Steelmaking.

[Avu]

Progress pies are nice but maybe we could get a number of ticks remaining too in a little corner somewhere.

[KoE]

Blah, realized that steel had progress pies right after I posted that. Avu's right, those are almost guesswork particularly in steel's case. Then again that might be loftar's intent.

I'd still like a more accurate way to tell in-game time (or at least some way to compensate for crash offsets). It'd be handy to have for livestock birth/growth and tree growth times, at least. (Well, tree growth to second-to-last stage, anyway).

[loftar]

Well, my pet peeve is just that it should be really hard to make good-quality steel, though I agree that the Temp-Q gauge didn't exactly turn out to be the best way to achieve that effect. I just haven't been able to think of a good alternative.

[Potjeh]

What was it, 12 branches to completely fill the crucible, and it lasts 12 hours? That means that if you fuel it with exactly 62 branches, the final tick will be at 100% temp quality.

[sabinati]

how much of a factor is temp q anyway?

[KoE]

I can certainly sympathize with that (@ loftar, obviously), but as we're evidently all aware 24/7 babysitting is just too much to expect.

I confess I don't know much about metallurgy, but a couple of (probably bad) ideas that immediately spring to mind:

- Make it more dependent on fuel. I can only assume high-quality trees are already required, but perhaps some sort of specially treated charcoal recipe (requiring a non-trivial to make/forage component).

- Add more steps where there is a chance* for decreasing the quality. Maybe at some point in the middle of the process somebody needs to pull it out and bang it or something, or do something after it's finished? Again I know nothing about metallurgy.

*preferably not a totally random chance. I'm honestly not sure what would be appropriate here, though.

I imagine these have already been considered and put aside in favor of the babysitting, and the former I can see for good reason. Resource gathering is effectively a more interactive timesink and isn't really very exciting - though I think if it's a forageable that might encourage some trade. The second one seems like a nice compromise between babysitting and difficulty, though - somewhat analogous to silkworms with the caveat of needing to fuel it as well. If it requires a bit more precision than with silkworms, that's fine too. If you can make it jibe with the simulation, it's a mechanic I wouldn't be upset to see it.

[loftar]

I can certainly sympathize with that (@ loftar, obviously), but as we're evidently all aware 24/7 babysitting is just too much to expect.

Well, you might say that it is precisely because it's too much to expect that I chose that mechanic, though. :) It means that virtually noone, except in exceptional cases, will get full-quality steel, but that anyone can always improve steel quality by putting in a little more work. Therefore, full-quality steel becomes something of a rarity, and that is the effect I wanted, though the current mechanic for attaining it sucks.

[jorb]

I agree that there should be work involved, obviously, but I do think players should have do something a bit more interesting/challenging/fun than just throw branches at the darned thing while constantly watching over it (assuming it worked). I also think there needs to be more stuff to actually make from steel, though I guess we did add strongboxes.

[Lothaudus]

Oddly enough, I think the current Steel system is kinda neat. The only problem I ever had was GOD-DAMNED SERVER CRASHES.

Ain't nothing like setting up to login every 12 hours (just before I headed off to work and then when I got home, and then once again before bed just to be sure) only to find a server crash fucked yer shit up. That's really the only complaint I'd make.

But I like the idea of it being difficult (people are complaining about it, so that goal must have been achieved) to make High Q Steel. Never thought it was too dificult to make any Q Steel though... And this is as a more casual player.

I even like the idea of Temp-Q, even though it does lend itself to macro-ing. I don't know what other things can effect Steel Q (apart from branch Q) but why not just add more weight towards the skills when it comes to how that Steel is used? IE: When it comes to making that Steel into a weapon or armour, Steel Q matters but it's most effected by Smithing and tool Q.

... or add some kind of Wootz Steel (Chuck in Wrought Iron, Iron Ore, Charcoal and Glass - the Q of which would all matter - in order to up the Q or something I don't know, I'm just pulling shit from Wikipedia here).

[KoE]

Ain't nothing like setting up to login every 12 hours (just before I headed off to work and then when I got home, and then once again before bed just to be sure) only to find a server crash fucked yer shit up. That's really the only complaint I'd make.

That's exactly how I felt about it but Temp Q sort of made me flip out.

jorb, as jorb is wont to do, just said exactly what I meant more concisely. There should be (somewhat optional) processes at certain points and such rather than encouraging the whole thing to go up in smoke because of a server crash. Emphasize planning and resource management seems better than, well, poopsocking it.

loftar's bit about making the full quality hard to come by sort of intrigues me. It's sort of the opposite from the usual 'grind up the quality' paradigm, and I don't think I'd be averse to seeing that idea filter its way into other high-tier resources. Just so long as the mechanic for achieving it doesn't suck so much.