Game Development: Boarded up Feelings

[jorb]

On the other hand, I have played games with no randomness in combat or other activities and they get boring very fast (any situation has a single optimum sequence of actions that always works -- ignoring PvP).

Non-random systems aren't necessarily boring or predictable, though. Look at chess.

[Ornery]

What do you mean? My Rooks are always getting crits when i play chess. Those things are OP.

[ramuller]

On the other hand, I have played games with no randomness in combat or other activities and they get boring very fast (any situation has a single optimum sequence of actions that always works -- ignoring PvP).

Non-random systems aren't necessarily boring or predictable, though. Look at chess.

Yes, but that comes under my exclusion of PvP. And I was primarily thinking of RPG style games.

[Gallient]

For something that takes 5 days to wait on, I really don't think a random system is a good option.

[ramuller]

For something that takes 5 days to wait on, I really don't think a random system is a good option.

I don't mind the randomness, per ce; however, the chance of failure seems too high. If we do things nearly right on the dry cycle, I wouldn't mind an average loss of 5 - 10% with some kind of curve that makes total loss extremely rare (this could be as simple as 40 coin tosses with adjusted chance of success based on conditions). The problem as I see it right now is our knowledge is so incomplete that we really don't know what to expect or what we can do to improve the results.

This is just one of those times where we need to leave the theorycrafters to their fun and wait a month or two for them to work out the puzzle the developers have given us and then for the developers to see the results and tune the system so it actually behaves as intended.

The good news is that this uncertainty applies to crafting step that uses easily obtained materials. Just hope they don't introduce the possibility of burning the stuffed turkey.

[harflimon]

The good news is that this uncertainty applies to crafting step that uses easily obtained materials.

You made a lot of good points in your post so I hate to nitpick out one sentence, but I gotta say it's only really easily obtained if you live in or very close to a forest. Everyone else is gonna quickly run out of trees to chop down and have to painfully haul logs from multiple screen lengths away.

[ramuller]

The good news is that this uncertainty applies to crafting step that uses easily obtained materials.

You made a lot of good points in your post so I hate to nitpick out one sentence, but I gotta say it's only really easily obtained if you live in or very close to a forest. Everyone else is gonna quickly run out of trees to chop down and have to painfully haul logs from multiple screen lengths away.

I was comparing it to the Gelatinous Lard (rare from roasting meat) that is an ingredient in the stuffed turkey.

[Nixman]

Just harvested my second batch of wood, 6 piles, all exactly 5 tiles away from anything, 5 piles gave me 100% return, 40 dry boards each, 1 pile for reasons unknown gave 6 dry boards rest were mouldy.

At this point im guessing there is a random chance that mould can set in and spread to an existing stack, if this stack is close to other stacks it will spread. At least we can confirm at this point that 5 tiles is enough to prevent mould from spreading to other pile.

[Gallient]

Just harvested my second batch of wood, 6 piles, all exactly 5 tiles away from anything, 5 piles gave me 100% return, 40 dry boards each, 1 pile for reasons unknown gave 6 dry boards rest were mouldy.

At this point im guessing there is a random chance that mould can set in and spread to an existing stack, if this stack is close to other stacks it will spread. At least we can confirm at this point that 5 tiles is enough to prevent mould from spreading to other pile.

I just harvested 8 more today myself which were spaced out 5 tiles between one another and at least 8 tiles from any other object. From what I'm noticing I believe that foot traffic does have an effect as the piles close to the path I would walk gave me 1 or 2 moldy ones, such could be explained by a random chance as well. In addition one pile gave me nearly all moldy even though there are no objects close to it, and the spacing was the exact same as all the others in the field. Therefor the ONLY possible reasons for this very moldy pile from what I can surmise is either random chance, or that the tile it was planted on might have been grass instead of dirt.

[Nixman]

I was considering if passing players would affect it too, but 2 of the piles i had were near one of my gates, yet those 2 gave me 100%, it was a back and middle pile that got mouldy that had never been passed by myself or others.