Progression options while AFK, offline and actively playing

[neon island]

I saw a reference in the FAQ to creating items in some sort of queue. I’m wondering what paths there are to progressing you skill/profession and resource gathering in the three different modes - actively playing, in-game but not interacting with the game (e.g., at the computer, game running, but browsing or doing other activities on a second screen while activity happens passively in the game) or while over night, logged out of the game.

For a bit more context, I’m a long time MMO player, since Ultima Online ruled the MMO world. It was a pretty much at-the-keyboard game, unless macro’ing. EVE Online went completely opposite, with skills being acquired passively, without even being in-game, but was massively time gated. The you have hybrid options, from the generic AFk woodcutting, where you can chop the tree without interacting, until it’s resources deplete, or things like invention in RuneScape, or Harvesters gathering resources in Starwars Galaxies, which generate resources passively which you then spent a short amount of time crafting, to gain skill.

I’m hoping BitCraft has something of all of these, as each method has advantages to keeping the game interesting, and avoid a hard-core, keyboard mashing grind 24x7.

Thanks.

[feral patio]

So, this isn't really a question, but I'll attempt to answer what this could be as a question: "What progression options are present from AFK, Offline, and Active?"

BitCraft currently uses Active and AFK. you can set up a large craft of many many objects and let that just run. Gathering however, is very active, and requires constantly moving around. There is currently no offline gains.

[stone plinth]

Some crafts are like "just wait for 4 real hours and get your stuff", but you dont get skill exp from them

[odd pilot]

Currently, there is;
A) no way to get EXP while your character is not online actively performing a task
B) while some crafts require no player interaction (baking food, smelting, crop growth etc) there's no way to freely generate resources passively.

I agree a wide variety of options helps keep things interesting and engaging. We want a good balance between activities that are high engagement -> high yield and activities that are low engagement -> low yield as we flesh out the content in the professions and skills

Most of the crafts are pretty low engagement. They don't require you looking at your screen much and it's something very easy to have on a second monitor while doing other things. Gathering requires a bit more active engagement, having to move between different resource nodes and being careful for monsters.

Again, that's just at current. We do want to expand and flesh these systems out more with interesting content.

[neon island]

Great thanks, that’s sort of what I assumed based on the beginner videos I’ve seen. I just wasn’t sure if higher levels introduced any sort of automation to the processes. For things like the harvesters in SWG for example, the quantity of resources and rarity to craft high level gear would make it infeasible to gather manually, or at least without an army of people suppling you.

[odd pilot]

One of our goals with the game design is to always have new players be valuable to a group. As a result, we need to be very careful about what we do allow to be automated and to what extent/scale, as automation can very quickly make new player manpower meaningless.

[neon island]

That’s an admirable goal. Many games I’ve played have this problem of being a beginner just a grind until you get to the “useful” levels. It’s a tough nut to crack. You have to make it worthwhile for beginner to spend their time on, but not worthwhile for high levels to do faster & easier with their improved skills, while at the same time making sure you have a constant supply of new players to feed the higher levels. Not many that I’ve played have succeeded in this aspect.

When I say new players, I mean lower skilled players. You can be an experienced player who may have chosen to not progress a skill as staying low level is useful enough to be worth it if it’s not your primary profession.

Sorry, I’m using skill and professional interchangeably. Should we always talk about professions in BitCraft, not skills?

[odd pilot]

While there is a difference, I think in the context of this conversation both are fairly interchangeable.

One of the main reasons for always having use in both low and high level players is that you will always need low level materials. While a high level player can gather low level materials faster, their time is better spent gathering the high tier resources/crafting needed and having a new/lower level player help gather low tier resources. Having a "you always need more stuff" approach means the more manpower, the better. During this process, the player is rewarded with level ups and the cosmetics/titles that come with it.

The biggest problem we've run into so far with this approach is that it's often at odds with a functional economy. Since everything is useful/needed for a settlement in order to help keep low level players/content relevant, there is little that people are willing to part with. It's something we are definitely working to improve with new content additions.

[neon island]

Sounds like my time in EVE where I was just a miner/hauler, the “little guy” who did have the money or resources for the big stuff, but enjoyed just chilling on an asteroid, sucking it dry, with the occasional rat incursion to make it exciting. I provided value to the Corp by exchanging my time doing low-level tasks, for the resources they provided me to do my job efficiently and safely, in a dangerous world.

The PvP’ers, who were consumers, not producers, needed us grunts to keep them fighting, while we shared in the spoils of their victories. This worked quite well, as there were two distinct types of players - crafters & fighters. Can BitCraft follow a similar model, with the consumption side of the equation and have both consumers and producers needing each other?

[odd pilot]

In a sense yes, that's one of the main differences between gathering and crafting professions. There at least isnt as big of an issue if someone is looking to sell to a settlement (at least less of one now compared to previous playtests.) The main thing is say, you have a group of 12, and each person in it is specializing in a different profession. When would that settlement ever need to trade with another settlement, when they are consuming everything they are gathering? That's when things like the idea of settlement specializations need to step in.