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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0004397Valley 1Gameplay IdeaJan 28, 2012 9:01 am
ReporterToll Assigned Tokeith.lamothe  
Status closedResolutionopen 
Product Version0.510 
Summary0004397: A thought about the Time Units
DescriptionI've been playing around a bit with Settlement Mode after the Time Units were introduced, and I do love the change! One (perhaps major) suggestion though: How about treating the time units as a pool? Each settler would still have its individual time units, of course (to facilitate for specials like explorers), but whenever something was done, it would draw time units from the "pool" instead of having to select a specific settler. This means that if my first settler has 5TU remaining and my second has 15, together they can explore a single square and would both be reduced to 0. If there are explorers, their TUs would be the first to go if you go exploring, otherwise the last. The same would apply to other specials that might be introduced, but once the non-special pool is empty, it would drain equally from all specialist pools. Thoughts?
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal WeightFeature Suggestion

Relationships

related to 0004390 closedkeith.lamothe Queue tasks for time unit use 

Activities

lujan22

Sep 30, 2011 7:45 pm

reporter   ~0015059

Personally I think it would be better to allow character to take more than 1 turn until they complete the action, but if this is easier to implement I would be happy with this

jerith

Sep 30, 2011 7:48 pm

reporter   ~0015061

I think multi-turn actions makes more sense, actually. Probably easier to implement anyway, since I suppose there will probably be some epic constructions available eventually that will need it.

I would like to have people work together on stuff where it makes sense, but that's hard to do with the current interface.

Toll

Sep 30, 2011 7:52 pm

reporter   ~0015063

The main thought that I built this around was, actually, "How can I get several people working together, if needed?". I see no reason why two (or ten) people can't build that building instead of one.

keith.lamothe

Sep 30, 2011 7:56 pm

administrator   ~0015065

Yea, multi-turn stuff is pretty much certain to be necessary for bigger structures. Honestly I'd rather the library take like 500 TU but for now it can't be higher than an individual's cap.

As far as scouting, it kind of already is implicitly multi-turn: you're probably already getting multiple "scout clicks" per turn for a lot of npcs, and if they have a tail end of TUs left at the end of the turn it simply carries into next turn's total and you keep scouting with them, etc.

And for other stuff like building a wind shelter (and even buildings) it's also kind of implicitly multi-turn: you have to "save up" at least two turns on that NPC to get enough TU to perform the action.

The main advantages of literal "partial completion" would be:
- multiple NPCs being able to work together
- being able to have tasks with TU costs higher than the individual NPC cap

And we want those, so we're getting there.

jerith

Sep 30, 2011 8:08 pm

reporter   ~0015067

To quote the inimitable Freddy Brooks, man-hours are not fungible. I kind of like the idea of having each person you add to a task make it more expensive in TUs, although the actual time taken gets shorter.

For example, perhaps building a house has a cumulative 20% TU cost for every person beyond the first, and starts at 100TU for 1 builder. The second builder would bump that to 120, which is 60 each. The third would go to 144, which is 48 each. The fourth goes to 173 (rounding up), which is about 43 each. The fifth goes to 208, which is 42 each. By the time you add a sixth worker, the amount of work each person is doing is actually going up.

This gives you a way to speed up certain tasks at the cost of spending more TUs in total, without making the optimal choice always assigning everyone to everything.

keith.lamothe

Sep 30, 2011 8:10 pm

administrator   ~0015069

Yes, "Mythical Man-Month" and all that. Not sure if that degree of sophistication would be necessary (or fun), but it's something I'll keep in mind.

keith.lamothe

Oct 4, 2011 2:08 pm

administrator   ~0015612

Not a complete addressing of the issue, but for 0.516:

* Settlement Management: it is now possible to execute a build action without sufficient time units (you do need at least 1 TU):
** The resulting structure will be unfinished (and drawn half faded-out with the time units icon on top of it) and won't provide any of the benefits of the completed structure.
** By left-clicking on an unfinished structure you can order your selected NPC to continue the construction. This also only requires 1 TU, and deducts from the remaining TUs required. Once TUs-left-to-build hits zero the building is completed and acts like a normal building.


Please give it a whirl when 0.516 comes out and let me know how it feels. Most other actions can be made continuable in a similar way, though each will need specific treatment since they're so different. Scouting is one I'm thinking really doesn't need partial-completion, but we'll see.

Toll

Dec 13, 2011 11:06 am

reporter   ~0017803

Given that settlements will be taken out of our hands, I suppose our need to handle timeunits will go away as well.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Sep 30, 2011 7:37 pm Toll New Issue
Sep 30, 2011 7:45 pm lujan22 Note Added: 0015059
Sep 30, 2011 7:48 pm jerith Note Added: 0015061
Sep 30, 2011 7:52 pm Toll Note Added: 0015063
Sep 30, 2011 7:56 pm keith.lamothe Note Added: 0015065
Sep 30, 2011 8:08 pm jerith Note Added: 0015067
Sep 30, 2011 8:10 pm keith.lamothe Note Added: 0015069
Oct 3, 2011 7:07 am tigersfan Internal Weight => Feature Suggestion
Oct 3, 2011 7:07 am tigersfan Status new => strongly considering
Oct 3, 2011 11:19 am jerith Relationship added related to 0004390
Oct 4, 2011 2:08 pm keith.lamothe Note Added: 0015612
Oct 4, 2011 2:08 pm keith.lamothe Assigned To => keith.lamothe
Oct 4, 2011 2:08 pm keith.lamothe Status strongly considering => feedback
Dec 13, 2011 11:06 am Toll Note Added: 0017803
Dec 13, 2011 11:06 am Toll Status feedback => assigned
Jan 28, 2012 9:01 am tigersfan Status assigned => closed
Apr 14, 2014 9:30 am Chris_McElligottPark Category Suggestion - Gameplay => Gameplay Idea