Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-24108228-20140529230656

First off, don't judge the idea by the name. Or the supposed timeframe I'm supposedly breaking. This is a legitimate suggestion, with well thought out components. I'm happy for the timeframe to be a part of your argument for why my idea should be thrown in a hole and left to die, but please try your best to avoid it being the only thing you point out before locking the thread. =Chocolate= Chocolate is a food made from cocoa beans, and (sometimes) milk. The actual creation of chocolate in real life is more complicated, but I've kept it simple to avoid giving the game a chocolate overhaul.

Cocoa Pod
The cocoa pod is an item that grows on cocoa trees. The cocoa trees look similar to the banana trees from Survival:Beginnings, and have four cocoa pods per tree. The trees are native to jungle island and teraphyx island.

The cocoa pod is a 2x4x2 light-brown cuboid, and used to replant cocoa trees when planted in a large compost with farming 5. It is flammable.

Cocoa Beans
The cocoa beans is an item crafted from cocoa pods, and is the key component to all things chocolatey. Cocoa Pod > Create Item = Cocoa Beans Farming 1 The farming requirement means that making cocoa beans improves your farming level slightly. Which it would, as your processing and taking apart a crop.

The cocoa beans is a 3x1x3 brown cuboid, and is flammable.

Chocolates
Chocolate is more than a single type of food. It can be made into four different varieties. They're all pretty similar, but all have their own individual purpose.

Dark Chocolate
The dark chocolate is the simplest of chocolate to make, as it only requires cocoa beans to create: Cocoa Beans + Cocoa Beans + Cocoa Beans > Create Item = Dark Chocolate Cooking 4 The dark chocolate has 3 portions, each restoring 50 hunger for a total of 150 hunger. It is a 2x2x3 dark brown cuboid.

Its purpose is to allow for players to create chocolate related goods without the need for a cow. Although it is inferior to the chocolate created with help from cows, many players will not have access to a cow, which means this type of chocolate is for them.

Chocolate
Good ol' regular chocolate. Cocoa Beans + Cocoa Beans + Milk > Create Item = Chocolate Cooking 5 The chocolate contains 3 portions, each of which give the consumer 65 hunger for a total of 195 hunger. It is a 2x2x3 brown cuboid.

Its purpose is to function as the best chocolate hunger wise. It requires milk, which is easy to mass produce but hard to get your hands on in the first place, being in the middle of a large landmass at the side of the map. This adds an element of difficulty to the best cooking food in the game, as the player is unable to create it in endless bulk unless they live by cows or ship a cow (which is a lot harder than it sounds).

Milk Chocolate
Some people prefer milk chocolate, myself included. Plus, some people have more milk than cocoa beans. This one is for them. Cocoa Beans + Milk + Milk > Create Item = Milk Chocolate Cooking 4 This chocolate contains 3 portions, each restoring 45 hunger and 10 thirst. It is a 2x2x3 light brown cuboid.

This chocolate allows people who live at mainland, and have the necessary cooking skills to make chocolate, though lack the farming skills to make chocolate, while making the most of their cocoa beans. It also serves as a food-drink hybrid, a rare sight, and something I wish I saw more of.

Drinking Chocolate
Or as some people call it, hot chocolate. I prefer the latter, but the former is more clear. Glass of Milk + Cocoa Beans + Cocoa Beans = Drinking Chocolate Cooking 3 This chocolate contains 2 portions, each restoring 20 thirst and 15 hunger. It is a 1x2x1 translucent brown cuboid.

Inferior to pretty much everything else, this is simply a new beverage, because we need them. It restores twice as much thirst as our current top drinks, the apple juice and glass of milk, and does a decent amount of hunger too. It may not be as good as the chocolate, which costs the same amount, but hey, that's why it has two levels lower cooking requirement.

Why This Should be Added
Now, to be really honest, the main reason I started formulating a new suggestion on chocolate was to move the forum activity away from all the little arguments we are having over at the "Unrealistic Stuff" thread, which is currently dominating the forum activity.

However, the more I wrote, the more I realised this was a great (and needed) aspect to the game.

Firstly, it gives rise to the underused farming skill. Its "Child Skill" cooking hardly needs it, with wheat being plentiful, and berries/apples similar. This changes all that. With a new crop, which creates the best foods, yet requiring a lot of cocoa beans, this allows for farmers to thrive, because cooks now need a butload of these new cocoa bean thingymabobs, and the only people who can deliver is the farmers, who have large farms. No longer is paradise island a one stop shop for a lifetime supply of everything a cook ever needs. The new cocoa pod means that you need a lot of trees worth of cocoa for the chocolate, which Mother Nature (in all her OPness) cannot provide.

The cooking skill was always one dimensional. "Do tedious work, get good food." is the one path of the chef. No longer is that the case. The chocolates are incredibly easy to make, especially when compared things like to the infamous craft-chain behemoth that is bread. The effort is now put on the farmers, who no longer create more wheat than any cook could use with a single harvest. Cooks now gets the extra option of "Do good farming, get good food.", and the bonus option of gathering milk for something less useless than cheese creation, which although in theory awesome, is hard to pull off, as cheese takes an age to create. This brings me onto my next point:

It makes cows good for more than just spawnkilling. Cows were always just a quick and easy food source for mithrilites. No longer the case with this new chocolate! The chocolate means that milk can be used for an easy to make and appealing in every way food source, instead of cheese, which is inferior to the "Use the iron to make a sword and hatchet, and spawnkill the cow instead of milk it." method.

Conclusion
In conclusion, chocolate is a great way to re-vitalise farmers in tribes, as well as allow for more use for milk and cow shipments. And before you leave a comment saying "Out of da timeframe." and a negative vote in my poll, chocolate has been around since 1750BC. That's a long while before the medieval period. It may seem modern, but really it isn't. Chocolate? Yes No, but only because I deem it out of the timeframe. No 