Industries

[Ajaxan]

So there's been a bunch of talk about industries lately and although there quite a few obvious ones there are also a lot of not so obvious ones. For instance things like mining, excavation, woodcutting are all fairly straight forward. Others like Crafting, Smelting, and alchemy don't seem as straight forward

As a matter of fact, I'm not completely sure which all industries will be available! I believed it would be one for each skill of a town but with the barn being released clearly its totally reasonable to have two per skill. So I guess instead of just making tons of small suggestions we should discuss them here until we've got good formulated ideas which we can then take to the Suggestion thread.

(This thread is partially in response to the new crafting/smelting industry threat which has been hijacked to talk about other industries.)

 

[Cryptite]

One current idea we've had is that for some of the even less obvious categories (Battlegrounds, Arenas), that their industries are actually Statues or other such decorative-only buildings that are just meant to be a showoff item in town that potentially wouldn't be editable.

 

[Ajaxan]

we could make the pvp statues differ from player built statue copys, by having them display some kind of particles around them?

I was thinking the exact same thing. Although in this case with admins controlling the amount of particles you don't even have to wait for 1.9. Its only in large amounts that it would really start to become a problem. so we can have super cool statues with shiny particles all around them.

You're right that the enchanting industry is also rather straight forward though. Simply put your unenchanted items in the chest, come back in two hours and boom! Free enchantment. It only took two hours... haha

As for other industries, I think its good to be creative with it instead of just settling for slightly better than doing it yourself. the cooking industry could just give you more food at the cost of putting all your food in it but it could also just provide a small trickle of free goods. It would be fun to see the cooking industry provide small amounts of exotic foods that you wouldn't normally have access to in. In this way you don't have to worry about refilling it to get food and you get a small surprise every time you check it. Seeing like 200 baked potatoes isn't nearly as exciting as seeing some cooked salmon, some pie and some mushroom soup!

This is just one example of an easy way to change things up a bit. It keeps it interesting but doesn't really change the way the overall system works.

Another example would be the brewing/alchemy In this category you could have a system similar to the cooking industry with a small trickle of free potions. but also, you'd be able to get special potions as well! Because of the control admins have over items making a haste potion (not speed, but haste) or a defense potion are 100% possible. to me at least this is much more interesting than just bulk potion creation. although some things work better in bulk like the mining industry and woodcutting industry, things like cooking and potions are more fun with variety.

A final example would be the current discussion over the crafting industry. In it's current state there very little reason to use it at all. So instead if you allow it to create items that you couldn't obtain by crafting them yourself you give it meaning and makes you really want to use it.

I'm a very big fan of the potential Industries have so I'll be all for making them more interesting even if it takes some time to think up a good idea for them.

 

[Cryptite]

FWIW, only the Gathering Industries have the two-hour processing cycle because they actually craft things out of thin air. The other industries work instantly for their tasks. Tavern cooks food given an input of raw foods and just works like a faster/more efficient furnace, etc.

 

[Ajaxan]

FWIW, only the Gathering Industries have the two-hour processing cycle because they actually craft things out of thin air.

Ah ok. I was under the impression that they too took a two hour cycle to complete. Would it be possible to do both? Cook food more effectively but also provide a two hour cycle to produce some free food samplings? It would just be a fun little way to encourage people to log on more. With the size of chests being restricted they'd have to log on often to keep getting the free flow of items.

 

[Ajaxan]

Ah, fair point Grub! I forgot about that part. I'd still like to see some sort of free food trickle produced but it should be limited to what you can grow or cook in your territory.

The main reason I'd like to see functionality like this is because it makes buildings more exciting and makes me want to log in so at the very least I can collect resources. Also, if I don't have to cook the food then I can focus on something else while I wait for the next batch of food to arrive. to me industries allow a single player to get more done as they have to preform less of the menial tasks. That said, if I want to build a full on town or building i'll need much more output than the industry provides. In the same way If I want to go exploring, I'll need more food than the cooking industry will provide.

 

[Wolfegger]

The Windmill in my savanna town produces pumpkin seeds, among other things. It is irking me to no end. What use do I have for them? Either give me pumpkins, or nothing at all for that plant/item (the cactus and carrots and cane are nice, though).

 

[Ajaxan]

The pumpkin gods are mocking you.

 

[Ajaxan]

So I'm interested in knowing how much industries can change at this point? If we wanted to see the cooking industry move from a instantaneous model where you get boosted outcome, to the two hour or similar model, is that still possible?

 

[Magpieman]

So I'm interested in knowing how much industries can change at this point? If we wanted to see the cooking industry move from a instantaneous model where you get boosted outcome, to the two hour or similar model, is that still possible?

It's not set in stone yet, but the initial plan was to have all the gathering industries generate resources (like the current industries) and have the artisan industries assist with the crafting of materials.