Author Topic: It's all about TIME  (Read 4640 times)

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Mars_In_Ten

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It's all about TIME
« on: February 24, 2016, 03:45:26 PM »
Well .... maybe not ALL about time, but as I started to get at in the previous post (Fish Tanks & Farm Fields...), available player time is a critical element (you can only do so many things).

There has been discussion in other postings about making this or that simpler/easier (faster) to do.  This is particularly true of the time it takes to transfer items (be them food, organics, minerals, etc)from storage to personal inventory to totes to personal inventory to buyer etc.

I am all for(!) making some of these processes less tedious.  But the point I wish to make is that any time-altering change that is made should be made across the scope of the game, keeping in mind what effect enabling one job to be done faster might have on game strategies that might focus on other parts of the game.  For example, if you could sell large lots of ore very simply (and fast), it might not pay to focus on raising & selling food or fish.  If, on the other hand, it was easier to sell all items ....

A general point: In the real world it usually takes a lot longer to grow things -- or extract them from the earth and purify them -- than it does to sell them.

Hyper

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Re: It's all about TIME
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2016, 05:06:43 PM »
And now you understand the issues with game balance and design. I had to make some decisions that would keep things in balance. It would take 3 months to grow food, there is also 24 hours in a day. The time acceleration is one hour to one day so 90 hours to grow food in a 12 hour game. It is easy to sit outside and make decisions on what you think is real and not real. Teleports in games like Star Wars, Druid rings in Everquest. I started with a simulator, real time but 10 people would buy the 70 thousand dollars worth of engineering to produce it. I am doing the best I can to keep as much realism and still offer some friendly competition. Thanks for your input.

Mars_In_Ten

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Re: It's all about TIME
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2016, 06:04:02 PM »
Hey, I'm not being critical.  I like the game and think it has great potential.  Just giving my input as you consider further changes.  The TIME that I was talking about is the time that takes the player to do a given series of tasks.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2016, 06:05:49 PM by Mars_In_Ten »