Way to handle less-than-1-hour projects

[SekoETC]

I was just thinking about this yesterday but didn't post yet. Anyway, it might be useful with some projects like making nails or crowns of flowers, things that shouldn't take a whole hour and having to log in the next hour to switch to another project would make it require more work than a longer project would.

So, the solution is to have short projects complete instantly but they store a decimal value in the database, something to represent the fraction of an hour used. When the person works on a regular project during the next tick, the process will be reduced by a percentage defined by the number stored.

An example, lets assume that a crown of daisies takes half an hour. The game stores 0.5 into the variable. After instantly finishing the crown, the person starts another project that's supposed to be for ten hours. They are efficient so they should be progressing 10% in an hour, but for the first hour it checks "ah, there is a number in this slot! Let's reduce it from this hour's progress". 10% - 0.5*10% = 5%.

To stop people from making infinite items, they could not complete an instantaneous project if the factional number would rise to 1 or over, since people tend to freak out if their project gets stuck at 0%. It should then say that you're too busy to do any more work this hour.

This might also be applied to dragging, entering buildings and hitting people just as long as it wouldn't show up in normal daily activities. Also it might make it possible to go on a road and return instantly, but to stop people from tricking guards by running to one road and returning to pick another one as they follow, this should consume about 0.4 of the hour.

If the person does nothing in the next hour then that's alright, we'll just assume that they used most of the hour on the fractional projects and the rest for idling.

[Doug R.]

It's a really good idea, but are these types of <1 hour projects common enough to warrant the surgery required to implement this?

[SekoETC]

More like people have avoided implementing any small items because they're so tedious to make. But this could open some room for mass production. Out of existing items, nails and buckles could qualify for less than one hour projects, and in my opinion those flower crowns should as well.

It would also be kinda cool if projects that were going to go over 100% on the next tick would finish one hour early so that you could start with the next one, but as said elsewhere, you cannot predict the future. If the person were to stress themselves with for example attacking, or if they happened to get hurt then they might not finish the project after all.

[Nakranoth]

I'm actually liking it a lot... just not so sure ProgD has the resources to pull it off any time soon.

[Racetyme]

It sounds very hard to code. I think its pretty cool, but there is more pressing work to be done.

[SekoETC]

How would it be hard to code? It works exactly like tiredness, only it resets after project tick.

[wichita]

It might work, but I would rather have project queing, myself.

[tiddy ogg]

I like the idea, and if indeed it is simple to program, why not. It is particularly irritating that you lose an hour when you're 99% done, and also, what's the point of a burying skill when you can never get a job lasting less than an hour?

[Frits]

Ideally projects would update every minute but i've read that's not technically feasible... and there they go again, begging to change the rules as they go along just cos it's irritating to have a 1-dayproject sit at 96%. One important point in this is the guideline, typically characters will set up a project for 300 wood or 750 stone cos this is the advice they read at that time, (it's remarkable how many projects are set up this way, search for activities in a busy location and see the farm- and digprojects for yourself). What's wrong with the guideline is that if you're efficient you'll most likely not chop 300 wood in a day but somewhere between 280 and 320. And at 280 or 290 you'll see a number over 90% after a day's work.

So the nametags for the skilllist could be altered, if it looks like this: <0.76 = awkward; between 0.76 and 0.92 = novice; between 0.92 and 1.08 = efficient it could be such that between 1 and and 1.16 will be tagged efficient.

Some projects have no related skill like naming a house and breaking a lock. For a healthy char it will progress at exactly 12.5% per hour but if lightly wounded (so light you can't see the red on the grey bar) you won't finish in 8 hours but in 9, and don't hunt cos you'll get tired and lose a fraction. My argument is that projects involving unrelated skills should progress at 104% of a day per day, not 100 exactly.

Hey tiddy ogg i have one char who spawned with a expert skill in burying, he digs one grave every hour(! or he would if it served a purpose).

[tiddy ogg]

[quote="Frits"]
Hey tiddy ogg i have one char who spawned with a expert skill in burying, he digs one grave every hour(! or he would if it served a purpose).[/quote]

So, what's the point of getting him a shovel? You're gaining nothing.
Which is the point of this discussion, of course.

[Sicofonte]

This has been here enough time, I think.

The system suggested is a bit complex, and only worthing for a few particular projects, and there are other suggestions related to this that seems easier, like queueing for short projects or implementation of multioutput projects (look at here), that won't need more programming than this one, and will operate in a more Cantr-like way.

So I will dare to reject this (but not as duplicate).