Fixing Sabotage In Game

[Mafia Salad]

I ran into some smelters a few weeks ago that had giant steel projects started with only one gram of limestone in each, So I took to the forums to find out what this was all about and if it was fair play and such. I found out that it was commonly know on the forum as sabotage, and usually considered something that you need to go to the PD to get fixed.

As I was thinking about it, I don’t think that sabotage is that much of a CR Breach, it’s something that would make sense in real life so why not in Cantr. Somebody locks you in a room with their smelter, you make them pay by rendering their smelter useless. The problem is that in real life sabotage can be fixed without using all your resources to do it. And it isn’t nearly as easy to sabotage something in real life as it is in Cantr.

So now lets take something that is normally handled by the PD and put the solution into the game itself. Make it something the characters, not the players, need to deal with.

I think there are two ways of doing this. First you can make a project on all machines that will free up the machine and liberate the resources if no work has been done on the project. Or you can have a waiting time for all projects, so that after X days without anyone adding resources or working on the project, the project expires and the resources end up on the ground. That way it doesn’t just apply to projects on machines.

I think it would be nice to see them both, but I like the first one more because it lets the chars be more involved in the clean up and restoration of the equipment after a sabotage. I’d say make the time of the project related to the amount of material used in the sabotage. If the saboteur put a lot into it, the victims need to work a lot to fix things up. Sabotage can then be a viable way to put your rivals, enemies, whatevers behind schedule, and not be an underhanded player tactic.

The second solution would help with this http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4604&highlight=projects as well as a IG sabotage remedy.

I think sabotage should be a useable way of messing people over IG but not impossible to fix like it is in many cases.

[T-shirt]

Good suggestion.

[Chris Johnson]

This is really a duplicate of an already accepted suggestion

http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6235

See also Flyspray Task #87

http://www.cantr.net/flyspray/?do=details&id=87

Slightly differnet implementation proposed here but the principle is the same

[Mafia Salad]

Blast, I searched the suggestions thread for similar ideas, but not the accepted suggestions.

Oh well I'll know for next time. How about the project based canceling and not the time based? That makes more sense to me anyways.

[Chris Johnson]

I prefer that method myself as well

[Hellzon]

Oh well I'll know for next time. How about the project based canceling and not the time based? That makes more sense to me anyways.

Yeah, so stealing a building while the builder is away to get more stone/wood/lego will take a little while. Me likey! Projects "rotting" - me not so likey.

[SekoETC]

If projects could be cropped to the size limited by the resource that has been added the most? This would also remove the trouble of all those projects where you miss 1 gram of - oops, exept if it was of the resource that's needed less. No good. Hmm... But at least the huge projects with just a little bit of material added could be reduced in size, after all, it doesn't make much sense that the amount of things needed is predefined and cannot be changed.

[Mafia Salad]

If projects could be cropped to the size limited by the resource that has been added the most? This would also remove the trouble of all those projects where you miss 1 gram of - oops, exept if it was of the resource that's needed less. No good. Hmm... But at least the huge projects with just a little bit of material added could be reduced in size, after all, it doesn't make much sense that the amount of things needed is predefined and cannot be changed.

That would make sabotage useless though. It already hard enough to "stick it to the man" the way this game is. It would be nice to give the little guy that can't drag to save his life and doesn't own a crowbar a little tool to hurt the oppressors, without doing something useless like punching their shields or else completely crippling their machines with the sabotage we have now.

[Phalynx]

If machines, and bvehicles for that matter required mainentence, like tools then sabotage could also be an option....

A lot of times, where this kind of sabotage occurs, unless a resources required is particulalry scarce then building a new machine is often easier than completing a product...

[herkamer]

I believe "sabotage" is necessary for gameplay, as it is the closest equivalent (to my noob knowledge) of destruction to the indestructible. It is indespensibe for most nefarious activities- especially for warfare, which already has so many limitations.

[formerly known as hf]

Blast, I searched the suggestions thread for similar ideas, but not the accepted suggestions.

For anyone searching, rather than searching by forum, the selection underneath is 'Category' - one of those is 'suggestion forums'

[Lumin]

I agree with whoever suggested the 'project' approach.

My idea for how this might work would be that for every hour an emptyhanded person spends sabotaging a machine, the 'sabotagees' have to spend two freeing it up. Now, add tools to the mix; a crowbar, or screwdriver, sledgehammer, etc. and like with any project the whole thing becomes more and more efficient.

Of course, to keep this from being too easy it'd have to be noticeable to everyone when it was begun, just like destroying or breaking a lock.