Implementing longer character actions

[RedKrypton]

What do I mean by that currently a lot of things start to become a clickfest and most of all an endurance test. Caring for a garden is so mindnumbingly frstrating as you have to basically click all plants and water them individually. So what when maybe weeds get implemented? Taking care of weeds is normal work for anyone who doesn't use pesticides for their crops. Or take cooking. Cooking right now is an overly complicated action as it takes 3-6 hours to chop everything into your soup and cook it.

 

Now my idea is implementing longer and combined character actions. This would stop the unecessary micro managment. For gardening do it like the Sims and tell your character to water all, weed all, or use fertiliser on all. For cooking this could also mean more animations and a better cooking system. You tell your character what he should make and then he goes to the cupboards and the fridge to get the ingridients and maybe even water from your rain barrels (p.s If I use dirty rainwater from my rainbarrel to cook, will I get sick?) and then your character goes to the kitchen and prepares it on a cooking surface with your cooking utensils. You then stand by the stove to cook or wait for it to bake.

 

There are many other ideas which could be implemented in this notion.

[Demonic_Kat]

Hum. I see this trend in games a lot lately: auto-play.

I think part of the reason why this game is so rewarding if you survive for long is because you have micro managed your time and resources as one would need to if zombies existed.

For example, you finally got all the ingredients for that chicken casserole that you wanted to make in your bag. Realistically you must first take those ingredients out of your bag, put them in the pan, place them in the oven and wait for it to finish cooking. When you're finished with all of that you can finally eat. Taking those intermediate steps out and automating them may take away from the satisfaction of working for a meal.

Thinking about this further, I have to wonder if one could interrupt the actions as well. Say, using the last example, if you started cooking with the automated version, would you be able to stop if there was a zombie coming at you? If so would your progress on the meal be halted in an intermediate step or would it simply cancel out the entire thing? I would think if it kept the progress going it would be difficult to implement because all the intermediary steps would have to be accounted for.

As for the gardening thing, I find it tedious as well, but that's part of the fun. If you don't happen to check for diseases or water levels then your plants suffer; to have a one click "fix all" would take the challenge out of growing a garden.

Also I'm pretty sure you can clean water by boiling it... I'm not sure if I would want to try to use it prior to boiling, even using in cooking. I'd make a test character to see!

[RedKrypton]

I don't mean to take out the rewarding stuff but the tedious and repeating. What satisfaction is it to yourself weed the garden or water it? There is no satisfaction in that. Pest control can be manual as you still have to mix the pesticide together. For cooking in the current system cooking something for one takes way too long and two doesn't have a use. I get more hunger out of eating raw cabbages than a thick cabbage soup. It also doesn't make me depressed. You still have to discover recipes for food.

Making it a challenge because you don't want to click as much is a bad design decision.

[XxZeraphinexX]

There is no satisfaction in gardening for you? i find it relaxing and feel satisfied if i see me stuff growing, and in RL you wouldn´t have a choice.

In RL you wouldn´t be happy for too long eating day in day out the same stuff and i would prefer a good stew or soup before eating potatos raw.

All the little steps you have to take are the reason the game is so much fun and not SIMS.

Otherwise you need to automat everything....i want a right click on a tree and choose that i want planks/sticks/log *sarcasm off*

For the devs it would mean that they have to implement to much stuff as it´s worse and take to much playing out and to much watch your char play in...my opinion.

I Love the game because off the micro managment.

[ToastedFishSandwich]

I can get behind a change in the cooking (maybe even crafting in general). I'd love to have a panel where I choose the ingredients (which can be stored anywhere on my person or in nearby containers, like how building materials don't have to be in your inventory) and the game shows me what that combination would make (provided my character actually knows). It's not something I've thought about a lot but I think it'd be nice to have a proper UI for some stuff rather than context menus.

[RedKrypton]

But right now there is absolutly no reason to ever cook anything. I made a thick cabbage stew (hadn't got anything else and it was beginnning to spoil). A thick cabbage stew with spices should be good enough? No it wasn't. First up you gain way less by eating the soup then you ever would eating them raw and secondly eating this soup makes you depressed. So much so that eating a portion of the soup 1/4 is enough to make you suicide invoking depressed. You are saying that all those people in the Industrial Revolutions should all have killed themselves.

[Demonic_Kat]

But right now hhere is absolutly no reason to ever cook anything. I made a thick cabbage stew (hadn't got anything else and it was beginnning to spoil). A thick cabbage stew with spices should be good enough? No it wasn't. First up you gain way less by eating the soup then you ever would eating them raw and secondly eating this soup makes you depressed. So much so that eating a portion of the soup 1/4 is enough to make you suicide invoning depressed. You you are saying that all those people in the Industrial Revolutions should all have killed themselves.

The last sentence was funny lol. There is a good reason to cook. Cooking actually increases the hunger value of the food if when you get into the higher levels.

I do think that the unhappiness from food does need to be modified though. I've never gotten depressed from eating anything... ever....

[silents429]

Who gets depressed eating during an apocalypse.

I don't think starving kids in Africa sigh everytime they get handed some food. No matter the quality.

[RedKrypton]

Who gets depressed eating during an apocalypse.

I don't think starving kids in Africa sigh everytime they get handed some food. No matter the quality.

Try it out in game. You'll gain plus 100+ unhappiness and I needed antidepressents to not kill myself because of my awful cooking.

[King jjwpenguin]

the topic is still a useful idea. I would still have the current selection as well. So a water all and chop all or a chop this or water that.

[Fuzzy Wolfy]

As far as gardening goes, that's kind've the point. Its hard work, and its tedious, but often times very rewarding if you put effort into it. I'm not a HUGE fan of farming but I have to admit that its one, if not THE, best way to survive a lengthy period of time.

And food providing unhappiness is also something that's currently plaguing me. Maybe I just suck at cooking. I get that the older a food product is, the less satisfying it'd be to eat, but I think -10 happiness is a lil' bit of an expensive trade-off when eating something that gives you 7 hunger.

Now-... Stuffing a full bar of butter in your face, I can DEFINITELY see why you'd be unhappy with that.