Since Zoric's 10th year anniversary will be in a few months, I want to have a special world set up (if we get worlds by then). The next Zoric will be a new economy the likes of which the game has yet to see. It will make heavy use of many of the new script things and unlike past economies that are low maintenance, this will be a complex and far more realistic economy then has ever been featured by Zoric or any other world in the past. If this economy structure works out, it will be used in all future Zoric's. Instead of being a simple 'build, stock, sell' design, it will be more of a Business running simulation.
Key Features:
Building Upgrading
Most buildings will be upgradable with several levels and various upgrades. Each upgrade will allow the building to produce a greater variety of items and/or produce faster. However, each upgrade will also require the owner of the building to pay more attention to the building. An example could be a vegetable farm. You could buy additional fields to produce more or a greater variety of items, or upgrade the Silo to increase its storage capacity.
Building Production
Unlike in all past economies where you just stock items in the building and wait for them to produce, the next Zoric will require owners and building employees to interact with the building for it to make items. The buildings will produce items by themselves, but only at a very slow pace. To get the most out of your buildings, you will have to visit the building and run threw scripts to physically build the items. An example could be a Car Factory. The factory may have Car Parts and Steel in its stock, but you (and your employee) can go to the factory and select a car to make, then add the needed car Parts and Steel to make the vehicles much faster then the factory would by itself. Upgrades to the factory could include things such as larger storage space or a customizable automated assembly line where you can tell the factory to make x amount of whatever vehicles you want it to make. Once an Automated Assembly line is in place, you will also be able to set the speed the building runs at, but the faster it runs, the higher the maintenance costs and the greater the chance of something breaking if improperly maintained.
Building Maintenance
Not only will buildings be more interactive, not only will they be upgradable, but they will also require maintenance like a real business would. Operating costs will vary based on the buildings level and speed of operation. Operating costs will likely all be cash based but may include needing to stock items such as oil or water for lubrication and cleaning. The faster the building runs, the more maintenance it will need and it will be up to you as building owner to decide what the levels of maintenance are in your buildings. All machinery is prone to breaking and breakages will occur at random times, but how often depends on how well your maintenance budget is.
Town Ownership (this is a possible addition)
Towns may now serve a purpose other then providing places to build. If possible, towns will be designed so the owner will receive a yearly income based on the tax they set and the number of residents in the town or based on the number of buildings in the town. However, the town owner will also have to provide FOR the residents in the town by dedicating money to funding things such as Police Departments, Fire Departments, and Sanitation. The funding levels of these departments will effect the buildings in the town in various ways. Lack of funding could result in businesses in the town having reduced production or increased costs of operation. For example, lower the sanitation funding to low and the cleaning cost of the buildings in your town will go up. The costs of these utilities would be dependent on the number of buildings or residents in the town.
**How much of the above is possible is another question, things may change***
Zoric 27 info
Zoric 27 info
Last edited by zaroba on Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
lazyredhead
- Posts: 251
- Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 9:59 pm
Less Buildings, More Items
Something I'm going to try and do with this zoric. You will be able ot choose exactly what your building produces. No set buildings for set types. You can build a farm and pick what crop goes in the field, or if you upgrade it to have more then one field, choose what crop is in each field. Same goes for factories and other buildings, any building that makes/produces/grows something can be upgraded to make/produce/grow several different items at once and you can choose which items are being made in which production slot. Make 4 of the same item or make 4 different items, the choice will be yours.
Nutrition - if possible
Farming will play a big role in this zoric. In the past it was always the easy and neglected area of the economy. But now nutrition will play a role in your characters health and well being. You will have to eat a variety of food to get the protein, sugar, carbs, and vitamins your body needs. If you do find yourself suffering from malnutrition, a visit to the doctor may help you. Fattening foods will result in your character gaining weight, and if that happens, you can go to a gym to work out. Or ignore it and as you gain weight you'll have an increased risk of having a heart attack and dieing earlier. A balanced diet is the key to a long life.
Something I'm going to try and do with this zoric. You will be able ot choose exactly what your building produces. No set buildings for set types. You can build a farm and pick what crop goes in the field, or if you upgrade it to have more then one field, choose what crop is in each field. Same goes for factories and other buildings, any building that makes/produces/grows something can be upgraded to make/produce/grow several different items at once and you can choose which items are being made in which production slot. Make 4 of the same item or make 4 different items, the choice will be yours.
Nutrition - if possible
Farming will play a big role in this zoric. In the past it was always the easy and neglected area of the economy. But now nutrition will play a role in your characters health and well being. You will have to eat a variety of food to get the protein, sugar, carbs, and vitamins your body needs. If you do find yourself suffering from malnutrition, a visit to the doctor may help you. Fattening foods will result in your character gaining weight, and if that happens, you can go to a gym to work out. Or ignore it and as you gain weight you'll have an increased risk of having a heart attack and dieing earlier. A balanced diet is the key to a long life.
Script status: Currently working on a template script which will be used for all the different buildings on the server. This template script will be replicated to all buildings capable of producing stuff and only need minor changing (basically items and building number) thus saving a lot of time.
Building Owner section almost completed.
-can set buy prices for all demanded items
-can set sale prices for all produced items
-can transfer to or from inventory anything demanded or produced.
-production slots recognize upgrade level. can set the item for each production slot and set the qty to produce if the upgrade is installed.
-production slots recognize and display qty produced, max qty and allow changing the max qty while producing
-production slots will stop producing and display a message if they cannot produce due to reaching max item capacity, completing the set qty requested, running out of supplies, or breaking down (which may or may not happen. scripting it, and will have the ability to turn it on or off via an admin script, just don't know if it will be used.)
Building Owner section almost completed.
-can set buy prices for all demanded items
-can set sale prices for all produced items
-can transfer to or from inventory anything demanded or produced.
-production slots recognize upgrade level. can set the item for each production slot and set the qty to produce if the upgrade is installed.
-production slots recognize and display qty produced, max qty and allow changing the max qty while producing
-production slots will stop producing and display a message if they cannot produce due to reaching max item capacity, completing the set qty requested, running out of supplies, or breaking down (which may or may not happen. scripting it, and will have the ability to turn it on or off via an admin script, just don't know if it will be used.)
While at work today on lunch break I overheard a girl talking about how she used to live with some person and they were splitting the bills etc. An hour later while working, my mind was wondering and replaying the convo she was having with a few others and an idea for the zoric ecomy popped into my mind:
Co-Ownership.
Many times during the games history there have been times where several players have teamed together to produce things at a cheaper rate. I have also many times seen people who had hit the building limit have a friend build a building and then rent it from them to get more buildings. To make this process even easier, all buildings except houses will allow the owner to designate somebody else as a co-owner of the building. The co-owner will have full access to the building's scripts and be able to interact with it as if they owned it except for a few exceptions (like renaming, renting, or selling the building).
After thinking of the above for a while, another thought came to mind:
Corporations: Advanced team play on an economy.
I don't know how well or easily this will be implemented, but theoretically it should be possible. Players who save up enough money will be able to start a Corporation by building a Corporate Headquarters building. This building will act as a bank for the corporation and all members will be able to deposit and remove money from it. The person who builds the building will be designated as the head of the corporation and be able to invite or kick out other players (haven't quite thought of how to do this part yet). The order at which people join the corporation will be recorded and if the leader dies or goes inactive, leadership of the corporation will go to the next active player down the list of people who joined. The leader will also have the option of stepping down and designating somebody else as the leader. All players in the corporation will have co-ownership status at all buildings owned by other players in the corporation. When a player joins a corporation, any existing buildings they have will *not* be part of the corporation, but will have the option to be transferred to it. Any future buildings a player builds will automatically become part of the corporation and cannot be removed from it. If a player leaves or gets kicked out of a corporation, then their buildings will be removed from it as well. To have a corporation will require a lot of teamwork and trust with the rest of the members of it. There will be a limit to the number of corporations that can exist due to script limits.
Co-Ownership.
Many times during the games history there have been times where several players have teamed together to produce things at a cheaper rate. I have also many times seen people who had hit the building limit have a friend build a building and then rent it from them to get more buildings. To make this process even easier, all buildings except houses will allow the owner to designate somebody else as a co-owner of the building. The co-owner will have full access to the building's scripts and be able to interact with it as if they owned it except for a few exceptions (like renaming, renting, or selling the building).
After thinking of the above for a while, another thought came to mind:
Corporations: Advanced team play on an economy.
I don't know how well or easily this will be implemented, but theoretically it should be possible. Players who save up enough money will be able to start a Corporation by building a Corporate Headquarters building. This building will act as a bank for the corporation and all members will be able to deposit and remove money from it. The person who builds the building will be designated as the head of the corporation and be able to invite or kick out other players (haven't quite thought of how to do this part yet). The order at which people join the corporation will be recorded and if the leader dies or goes inactive, leadership of the corporation will go to the next active player down the list of people who joined. The leader will also have the option of stepping down and designating somebody else as the leader. All players in the corporation will have co-ownership status at all buildings owned by other players in the corporation. When a player joins a corporation, any existing buildings they have will *not* be part of the corporation, but will have the option to be transferred to it. Any future buildings a player builds will automatically become part of the corporation and cannot be removed from it. If a player leaves or gets kicked out of a corporation, then their buildings will be removed from it as well. To have a corporation will require a lot of teamwork and trust with the rest of the members of it. There will be a limit to the number of corporations that can exist due to script limits.
More work on script done today:
-can set employee salary
-can fire employees
-can set employee commission rate on sales
-can set what employees can do (employees can actually work in the building now)
-can install up to 4 additional production lines (for a total of 5)
-can repair the production lines when/if they break down
-can upgrade storage
-can upgrade automation
-can add and remove investment
-can set buildings for sale
-can set buildings for lease
-can set employee salary
-can fire employees
-can set employee commission rate on sales
-can set what employees can do (employees can actually work in the building now)
-can install up to 4 additional production lines (for a total of 5)
-can repair the production lines when/if they break down
-can upgrade storage
-can upgrade automation
-can add and remove investment
-can set buildings for sale
-can set buildings for lease
-Building upgrades can be removed
-Owners can add their buildings to corporations after they join them
-Owners can remove their buildings from corporations
-If the owner leaves a corporation, their buildings will automatically leave when they visit them (can't own buildings in a corporations you don't belong to)
-co-owners renamed to Managers (it fits the abilities better)
-Managers can't set building sale or rental prices but have full access to everything else (including the investments, so make sure you trust the person)
-corp members can't set building sale or rental prices
-a person becomes a manager by being promoted as an employee (thus eliminating the employee)
-a manager can be fired
-a manager will be automatically fired from a building if he isn't in the same cooperation as it. the firing wont happen until he accesses the building, thus giving him time to join/leave the corporation as well.
-removed the ability to set buildings for lease (honestly I've never seen it used much, and most of the time players are just scammed out of money)
-started initial testing, fixed a lot of bugs
-Owners can add their buildings to corporations after they join them
-Owners can remove their buildings from corporations
-If the owner leaves a corporation, their buildings will automatically leave when they visit them (can't own buildings in a corporations you don't belong to)
-co-owners renamed to Managers (it fits the abilities better)
-Managers can't set building sale or rental prices but have full access to everything else (including the investments, so make sure you trust the person)
-corp members can't set building sale or rental prices
-a person becomes a manager by being promoted as an employee (thus eliminating the employee)
-a manager can be fired
-a manager will be automatically fired from a building if he isn't in the same cooperation as it. the firing wont happen until he accesses the building, thus giving him time to join/leave the corporation as well.
-removed the ability to set buildings for lease (honestly I've never seen it used much, and most of the time players are just scammed out of money)
-started initial testing, fixed a lot of bugs
not much done today since my work week has started again
-Did away with the idea of corporations having all members basically own all buildings.
-The skill required to build a building is the same as the skill required to work in a building, Since buildings will not produce unless you tell them what and how many to produce (depending on the upgrade level) it makes sense to require building owners to retain the skill needed to run the building. Thus, if the owner of a building forgets the skill a building needs, he will no longer be able to run the building's production lines to make stuff. Can still do everything else possible with the building (add/remove stock, change invest, set prices, etc), just not run the production lines. He will need to hire an employee or building manager to run production for him.
-Did away with the idea of corporations having all members basically own all buildings.
-The skill required to build a building is the same as the skill required to work in a building, Since buildings will not produce unless you tell them what and how many to produce (depending on the upgrade level) it makes sense to require building owners to retain the skill needed to run the building. Thus, if the owner of a building forgets the skill a building needs, he will no longer be able to run the building's production lines to make stuff. Can still do everything else possible with the building (add/remove stock, change invest, set prices, etc), just not run the production lines. He will need to hire an employee or building manager to run production for him.
Started setting up the world itself.
Found out I had too many items in the design (250+). Cut out a bunch of stuff and just barely have enough item slots for everything. Still way too many for my desires. Going to redo the buildings file. Ideally there will only be around 100 items not including vehicles.
Found out I had too many items in the design (250+). Cut out a bunch of stuff and just barely have enough item slots for everything. Still way too many for my desires. Going to redo the buildings file. Ideally there will only be around 100 items not including vehicles.
Work has now resumed on zoric.
-Added a per building privacy setting, so you can set who can see in your building and can set who can shop at your building. Settings are everybody, same corp as you (or no corp if your not in one), or nobody but you. Some of these override other ones to prevent contradictions (like trying to set it so everybody can shop at the building, but nobody can see in it)
-Going with the above, buildings once again have to be in the corp you are in. If you join/leave/change corps, your buildings wont join/leave/change until you access them, thus giving time for your manager to change corps as well, otherwise he will get fired when he accesses them..
-Added a per building privacy setting, so you can set who can see in your building and can set who can shop at your building. Settings are everybody, same corp as you (or no corp if your not in one), or nobody but you. Some of these override other ones to prevent contradictions (like trying to set it so everybody can shop at the building, but nobody can see in it)
-Going with the above, buildings once again have to be in the corp you are in. If you join/leave/change corps, your buildings wont join/leave/change until you access them, thus giving time for your manager to change corps as well, otherwise he will get fired when he accesses them..
Farms:
Farms will not be 'plant and harvest' like on all past worlds. Instead, they will be 'plant and constantly grow as long as there is space in the field'. You plant a few plants to start the crop, as the days pass, these plants will multiply by themselves until the field is filled up and with each day, each plant will produce its fruit. You could harvest the fruit, or let it sit, it is up to you. The more plants in the field, the more water and fertilizer the farm will need per day. If water or fertilizer runs out, then production will stop and the crop may start to die.
As an example, you start a crop of Tomatoes. As time goes by, that 1 tomato plant becomes 2, then 3, then 4 plants until it hits the max allowed. Each tomato plant may produce 3 tomatoes a day and need 1 water and 1 fert a day. As time goes by, more plants grow and the farm needs more water and fert and you will get more tomatoes from the field of plants. But, if you run out of water or fert, then the plants will stop producing tomatoes. Then after a few more days, the plants will start to die off until none are left.
Trees:
I had been thinking of having a nursery farm for trees (and fruit bearing trees), but then I decided to go with a more creative method: Individual trees that players can plant, harvest, and cut down, or keep to use for decoration. When a player gets a seed (could be from somebody else, or eating a piece of fruit) they can plant it and get a tree of that type. Fruit bearing trees will grow fruit every day up to a certain amount. The fruit on the trees does have a life span and if not harvested after a while it will start to expire with the oldest expiring first. If a tree is no longer wanted, it can be cut down and will become logs which can be taken to a lumbermill to be turned into wood for building. Trees will age over time, the longer a tree exists, the older it will become and thew more logs it will provide when it is cut down, I do not have plans to limit this as in real life trees can live hundreds of years. Like farms, Trees do need water and fert to produce fruit and to grow as they age, but unlike farms it is a set amount regardless of how much fruit or tree age. If water or fert runs out, then fruit production will stop, the tree will continue to age, but lack of water and fert will 'stunt' it's growth and aging will not add to the amount of logs received when cut down. Trees cannot 'store' water or fert, so unless you buy a water barrel or fert box, you will need to add water and fertilizer every day to keep the tree growing and producing fruit. If you have a water barrel or fert box at a tree and cut it down, you will will not lose them (but will lose any water or fert in them).
Trees have privacy settings different from those mentioned in the above post:
You can set who can cut down the tree (you, your corp, or anybody)
You can set who can harvest the tree (you, your corp, or anybody)
Both settings default to being you only.
Trees cannot hold investment and thus cannot 'sell' or 'buy' items. Harvesting is free for anybody who is allowed to do so, and anybody can add water and fert to a tree regardless of privacy settings, also for free.
Trees will likely be the only building that does not need any skill to build or maintain.
Farms will not be 'plant and harvest' like on all past worlds. Instead, they will be 'plant and constantly grow as long as there is space in the field'. You plant a few plants to start the crop, as the days pass, these plants will multiply by themselves until the field is filled up and with each day, each plant will produce its fruit. You could harvest the fruit, or let it sit, it is up to you. The more plants in the field, the more water and fertilizer the farm will need per day. If water or fertilizer runs out, then production will stop and the crop may start to die.
As an example, you start a crop of Tomatoes. As time goes by, that 1 tomato plant becomes 2, then 3, then 4 plants until it hits the max allowed. Each tomato plant may produce 3 tomatoes a day and need 1 water and 1 fert a day. As time goes by, more plants grow and the farm needs more water and fert and you will get more tomatoes from the field of plants. But, if you run out of water or fert, then the plants will stop producing tomatoes. Then after a few more days, the plants will start to die off until none are left.
Trees:
I had been thinking of having a nursery farm for trees (and fruit bearing trees), but then I decided to go with a more creative method: Individual trees that players can plant, harvest, and cut down, or keep to use for decoration. When a player gets a seed (could be from somebody else, or eating a piece of fruit) they can plant it and get a tree of that type. Fruit bearing trees will grow fruit every day up to a certain amount. The fruit on the trees does have a life span and if not harvested after a while it will start to expire with the oldest expiring first. If a tree is no longer wanted, it can be cut down and will become logs which can be taken to a lumbermill to be turned into wood for building. Trees will age over time, the longer a tree exists, the older it will become and thew more logs it will provide when it is cut down, I do not have plans to limit this as in real life trees can live hundreds of years. Like farms, Trees do need water and fert to produce fruit and to grow as they age, but unlike farms it is a set amount regardless of how much fruit or tree age. If water or fert runs out, then fruit production will stop, the tree will continue to age, but lack of water and fert will 'stunt' it's growth and aging will not add to the amount of logs received when cut down. Trees cannot 'store' water or fert, so unless you buy a water barrel or fert box, you will need to add water and fertilizer every day to keep the tree growing and producing fruit. If you have a water barrel or fert box at a tree and cut it down, you will will not lose them (but will lose any water or fert in them).
Trees have privacy settings different from those mentioned in the above post:
You can set who can cut down the tree (you, your corp, or anybody)
You can set who can harvest the tree (you, your corp, or anybody)
Both settings default to being you only.
Trees cannot hold investment and thus cannot 'sell' or 'buy' items. Harvesting is free for anybody who is allowed to do so, and anybody can add water and fert to a tree regardless of privacy settings, also for free.
Trees will likely be the only building that does not need any skill to build or maintain.
Dynamic Economy:
I am pondering about making a dynamic feel to farms, factories, and production buildings. Basically, depending on conditions not yet decided on, farm production may increase or decrease depending on the day. Stuff will also effect manufacturing facilities and production buildings. The change wont be drastic, likely only 5-10% more or less produced.
As for the methods, perhaps a random script to simulate the temp going up and down to simulate various seasons. Maybe clouds and sun effecting things, precipitation is a possibility as well, but there is no way to link that to scripts yet.
I am pondering about making a dynamic feel to farms, factories, and production buildings. Basically, depending on conditions not yet decided on, farm production may increase or decrease depending on the day. Stuff will also effect manufacturing facilities and production buildings. The change wont be drastic, likely only 5-10% more or less produced.
As for the methods, perhaps a random script to simulate the temp going up and down to simulate various seasons. Maybe clouds and sun effecting things, precipitation is a possibility as well, but there is no way to link that to scripts yet.
Decided to redo the add and remove screens to make them easier to set up for each building and make them take up less space in the script.
Quick pic of the new osd (still needs some spacing adjustment):
Select a quantity to move and click an arrow to move from building to inventory or from inventory to building. The arrows will only light up and be clickable if there is enough of the item to move. If employees are set to be able to add stocks, but not remove, then none of the buttons to transfer items to inventory will light up. If employees are set to not be able to add or remove, then they wont be able to access the screen at all.
Quick pic of the new osd (still needs some spacing adjustment):
Select a quantity to move and click an arrow to move from building to inventory or from inventory to building. The arrows will only light up and be clickable if there is enough of the item to move. If employees are set to be able to add stocks, but not remove, then none of the buttons to transfer items to inventory will light up. If employees are set to not be able to add or remove, then they wont be able to access the screen at all.
That's an average of 3k polies per building 
Wait until you see the racetrack I'm (trying) to model.
Unlike in previous zorics with the height mapped racetrack, I'm going to try and make one via 3d model (darn mit for putting the idea in my head, lol). Nice smooth banks and curves with a pretty smooth surface.
Wait until you see the racetrack I'm (trying) to model.
Unlike in previous zorics with the height mapped racetrack, I'm going to try and make one via 3d model (darn mit for putting the idea in my head, lol). Nice smooth banks and curves with a pretty smooth surface.
