Descriptions behind Buildings/Tools/Vehicles

[Solfius]

not everyone knows what the thigns are in Cantr. I don't know all of them, and quite a few of them the names give the wrong impression

[Wim van de Griendt]

Only one so far Solfius, and we are going to change that.

[Solfius]

well, I wasn't even confused over the one I think you mean. I was sure it meant something completely different. Genrally soarer is one that causes problems, and coal oven I always thought was an oven for producing coal, so descriptions would help a lot to clarify things like that

[Wim van de Griendt]

All the ship classes have been taken from the books of the Wheel of Time. About the coal oven, it is used for ..., by using coal as its fuel (and I am not saying this to you Solfius, because you know it). And the thing you describe is implemented as kiln. With a kiln you can turn wood into charcoal and in the future bake pottery (not with all sizes).

[Solfius]

so you see, the names do give false impressions, where if we had descriptions and could name the machines based on the descriptions there would be less confusion. I'm sure I'm not the only person who finds tools etc aren't what they think they are.

On a side note, not everyone has read wheel of time, I've had the fortune to read the first couple books from my school library, so I at least have heard of it and know a bit, so again confusion.

[west]

When you are born, do you know what a reamer is? I'm 16... and I still dont know what the hell a reamer is... lol.

This is hilarious, only because last night the freshmen on my hall played "battle of the sexes" and the guys had to define reamer. I'd like to say I knew what it was because of the game, but i had no clue either. But now I know it's a citrus juicer.

But yeah descriptions are a good idea...there's a poor lass in Blit Forest (or Blojt forest) who just made a mikasu. There's not a sushi bar in sight, either...


And what do you mean not everyone has read the wheel of time? why the hell not?! It's amazing. you should. But i agree that understanding of in game concepts shouldn't rely on having read a certain book out of game

[rklenseth]

I haven't read Wheel of Time. I read Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. Though my favorite book series is the Death Gate Cycle.

Anyways, you could take out a dictionary and look it up. Thats how I found out what sorghum was and what to do with it.

[Solfius]

but things like soarers aren't real, they are fictional out of that series, and so won't be in a dictionary, but really, isn't reading up outside the game a minor cap rule offence? It would be nice not to hgave to go and try and find out what they mean anyway, if the description was there in game.

[dgalien]

--- I know an old posting.. but actual es ever..

I really need short descriptions before building a tool or something else.
must not like:

tool xyz
123 wood
456 steel
descr: useful for open locked doors

but a short hint or better a short lookalike description would be very nice. and very helpful for us non english men.. (germans, espanioles etc.)

like:

skimmer
req.:
12345 wood
12345 steel
12345 iron

a vehilce that swims on water

or:
stone hammer:
req:
123 wood
132 stone

a wooden stick with stone on one end..

or something else

if there are new tools, please giv em descriptions.

or/and

absolute unknown names. so no one knows what it is for.

[boomhaeur]

I think what is actually missing is a skills system. Ideally we should only know some very basic tools when we're first spawned (ie. a Hammer, trowel etc.) People should be able to develop their characters skillsets so that as they master a trade or skill tools related to that skill begin to appear in their build menu.

Unfortunatley I think it's a pretty involved programming switch to make so it may never come around.

It could just be a simple Experience system with high-level skills where points are based on time. Every year of age you earn a certain number of points. Each time you get points you can pick which skills you want to apply it to (use the assumption that during that "year" people would have done tasks associated with the field they want to grow in).

Ideally a system like this could simply be applied over the existing code structure as it accrues at the same rate for everyone and is tied directly to the system's time and nothing else. As you gain points in certain skills then new build items would become availible as you achieve certain point levels. The Build DB would have to be modified to attach required skill point levels required to display that item in someone's menu.

Additionally, if we wanted to take it a step further performing certain tasks could earn you a few more points that would directly be applied to a specific skill. (i.e. travelling to various locations would give you diplomacy skill points, building a room on a house would give you some construction points etc.) Obviously this owuld take a bit more dev work to integrate properly.

Projects could also be created that the end result is a skill point.

I think this could help solve people's internal CR conflict when it comes to looking up/descriptions vs. learning in game. A skills system would infer that your character has learned things through the game as they build their skill. If it's in the build menu you can assume your character has gained enough experience that they would either a) know of the item or b) have sufficient skill to come up with the item themself ("invent" it so to speak)

[The Industriallist]

This sort of thing has been proposed many, many times before.

[Báng]

And there is a reason why it isn't being implemented.

[Sho]

Yeah. See my "Technology" thread for my idea, which is really quite similar to boomhaeur's. The reason it isn't being implemented is that the Programming Department probably has other things on their hands, like figuring out how to get rid of the animals.

[Wim van de Griendt]

The programming departments is lacking time and members to implement all ideas. You could start learning MySQL and PHP to help them.

[Spectrus_Wolfus]

And the thing you describe is implemented as kiln. With a kiln you can turn wood into charcoal and in the future bake pottery (not with all sizes).

traditionally charcoal was made at great danger in a charcoal furnace which was normally nothing more then a done of clay built over a pile of timber with a small area in the side for getting a fire smoldering inside it then it was sealed and watch round the clock to that more clay could be placed onto any crack's or hole's that appeared in it so as to stop air from getting into it. cause if any air got in the whole load of charcoal would be ruined. because of the emmense heat produced this was normally done outside and at a distance from anything else which could be considered combustable ie. houses, forest's, grass, hay, feilds of crop's that type of thing why is it when if a kiln is used for such a dangerous thing that we can have one in our homes ? sure it'd be great for heating in winter but very dangerous especially since they quite often killed or seroiusly injured the people working on them ?