Serve Food

[Rabek]

We have "split" presently for splitting food.

Now that we have "serve" for drinks, however, I think it would add a lot of convenience and be a lot more intuitive if we used "serve" for foods, too.

"A set of plates" instead of "a set of cups," for example.

It would be nice for caterers to be able to cook one or two "main course" or "cake" objects and let people serve "a plate of X" (configurable like @cups, which is another thing the current split command doesn't allow without manual tooling of each portion) instead of cooking dozens of objects for a party.

It would help cut down on item bloat, too, by allowing a single object to do the job of several.

[Starstarfish]

I second this, but I'd like to see it as an added option rather replacing split.

Split helps to offer more servings at lower prices to be able to compete on par with NPC shops.

[Temi]

This wouldn't work well quite the same way, since 'a plate' doesn't seem like a good short for something you would eat. You would need a short specific to the dish, so that you could have a plate of spaghetti or a plate of cake, which makes the generic serving dishes make less sense. I love the idea of them, but I am not quite sure how to reconcile it with food not living nicely with disposable containers now.

Something that would work, without the cool personalized dishes but with the different shorts for whole and parts, would be like the ability for the chef to add an @split on the food item. So you have your three-tiered chocolate cake, with a @split of a piece of chocolate cake, and every time you split it, you get the single serving desc with the same @taste from the whole thing. If there is no @split, you just get the same short as the whole.

[Starstarfish]

That would be awesome, as otherwise you have to know ahead of time if you plan on splitting something or keeping it whole to avoid the descrip being awkward.

[Rabek]

That would work! I forgot that @cups goes on the "set" object and not the drink object.

[Andruid]

Whether serve or split, I think it would help if the command could be used on food items that are in the room, so that you don't have to pick up the main item to take a piece from it. That would really be the main benefit of this sort of adjustment, IMO.