Is in-game progress too slow?

[The Sociologist]

By in-game progress, I mean the speed at which things get done and there is some sense of history happening inside the game.

Now we know that during the absurd tiredness catastrophe everything went backwards, so there could hardly even be talk of progress. But what about now? Tiredness is more or less "fixed" and we have a nice fast server too.

Yet one of my principal characters, who is administering a town of about 12 actives--a town with access to hematite, limestone, gas, charcoal, etc--finds that the height of community ambition is......a bike cart.

Anyone built a passenger car lately without using materials left over from the "old" pre-hematite days? Any sign of towns involved in major road construction projects? Any sign of new rising political powers?

I've been monitoring the forum quite closely and it seems to consist 99% of people living in the past or else outright silliness. Is that an unduly harsh view or not?

[kinvoya]

I voted no because I'm pretty OK with the way things are now but I'm not into all the political intrigue anyway. I wish there were a couple of other, in between, choices. Everything moves pretty slowly in Cantr. It's not for the impatient.

I think after the death and destruction (of social orders) caused by the recent dark ages, reconstruction will take a while. I'm sure there are some things afoot but many of them are probably being kept on the down low.

I know of one pretty good town shake-up that happened at light-speed but I'm not telling.

[Surly]

I feel the amount of time it now takes to make hematite into iron and then iron into steel severely curbs ambition. Added to that that characters seem to be a lot more impatient now... and with the new skill based combat, it takes a lot of work to enforce laws on a town. Hopefully things will get better, but it will take a lot of work.

And with regards to the forum, it is quite hard to talk about modern events without breaching some kind of rule and getting shouted at. Hence people living in the past. I in fact enjoy the reminisicing (with the exception of any talk of the KDS area. I hate that)...

But definitely a snails pace for me.

[mortaine]

I think it's still too slow. Iron is still too hard to come by. Or rather, it's not that it's too hard, but relative to the number of things that require it, just to achieve a minimal level of ability in manufacturing.

I have a character in a town who is initiating some road works, but the rampant newspawn thieves make things harder-- we definitely need iron to lock at least one building, but... we just don't have it. *sigh*

[The Industriallist]

I'm surprised to hear you complaining, Sociologist. I would think you would understand that it should require a large force of workers to build anything major...certainly to create a car from raw materials. And by large I don't mean four. How many organizations have more people active in basic production than I can count on my fingers? Not very many I suspect.

That's the real problem as I see it. It isn't that the game precludes development...it's just that it requires real organizational power. As it should.

[Floyd]

i agree with Sociologist, its an incredibly lengthy and tedious process making Iron, and because of that not only is it hard to make it no one wants to trade it. Also some towns have taken advantage of this by banning the Mining of hematite. the whole thing has really halted the Progress of a couple of my Charries and annoyed me to no end.

Grrr

[SekoETC]

We made over two kilos. Maaaaannnnnnnnn it took ages!

[TatteredShoeLace]

My char is working on a 4 kilo project, and it may have taken 4 years so far. Its just finally wrapping up.

[Hagan]

I was not around when you could just pick up iron and use it as a resource.... my oldest character is only 23 and will be able to make iron soon with a bussiness he has joined.. I have traded for Iron.. and have Iron tools.. and for the most part myself comparing it to real life thought it has bee simple.. time consumming yet but simple.. but itsnt the point to be a sort of similation of real life... I like the pace that things are going.. some characters are having a time getting started but others are not.. it just depends at least on my characters on how social they become.. the ones that are taking a part in the towns the live in and work with others.. trading and helping.. its going smoothly.. the ones that are trying to do everything by themselfs is having a time.. but again I think it is great as it is.....

[nitefyre]

I think it is relatively okay as it is. But Socio, you're inclined to complain whenever there's a chance. Everything (but the most sophisticated vehicles, which we shouldn't even be at yet) is doable. It's just a matter of active characters, organization and recruitment.

Political developments are continuous (i.e. Gregor vs. Joram in KDS) in Cantr.

P.S. I'm taking this from both my old/new characters.

[Ash]

I have a character that has started a car, progress is really slow. Distractions and all. It was started after iron/hematite transitions. And it WILL get completed. But the char has other things to concentrate on..

[Sarah]

You guys with iron problems could also try trading with older characters. Some of mine still have thousands of grams of iron from when it came from the ground (but they do tend to hoard it, because you never know when it might be needed ).

Maybe I'm not observant enough, but I don't see any big change in productivity resulting from tiredness and the skills system. I don't even worry about or check my characters' tiredness or skills, it doesn't seem like a big deal to me. And if Cantr is socially lacking (which I don't think is the case either), it's not the fault of the game mechanics.

[west]

I don't think mechanical process is the goal of cantr...I like how it progresses now...with new areas starting up and old areas growing, but a certain maximum technology level for everyone. The social implications of this system are what I find really interesting, and it's a society simulator after all, not a technology-tree simulator.

[Missy]

Things have always taken this much time I think. I agree it's a matter of finding the helping hands. If youd on't have a proper resting solution and you have people who suck at smelting, of course it's going to take longer. But that was the point of putting those things in like that, I think. At least partially.

[mortaine]

I think the real problem is a lack of a sense of history. I find notes on the ground from hundreds of years ago-- are they still relevant? How do I know? There's no context, and even if you ask, people seem to have no idea, or don't care. If you stand around and talk for more than 2 Cantr years and you're not in a really big metropolis, suddenly everyone assumes you're the leader.