The crafting system is way more restrictive and narrow in MO2 compared to MO1.
Can't even feed soup or flowers to horses. At least make it so that they will not like the food or refuse to eat it if it isn't the right food. But at least allow us to feed it to them.
I remember back in MO1 we could use hard or bendable materials for the weapon outer handle. Now we can only use foldable materials.
No more one-handed spears, which makes no sense. Medieval and ancient armies had soldiers using both a spear and shield at the same time.
No more holding a torch in the offhand while holding a one-handed weapon in the main hand at the same time. Makes me wonder if SV is trying to emulate the original Doom 3.
Most of the complexities" MO1 had in crafting were placeholder mechanics. In many classes there were a lot of mats that didn't had any use whatsoever. For years despite being lots of materials, most meta crafted items would just use a handfull of materials.
That versatility that was promised wasn't real, but in that case at least opened the experimentation approach which don't really exist RN.
To be honest how it is now reflects the maturity of the team in simplifying and not filling the game with that many placeholder content like MO1.
I hope crafting Will continue to grow and get more complex and offer more alternatives but yeah cooking is bad rn.
Also soph was just a silly stat that only measured the player's wealth by accessing high soph foods, it had almost no use and it was really hard to get. In cooking soph was nothing but piling up expensive mats, it wasn't complex at all.
It could have been something but it was another placeholder mechanic, just like cooking, they didn't ever priorize" on those classes.
And yeah if they had to put one thing in game is cooking and food for pets lol, i mean no horse soup??? Thats broken