I agree with V1ruS and snipertrifle on all points, though I don't like a cook time of more than a couple minutes.

Tangentally, cooking meat in the woods sounds like a great way to attract carnivores.

I agree, although a 5 min cooking time and a 2 min time till burning seems more realistic to me. Also, burnt steaks shouldn't make you ill IMO, but contain less nutritional value.

Upvoted for visibilty.

It really seems quite strange that cooking steaks take about 8-10 minutes in real time, while growing tomatoes takes much less.

The long cooking times really puts me off hunting IMHO.

Voting down because the amount too cook is perfectly fine - 2 or even 5 minutes are ridiculously low. Though I think meat should not move from cooked to burned state that fast.

Maybe 8-10 minutes to cook and 1-2 minutes to burn would be better - could also depend on the fire: Using one stick to fuel the fire should greatly increase cooking time compared to a fire fuels by five pieces of firewood.

It might seem fine if you always cook meat together with friends and use that time to chat and do other things. I don't mind it that much when I play with a group.

But it's completely different when playing by yourself - just sitting by the fire and doing nothing but watch steaks.

The cooking time is fine in my opinion - but I agree with a 2 min time from cooked to burn as well.

Even when you are all on your own, this is what you would do - watch the meat cooking. It's interesting that the attention span of a few minutes seems to be too long ;) ( its not meant to be a personal offence, its just spoken in general ).

The "watch the steaks cook" thing is no different than watching paint dry, which I'm sure is not interesting either from an attention span point of view.

Looking at in terms of attention span, it has to be worth paying attention TO. Which it doesn't, since there is A) no interactivity and B) no progression going on with the cooking itself.

Nice straw man, btw.

EDIT: From a game design perspective, it also doesn't really make sense. In an RPG for example, you are doing other things while an ability such as a spell is on a cooldown - you are not required to stare at a timer the whole time. And in DayZ, when you grow tomatoes there is no "fail point" where you must pluck the tomatoes out of the ground before they go bad.

The combination of long cooking time, nothing else to do related to cooking, and most crucially, a requirement to make sure the steaks don't burn makes for a dull experience.

What about not staring at the steaks but rather do something else in the meantime? If you know the approximate time you can come back once steaks are almost done.

From a game perspective it does make a lot of sense - while cooking your are bound to one place with light and smoke possibly giving away your location. its a moment of vulnerability that needs to be compensated. The reward is cooked meat. You should not demand the reward without taking the risk.

However interactivity and progression would greatly improve the feature. Unrealistically short cooking times because kids get bored and want quick action are not.

• Fair enough about doing other things, but IMHO this would greatly benefit from steaks not burning as fast as they do now.

• At present the fires in DayZ do not light up from that far away to present a serious risk to the player, but could be improved. However, hunting and cooking steaks also need to have a greater reward attached to it (as other kinds of food is plentiful and meat gives you no additional buffs).

• Could we please drop the "COD kids with ADD want instant gratification" bullshit? I am most certainly not a kid, and whether or not I appreciate patience depends on what mechanisms and rewards there is in place for it. Hunting by itself requires patience, but is rewarding - you have to find the right supplies and go after animals in the environment. All of which is fun because it's interactive.

Besides, most other activities in DayZ use a compressed timescale. Plucking apples/filling the water bottle in the rain/eating itself etc.

Why should cooking steaks be real time as an exception?

Don't know if you guys noticed, but it was cut down to around 5-8 minutes top with the last update

Not sure if you guys noticed but the meat will cook quicker with more wood on the fire (or it seems that way for me)

I did upvote this for the cooked-to-burnt part.
I don't mind the meat cooking for quite some time. But the time frame to take it off the fire before it gets burnt is ridiculous indeed.

You should be able to see when the steak is done without looking in the inventory (lid of the pot open)

Especially since you cannot make fire inside houses it's hard to look around and constantly switching to your tab "view contents" view

Also crops go bad if you wait too long

Since 0.53 stable, my steaks have been cooking in about 1 minute. Don't know if that's the way of the future, but it seems to have changed recently.