay, but I may tweak them over time.
*Jarred foods are made at the cook pot, and requires 1 stew and 1 firewood (to simulate the extra boiling time). You must also have a large empty bottle (from RND, the ones that hold 3 drinks and look like wine) in your inventory, but it will not be consumed (represents re-using jars).
*The jarred stew will weigh significantly more (at least double), but will last much longer than normal stews, though not indefinitely. Specifically, it will last the same amount of time as "Fresh Fruits/Vegetables" in the RND MCM menu (default 7 days, instead of 2 for fresh stews).
*When eaten, jarred stews will have the same effect as their fresh counterparts, except that they won't give you a warmth bonus if you're using Frostfall.
*Dehydrated foods are also made at the cook pot, and require 1 firewood. However, the process is inefficient and will consume 2 stews to produce a single dehydrated one.
*Dehydrated stews will last indefinitely, and can be combined with water (RND) at a cook pot to rehydrate.
*While dehydrated stew can be directly eaten, they are meant to be rehydrated first. If eaten dry, all stews have reduced effect and highly shortened durations (about 3-5 minutes), and will also greatly increase your thirst (even more than salted meat). Only really useful in an emergency.
*Rehydrated stews, on the other hand, are almost identical to their parent stews (including spoilage time), except that the buff durations have been reduce 50-75% (usually to around 15 minutes). I felt this made dehydrated food a good option to preserve excess food for lean times, without being easy enough to be the go-to method.
* Compatibility/Load Order
Load this after Requiem, RND, Hunterborn, and anything else that modifies food, otherwise you'll probably lose Requiem's buffs on fresh stews. The preserved food are all new items, so those will still have buffs on them no matter what. The only vanilla records that I modified are the stews and recipes used to make them, the rest is from scratch, so that's the only place it could conflict. I suspect it may conflict with various cooking/crafting overhauls, but if you load my mod after them, it should work for this one at least.
* Other Stuff
None of these recipes should appear in your cooking menu unless you have the relevant stew/dehydrated stew in your inventory.
I preserved the small, unique bonuses some stews had (Beef stew, horker stew, many dragon recipes) in addition to the main regen boosts.
Unfortunately, I don't have any new textures for the preserved foods, so they won't change. I did change the dehydrated foods to use various salts/powders for their textures. The rehydrated stews will revert to the original textures.
Unless you play with food spoilage on, these recipes won't really help outside of roleplaying.
Feel free to use this mod however you like, as long as it's not for profit, and you credit me. I'd also appreciated a quick note informing me.