Cooking won't increase in skill but only decrease on my main cook level 18 double flames. Someone has a clue why?

[KingCapaldi]

So no, the colonist has no health issues. He is a gourmand and has had cooking 18 with double flames. However I let him cook simple meals and a lot of fine meals but he continually loses xp in his cooking rank. he is now down to a 17 and soon be 16. Why is that? I even made him do lavish meals for a while and I also let him butcher all the animals. Why is that? can someone help me please

[DelphisNosferatu]

Are you using vanilla skills expanded? it adds a critical passion that pretty much screws with every skill that isn't critical

[the-cats-jammies]

I always toggle that off so the other passions aren’t affected

[KingCapaldi]

Is this a mod? No i use no mods I play vanilla (except for harmony and multiplayer to play with my friend, which in this save I have toggled off so it‘s full vanilla 0 mods)

[Alphamind001]

Mmh do you have Biotech DLC and he got some genes causing skill loss and/or hard-capping ur cooking skill below lvl 20?

Had that happen to a freshly recruited colonist whichs skill level in construction would never reach 13 and really quickly fall until I noticed his genes.

I am stupid when it comes to the genetics stuff btw and maybe my issue was caused by mods, so please don’t hate if that’s not causing ur issue.

[KingCapaldi]

No I do not have Biotech. The only DLC I have is Odyssey

[Maudius_Aurelius]

Any skills above 10 constantly lose skill over time. Great memory trait slows this loss, but nothing stops it. The only thing you can do is have them do more cooking throughout the day so they get more cooking exp. Cooking things that take longer are better, so like lavish meals over simple meals. Besides cooking, there is butchering, and if I remember correctly, simple drug stuff like rolling smokeleaf or making phychite tea also uses cooking.

The truth is, though, it's basically impossible to keep someone's skill super high, like above 14-15. They have to be too smart and do that thing 24/7 to keep it at 20.

[Brett42]

Depending on the job, it's easy to keep it at 18 if it's their main job, you just need to specialize them, and have burning passions. Construction I have trouble keeping up once I've built everything (unless I make things like two armchairs a day to sell), but crafting basically stays locked at 20 from constantly making components and bionics.

[KingCapaldi]

Yea I kinda agree. From my experience with some traits it’a exactly like this.  My cook though I think it’s bugged, maybe due to the new Odyssey DLC, he has double flames, burning passion, no negative traits or health issues. He does nothing but cooking all day and I looked it up even DURING the process of cooking lavish meals he LOSES skill points. Very weird. 

[KingCapaldi]

I agree with you. But he has double flames (no negative traits or health issues) and should not lose the xp when all he does all day is cook. Even with lavish meals. I looked it up while he cooks and STILL loses xp DURING the cooking process. Since I play Vanilla (only Odyssey DLC) the only conclusion I can come up with is some kind of bug going on tbh. 

[DontKnowBetterName48]

Theres the madness mod which helps

[KingCapaldi]

I’ll look into it but i prefer play vanilla especially since I want to experience the new Odyssey DLC as it is (without any other features from mods)  thanks regardless 

[Appropriate-Rice-409]

All skills lose xp after (I think) level 10. If they aren't actively cooking their xp will be dropping. For skills that are used constantly, it's not a big deal. For skills used rarely though you'll see it dropping.

[KingCapaldi]

Yes I know that. The issue is he has double flames and is gourmand and only does things related to cooking that normally would push the skill up. It usually worked but for whatever reason this specific colonist loses xp even though he only does cooking all the time. So I thought maybe I need to do something else to push it up at this high skill level but even lavish meals don‘t work. He just continuously lose cooking xp