Cook-off mechanics (and explanation of a bug)

[KFCrispy]

Appetizer vs Entree vs Dessert
Based on my testing, there's no difference between what you choose for any of the 3 courses. You can serve steak for appetizer, a burger for desert, and a lollipop for the main course, and it'll score the same as if you had picked an order that made more sense in real life.

The bar?
Back in Suikoden 2, people questioned whether mashing X to fill the bar during the cooking sequence had an effect, and the answer was no!

This time, I have found filling the bar does matter. I only did a few observations, so the way I interpret how the score gets affected could be wrong, but the bottom line is you'll want to mash until the bar gets filled.

If your bar is below 50%, the score seems to get cut in half, with the odd values being rounded down--if the score normally would have gotten a 3, you get a 1 instead. If it's over 50% but less than 100%, the score seems to get cut in half and rounded up, meaning a score of 3 will end up becoming a 2.

If you fill the bar, you'll get 100% of the score, which is what the opponent always gets.

[Julian]

Some quick notes I took, was going to create a wiki article this weekend but didn't have time:

Each dish has a value for each type, so a spicy dish might have spicy 5 and sweet 1. Each judge has a type that maps to those types.

Each judge has a certain mood, depending on the emote:
30% Good (music note)
55% Normal (laughter emote thing)
15% Bad (thinking/"..." emote)

Surprise dish mechanics:
If 1 surprise dish:
applies to surprise dish only:
5% chance force max score
95% normal scoring

If 2 surprise dishes:
applies to all dishes:
10% chance to force max score
30% chance: score adj = -2, -1, 0, 1, or 2
60% no change

If 3 surprise dishes:
Applies to all dishes:
All surprise adj = 0.5

If doing a cook off with a forced score, score = 5, if picked a character's liked item, score = 5

Basic score = the basic value of the dish for the judge's preferences (so dish's spicy score for a spicy judge)
Completeness adj = if < 50% complete, 0.5; if <80%, 0.7; otherwise 1.0
Category adj = 0.5 if item not used in correct category (dessert served as appetizer), otherwise 1.0 if correct
Mood adj = normal: 1.0, good: 1.25, bad: 0.75

Final score = (Basic score + score adj from surprise mechanic 2) * completeness adj * category adj * mood adj * all surprise adj

Value is cast to an int and floored. Score is clamped between 0 and 5. (So if the score was a 6, it gets reduced to 5. Negative increases to 0.)

The game seems to be currently bugged. The "round" is never initialized so it's initialized to 0, which corresponds to Appetizer, meaning all rounds are currently scored as appetizer.

[KFCrispy]

Thanks, so maybe it's an easier fix than I thought. I had assumed the character preferences were not completed, but perhaps we just need to properly increment the course type to see the real scoring come into play.

[Julian]

Interesting tid-bit:

The game uses the *exact same* taste categories that S2 did.