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[AzyWng]

Once you’re done with a skill book, it’s possible to learn recipes from some kinds, right? Once you’ve trained up to the max skill the book can improve, how do you learn the recipies?

[Arcvasti]

I think that you have a chance to memorize any of the recipes in the book by just reading it again. Of course, you can just leave the book near your crafting area and you'll be able to access all of the recipes in it without having to spend hours and hours memorizing everything. Or at least that was how it worked when I last played, which admittedly was quite a while ago.

[Random_Dragon]

I think that you have a chance to memorize any of the recipes in the book by just reading it again.

That was removed, now you have to actually craft the thing. Because evidently human beings are incapable of memorizing a recipe unless they do it by rote.

[AzyWng]

evidently human beings are incapable of memorizing a recipe unless they do it by rote.

The exact extent of the Cataclysm’s effects are unclear...

We only know that it has affected everyone in some way.

[Random_Dragon]

Plus evidently the ratio for blackpowder is too magical for the common survivor to know by heart. Am I just weird for knowing 65-15-10 instinctively?

[Liber celi]

I think that you have a chance to memorize any of the recipes in the book by just reading it again.

That was removed, now you have to actually craft the thing. Because evidently human beings are incapable of memorizing a recipe unless they do it by rote.

That's a good change, because it makes learning ALL recipes an interesting challenge instead of a grind.

I always use the pre-packaged craftable guns(?) mod, so I don't feel very strongly about gunpowder. (And every character successful enough to worry about this owned a small hill of superfluous ammo anyway...)

Nitrocellulose exploding into your face now and then might be interesting gameplay, at least if it's more likely to destroy your tools and workshop than killing you outright.

[AzyWng]

The act of learning from books is still a grind. Would we want to have that changed/removed, too? Make it so you can only learn by doing the action in question?

If I just want to, say, learn the recipient for a first aid kit, then I’d have to specifically search for disinfectant, bandages, and thread of some kind, and i’d Just have to keep the book nearby for when I finally got the ingredients. And if I’m particularly unlucky, finding the stuff could prove as big as oof an even worse grind than sitting in a room just reading.

Also, crafting that has a chance of going wrong and hurting you, while realistic, doesn’t come across as very fun.

[Liber celi]

Something as crucial as the first aid kit is very likely to be crafted many times, making the one time you need the book much less significant.
As for trying to find ingredients and spare parts and dying: That pretty much is the game. If you just want to press the R button, safely, feel free to use any text editor.

The act of learning from books is still a grind. Would we want to have that changed/removed, too? Make it so you can only learn by doing the action in question?

That's a weird jump of logic so I'll answer both of those rhetorical questions with "no?"

[AzyWng]

While I made a joke about the whole "humans can't perform rote memorization after the cataclysm" thing, I'm... yeah, I'm not too happy about the idea of having to craft the recipe or else keep the book around. Yes, I can't even survive long enough for this to matter, but I'm still not enthused about it.

Also, I'll try to explain the odd jump in logic.

The way I saw the whole problem with reading was that both reading to learn a recipe and reading to train up a skill, while both have different end results, still have both the same action required to do them (that is, you sit still and read something for a few hours). This means that both actions would suffer from at least the same gameplay issues - namely, that you're standing still for several hours while you read.

What makes the fact you can read a book (thereby standing still for several hours) to train a skill okay, but the fact that you could read a book (thereby standing still for several hours) to memorize a recipe not okay?

[Egan_BW]

...Reading books to learn the recipes in them sounds like fine gameplay to me.

[AzyWng]

I'm asking why it isn't, which the removal of reading for recipes would imply.

[Arcvasti]

I imagine it was removed because it was never actually useful. I can't think of any situation where you'd be crafting a recipe 1: That is only found in a book, 2: Away from your main base and 3: A recipe that you've never made before. I really don't see how having to have a giant stack of books next to your crafting area is annoying at all. You already want a giant stack of books in order to learn skills from them and it makes sense to have them near the same light source you use for crafting. Even if that weren't true, you need a giant stack of tools and materials in your crafting area anyways, which presents exactly the same limitations as the book stack.

The act of learning from books is still a grind. Would we want to have that changed/removed, too? Make it so you can only learn by doing the action in question?

Learning skills in C:DDA is grindy in general. With the exception of melee combat skills and maybe dodging, levelling your skills is a grind. Whether that grind consists of making curtains into shoulder straps or reading a book for hours on end doesn't really matter that much.

[Random_Dragon]

I looked into it. It turns out the "to learn by reading or not to learn by reading" thing has been discussed way the hell back in 2014. There's very little discussion in the back-and-forth between KA101, Kevin, and Rivet over versus why not, but Kevin's reasoning seems to be:

I mostly just think that cold-reading a recipe to memorize it doesn't make much sense, and it's not engaging, and you end up with recipes you don't want.

Kevin did regard the idea as "controversial" and made a separate PR out of it, but only two parts in this discussion that looked like a "nah" was:
* KA101 pointing out skills are a hassle to grind even without good recipes.
* One person, saying it'll potentially worsen the disparity between crafting skills that are hard to grind (like traps) versus easily-raised skills like survival.

Yes, at one point in the distant past, a PR could actually be referred to as "controversial" without there being a massive shitstorm on the PR page. Ah, what simple times, and I regret having become a contributor at the very tail end of those days.

EDIT: I missed KA101 making the tiny sentence that sparked the second prson's longer point. My point that this is impressively tame compared to how PR discussion i nowadays still stands.

[Gentlefish]

The "craft with book nearby with chance to memorize" was a good balancing move for the game. As is the fact that "dirty" clothing is also (currently) optional is fantastic, considering how hard it is to "clean" anything in this game.
Which is silly since a pot, fire, and water should be good enough for me, at least, to accept dirty clothes, but the interactions simply aren't there.

[Eschar]

Without prompting you (Y/N?) every (Y/N?) time.

I want to start using "Y/N?" as a minor curse word now.

Also, I've found possibly the creepiest survivor note to date, on an abandoned farm. Didn't help that the notes are written in all caps, either.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"WHY DO ALL THE DEAD CHILDREN GO TO SCHOOL"

...at least "the goo is in the water don't drink the water" has a clear meaning, but what the (Y/N?) does this one mean? If I raid a school will I find hundreds of little zombie children staring at me?