For businesses and shopowners everywhere: Workstations.

[Cogliostro]

Why is it that it's so hard, awkward and tedious to employ somebody to work for your imaginary business in Cantr? It's a good question to ask yourself, but chief among all the reasons contributing has got to be that when someone says "Ok, I'll work for you." that really means nothing. Nothing happened in the game mechanics.

So we solve it by paying our workers when they finish making, cooking, digging stuff for us. Here, John, here's your iron, want some more work? The cycle starts again. Because of that there are no real companies or businesses, just repeated reiterations of the above described primitive relationship: first you give me the shoes, then I give you the pants. Worse, it all depends on when each of the characters involved is awake. Sometimes they aren't and then everything, very unnaturally halts: not only in their lives, but also in the lives of all those characters that might be perfectly awake but depend on the first guy.

So what is a workstation? It is a normal buildable item of furniture (maybe ok for outside too) that has two special hardcoded abilities:

1. Clicking the workstation when it is "empty" allows you to temporarily link it (via a selector) to any project currently started in the area. The link clears again when the project clears, simple.

2. Its second ability is that it is also a container. After you linked it to a project, you can as usual with containers, place any resources you want inside of the workstation.

At this point, the machine is loaded and assignments can't be changed.

Here is how it works: somebody else comes in and sees the workstation. Opening the object, they are told to which project it is linked and what resources are currently inside the container, and they're able to operate the workstation. Operating it causes the linked project to progress, as if you worked normally on it. As you can guess, the key difference is that once the project clears, you - the person operating that specific workstation, get the resources that were stored in it by the project starter. They go into your inventory and you are a happy man, even though the project starter has been asleep for the past 1.5 months.

When they finally have time to wake up, they will be happy too, because the projects they cared about were taken care of by people enticed by the prospect of grabbing those resources they needed. Everybody is happy, peace and happiness reigns all over Cantr.

[Cogliostro]

Now that you've been introduced to the gist of the idea, and either you hate it or you love it, it might be good to remind ourselves just how complicated projects are in Cantr. You might need special tools, even special machines. Some projects need machines which are also tools that you have to hold. It's crazy. That's why workstations won't ever be the answer (or useful) for everything and every project imaginable.

However, if we created specific Workstations for a select group of especially common or useful project types, that also make sense logically, I think that would work out well. What I mean is that there should be distinct Digging Workstations, for instance, that link only to digging projects involving local drills and quarries. Various Purifying and Smelting Workstations serve the needs of those particular projects. The build requirements for each type of workstation would be slightly different and, crucially, *they include what is required for the required tools*. That is a confusing thing, but very important, so let's restate it:

Each individual workstation type, to be built, requires the builder to put in the resources "assumed" for the toolset that the operator will be using.

The operator of the workstation, as a consequence, needs no special tools to make the linked project progress.

[Doug R.]

Interesting concept, but a big NO for multiple types of stations. The build menus are already clogged, and we don't need eight more machines being built in locations, cluttering them further, that are just replicates of the same thing operating for different project types.

Also, this skirts the line of "automation," the lack of such being a key Cantr principle.

I'd like to see where this goes, though.

[Elros]

I am a little confused exactly as to the purpose of these workstations, but they will probably take an extremely large amount of work to be implemented, and they don't make much difference in game... I am still confused on why you cant just set the projects up like regular and have workers work on them... Why go through all of this just to allow the workers to set up their own projects...

I definetly don't care for this suggestion, but maybe that is because I don't comepletly understand the point of it...

[Doug R.]

I don't get most of the specifics either, but the gist is that he wants a way for workers to automatically receive payment upon project completion. Might be best to ignore most of his post, and just discuss what I bolded here.

[Razorlance]

I think what he wants is not only what you bolded, but the workstation to be the equivalent of all the tools needed for the project, so instead of needing 6 separate tools the workstation replaces them all, then the worker can work on the linked project without the need of the tools and also gets the payment upon completion.

It does sound like a fair idea, but I think it would be better to have a generic workstation, but the project initator supplies all the tools needed for the specific project then any worker can work on the project linked, perhaps even have the workstation store all the tools possible, a bit like a real workstation, so any project can be worked on.

[Doug R.]

Ah, thank you for the clarification.

The problem with having tools integrated with the workstation is that it precludes workers from stealing them. It would the equivalent to using tools that are chained down somehow. That would definitely hamper production.

[Peanut]

Perhaps a time penalty depending on how many workers as opposed to how many tools there are in the project would be interesting?

[Cogliostro]

I didn't understand that time-penalty post at all, Peanut. Could you clarify what you mean?

The gist of what I mean is:

- we are talking of two kinds of projects, the projects on the Workstation machine and the normal projects it links to (Drills, smelters, etc.)

- a worker who joins and completes a Workstation project automatically gets what's inside the container when the linked project completes

- to work on the workstation you need no tools, even if the linked project itself requires many different tools. The workstation, to be built, requires / includes the resources assumed for the tools. Imagining them chained to the workstation is the right idea.


Cluttery proliferation of these Workstations is a serious problem, so is not being able to have different kinds. A generic one would be weird, since each linked project type tends to need its own tools.

One solution for the clutter that I want to suggest is to make the Workstation machines buildable indoors only; but then cleverly let (for example) Drill Workstations operate/link to normal drilling projects outside that same location. A building called the "Mining Headquaters" could host a number of these workstations, which are a lot like mousetraps, with iron or something valuable in them to entice the worker to work at them. Do your part, and the "cheese" is, fair enough, released into your hands.

[BZR]

so instead of needing 6 separate tools the workstation replaces them all

This is the best part of this suggestions. I'm tired of noticing whom I gave what and giving people wanting to smith something 5 different hammers.

[Peanut]

Well if a project needs 3 tools. A knife, a hammer and a doorbell. Logic would tell that a 3 people could work the whole time using those tools. A 4th person could possibly help with menial tasks. The 5th person can wipe the sweat of the other workers with a towel and the 6th person helping will become a functionary ( ).

What I meant is that if more people are working on a workstation then then are tools for the project that the days work of the people after the ones that "get to use the tools in the workstation" get's reduced. Due to crowding and or lack of things they can possibly help with.

Ie in real life 10 people working around a small circular table will work as fast or faster then 20 people working at the same table.

[Doug R.]

The project participation limits for the individual projects should still apply.

A generic workstation would simply need the appropriate tools added into it when the project is linked, otherwise, the worker would get the "you don't have the right tools" message.

I get the sense, however, that this is just a way for the wealthy to maintain their wealth easier, by preventing theft of tools, and by making it less necessary for them to actively maintain their businesses/wealth.

This suggestion seems to make the status quo easier to maintain, which is a very large point of irritation for many players, including the author of this suggestion (see his newspawns can't do anything post).

[Elros]

I get the sense, however, that this is just a way for the wealthy to maintain their wealth easier, by preventing theft of tools, and by making it less necessary for them to actively maintain their businesses/wealth.

I agree completely!

[BZR]

I get the sense, however, that this is just a way for the wealthy to maintain their wealth easier, by preventing theft of tools, and by making it less necessary for them to actively maintain their businesses/wealth.

I agree completely!

I completely disagree.

Maintaing goods means just to keep everything locked in a locked room, where only you have the key.

But if you want to give people jobs it's difficult to take care of it all on your own. Usually you need somebody to help you and the risk increases, as you must give him the keys and trust him. It's very time-comsuming for the players, and, as I see, old players give newbies work not because they really need it, but just to keep them in the city.

[Elros]

I get the sense, however, that this is just a way for the wealthy to maintain their wealth easier, by preventing theft of tools, and by making it less necessary for them to actively maintain their businesses/wealth.

But if you want to give people jobs it's difficult to take care of it all on your own. Usually you need somebody to help you and the risk increases, as you must give him the keys and trust him. It's very time-comsuming for the players, and, as I see, old players give newbies work not because they really need it, but just to keep them in the city.

You were agreeing with him by what you were saying. This is a way for rich and inactive people to continue to build wealth with little work and activity on their part.