CRAZY IDEA : Crafting time & solutions

Suggestions
19

Yes, really.

One of the most valuable things in the game is time. Time to mine, time to hunt, time to gather, and time to craft. The price of all trade goods on the open market is a function of time to create the good (cost) and the desire-based demand for that good. In short, crafting time is one of the prime fundamentals of the in-game economy.

The in-game economy is only due to the game being an MMO. If you took away crafting times, it would no longer be an MMO, just a solo game that people parallel-play on the same servers. So, yes, definitely, crafting time is here because we’re playing an MMO (and vice-versa).

If you really want to play a solo building game without trade, you can just play MagicaVoxel. If you want to play an MMO game with building, the price is crafting time.

20

I won’t deny that crafting time may play a role in the economy, but I’m pretty sure the most important factor is the rarity of components and the difficulty/tediousness to acquire them.
The actual crafting time is already made shorter by power coils, and I highly doubt that prices are highly influenced by crafting times.

When I go buy glue, I don’t think “Ugh, glue takes so long to craft!”.
No. I think “Ugh, I’m out of bones and sap and I really don’t feel like cutting through 10 trees and going on a hunt for that!”.

Crafting time is merely an annoyance that we can already cut down.
I know some solo building games which still have crafting times that can go in the ranges of dozens of minutes. I also know MMOs with trading but pretty much not crafting time (WoW comes to mind, where crafting time never goes further than 10 seconds, and it nonetheless has an healthy economy).

NOW, please, let’s calm down on the things like “if you don’t like that, go play some solo game”, because that doesn’t help anything… :neutral_face:

1 Like
21

Personally I’m fine with the time it takes to craft as I find it another layer to the “level-up” process - the more machines/resources I get, the greater my quality of life will be.

Also if you were to flat out remove recipe times, then it would make the majority of recipes obsolete:

For example instead of Iron Ore -> Iron Bar -> Compact Iron -> Refined Iron -> Machined Iron, it might as well be Iron Ore -> Machined Iron which would reduce the value of the block (which would change the prestige value + coin value) therefore effectively ruining the economy. So the craft times are there because it’s an MMO + has a player based economy.

BUT… Do the crafting times/crafting recipes need tweaking? Possibly, but I can’t think of anything atm, but nothing beyond 10-20% +/-

Edit: Grammar

2 Likes
22

I can only wish you luck with that. Personal experience here says that if you have to make more than two posts to get people engaged with your idea, you might as well wash your hands of it and walk away. Even more so if you snag one of the small group of individuals who are determined to declare the existing model is ‘fine’ and are disinclined to discuss whether there could be ‘better’.

I used to hate it when I’d see people effectively say “This game isn’t for you”. However it’s intended, it often comes across as a mindless retort that says ‘No, that’s bad because I like it the way it is’. But at some point I realised that you’re going to be fighting these people every step of the way when making suggestions that you believe might be for the betterment of the game. At some point, it really is worth either accepting it for how the you’re told you should be enjoying it or putting it on the back-burner, periodically checking in to see if things have changed and all that potential has started moving in a more sustainable direction.

Either way, I think you’ll be happier for it. I know I was.

3 Likes
23

I do the same and never minded it~
Grinding mats for a new building takes days of playing anyway, the crafting runs inbetween and overnight.

2 Likes
24

This isn’t true. It has nothing to do with cubits.

Crafting timers exist because the designer who originally created the crafting hierarchy enjoyed scheduling their activities in game. They got a kick out of being efficient and planning what they would require, and then organised their activities and time.

For example: gather base resources, start something crafting, do something else, come back when crafting is done, start crafting something else, go build, realise that they would need some new tools soon, start some crafting so they’ll be ready when they’re needed, build some more, tools are ready when they’re needed, go gathering, etc, etc.

If you only play linearly where all steps happen in order then clearly the timers would be frustrating because you’re constantly waiting for crafts before proceeding. Hence “why do you want to slow down my fun” comments.

But if you’re planning ahead then your operation can be more like a well-oiled-machine and you’re never waiting for anything.

Additionally - if you realise that you’re missing items then you can short cut the process by buying from a shop.

Additionally - there is a purpose behind having a room full of machines to allow you to operate in parallel. If all crafts were instant then you would never require more that 1 machine. Players often ask for more things to put in their builds, and the timers give a purpose to having machine rooms filled with machines. So you can operate in parallel.

IMPORTANT: I’m not championing timers - rather just relaying the answer I was given when I asked why we had timers. But the reason was definitely nothing to do with gating cubits.

17 Likes
25

This is how I play. I enjoy planning ahead and letting things craft while I do other things, effectively doing 2 or more things at once. I’ll set really long craft times up for when I am at work or sleeping.

1 Like
26

Agree I love boundless because of this. The only times I hate the crafting times is when I’m dumb and don’t plan ahead.

But then again this gives me time to do something else, like collecting coin from my shop and re stocking, collecting crops, farm exos, or even so irl life things like eating or waking my dog.

I usually log in quickly in the morning and leave my machines crafting stuff so when I come back from work everything is ready.

2 Likes
27

This is probably why I don’t spend as much time playing anymore. My time is better else where. So I just buy everything now. And if I can’t find what I need I log out and try again a different day or put request baskets out and wait to play till it’s sold to me.

Not sure how everyone prices their items. But in that scenario machined iron would actually go up in price. As it is now 360 x 6 = 2160/50 = 43.2 x 36 =1,555.2/50= 31.1 but if it was ore straight to machined it would be 43.2 per machined. But I don’t count time or spark into the cost of my items.

I already have to plan my days out as it is and plan my work out as well. I play games to get away from that @james. But obviously not everyone is like that.

1 Like
28

I like to think that I’m a bit in-between.
In my build, we do have a decent storage area where we prepare lots of things in advance that we know we might need. When we notice that our stock of bricks is running low, we make sure to craft more of them.

However, as the possibilities of things to craft expands or changes, no matter how well organized you are, you will eventually find yourself stuck at one point because you’re running low on something that takes a long time to craft (like the vital essences).

Again, I’m personally not in support of killing craft timers. I’m supporting more passive and active ways to reduce it, more ways of progression, more features to add to your workshop.
Having 10+ of each machines seems a bit unrefined to me, when you could have less machines, but each customized with optional addon-blocks.

1 Like
29

This. I enjoy being rewarded for planning in advance and working towards accumulating lots of resources.

@FireAngelDth that’s only assuming the same ratio for one 36-50 craft, but I was assuming the same amount of iron ore would yeild you the same amount of machines Iron as it currently does.

@Goblinounours I’m not for the addition of another step to the crafting process tbh. I understand that you won’t be using it on ‘overnight’ crafts but still

30

Another optional step. As long as it’s not mandatory, I don’t see an issue.

I find it faaaar more annoying to have to craft something which is needed to craft another thing which itself is also required to craft the thing you need to craft a final thing.

31

This makes sense, but this is probably why we lose so many people. People can be efficient and plan with 1-5 min timers, and it would allow casual players to not feel like the game isn’t for them. If we could make the game feel less like a mobile time-gated farming simulator so my friends will come back, I would be greatly appriciative.

4 Likes
32

forgive me my stupidity, but I don’t get this calculation?

33

I understand what you’re saying but it’s just like powercoils, if you don’t have them you feel like you’re wasting your time crafting (for the purpose of making coin/supplying a shop) in a way. Like farming without the farming epic or mining for Lucent Gems with a single block hammer which takes a few hits to break a block.

I agree that certain things are on the annoying side, Bonding agents spring to mind especially when you forget your need bonding agent for a recipe then you gotta get Ancient, Fresh, orbs, sap, bones. I’m fine with the building blocks sunch as Machined Iron as I build with Compact, Refined, Machined, Friligee etc.

34

360 iron x 6c = 2160c dived that by 50 for the mass craft of compact to get 43.2 per compact

As I’m explaining this I realize I forgot refined iron so the pricing is off in my original post. Anyway

43.2c x 36(amount of compact to get a mass of refined) = 1555.2

1555.2 dived by 50 = 31.1c

31.1 x 36(amount of refined for mass of machined)=1119.6

1119.6 divided by 50 = 22.3c per machined iron.

But that’s if you don’t care about charging more for the spark(which you get the coal as a byproduct from mining for iron anyway) and the “time” for crafting and wear on machines.

1 Like
35

I mean, I perfectly understand how not having power coils can make one feel like he’s wasting ressources/time. But that’s the whole point.

It’s like saying you feel like you’re wasting time when you do something at level 1 compared to level 50 because you don’t yet have all the skills. It’s something you gotta progress toward, and once you have it, it’s there.
If these things weren’t there, the game would have less layers, less interest.
So to me, that point is invalid.

The other important thing to note with the notion of machine modules I mentioned above is that it’s not merely just a step. It’d be a customization addition.
Currently with power coils, there’s nothing to customize. Either you are at max power with a machine, or you’re not, and if you’re not, then YES, you ARE wasting time. But as I said, you can work toward that, and once it’s done, you can enjoy the progress you’ve made.

But with machine modules, you could also say “my machine is customized to craft slower, but it uses less sparks” because you don’t have a huge amount of coal in your base.
Another player could be like “my machine is customized to craft faster and drain more spark” because he has a huuuge fuel farm.

Anyway, in the end, it might just be something we can’t agree on, and that’d be fine.

36

I do really like the idea of being able to customise machines, and it fits nicely with the farming customisation as well.

Max seed, max produce, or somewhere in the middle.

Max speed, min wear/spark, or somewhere in-between.

Giving players the ability to tailor to how they play can only be a good thing!

3 Likes
37

Yeh that’s why I said for the purpose of supplying a shop or something (not the progression/leveling stage).

Ah I get what your saying with the suggestion example of more spark + faster or less spark and slower. I like that idea, that’s not what I got from your OP. But that’s a cool idea, instead of creating a new item completely, we could have 2 (+) different types of coils: They could be same design but reskinned. Just to not complicatd stuff.

Basically how farming is set up for seed / crop yeild like @fidach said

38

This sounds cool idea that using active spanner on machine would reduce time.

Players like to hit blocks again and again using regen bombs so why not add option to boost one machine at time with spanner or hire army of other players to do it for you (could work even as contract if we could put coins into crafting machine) :smiley:

1 Like