When I first started the game and saw cooking pots and ingredients/ale everywhere, I actually thought it would be exciting to discover recipes/make things, and that you would actually have to eat every now and then to maintain yourself. However, apparently they do not give any other benefit besides health/stamina, therefore being unbearably useless in comparison to potions. But thats just what I have experienced

Does food actually have a use in the game, or are the 100 food vendors there for nothing but show? It doesn't even have the animation for eating.

RP alternative to potions I suppose

they would be useful if they gave bonuses, but they are cheap potions that are more or less detail for details sake , no really they are since you don't need them, ever. but for rping (Aka not in your mind but for your character) they offer a natural source of restoration rather than some stinking concoction in a vile.

Yea but thats the problem, it would be nice if you could atleast sit on a table and have an eating animation for RP purposes, but not even that

I'm inclined to think they were an early crafting system similar to potions that was partially cut, but left in for the detail. That's merely speculative. It could have been intended to be this way all along.

I cook a lot and use the food as a cheaper alternative to potions. My dude ain't rich, and he doesn't do alchemy, so food is good!

The Elsewyr Fondue is good for magicka regen, especially earlier levels.

Mainly, though, it's for role playing... so far. We don't know what Beth has planned for DLC.

vegetable soup may even be the most overpowered item in the game

Well I really hope they improve it, I would actually like for there to be some benefit in cooking, and not just be a cheap alternative to potions in a game where gold is easy to come by

Except for RP food is fairly useless yes. Too bad because I see a lot of potential unused in it. Hopefully something will change in a DLC.

Some potions require ingredients such as Chared Skeever Steak, or whatever it was. I forget because it was late last night I found it.



Sit at the table first, then eat... simple

Agreed, Food is only good IMO for Health / Stamina restorations.

What do you want food to do? A ham sandwich makes you 50% resistant to fire? Scrambled eggs makes you walk on water for 30 seconds?

I don't understand what you think food should do.

Well, that's pretty much what it is. You can use a Cooking Pot or Roasting Spit to combine raw food (and some alchemy ingredients, like salt piles) into finished dishes that have better properties. It's just like alchemy, only doesn't use a skill. Most food is pretty limited, but http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Cooking make fairly potent potion equivalents:

Elsweyr Stew: in a cooking fire, combine 1 Ale, 1 Eidar Cheese Wheel, and 1 Moon Sugar. Effects are:

- Regenerate Magicka 25 pts for 720 secs
- Fortify Magicka 100 pts for 720 secs

In Morrowind and Oblivion, food items were just another type of alchemy ingredient, and drinks were another type of potion. It would have been better if they'd left it at that in Skyrim.

Elsweyr Fondue and Beef Stew are pretty useful.

Added stats for a limited time perhaps? Say a small + to something for 2-3 hours. Like a blessing from one of the shrines or something.

The real question is, why is food even there if all it does is add small amounts of HP/Stamina for the trouble it takes to make it? Why choose food when you have potions that are much better lest for RP?

@Phaid

Well those are some good ones, I have yet to see those

I would think that as well. They likely planned to have Cooking as a full crafting skill, and ran out of time to finish it.

Same with hand to hand combat. I would not be surprised to see both appear in a DLC.

Last character was a warrior who was not an Alchemist. In fact the character NEVER picked up any alchemy ingrediants other than Salt (which is also used in cooking) and thus never made a single potion. He cooked all the meat and fish he could catch/find and that, combined with healing potions he found/bought were his healing.

Because there nothing like battling a dragon, then stopping all time and space, eating 45 salmon steaks, and then continuing to fight. Yeah, not exactly realistic eh? But oh well.

It's the Nord thing, really. I mean, they don't care much for magic, you know - so svcking down potions as a big Nord warrior every 3 minutes seems weird. But eating a goat leg with salt... RP. Choices!

It′s so easy to think of a use for them. Remove stamina potions and make food replenish stamina. Or even better, remove the regeneration, make starting stamina 1000. You eat a large feast, come back from exploring a huge dungeon, feast, rinse, repeat.

Hmmm. Any ideas? I'm one of the people that really wanted a hardcoe/survival mode in Skyrim, but I doubt that would be a DLC.

I've been meaning to make more of that too...just made some recently. I give most of my food to Lydia. She goes through it pretty fast but I'm not giving her all my sweet treats though like those giant sweet rolls, yum. I sometimes use food for healing but maybe it's for the characters who don't use magic to have something to use that isn't a potion?

:tes:

Hopefully they will add something like that in a DLC. It's a excellent use of food.




I would like to add spell making to that wishlist

At tthe end of the day, it does have it's own uses. It's up to you to find a use that suits you. If you were handed everything on a platter, the game wouldn't be interesting. You have your own styles, fit it into that style or ignore food you find

Poor console gamers...

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1368