Background Tasks

[trollson]

This suggestion arose off the thread on "Loss of Knowledge"

 

Background Tasks

Reusing the Research Counter for Day Jobs

The Research Counter is used to represent the background task of learning a new knowledge; the character can continue with other activities in the foreground.

 

Since books are limited, this feature eventually becomes unused. Can it represent other types of background activity?

 

I suggest that we use it to represent a characters "day job". The point of this is to take away some of the grind.

 

For example, if your character is an alchemist, use it to represent them making fire essences; converting ingredents directly from storage.

 

Before you cry foul on mass production; this is not the same as mixing in the foreground! Consider the following limitations:

• No experience -- This is the complement to the schools & academies; you exchange the experience for no grind.
  
• No exotics -- No chance of any enriched or modifiable products, no chance of finding stones if harvesting or mining.
  
• Higher ingredient loss -- Any failure is a loss, which is 50% at the recommended skill level.
  
• Slow -- This is a trickle not a flood; no more than one per minute, less for more complicated items.
  

The current requirements for research are also inherited:

• Food & Hunger -- the character must not be hungry, and food is consumed per minute regardless of power saving perk or cape.
  
• One background task at a time -- can't read and mix in the background.
  

But there are benefits:

• No Recipe Food Requirement -- the food cost for the recipe is gone, subsumed by the food & hunger requirement of research.
  
• No Tool Requirements -- You don't need to be carrying the tools, since you are doing the work in the background. However, one set of tools may be consumed when the task starts.
  
• Predictable Yield? -- Rather than require a roll per item, just use the yield given by the character's skill when the task starts (eg, 50% at recommended level).
  
• No Grind for mundane production!
  

If you want stuff quickly, it is still more efficient to either mix in the foreground, or to get others to do it:

If it takes 1 minute to produce 1 FE in the background, how many could you have produced

directly?

How would this play out?

 

For artisans:

1. Stock up on the ingredients in your storage, and make sure there are tools there.
   
2. Either acquire a "book" to use (a work permit?) or visit an NPC; there will be a cash cost here. Use the book or the NPC to start the background task.
   
3. When the background task starts; one set of tools and the batch of ingredients are removed from storage.
   
4. When the task is complete, the batch of finished items is added to storage (if you have a slot!).
   

Alternative:

• Incremental production -- each minute ingredients are taken from storage, and a finished produce returned. Ingredients must be available for the background task counter to progress. After all failures are accounted for, finished goods are added to storage.
  
  

For miners and harvesters:

• As for artisans, except no ingredients are needed. Costs of the book can be set appropriately.
  
• Presumable the "special" ores would be excluded from background tasks?
  
• No muling necessary! Your skill determines productivity, not your P/C.
  

For hunters and farmers:

• As for artisans, except no ingredients are needed. Buy a "Hunting License" for a creature.
  
• Tools are a predetermined set of equipment (armour, weapons).
  
• The produce are the minimum creature drops.
  
• Probably very slow progress here.
  

Additional thoughts:

• Is your character actually doing the work, or is he or she actually supervising anonymous apprentices and journeymen NPCs? Your skill still applies to the yeild.
  
• Are there any other tasks which could be done this way?
  
• Grind is not fun; an RPG should be about exploring and adventuring.
  
• There is a need for a "Cancel Research" option; does this lose all your produce so far, or part of it? Be cruel, you lose all -- plan better next time!
  
• In an ideal game, having trained and ground to become a Master Blacksmith, I would have bought myself a shop, staffed with some apprentice NPCs, and it would be earning a few pennies to allow me to adventure. This would become the background for my character. I would only use my blacksmith skill on the superb items, not on piles of swords and horseshoes.
  
  

Edited February 15, 2007 by trollson

[Schmurk]

It's an interesting idea but at the rates you proposed, I'm not sure that people will use it. Imagine, 100 minutes for mixing 100 FEs, it's not very useful IMO...

But maybe this can be changed according to your level compared to the item required level, a little like rationality increase your reading speed. For example, if you want to make FEs, higher your alchemy level is and more FEs you'll produce per minute.

 

And about the items in the storage, I prefer the first version where all the items and a tool set is removed from storage and you have the result only when it's finished. I think it's easier to implement because you don't have to deal with missing items and such things, and as this is already an advantage, to put it a little bit more restrictive is better I think.

[trollson]

Reply to Schmurks points:

 

Rate of Production

A tuning issue, but it has to be slow relative to hands-on production; if players want them quickly they can grind and get experience. Its a fire-and-forget task; get on with playing the game until its complete.

What affects production rate?

• Skill level -- The "work permit" would be for some maximum quantity or number of attempts, say 1000. Your actual yeild will depend on skill level, so this affects production rate and ingredient losses (for artisans).
  
• Rationality -- The "work permit" has a research point cost, independant of the maximum quantity; so your rationality will dictate how fast you finish. Quick reading areas still apply, if we are reusing as much as possible of the current research mechanism.
  

Why still use rationality?

• Fewer changes to the current process.
  
• Skill already factored into yeild.
  
• Most skills get experience bonus from rationality, so there is a connection.
  
• Rationality for administering your business?
  

Implementation

 

I also prefer the all-at-once approach; far less complicated and not invasive to the current research process. Just requires using start and end hooks into the research process to adjust storage.

[Learner]

There is no way this will get implemented, just think of the headache for all the mods trying to handle all the cheaters that create a bunch of characters and put their day job to Harvest!