With Warly's addition to the roster of misfits, his abilities along with the new crops and recipes have brought about some criticisms. The recipes are unbalanced, and there is little use in maintaining varied diets. Here are some notable points:
Meatballs = Overpowered: With the minimum of half a meat value and three fillers, this dish is far too easy to make for what it provides. 62.5 hunger is immense, and it makes other hunger-based recipes obsolete.
Warly's new recipes are iffy, some are useful such as the Volt Goat Chaud-Froid, but are outclassed by meatballs. Monster Tartare provides 62.5 hunger, -20 sanity and -20 health and is great for characters like Wormwood and Webber. It requires 2 monster meat at minimum however, so why would anybody cook Tartare when they could use that 2 meat for 2 meatballs, netting them a total of 125 hunger?
Warly's limited use: His portable equipment and his chef pouch are welcome additions, but it's the spices that cement his role as a strong support. He is not consistently vital, and the upkeep required with him makes me yearn to switch characters as soon as possible. His damage resist, damage boost and efficiency boost spices can be mass produced and applied to the never-rotting powdercakes. Once that happens, he is no longer needed. The buffs can be stored almost indefinitely, leaving Warly with no active purpose other than his 25% faster crockpot cooking speed.
His exclusive dishes are also useful, albeit niche. But with so many crops, it's difficult to maintain a regular flow of asparagus, toma root, onion, potato, garlic and pepper. His recipes often end up being cooked very rarely because of this, even with a Worm/Wicker combo.
Another example of Warly's lack of use stems from his sanity dishes. Now, he was never advertised as a sanity-sater, but I don't think a great chef should be outdone by a spider-boy and an imp. Warly's highest sanity dish, Moqueca, grants 33 sanity, whereas other survivors can craft new dishes that are on par to that sanity gain. Banana pops, Salsa Fresca, Vegetable Stinger and Creamy Potato Puree all grant 33 sanity, and can be cooked by all characters. (Warly's exclusive Puffed Potato dish only provides 15 sanity, which I think is wasteful of potatoes when others can make the mightier Potato Puree).
I think the food system as a whole needs an overhaul, with plenty of new farming options and dishes that are viable. Because really, why does anyone need to make anything other than meatballs or pierogi? I say we take some precedent from Hamlet, and introduce shops/traveling merchants to the game to make the world feel a bit more alive! These merchants can sell a plethora of goodies, such as a set of 10 potatoes for 15 currency (perhaps gold) amongst other ingredients, to make a varied palette achievable. Possibly a new use for pigs as well, I'm keen on the idea of hiring/enslaving our pork friends to farm for us, or even cook for us! (We/the pig farmer funnels them ingredients, we set a list of dishes we want cooked, and they make it).
What are your thoughts on balancing recipes and the state of Warly? Any ideas on how to improve farming, or how to introduce new mechanics such as trading and pig farmers that would compliment the food system?