Guilds/Coastal Plains/Cooking/Tests

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Test Data

The data on this page lists test data for Additive:Base pairs, presented in the following order

• Additive (Herbs and Mushrooms for the most part)
• Base (Fish and Veggies for the most part)
• Test (Anything. It's just a way to track why you were doing the test in the first place.)

If you conduct an identical test in your kitchen, the Bulk should be identical. The Potency changes slowly with global usage, and after a few months we'll find ourselve missing our target performance.You are encouraged to validate and/or update this infomation to indicate current potencies, but do please indicate your name and the game date at the time of your test. Please leave out the Year lable, and the trailing comma.

Calculations

The formula for duration is Duration = Proportional Potency + Bulk. Stated mathmatically, Duration = (Potency * Na / (Na + Nb)) + Bulk, where Na is the units of the same Additive Ingredient and Nb is the units of same Base ingredient. Na < Nb is a necessary requirement, as the ingredient with the greater portion is regarded as the Base. Multiple additives per base recipes are a different can of worms.

• Potency is an attribute of every ingredient. However, when calculating Duration:
  • The potency of the Additive is factored in.
  • The potency of the Base is ignored. The ingredient with the most units is always the base.
• Bulk is an attribute of every ingredient pair.
  • Bulk has no meaning for individual ingredients.

The spreadsheet that's available on the Insertpage performs all of the necessary equations but, if you wish to verify the results manually, you can use the following steps.

• Test a recipe with a 1:6 Additive:Base ratio. For example, 1 Cabbage and 6 Oil.
  • You should get a duration around 2m 37s.
  • Total seconds = m*60 + s so we have 2*60+37=157 seconds for 1:6 Cabbage:Oil.
• Test a recipe with a 1:13 Additive:Base ratio. For example, 1 Cabbage and 13 Oil.
  • You should get a duration around 2m 21s.
  • Total seconds = m*60 + s so we have 2*60+21=141 seconds for 1:13 Cabbage:Oil
• Now we have two equations that are instances of:
  • Duration = (Potency * Na / (Na + Nb)) + Bulk.
  • Duration7 = Potency/7 + Bulk where Duration7 = 157.
  • Duration14 = Potency/14 + Buld where Duration14 = 141.
• Subtacting the second equation from the first gives
  • Duration7 - Duration14 = Potency/7 - Potency/14
  • Duration7 - Duration14 = Potency (2/14 - 1/14)
  • 157 - 141 = Potency/14
  • 16 = Potency/14
  • Potency = 16*14 = 224
• Now that Potency is established, we can plug the value into the equation for the 1:6 ratio test.
  • Duration = Porportional Potency + Bulk
  • Duration = Potency*1/7 + Bulk
  • Bulk = Duration - Potency/7
  • Bulk = 157 - 224/7 = 125

In other material, you may have seen Duration described as Duration = 1000 - Distance + Additive Bonus, but the concept of distance isn't relevant at this stage of the testing. Later, when it's needed, Distance = 1000 - Bulk.

Test Groups

The potency of ingredients, large picture, varies over time. Rare herbs are very potent while common fish and veggies lack potency. However, for any particular recipe, or for a group of recipes cooked over the course of a few hours, potency doesn't change very much. If you are conducting crtical research, simply bracket your data with an identical test and, if the potency has changed, decide if your test set needs to be redone. It sounds simple:

• Make a couple of tests
• Back out the fixed elements
• Solve for the variable elements

   Of course there's a catch. If uou remove the porportional potency, there might not be anything left. 
   The Buik may be less than zero, and you'll have no feedback regarding how far it's negative. 

Here's the recommended approach, when you don't have a sure thing.

• Use a series of 1:6 tests for a particular additive and various bases.
• Pick the pair that returned the most duration, and test that pair at 1:13. It might not work either, but it's your best shot.
• Now that you know the potency for the Additive, it's a simple matter to go back and subtract Potency/7 from each of the pair durations. You now have:
  • The Potency for the Additive
  • The Bulk for each of several Additive:Base pairs.

It's very, very tempting to also record the Stats for each test. If you wish to include that information, simply write it in the field that will eventually contain your Name and the Date of the test. Keep the test notes, as we'll need some of that information later on, when we get around to worrying about the global relationship between pairs, rather than just isolated pairs of ingredients.

Test Information

Additive *******	Ta	Poten	Bulk	Base*1:6********	Tb	1:6	1:13	7m	7s	14m	14s	Test	Tester*****	***GameDate