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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 27, 2017 14:34:58 GMT -5
Often enough, after I pay my crew, I do some healing and/or repairs, then my crew wants to be paid again. So that means one month at least has passed? Is that on purpose?
"Sorry, crew, we've got a mission to accomplish. No time to heal you, or spice you, or repair your living quarters."
Do damaged barracks (and officer cabins) make the crew (and officers) unhappy, BTW? That would make sense.
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 27, 2017 14:37:30 GMT -5
Yes, intentional. That is how time works for the crew -- they expect to be paid.
Yes, makes them unhappy.
These are rules I'm really happy with.
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Post by fallen on Sept 27, 2017 14:38:52 GMT -5
Crew count their wages due regardless of whether you are in space. You're the captain, you manage your time. If you spend your time on a planet, repairing, mission, spicing, exploring, whatever -- they still want to be paid.
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Post by Alex Fury on Sept 27, 2017 14:47:46 GMT -5
I don't think the issue is as much perhaps wanting to be paid, but perhaps how much time it takes sometimes to do it. There's been a few times where some basic things botched a mission on time, which I was sure I had plenty of time for.
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 27, 2017 14:51:10 GMT -5
Alex is right: paying isn't the problem; discovering that healing my crew took more than a month (how much more?) and that I therefore failed to fulfill a mission within the set time frame . . . is.
We need to know how much time each activity consumes, and that time shouldn't completely wreak a mission. Also, why cannot repairs and spicing/healing be done at the same time? Why do they have to take place one after the other? More than a month to heal your crew; then more than a month to repair your ship; and then some more time to spice your crew; few missions can survive even one such shore leave.
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 27, 2017 15:05:22 GMT -5
After an initial bumpy period at the start of the alpha we've been within +/- 2% of our goal rates for and expire, complete and fail on missions.
I think here you, as the Captain, have to weigh how important each element is -- the biggest reward is for the Captain who puts the Mission above all else ... and the biggest Risk too!
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 27, 2017 15:23:24 GMT -5
OK, but: 1. Before we pay for something, we should be told how much it costs not just in credits but in time. Both pieces of information could be placed on the same line. 2. The same crew member cannot be in the hospital and in the spice hall, so cannot be simultaneously healed and spiced, but there's no reason why you cannot have your ship repaired at the same time as you heal/spice your crew.
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 27, 2017 15:29:10 GMT -5
1. Agree. Easy to fix, will add. The calculations are straight forward enough that I think most players will not need this information. I will add it in case some do.
2. Design [*]
[*] I'd love to come up with an awesome in game explanation. I suspect it has a lot to do with the Captain's influence and authority being personally required for almost all tasks involving grav bureaucratic and officials.
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 27, 2017 15:43:59 GMT -5
1. If the calculations are so straightforward, I must be an idiot, because I've never figured them out. So, thank you for adding the information! It would be nice, too, if we could have some sort of clock on the main screen showing time as it passes; it would spare us the need to make calculations and constantly check the mission panel (which, furthermore, is only precise to the week, until the final week). Maybe such a clock could start at 0 when the game starts. I'm not even sure how much time is spent in space travel, and if you spend less time covering the same distance with a better engine. All those pieces of information might be obvious to you, and so easy to calculate, but for us players -- or at least me, if I'm especially dumb -- they're not. 2. "Design" is what you answer when something doesn't make sense in itself, uh?
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 27, 2017 15:51:51 GMT -5
1. I'm a bit confused. The date, that shows a constant scale of the passing of time. That's the clock.
2. Not sure what you mean. For the game to be balanced, it needs an internal economy of resources, trade offs and costs. Defining that internal economy is part of the design.
Sometimes games require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief for the game to work. For example -- third person cameras. They make no sense in the real world, but they're a hard and fast requirement for certain types of games. Or in Pet Rescue when you can blow up a animal's cage with a rocket without harming the puppy.
So yeah, I say "design" when something is part of a specifically included mechanic for the game to work. Some times, the story and universe inform. Sometimes, the design informs the universe. Making it all work together is one of the challenges of a game designer.
Ultimately the goal of any game's design is to facilitate fun. Mechanics like the time resource intend to create fun by imposing scarcity and urgency on a task. This mechanic works for some players, and for others it doesn't. Some people need to directly see the event (like running towards a bridge that's falling in a 3D game) and some prefer the abstract representation. It's all the same type of resource management puzzle, which we are lead (by research) to believe is fun.
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 27, 2017 16:09:28 GMT -5
Predicting the Spice Hall is going to be impossible, since it uses RNG.
However, Doctor and Repair I've figured out and add for the next build.
Thanks for the feedback, hopefully this helps.
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 27, 2017 16:28:09 GMT -5
1. I'll have to look at that clock again. I remember briefly thinking it was some kind of calendar, when I first started playing, but I didn't consciously try to associate days with it, at the time, and then it must have become part of the scenery in my mind's eye; I stopped noticing it. Sorry about that. 2. I tend to be very sensitive to logical flaws, I admit. I used to work as a college professor, and now I work as a writer, translator, and copy editor. As copy editor, I mostly work on scientific articles, and so when something doesn't make perfect sense, it very much matters. I also write, translate, and comment upon stories, in which logical flaws happen either due to carelessness or because the author needs them to save the plot (an expedient that both weakens the plot and erodes suspension of disbelief). I'm not alone to find that grating, mind you; you'll find plenty of rants -- and convoluted explanations -- as to why Frodo didn't just ride the Eagles above Mount Doom, or as to why the time-turner wasn't originally used for more important matters than allowing Hermione to take more classes. And the genre matters. I had a look at Pet Rescue, and it's a Candy Crush-type game, apparently, so realism isn't required. But you want your players to believe in your universe while they're playing, and so what doesn't seem to make sense, other than for game balance, is more likely to stand out, as it reduces immersion (the aforementioned suspension of disbelief). Things like third-person camera, on the other hand, don't bother me at all, because the camera isn't part of the world, just as you aren't physically part of a fictional world, whether you watch a movie or play a game. I doubt we'll ever agree, and it's your game, of course, but still, it's good, I think, that we explained reciprocally where we come from. Thank you for having taken the time to do that. Predicting the Spice Hall is going to be impossible, since it uses RNG. A range, maybe? However, Doctor and Repair I've figured out and add for the next build. Thanks for the feedback, hopefully this helps. Quite a lot.
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 27, 2017 17:04:00 GMT -5
The clock is "YEAR.WEEK" so if it says 211.7AE and your mission is due in 22 weeks, it is due at 211.29AE
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Post by bookworm21 on Sept 28, 2017 3:42:59 GMT -5
Just out of interest, is 1 turn = 1 day = 1 AU moved on the main map?
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 28, 2017 4:39:54 GMT -5
Predicting the Spice Hall is going to be impossible, since it uses RNG. Could a range be provided? Or else: The clock is "YEAR.WEEK" so if it says 211.7AE and your mission is due in 22 weeks, it is due at 211.29AE Seeing days pass, too, would help in assessing how much time spicing takes.
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