Farming Management - browser-game-like grinding

Chat log pretty much sums it all up. Discussion started because of how high level equipment rolls were taking thousands of materials.



Oh, ignore the part about Sim Ants. While Sim Ants is a real-time simulation, the things we're talking about are basically just parameter crunchers where time waited (even offline) is a big factor. It will help dragging players constantly back and will bring in consumables that can satisfy reward-needs. Most importantly, it'll also allow a mature, time-lacking audience to take part, too.

They're not really side quests or quests. They're just indirect quests that result by ownership of for example a greenhouse or a fish farm instance that are usually visited by you but can be visited by other players if they select that specific instance, just with observational and without interaction rights.

It would also be nice to have purely incremental instances. They will yield no or little reward but give you the chance to design your own world. It's for the same purpose we grow flowers in our garden even though they have no nutritional values. Basically infinite sim city in limited space where you could for example breed flower colors (just some hue parameter) with Mendel's evolution rules.

I guess right now the closest thing to this are the harvestable trees/rocks/squirrels. They respawn once every day.

I do agree that it would be a cool feature. Basically, allow a player to collect chosen resources once per day.

I'm not sure an actual "farm" would really fit the game. It's too common. We would need to think of something else that fits the unconventional nature of the game.

Maybe an area with a machine that accumulate power over time. That machine can spawn any actor in the game at a power cost. You could use it to spawn a tree for wood, rock for metal, squirrel for bone. You could also spawn a monster and kill it for lots of exp.

The machine would have a "programming" feel. You'd select the monster by selecting an option like s.spawnActor(spot.enemy1,'dragon'); Machine power could be called RAM (even though that doesn't make much sense).

As long as I can spend like 5 minutes a day on each thing without it feeling repetitive, I'll accept anything. I imagine there being at least 5 different things to do that yield maximum benefits if they're done almost regularly per hours and also accept days/weeks as intervals. Please keep in mind that cutting the same trees or watering the same flowers 50 times in 5 minutes is just normal grinding and exactly the opposite of what I wish. A balance needs to be found, which can easily be achieved by adding some thought requirements to the task. The tasks system we currently have is one such system, but gets repetitive because the quests themselves don't have a changing factor to them and are almost always the exact same playthrough (except minesweeper, fifteen, etc.). The LTQs might even just be non-repetitive and yet repeatable puzzles (good: minesweeper, bad: bridges/switch) in disguise.

A programming theme would be pretty cool, and of course fit the theme of the game much more.

Something like: Players control a database 'space' that can be updated through scripts. Script functions/objects could be unlocked through quests and other progression related things. They would be more pseudo-code than true scripts, but say you start with a basic function 'spawnActor('')' and through some quests you unlock entity object 'squirrel'. Now you can combine those in your mini database to start spawning squirrels over time.

You can increase the amount of functions your database can use by adding more RAM to your database (found in-game), and upgrade your CPU for faster script run rate (ie. more resources harvested faster). Each database 'server' could have limited slots or power, so you need to mix and match for your preferred speed/quantity. The database could be accessed physically through the Script Master in the Wise Man Cave. You could unlock custom functions through CP to change the look of your databases physical representation (ie. setFloorTile('grass')).

You could upgrade your objects through new functions like 'increaseLevel()', which causes you to spawn, say, level 2 squirrels. Those have a chance to drop more bones when you harvest them. Those could be learned through the Script Master with QP or such, who could also upgrade them with ObjectLevel += 1;, +=2, and so forth.

I think it would be neat, very expandable. Also a lot of work to implement, haha. However, it would add a whole new dynamic to the game.

Okay. What about calling this a Personal Computer.

Your Personal Computer starts with 1 core with 1 CPU power and 1M RAM.

Your core runs a script that you chose. That script can spawn actors via commands. The script is ran every X hours. There is a maximum count of actors that can exist at once.

You can reduce the time by improving the CPU. You can run parallel scripts by adding more cores to your PC. You can increase max count of actors by adding more RAM.
By completing quests/challenges/achievements, you unlock new commands that allows you to spawn different actors with different level.

Now, what should be the rewards exactly? Like what quest unlock what actor. What each actor gives as reward and its RAM cost.

Note: Each core could have a particularity that improves certain type of scripts. If so, what would it be?

'Computer' Upgrades could be found like items which have specific attributes and rarities.

CPU: Rolls a 'Clock Speed' and 'Cores' amount.
----- Clock Speed determines how many times your script will run every hour.
----- Cores lets you add parallel processing, ie. you can now run multiple scripts.

RAM: Rolls a size amount.
----- RAM determines how many different functions your scripts can actually use (ie. 3 functions, 1 object per script).
----- You can go over that limit, but that drastically increases your chance the script will 'glitch' and have consequences.

HDD/SSD: Rolls a size amount.
----- HDD's increase the maximum amount of entities you can actual spawn (ie. 10 squirrels max).
----- HDD's turn into SSD's at higher rarities, which gives a bonus boost to how fast your scripts run every hour (like Clock Speed).


In order for your server/computer/database/glitch-space to run these scripts, you have to pay upkeep of course. This could simply be Gold, or something in the form of a new resource (ie. harvested Energy / Power). Stronger CPU's and bigger scripts require larger upkeep, whereas a weaker CPU with a small HDD could run weeks before needing to be recharged.

***************

Functions & Objects

spawnActor: Unlocked through a new quest introducing your Personal Computer.
increaseActorTier: Unlocked through the a new Achievement 'Harvest 1,000 Resources'.
---- Starts at ActorTier += 1;, can be upgraded with QP's from the Script Master at the same rate as abilities to +=5.
---- Each Tier gives a 10% chance to drop 2 of a resource. Level 5 gives a chance to drop 3 of a resource.
doubleActorSpawn: Unlocked through the Achievement 'Own 1000 of the same material'.
---- Starts at DoubleChance = 2%; can be upgraded with QP's from the Script Master at the same rate as abilities to +10%.
---- Chance to double the amount of actors spawned when your script runs (if your computer can handle the space). Level 5 has a chance to spawn 3 actors.
setHueRGB(0,0,0): Unlocked through the quest 'RGB: 100 HP'.
---- Starts at 10% chance. Can be upgraded with QP's from the Script Master at the same rate as abilities to +50%.
---- Actors you farm now have a small chance to drop an additional ruby, as well as their original drop.
---- You can enter values: 0 or 255 for each section. The color corrosponds to an item (255,0,0 for ruby, 255,255,0 for topaz, etc).
---- This item now has a chance to drop in ADDITION to the original actor drop.
---- 255,0,0 = Ruby; 255,255,0 = Topaz; 0,0,255 = Sapphire; 0,255,0 = Wood; 255,255,255 = Bone; 0,0,0 = Metal; 0,255,255 = ???

Objects/Actors
Squirrel: Drops bones. Unlocked by completing the Achievement 'Harvest Every Resource Type'.
Tree: Drops wood. Unlocked by completing the Achievement 'Harvest Every Resource Type'.
Ore: Drops metal. Unlocked by completing the Achievement 'Harvest Every Resource Type'.
Heated Ore: Drops metal, with a % chance to drop rubies. Unlocked by completing the quest 'Collect & Fight: Speedrun'.
Frozen Ore: Drops metal, with a % chance to drop sapphires. Unlocked by completing the quest 'Boss Battle: Speedrun'.
Charged Ore: Drops metal, with a % chance to drop topaz. Unlocked by completing the quest 'Darkness: Double Trouble'.
Blessed Tree: Drops wood, with a % chance to drop a gem. Unlocked by completing the quest 'Sad Tree: Tiny Image'.
[P]RNG Tree: Drops a random resource. Unlocked by completing the quest 'Bad Luck Brian: 100 HP'.


This is already getting pretty complex and long, so I'll leave these as ideas for now. Feel free to discuss it of course. Interested in hearing others thoughts.

What could be added to make this less repetitive than just farming, though? Mini-events? Hidden values that alter scripts/change daily? 'Bugs' that require some thinking to fix?

That sounds great!

I think a basic CPU, RAM, HDD could be given unlocking this minigame.
But how would you obtain the other ones?

I don't know if a full overwrite item is the right way to do it. (Your new CPU overwrites the old one.) It will make it a bit hard when defining the drops.

Instead, it could be done incrementally. Ex: You get a RAM booster that increases RAM by 1 MB. There could be different sizes (white, blue, yellow, gold) and a maximum booster count.

About the upkeep cost, I don't think it should be a money cost. The goal of this update is to encourage players to play daily. It could simply be when online, the power goes up. After let say 1 hour of in-game play, the machines has enough power to run for a week.

Having incremental upgrades would also be fine!

I also like the idea of that upkeep -- I guess I didn't want it to seem too imbalanced! But realistically HDD/SSD sizes would limit that anyway.

Rin wrote:What could be added to make this less repetitive than just farming, though? Mini-events? Hidden values that alter scripts/change daily? 'Bugs' that require some thinking to fix?

Edit: I might rephrase these two paragraphs if requested. They've been typed out quickly because I don't have the time right now.

What about solar cells that return maximal power at specific color correction parameters? The light source can have a rhythm of varying light with a period of 1 to 5 seconds and the player has to decide which filter to take to optimize power output. (Technically a filter limits the energy throughput but this is a game.) The light source could be magic crystals sucking the ominous secret hidden energy of their surroundings. In turn such crystals can also be produced/strengthtened/calmed by the PC via scripts. The light source slowly but steadily changes its output (not an instant re-roll, more like interpolation of the internal values) so it makes sense for the player to check back regularly and it's sort of a puzzle of its own.

I imagine the light rhythm to be around 5 seconds or even different periods repeated (like 3, 4, 1 5, 3, 4, 1, 5, ...) and each period has different color changes (1 up to 3 rgb values) with different magnitudes (ranging from 0 to 255). Optimizing is basically just figuring out the median color of the current lighting. Or the filter could itself be a rhythm but only one period, requiring even more careful (or even actually easier?) optimization.

Also, the PC could be placed in the wilderness for whatever reason. The consequence is that sometimes wild animals damage circuits, resulting in a circuit puzzle (google it) that if fixed, restores the PC efficiency (the PC does not disable completely on broken circuits).

Ark wrote:
Also, the PC could be placed in the wilderness for whatever reason. The consequence is that sometimes wild animals damage circuits, resulting in a circuit puzzle (google it) that if fixed, restores the PC efficiency (the PC does not disable completely on broken circuits).

I like the idea of circuit puzzles. I thought about those as well, and they'd definitely fit right in with the other puzzles in the game.