Okay, good to know it's not just me. Would be nice if Silk or Bird can give us some status update though, so as not to leave us in the dark :O

Eric, you have echoed my thought exactly. Cooking has 2 issues, particularly poor exp gain and higher tier recipes, which are too complex for the marginal benefit that they give.

Issue 1: Poor exp gain (This is not cooking only specific though)

Exp wise, cooking is among the poorest exp gain after Aura and Speed, with most skills depending on limited availability of materials. I would be inclined to say that the same probably applies for all secondary skills such as crafting and smithing too. Primary skills such as Mining, Woodcutting, Hunting and Fishing on the other hand, only requires their right hand gear and they are good to go, literally forever.

Secondly, the exp system is currently designed such that the exp/sec is equal for levels. For example, coal mining at lvl 60 gives 2,859 exp every 90 seconds, translating to 31.8 exp/sec. Similarly, gathering water at lvl 60 gives 1,747 exp every 55 seconds, translating to 31.8 exp/sec. While this may seem equal, they are not. With food provision at 10 seconds, a miner will always outperform the cook. So, what matters more at competitive gameplay is not only the exp/sec, but the exp gain per action.

This is a valid balance concern unless it is intentionally done so that top players for exp will always be the primary resource gatherers. This is a larger balancing issue overall, in which primary skill specialists will always outdo everyone else exp wise, quite clearly.

Issue 2: Complex higher tiers recipes

While I appreciate the thoughts and realism put into crafting the recipes, there are not much incentive to move up the tiers in terms of food production. An example would be say, construction food. At tier 1, we have the carrot stews, easily made from carrots, water, fuel and beast scraps, giving us -3s for 20 min. At tier 3, we have the burrito, which requires tortilla, cooked tiny beast chunk, refried beans, salsa, cheese and chives, giving us -3s for 30 min. Tortilla, cooked tiny beast chunk, refried beans, salsa, and cheese are secondary food produce, which requires another set of recipe. So, for effectiveness and mass production, it makes no sense for us to produce the tier 3 recipes at the current state.

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While I respect what ST is saying above, I would like to raise a point (obviously, the water collecting exp gain refers to what I did). I would never be able to compete with any primary resource gatherers at similar levels IF they put in similar hours as I did. I am somewhat still up there in the ranks somewhat because I have been more active, but that's about it. For the same hour of gameplay, secondary skill specialists will not be able compete on fair footing with the primary skill specialists.

Then again, if the intention from the start is for the secondary skill specialists to play the support role, and therefore assigned to lousier exp gain as a whole, then it would be nice to get an official clarification on if this is indeed the case, though I really do hope that secondary skill specialists can support and still get equal rate of exp gain.

Yup, have this recently too

We are facing the same issue with our compound at Vallen's Valley.

I can only see the amount remaining for the next level, and not the cumulative exp though.

Would be great also if we can view the maps globally, and travel straight to the desired city, without having to have pit stops.

Agreed. Bounded items should be given the ability to be dropped/destroyed, especially if it is raw materials. I understand the current mechanics of protecting bounded equipments (e.g. old man gears), but having the same restriction on bounded materials is suffocating.

This is coupled with issues in which bounded items, when merged with non-bounded items, causes issues when it comes to storing the non-bounded items (error message pops up stating that there is not enough of that item in inventory, even though it's not the case).

Oh, I am for your idea. Just realised what I said doesn't make sense in the first reply. Meant to say that the current system does not make economic sense at the moment.

Doesn't make sense economically. Ideally, players should be given the option, or they should be able to see the best offer (highest price for sales) if only one type of item can be displayed at a point in time.

Thanks! Some of the recipes make sense now.