Prepping for the re-release of player mines
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 6:13 am
You may notice a few devlog entries concerning player mines as I prepare to get these ready for use again. Just wanted to add a quick note here to talk about some things.
A lot of systems in CLOK use an accelerated time system because, hey, this is a game and we're here to have fun. We don't want the players to have to spend days, weeks, or months on something just because it'd take that long in real life. However, sometimes we go a little too far in the opposite direction and accelerate things which should be significant accomplishments to the point that they are trivial. The same type of time acceleration can also in turn make things uneccessarily more difficult for the player, such as what should more or less be a long-term near permanent structure requiring daily maintenance and upkeep.
So with that in mind, I've made some significant changes to the creation and maintenance of mines. The entry points now take roughly 10 times longer to dig out. However, keep in mind this is a one time thing. Once you've dug out your mine shaft, you have it permanently and the entrance never degrades or goes away.
Likewise I've adjusted the interior of the mine to degrade much more slowly (4 ticks a day rather than 24 ticks a day). I feel this will encourage the use of things like hangable lanterns on mine supports, which were frequently overlooked before since mine supports needed to be replaced so frequently. It also allows for future opportunity of more long-term mine additions (don't get too excited, but I have been entertaining the idea of adding minecart tracks to assist in moving ore from the inside of the mine to the entrance, and also because minecarts are cool. But that's all distant future stuff at present).
Like anything though, these times and adjustments will be monitored and could be tweaked several times over the course of the game's life. Nothing's set in stone, and I'm always listening to and evaluating feedback.
A lot of systems in CLOK use an accelerated time system because, hey, this is a game and we're here to have fun. We don't want the players to have to spend days, weeks, or months on something just because it'd take that long in real life. However, sometimes we go a little too far in the opposite direction and accelerate things which should be significant accomplishments to the point that they are trivial. The same type of time acceleration can also in turn make things uneccessarily more difficult for the player, such as what should more or less be a long-term near permanent structure requiring daily maintenance and upkeep.
So with that in mind, I've made some significant changes to the creation and maintenance of mines. The entry points now take roughly 10 times longer to dig out. However, keep in mind this is a one time thing. Once you've dug out your mine shaft, you have it permanently and the entrance never degrades or goes away.
Likewise I've adjusted the interior of the mine to degrade much more slowly (4 ticks a day rather than 24 ticks a day). I feel this will encourage the use of things like hangable lanterns on mine supports, which were frequently overlooked before since mine supports needed to be replaced so frequently. It also allows for future opportunity of more long-term mine additions (don't get too excited, but I have been entertaining the idea of adding minecart tracks to assist in moving ore from the inside of the mine to the entrance, and also because minecarts are cool. But that's all distant future stuff at present).
Like anything though, these times and adjustments will be monitored and could be tweaked several times over the course of the game's life. Nothing's set in stone, and I'm always listening to and evaluating feedback.