Soups Nerf

JackTwister (JT) said:

I’ve had Bean open for hours while cooking and just being in there, as well numerous of my staff. I can tell you now, 90% of people that come in for food ask for soup, we offer them something else which they often refuse and they leave. Think my record was nearly 2 hours of being open with no customers, only a phone call that asked if I wanted to buy stuff. And that’s us being in Legion Square, very busy area. Being open and providing the RP unfortunately doesn’t solve anything really. And when the RP is non-existent, I’m not going to stand there by myself for hours staring at progress bars.

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In that case I can´t tell you what the issue is, because I don´t have that problem at Pop´s. I was just open for about an hour and didn´t sell a single soup - most people don´t come in here asking for soups either and if they do, they get a small amount and usually buy other stuff too.

Wi

Sammy said:

In that case I can´t tell you what the issue is, because I don´t have that problem at Pop´s. I was just open for about an hour and didn´t sell a single soup - most people don´t come in here asking for soups either and if they do, they get a small amount and usually buy other stuff too.

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Wish I had that sort of draw. It must be nice

JackTwister (JT) said:

Wi

Wish I had that sort of draw. It must be nice

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from what I've heard today, people are treating businesses closely related to the lost kind of like the losts version of hardwick, or in other words a quick and easy way to gain connections to said group. this would explain why pops has higher foot traffic and people willing to buy other things ontop of the initial pull to buy soups from there aswell. so basically people spend a little bit of money with the hopes of gaining favour of a powerful group rather than for the nutrition of the food.

brett_bernstein said:

from what I've heard today, people are treating businesses closely related to the lost kind of like the losts version of hardwick, or in other words a quick and easy way to gain connections to said group. this would explain why pops has higher foot traffic and people willing to buy other things ontop of the initial pull to buy soups from there aswell. so basically people spend a little bit of money with the hopes of gaining favour of a powerful group rather than for the nutrition of the food.

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That sounds like a very interesting theory, but anything to get away from acknowledging roleplay being put into it.

The Lost very rarely comes up, because they have nothing to do with Pop´s. Sophie is an old Lady and on a normal day to day, about as connected to the club as people bringing materials to them.

It is mainly people my character has built a connection with over time, who then bring their friends and so on - fuck all to do with the Lost, I can promise you that much

brett_bernstein said:

from what I've heard today, people are treating businesses closely related to the lost kind of like the losts version of hardwick, or in other words a quick and easy way to gain connections to said group. this would explain why pops has higher foot traffic and people willing to buy other things ontop of the initial pull to buy soups from there aswell. so basically people spend a little bit of money with the hopes of gaining favour of a powerful group rather than for the nutrition of the food.

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I've spent a decent bit of money and time at Pops whenever they're open just for dinner, with absolutely 0 intention of establishing any connection to the Lost.

I'm there because every time I have been has been good RP, absolutely no ulterior motive, just fun RP.

brett_bernstein said:

from what I've heard today, people are treating businesses closely related to the lost kind of like the losts version of hardwick, or in other words a quick and easy way to gain connections to said group. this would explain why pops has higher foot traffic and people willing to buy other things ontop of the initial pull to buy soups from there aswell. so basically people spend a little bit of money with the hopes of gaining favour of a powerful group rather than for the nutrition of the food.

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What are you talking about?

Sammy said:

That sounds like a very interesting theory, but anything to get away from acknowledging roleplay being put into it.

The Lost very rarely comes up, because they have nothing to do with Pop´s. Sophie is an old Lady and on a normal day to day, about as connected to the club as people bringing materials to them.

It is mainly people my character has built a connection with over time, who then bring their friends and so on - fuck all to do with the Lost, I can promise you that much

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i know pops has nothing to do with the lost im just commenting on the thought process of other people and how they have decided on which food place to make an order from. if a few people think that way, im sure many people think the same way. its not how things are, its how people perceive pops to be.

Anyway, I brought Pop´s up initially to be able to make examples, not to make it the main topic - so let´s move it along.

I´m not against changes, but I very much think soup is being used as a scapegoat for every problem to do with food right now, when there is many other things that can be done to improve the situation instead of instantly jumping to nerfing one item.

For one, I genuinely believe some restaurants are simply lazy as fuck with their rp. I won´t mention anyone in particular and it´s deffo not everyone, some of them just have it a little harder than others because of different issues, but overall a lot of people could do a hell of a lot more and reap rewards for it. I enjoy the rp around restaurants, even without the money coming in. Discounts are given out pretty much daily, because of roleplay. The more fun I´ve got with you, the less money I´ll make you spend. People remember those interactions and come back^^

brett_bernstein said:

i know pops has nothing to do with the lost im just commenting on the thought process of other people and how they have decided on which food place to make an order from. if a few people think that way, im sure many people think the same way. its not how things are, its how people perceive pops to be.

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But it isn´t brought up. And anyone that ever did try, knows that Soph will neither provide a connection to the club nor promise/ask for favours from the Lost. My connections are mine, and yes they may overlap with the Lost here and there, but this argument is absolute ridiculous imho.

I´ll be leaving it there, changes overall to balance things out - sure. Soup nerf, no. I just don´t think it would solve the issue.

Sammy said:

But it isn´t brought up. And anyone that ever did try, knows that Soph will neither provide a connection to the club nor promise/ask for favours from the Lost. My connections are mine, and yes they may overlap with the Lost here and there, but this argument is absolute ridiculous imho.

I´ll be leaving it there, changes overall to balance things out - sure. Soup nerf, no. I just don´t think it would solve the issue.

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You're telling me all this money I've spent on soup to get a cheeky gun deal from the Lost has been wasted?!

Sammy said:

I´m not against changes, but I very much think soup is being used as a scapegoat for every problem to do with food right now, when there is many other things that can be done to improve the situation instead of instantly jumping to nerfing one item.

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I agree with you here. I don’t think soups should be nerfed, they’re complex dish that you need to have 10 cooking to be able to smash them out quickly without fail. And the grind to get to 10 is not only extremely time consuming but also quite expensive in ingredients. The amount of times I failed adding sugar to a tea is crazy

I think the other signature dishes, like my omelettes, should be similar in terms of the nourishment gained. I’m not sure how that would work as I can only get 4 ingredients into an omelette or croissant, and they can’t be sold out of the till either which I get.

Complex signature dishes should all be the food to have

Soup has become the new smoothie meta, only even stronger and more restrictive. With fewer businesses offering soup than smoothies, competition has dwindled, and relying on soup has become almost the only sustainable food RP business model left.

RP partnerships with venues like Pop's or LTD don’t fix this! You can’t expect to walk into a McDonald’s and order a fine dining steak. These collaborations don’t inherently enable culinary variety, they simply reinforce one dominant meta.

Worsening matters is soup’s dual advantage, it satisfies both hunger and thirst, whereas traditional restaurant dishes often increase thirst, further cementing soup’s dominance. After a tasting menu, players still opted to “stick with soups as they are better and lighter.” That stifles menu variety and undermines culinary creativity.

Part of the problem is the disproportionate effort required for other dishes. Soups are extremely efficient: 5 water and 5 ingredients yield 5 soups. Compare this to a pasta dish: two penne meals require 1 water and 8 penne, but penne itself must first be made from dough, which is created using 3 water and 2 flour. This doesn’t even account for the additional steps needed to prepare toppings or incorporate other ingredients. The time and complexity of these dishes make them far less appealing, even when they might otherwise fit a restaurant’s menu or RP scenario.

Two solutions present themselves:

• Nerf soups by reducing their efficiency.
• Champion alternative dishes that satisfy similar mechanics, such as stews from Bayview or minestrone from Luchetti’s, to restore variety to the food RP ecosystem.

Soup hasn’t evolved RP, it has sanitised it into a single option economy. In effect, it has undermined the food update by collapsing the variety it was meant to foster. I strongly believe we need to rebalance, or else the RP culinary scene risks becoming stale and singular.

Could we not have a “flavour of the month” where a particular dish is the “meta” for a short while, means restaurants aren’t doing the same old thing all the time and people have more reason to go into them, one month/period could be soup, another could be something else. Stops people bulk buying because next week you could have a massive craving for fish and chips

Some restaurants would actively be trying to find out which recipe is the one when it’s changed over.

Heyy!!

Luchetti's lady here!

I think there is definitely some valid points here. Now I want to make it super clear that I cannot make soups, nor do I want to. My balls are very popular

But on a serious note, it is very clear that soups are the new smoothies. It totally makes sense the soup caters for both hunger and thirst but maaaaybe a bit too much? There are ways around it like naming your food weird stuff like 'Millie's Creamy Balls' because lots of us have that silly childish humour but some people just aren't about that.

Seeing people stock up on soups can be a little demoralising, especially when we all have wonderful chefs that cook up a storm in our kitchens. We could always have partnerships and exchange foods with others but doesn't really change the fact it's still soup.

It's always going to be tough and there will always be 'meta' stuff but levelling out a playing field a little more would be quite nice.

That or just make people who are on a pure soup diet have some crazy bowel movements so the rest of us can laugh at them.

Btw I love you soup chefs , this is no flame but...

I +1 this c:

Main issue people seem to have is the convenience of soup and the inconvenience of other stuff. Pockets don't have just 50 space, its been changed 50.000. 1 soup weighs 1, so 49.000 now. Now what if a croissant, or Millie's balls, and tea and other drinks weighed 0.5; so now you have 1 food item with a weight of 0.5 and 1 drink item wit ha weight of 0.5, leading to 49.000 pocket space with the same (if not better) huger and thirst quenching abilities. I have no idea if that's even possible, but this way at least other places have a chance against the convenience of soup.