GaiaGalaxi
Greenhorn
Cooking every dish for Perfection to me feels disconnected from the main game goals, and it's like such a "just do it for perfection" thing without real in-game motivation. It would feel more connected to the story if there were Special Orders from Gus requesting like rush help for 4-6 different dishes. The story would be like Gus is hosting a seasonal banquet for quests from Zuzu city or whatever. He needs your help to cook all the meals. The framework would be 90% the same as with Gus' Famous Omelet: you prep the requested items, and deliver them to his fridge, quest done. Only the dialogue would change, and the items requested. The reward could be just money.
Since Queen of Sauce has a set weekly programming what recipes she announces, those would be natural calendar picks for what's cooking this season. It could also pick dishes you know the recipe for but just haven't cooked, such as the friendship recipes.
The timeline could be 3-4 weeks to give farmer time to get the recipes and the ingredients, so it'd be always given on the 1st or 2nd week of the season, to give farmer time to prepare for it (get the recipes and plant the stuff)
For me this would do 3 things: 1) give an in-game motivation for cooking all the dishes, other than "well you just need this for perfection". 2) Add more depth and variety for the quests cos I'm sick and tired of seeing "Gus' Famous Omelet" and "Biome Balance" every week in the late game. 3) Just more content with low-ish effort. Like I said 90% (in my mind at least, I dunno what it really takes) of this already exists in the form of "Gus' Famous Omelet", but you just need to add some algorithm to pick the appropriate recipes (biggest emphasis on Queen of Sauce + seasonal ingredients + farmer has yet to cook the recipe) and some more dialogue added for Gus to explain why he wants this. Naturally Gus is the master chef of the Valley and normally he wouldn't need farmer's help to cook, but it's the season rush, you see. This would be in a way similar to the "Zuzu city needs now 100 tomatoes because XYZ, so get shipping!" but for cooking.
Usually my cooked items list in year 3 looks something like: Fried egg, Maki roll, Sashimi, Lucky Lunch, Spicy Eel, Triple Shot, Ginger ale and NOTHING ELSE. Maybe someone's birthday favorite. The Mr. Qi cooking challenge doesn't help me in any way regarding this, since it doesn't specify what to cook, just to cook something, so the lowest effort is to just buy wheat and make bread, or buy coffee and make tripshots. So it doesn't demand variety, only quantity.
A variation of this could also be that trash panda just hangs around after the cleanup scene and keeps asking for dishes you haven't cooked and rewards you with a golden mystery box or something, again giving you an in-game motivation to do it, other than to just check a box on the perfection list.
Also, all of this applies in a way to crafting every craft. Maybe Robin could ask you to craft items you haven't crafted yet. Just to create that motivation, other than "needed for perfection just because". I don't normally want to craft 8 different lamps that don't match each other. I just craft them and throw them in the deconstructor just to check the item off my list. If instead Robin requested me - not to collect 30 woods or fresh stone - but to craft a Skull brazier or something, that would make crafting all the various nicknacks more integrated part for the late game, and add variety in the late game. Now Robin sells all the crafting recipies, but what if she unlocked those one by one, and every time you craft one thing and show it to her, you get another recipe. It could be like "Robin's woodworking hobby class" where she teaches aspiring woodworker hobbyists to make stuff. Or something like that. Main point being: there could be an in-game reason to craft the various items, other than just for the sake of perfection, so that it wouldn't feel so artificial and forced.
Since Queen of Sauce has a set weekly programming what recipes she announces, those would be natural calendar picks for what's cooking this season. It could also pick dishes you know the recipe for but just haven't cooked, such as the friendship recipes.
The timeline could be 3-4 weeks to give farmer time to get the recipes and the ingredients, so it'd be always given on the 1st or 2nd week of the season, to give farmer time to prepare for it (get the recipes and plant the stuff)
For me this would do 3 things: 1) give an in-game motivation for cooking all the dishes, other than "well you just need this for perfection". 2) Add more depth and variety for the quests cos I'm sick and tired of seeing "Gus' Famous Omelet" and "Biome Balance" every week in the late game. 3) Just more content with low-ish effort. Like I said 90% (in my mind at least, I dunno what it really takes) of this already exists in the form of "Gus' Famous Omelet", but you just need to add some algorithm to pick the appropriate recipes (biggest emphasis on Queen of Sauce + seasonal ingredients + farmer has yet to cook the recipe) and some more dialogue added for Gus to explain why he wants this. Naturally Gus is the master chef of the Valley and normally he wouldn't need farmer's help to cook, but it's the season rush, you see. This would be in a way similar to the "Zuzu city needs now 100 tomatoes because XYZ, so get shipping!" but for cooking.
Usually my cooked items list in year 3 looks something like: Fried egg, Maki roll, Sashimi, Lucky Lunch, Spicy Eel, Triple Shot, Ginger ale and NOTHING ELSE. Maybe someone's birthday favorite. The Mr. Qi cooking challenge doesn't help me in any way regarding this, since it doesn't specify what to cook, just to cook something, so the lowest effort is to just buy wheat and make bread, or buy coffee and make tripshots. So it doesn't demand variety, only quantity.
A variation of this could also be that trash panda just hangs around after the cleanup scene and keeps asking for dishes you haven't cooked and rewards you with a golden mystery box or something, again giving you an in-game motivation to do it, other than to just check a box on the perfection list.
Also, all of this applies in a way to crafting every craft. Maybe Robin could ask you to craft items you haven't crafted yet. Just to create that motivation, other than "needed for perfection just because". I don't normally want to craft 8 different lamps that don't match each other. I just craft them and throw them in the deconstructor just to check the item off my list. If instead Robin requested me - not to collect 30 woods or fresh stone - but to craft a Skull brazier or something, that would make crafting all the various nicknacks more integrated part for the late game, and add variety in the late game. Now Robin sells all the crafting recipies, but what if she unlocked those one by one, and every time you craft one thing and show it to her, you get another recipe. It could be like "Robin's woodworking hobby class" where she teaches aspiring woodworker hobbyists to make stuff. Or something like that. Main point being: there could be an in-game reason to craft the various items, other than just for the sake of perfection, so that it wouldn't feel so artificial and forced.