a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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IMO like half the complaints about decay could be satisfied by just adding a new container that's a much longer lasting alternative to basket.
Oh wow. You guys are really burning out Jason quick. Jason, you really need to take a day or two to rest, this ain't good for you.
Uhm, all you need is to modify the formula to T(a) + b = T + d. That is, a tool contains a number of virtual items which represent tool uses. When you use an axe on a tree the axe doesn't actually get transmuted, it just delivers an axe use item to the tree, which is consumed in the transmutation and the only output is the chopped tree. True, this only covers cases where you use a tool on an item on the ground and the item gets modified there while the tool remains in the hand. But that is the vast majority of tool use scenarios, and RNG on the subset of tools that combine into the transition (like froe or chisel) wouldn't be as bad as RNG on all tools.
I think the game's concept of being forced to climb the tech tree kinda requires moving onto higher tier materials for water containers. If everything runs out, so should pouches and bowls. Giving them decay when they're constantly transforming into different objects is tricky, but if they were containers they could simply decay just like baskets. Additionally, providing many alternative ways to carry water for example can lead to a more varied gameplay at the same tech level. The choice of which alternative to use would depend on local biomes. You could have more variety in viable start locations, so the Eve experience would be less repetitive.
As for automating recipe generation, it's perfectly reasonable for things like small wood chopper. But I think it's kinda getting stretched when you're defining a category of full water carriers, because you're just defining a water object without actually defining it (forcing it to be a property instead), which leads to all sorts of hacks down the line.
The Russian alphabet. If you see babies saying that call Rachel Maddow.
Could they be saying б? It's lowercase Cyrillic b.
IDK, I think there's lots to gain from expanding the container system. Consider water, for example. If you want to add another object for carrying it, you have to define all the possible water interactions for the new container, so the number of crafting recipes will grow exponentially as you add more objects, rendering the crafting tips useless. I can understand preferring mess in data over mess in code, but not when the mess in data would be orders of magnitude bigger than the one in code. Alternatively we could still be using rabbit skin pouches to fill our cars' radiators, but that's kinda ugly to me.
Berry bush is a container that doesn't accept input and only generates contents through time-based "decay". Nice sideffect is that interactions wouldn't have to reset the regeneration timer. Not that big of a deal for berry bushes, but a huge buff to wells.
It makes sense to exclude picking berries from the crafting paradigm, because you're not really crafting anything. Not any more than you do when you pull a carrot from a basket.
a + b = c + d is an elegant design, but there is no place for object permanency in this paradigm. So the very concept of limited number of uses doesn't fit in, and should be scrapped if you're going to be faithful to the original vision.
You are not using a shovel of dung, though, you are using just the dung. The shovel is just the container that's required to transfer the dung. You can preserve the same dung object from the moment it's created to the moment it's consumed. Interactions requiring empty shovel simply check if the shovel isn't currently containing anything. Seems simpler for adding future shovel recipes too, for example you might need a shovel to transfer coal into a boiler, or wet concrete from concrete mixer to stakes.
As for which properties are required, that's not the sort of thing that you can fully plan out ahead, just add as needed. That doesn't mean you can't be thrifty with properties, but when one is going to make the game simpler to maintain why not add it? All these cases we're discussing could be covered by a float "Condition", which as a bonus would also let some actions cause more wear on tool than others (chopping a tree vs chopping kindling for example). Is there a significant reason why object size has to stay fixed? Some fancy pointer arithmetic optimizations?
Yeah, I don't really see the content getting far if interactions are straitjacked by objects having no variable properties.
Are so many different objects and transitions really a must? It'd make more sense to me if objects such as bushes were containers like baskets. Except instead of decaying on update they generate berries. Combined items like froe and boards can be virtual containers that are destroyed when you take out all but one item. So yeah, using shovel on bush should involve one transition on the bush regardless of how many of it's slots are filled because that's how basket decay works. And tools should really track a separate use counter instead of using transitions every time, so this side should also be a single item in the whole bush-shovel interaction.
IDK, I guess I could live with randomized tool breaking if it's really killing the content adding pace, but I'm not a fan of it at all. RNGesus hates me, and I know I'll always lose my axe just when I need to chop one more kindling to make a new one.
Just what we needed, soil was getting really scarce.
If you're banished you won't be having any babies, so there's all the time in the world to experiment. Heck, you could easily survive without ever making a farm.
..and it's gone. Well, will be next update most likely.
Banishment. Once again the problem here returns to the new players who are just trying to learn. They're going to screw up and probably ruin a town now and again. And people are going to be upset. However, banishing a new player who doesn't even know how to farm properly to live alone in the wild for an hour, or worse yet have to complete some complex task, is only going to lead to less new players staying in the game. When I spawn as an Eve I suicide ninety percent of the time, because I know I don't know enough to accomplish anything that way yet. I need the established settlements to learn. If I'm kicked out on my own, banishment enforced by the spawn system itself, I can learn nothing, and not only will I do no better the next time I join a town, I may be angry enough to do worse intentionally. Basically, this is a solution that creates it's own problem.
Lolwut? Playing all by yourself is the easiest way to learn. How do you think the rest of us did it? It's basic etiquette, if you spawn into a town and you don't know how to be useful, you either find somebody willing to teach you or if you can't you strike out in the wilderness and survive on berries while trying to learn stuff. Staying in town and eating their carrots while you can't make an actual contribution just makes you a parasite.
I for one want the previous Eve spawning back, it was nice to have enough food to raise a kid or two before the first carrot harvest. Not to mention milkweed will be extinct in the spawn area even faster than back at launch because we need so much more of it now.
Basically means that they are a forum user, and thus likely to be fairly knowledgable of the game. You might want to prioritize these babies as they tend to be more helpful.
It's not the decay, it's the fact that you randomly die from lost connection every single life.
I don't think people made "backpacks" in ancient time (though it's hard to tell things about materials that decay), likely saddlebags were much more common. Furthermore they were able to carry things on horses via saddlebags, not simply carts.
Otzi the iceman was found with a wood framed backpack, so I'd say backpacks are older than horse domestication. They're the most sensible way to haul stuff over long distances (basket in hand gets cumbersome real quick), so it makes sense to me that they were invented very early.
Easier rope for all the tools we now need. A crop probably, maybe flax or hemp. Hemp could perhaps be craftable directly into rope so milkweed is still valuable (for sewing), and perhaps hemp could be processed into thread much later with some higher tech stuff.
Yeah, some decayed stuff should be recyclable (like wood for kindling), some should be repairable (like backpacks) and only a few should be complete waste.
Yeah, had it happen both lives I managed to live, both after like ~12 years.
Dough makes four pies now, so bringing a cart of wheat gets you 16 pies. You can feed like four clothed people their whole life with a single wild wheat trip.