I think I am finally close to finishing zoric.
Just minor things here and there left to do, but nothing necessary for game play.
A few minor things wont be done yet at release:
Corps wont be in yet, as I haven't yet figured out a good way to implement them and everything I had planned for them.
Players wont be able to own schools or banks (banks wouldn't be affordable for a while anyway)
Library wont be available yet, but it's just a reference thing, you will be able to click the 'details' button on any item to get some info on it.
The hospital isn't operational yet, also not something to worry about for while.
The membership building wont work yet, but until fuel is made the free members vehicle wont have a use. Plus any members-only buildings wont be affordable yet
Warehouses are still planned as well, but no real idea yet on how to implement them.
Aside from that, Get ready for a whole new economy world experience!
-Upgradable buildings: upgrade the storage limits of your buildings, increase output, make them easier to run
-You control what your building makes. No more tossing items into a building and being at the whim of the game. Now *you* tell your buildings what to make. And after upgrading, exactly how many to make.
-Buildings need resources. Factories need lubrication or they will break down and need repairs. All buildings need power to run, even retail shops.
-Growing trees. You plant a tree, wait for it to grow, then chop it down for wood. How much wood the tree provides depends on the type of tree and how tall you let it grow. You will also get seeds to sell or plant to grow new trees. Keep em as decoration or become a lumberjack, it's up to you.
-A new take on Farming. Farms used to run like regular facs, producing stuff at set times. Aramathea features farms with planting and harvesting. Zoric takes it a step further. You plant the farm once, young plants grow into adult plants, adult plants spawn more young plants and can be harvested. Well maintained continuously growing fields will yield unlimited crops from a single planting until you decide to clear the field and plant a new crop. Animal farms work the same way, baby animals are born grow into adults, and give birth to more babies.
-Building Privacy. If you don't want people buying from a building, you can close them to the public. Later this will be expanded with the option to select up to 6 players to block from a building.
-Expanded employment opportunities. Employees are now really like employees. Besides earning a regular wage, they can also earn commission on sales. You can also give them other permissions such as adding and removing stocks from the buildings and running the production lines.
-Hire a manager. Have too many buildings and not enough time? Hire a player to manage some of them. Managers can do everything you can do (including adding/removing building investment), so be sure you trust the person before making them a manager.
-You need skills to *run* your buildings. Skills are now duel use. Each skill allows building the buildings it can work in. You also need to have the skill to operate your own buildings. If you build something then forget the skill, or buy something you don't have the skill for then you will have to hire an employee or manager to run production for you.
Zoric Possibly Opening on Wednesday 29th
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ultramarine
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 5:56 pm
lightmun
After the first few days of running, many bugs were found and fixed. Many still exist, some of which halt development of the world. Hunger/Thirst remains off for now.
Known bugs
-bank doesn't correctly show total cash stored in the bank
-tree gui messed up
-crop farms produce daily, the timer is still broken
-can't harvest crops without emptying the entire field
-powerplant only makes power out of coal, owner should be able to select what power is made from
-animal farm can't produce *just* milk or eggs
-upgrading and downgrading buildings doesn't work
Bug Fixes:
-fixed the factory timer so factories with automation level 0 will produce every 4 gamedays
-facs with automation level 0 now show when they will produce next on the main menu and say when not producing anything. This is only for automation level 0 facs. Once automation is upgraded they produce daily.
-made crop farms actually produce, still buggy but at least they are usable
-fixed the bank so it pays out interest
-fixed the production cycle counting
Future Planned Changes
-fixing all the bugs above (lol)
-animal farms will use a selectable amount of animals from storage when starting breeding
-need to adjust and balance item demands to fit pre building upgrade storage limits
-library needs to be finished
-hunger/thirst needs to be set up when all is fixed
-hospital will be added to offer a health reset after you hit a certain age
-general gui improvements for all the building menus
Known bugs
-bank doesn't correctly show total cash stored in the bank
-tree gui messed up
-crop farms produce daily, the timer is still broken
-can't harvest crops without emptying the entire field
-powerplant only makes power out of coal, owner should be able to select what power is made from
-animal farm can't produce *just* milk or eggs
-upgrading and downgrading buildings doesn't work
Bug Fixes:
-fixed the factory timer so factories with automation level 0 will produce every 4 gamedays
-facs with automation level 0 now show when they will produce next on the main menu and say when not producing anything. This is only for automation level 0 facs. Once automation is upgraded they produce daily.
-made crop farms actually produce, still buggy but at least they are usable
-fixed the bank so it pays out interest
-fixed the production cycle counting
Future Planned Changes
-fixing all the bugs above (lol)
-animal farms will use a selectable amount of animals from storage when starting breeding
-need to adjust and balance item demands to fit pre building upgrade storage limits
-library needs to be finished
-hunger/thirst needs to be set up when all is fixed
-hospital will be added to offer a health reset after you hit a certain age
-general gui improvements for all the building menus
The hard drive failure was a real let down in terms of motivation. But I am once again getting back my desire to make zoric.
So, I have been making some plans
The past zoric was a great learning experience for me. Although it didn't run long and not a lot of players played on it, I think I was able to figure out a lot of issues with the setup and design of the scripts. So I will be altering a lot of stuff when remaking it and hopefully fixing a lot of the issues and bugs the scripts had. Also hoping to add a lot more realism to the design.
Farms. I want them to be more involved. I am thinking there will be just the one crop farm and one animal farm, and still be multiple fields/pens. But you will choose what to plant in them, you can choose to fertilize them to increase growth speed and crop output, and you will have to harvest them. Or your worker(s) can. They wont grow non-stop like the original plan, you will have to plant, water, and harvest them.
Employees. I'm thinking of allowing a few in each building. Same story as before though, the main benefit of them is they will be able to help run the building. So still not a requirement, but helpful.
Buildings in general. I think an issue I had with buildings was there were too many items and not enough buildings. This really limited what other features the buildings could have. I am going to try and rethink how I do the building scripts a bit. Less items *per* building, and a bit more buildings. Server building limits wont be an issue at all because the script can be set up to allow a single building to have completely different uses. ie, you build a factory and decide if it should be set up as a vehicle factory, plane factory, parts factory, etc. System wise this could result in far less buildings, but more buildings virtually. This could also open up the ability to completely change what one of your buildings does so you wont have to demolish and rebuild if you want to change industries.
Building Expanding. It is realistic, I loved that idea, I do want to keep it in the world. But, it does have downfalls. A player with a new building wouldn't really have a chance against somebody with a fully expanded building. So will need to think of a way to compensate for this or the first player to have an upgraded building in any market will be able to corner that market. One possible way is to increase item usage, like needing thousands of ore to make a car.
Items in general. I am still thinking of keeping a lot of different items, maybe even adding more to aid in realism. Also thinking of redoing building purchase and sales of items. Instead of just buying and selling, I am hoping to allow building owners to set bulk buy and sale prices. I was really disappointed I couldn't do this last zoric, but if various other script changes are made (specifically item reduction per building), then it will be possible. A building owner could set a price per unit or could set a bulk price for an item. Like 1d per ore or 3d per 5 ore. Price and Qty completely up to the building owner.
In general.
There are various other behind the scenes things I think I can do script wise to improve variety, realism, and flexibility of the world. However, a lot of these things will also make it much harder to alter the scripts to be used in other economies. A long term plan of mine was have it set up like a 'script server' that could be converted for use in a completely different economy with minimal editing needed. But for now I am kinda ok with putting this idea to the side for now.
So, I have been making some plans
The past zoric was a great learning experience for me. Although it didn't run long and not a lot of players played on it, I think I was able to figure out a lot of issues with the setup and design of the scripts. So I will be altering a lot of stuff when remaking it and hopefully fixing a lot of the issues and bugs the scripts had. Also hoping to add a lot more realism to the design.
Farms. I want them to be more involved. I am thinking there will be just the one crop farm and one animal farm, and still be multiple fields/pens. But you will choose what to plant in them, you can choose to fertilize them to increase growth speed and crop output, and you will have to harvest them. Or your worker(s) can. They wont grow non-stop like the original plan, you will have to plant, water, and harvest them.
Employees. I'm thinking of allowing a few in each building. Same story as before though, the main benefit of them is they will be able to help run the building. So still not a requirement, but helpful.
Buildings in general. I think an issue I had with buildings was there were too many items and not enough buildings. This really limited what other features the buildings could have. I am going to try and rethink how I do the building scripts a bit. Less items *per* building, and a bit more buildings. Server building limits wont be an issue at all because the script can be set up to allow a single building to have completely different uses. ie, you build a factory and decide if it should be set up as a vehicle factory, plane factory, parts factory, etc. System wise this could result in far less buildings, but more buildings virtually. This could also open up the ability to completely change what one of your buildings does so you wont have to demolish and rebuild if you want to change industries.
Building Expanding. It is realistic, I loved that idea, I do want to keep it in the world. But, it does have downfalls. A player with a new building wouldn't really have a chance against somebody with a fully expanded building. So will need to think of a way to compensate for this or the first player to have an upgraded building in any market will be able to corner that market. One possible way is to increase item usage, like needing thousands of ore to make a car.
Items in general. I am still thinking of keeping a lot of different items, maybe even adding more to aid in realism. Also thinking of redoing building purchase and sales of items. Instead of just buying and selling, I am hoping to allow building owners to set bulk buy and sale prices. I was really disappointed I couldn't do this last zoric, but if various other script changes are made (specifically item reduction per building), then it will be possible. A building owner could set a price per unit or could set a bulk price for an item. Like 1d per ore or 3d per 5 ore. Price and Qty completely up to the building owner.
In general.
There are various other behind the scenes things I think I can do script wise to improve variety, realism, and flexibility of the world. However, a lot of these things will also make it much harder to alter the scripts to be used in other economies. A long term plan of mine was have it set up like a 'script server' that could be converted for use in a completely different economy with minimal editing needed. But for now I am kinda ok with putting this idea to the side for now.
Zoric Returns
Your plans for return oF Zoric (New) sounds great, looking forward to it!!!!! Do you have an estimate for when it would be up and running?, sound very involved.
Something else that just came to mind for farms and possibly other buildings.
Modular building design.
You build the main farm building, and it provides the option to build farm fields. These fields would be entirely separate buildings. The main farm building could support x fields depending on it's level.
Possibly a similar thing could be done with storage for regular buildings. Regular buildings may not store much, but you can build a warehouse and upgrade it to store more items. Items would then be automatically moved from your production buildings to your warehouse.
Also, it might be possible to provide production bonuses for owning buildings that support each other. A lumber mill may run faster if you own a power plant as well. Or a meat processing plant may work faster if you own a livestock farm.
Modular building design.
You build the main farm building, and it provides the option to build farm fields. These fields would be entirely separate buildings. The main farm building could support x fields depending on it's level.
Possibly a similar thing could be done with storage for regular buildings. Regular buildings may not store much, but you can build a warehouse and upgrade it to store more items. Items would then be automatically moved from your production buildings to your warehouse.
Also, it might be possible to provide production bonuses for owning buildings that support each other. A lumber mill may run faster if you own a power plant as well. Or a meat processing plant may work faster if you own a livestock farm.
the modular building idea is being cancelled. It will likely result in tons of useless buildings littering the map.
Storage buildings will still be implemented though.
Players will hopefully be able to link their buildings with their storage facilities to create quick and easy item chains with minimal work involved. You will be able to set your buildings to automatically put stocks into the storage building and to pull stocks from them as well. Storage buildings will also be able to buy and sell items so they can be used as a hub for all your other buildings for quick and easy access to items
Several types of storage buildings will be available, and you may only own one of each.
Water Tower - stores water and springwater
Refrigerated Warehouse - stores meat and produce
Dry Warehouse - stores manufactured products such as car parts and building materials
Fuel Silo - stores fuel, crude oil, petroleum, and lubrication
Grain Silo - stores grains
Open Yard - stores particulate substances like ores, gravel, sand, etc
Capacitor - stores power
These will have a capacity of 30k storage for each item. Possibly upgradable.
As an example, you could build a Power Plant, Coal Mine, Open Yard, and Capacitor
Once getting it all started, the coal mine would pull power from the Capacitor, produce coal and put the coal in the Open Yard. The power plant would then pull coal from the yard, produce power, and place it into the capacitor.
How smoothly it would all go is another question. The powerplant would produce more power then a single coal mine could use, so the capicitor would fill up. Could also set buy and sale prices on the stuff and min stock limits to keep from selling too much and having something shut down.
Storage buildings will still be implemented though.
Players will hopefully be able to link their buildings with their storage facilities to create quick and easy item chains with minimal work involved. You will be able to set your buildings to automatically put stocks into the storage building and to pull stocks from them as well. Storage buildings will also be able to buy and sell items so they can be used as a hub for all your other buildings for quick and easy access to items
Several types of storage buildings will be available, and you may only own one of each.
Water Tower - stores water and springwater
Refrigerated Warehouse - stores meat and produce
Dry Warehouse - stores manufactured products such as car parts and building materials
Fuel Silo - stores fuel, crude oil, petroleum, and lubrication
Grain Silo - stores grains
Open Yard - stores particulate substances like ores, gravel, sand, etc
Capacitor - stores power
These will have a capacity of 30k storage for each item. Possibly upgradable.
As an example, you could build a Power Plant, Coal Mine, Open Yard, and Capacitor
Once getting it all started, the coal mine would pull power from the Capacitor, produce coal and put the coal in the Open Yard. The power plant would then pull coal from the yard, produce power, and place it into the capacitor.
How smoothly it would all go is another question. The powerplant would produce more power then a single coal mine could use, so the capicitor would fill up. Could also set buy and sale prices on the stuff and min stock limits to keep from selling too much and having something shut down.
back in the year 2008
Zorician Broadcasting Company (ZBC)
ZBC Jack Sixpence Live
Aired November 15, 2508 – 8:00 am
JACK SIXPENCE, HOST: Good morning.
Today will talk about pleasure, palms and sandy beaches. Zorician inhabitants are exhausted by rainy weather. What might be more delicious for us then to have a good rest on Ration leisure planet? We‘ll ask our special guest about that. Mr.Eminem, famous brazuker multi-millionaire and owner of the planet Ration will tell us about his beautiful planet.
<Eminem starts speaking loudly the unknown language, admittedly the ancient Portuguese. Jack Sixpence looks amazed.>
SIXPENCE: Well, unfortunately mr.Eminem doesn’t know the modern interplanetary language. He has more than 2 billion creds and can permit himself not to know it.
< JACK SIXPENCE laughs >
SIXPENCE: Ok we‘ll watch a clip about the wonderful Ration planet.
<Begin video clip
Palms, beeches, people enjoying sea bathing on so on
End video clip>
Ladies and gentlemen we have breaking news.
JOHN MEH, CORRESPONDENT from Zorician Starport: Good morning. Less then 3 hours ago Zorician Space tourists witnessed full military operation near Zoric. Mr. Greenrock from famous zorician Greenrock family courteously gave us some information about the occurrence. Mr Greenrock is an expert in space battles. He was aviating his splendid brand new Interplanetary Shuttle and noticed the following details. Two Union Army ships have blocked three Ukers faction ships at Zoric federal safety zone. Ukers ships decided to run a blockage. At the moment a heavy cruiser with Black Guard daredevils … < JOHN MEH coughs> excuse me, a cruiser with Black guard space-dogs appeared near the safety zone. Ukers ships break through failed. Two Ukers ships been blown up, the third was forced to escape. Mr.Grenrock is asserting that the Ukers ships were blown by Black Guard <cough> space-dogs. Mr.Greenrocks ship was damaged too. Ion Drive accelerator pedal has been broken.
SIXPENCE: Ladies and gentleman we’ll invite mr.Greenrock at our studio to ask him what did he feel during the cruel battle and how expensive it would be to repair the family’s brand new interplanetary shuttle.
Stay tuned and you will hear the story of three zorician tourists who escaped the pirate’s captivity on Claden.
ZBC Jack Sixpence Live
Aired November 15, 2508 – 8:00 am
JACK SIXPENCE, HOST: Good morning.
Today will talk about pleasure, palms and sandy beaches. Zorician inhabitants are exhausted by rainy weather. What might be more delicious for us then to have a good rest on Ration leisure planet? We‘ll ask our special guest about that. Mr.Eminem, famous brazuker multi-millionaire and owner of the planet Ration will tell us about his beautiful planet.
<Eminem starts speaking loudly the unknown language, admittedly the ancient Portuguese. Jack Sixpence looks amazed.>
SIXPENCE: Well, unfortunately mr.Eminem doesn’t know the modern interplanetary language. He has more than 2 billion creds and can permit himself not to know it.
< JACK SIXPENCE laughs >
SIXPENCE: Ok we‘ll watch a clip about the wonderful Ration planet.
<Begin video clip
Palms, beeches, people enjoying sea bathing on so on
End video clip>
Ladies and gentlemen we have breaking news.
JOHN MEH, CORRESPONDENT from Zorician Starport: Good morning. Less then 3 hours ago Zorician Space tourists witnessed full military operation near Zoric. Mr. Greenrock from famous zorician Greenrock family courteously gave us some information about the occurrence. Mr Greenrock is an expert in space battles. He was aviating his splendid brand new Interplanetary Shuttle and noticed the following details. Two Union Army ships have blocked three Ukers faction ships at Zoric federal safety zone. Ukers ships decided to run a blockage. At the moment a heavy cruiser with Black Guard daredevils … < JOHN MEH coughs> excuse me, a cruiser with Black guard space-dogs appeared near the safety zone. Ukers ships break through failed. Two Ukers ships been blown up, the third was forced to escape. Mr.Grenrock is asserting that the Ukers ships were blown by Black Guard <cough> space-dogs. Mr.Greenrocks ship was damaged too. Ion Drive accelerator pedal has been broken.
SIXPENCE: Ladies and gentleman we’ll invite mr.Greenrock at our studio to ask him what did he feel during the cruel battle and how expensive it would be to repair the family’s brand new interplanetary shuttle.
Stay tuned and you will hear the story of three zorician tourists who escaped the pirate’s captivity on Claden.
Haven't dona any work on this since June or so. Going to start it again.
And a new feature that will hopefully be in it is a little tweak to the growing trees.
Already had it in the origional zoric that trees had to be planted, they took time ot grow, then would need to be chopped down for wood. The longer you let it grow the taller it would get and the more wood it would provide. The trees had limits based on real life stats for each tree species. Trees would also produce seeds when chopped down.
This will still be the case, however, an addition will be new tree spawning. Trees that have reached a 'mature' age will also produce seeds every cycle. These seeds can be harvested and sold or planted. When the tree starts producing seeds, there will also be the chance of these seeds falling to the ground and starting new trees growing. Spawn limits will depend on the number of trees within X radius of the tree and tree age. Very young and very old trees wont produce as many seeds and thus not as many new trees. As these new trees grow, they will start to spawn more trees, then these will grow and spawn more. Basically resulting in an expanding forest of trees. Somebody in the lumber business could take advantage of this and only cut down certain trees to maximize lumber output while preserving tree regrowth rate, like a real life lumber company doing selective cutting of trees.
And a new feature that will hopefully be in it is a little tweak to the growing trees.
Already had it in the origional zoric that trees had to be planted, they took time ot grow, then would need to be chopped down for wood. The longer you let it grow the taller it would get and the more wood it would provide. The trees had limits based on real life stats for each tree species. Trees would also produce seeds when chopped down.
This will still be the case, however, an addition will be new tree spawning. Trees that have reached a 'mature' age will also produce seeds every cycle. These seeds can be harvested and sold or planted. When the tree starts producing seeds, there will also be the chance of these seeds falling to the ground and starting new trees growing. Spawn limits will depend on the number of trees within X radius of the tree and tree age. Very young and very old trees wont produce as many seeds and thus not as many new trees. As these new trees grow, they will start to spawn more trees, then these will grow and spawn more. Basically resulting in an expanding forest of trees. Somebody in the lumber business could take advantage of this and only cut down certain trees to maximize lumber output while preserving tree regrowth rate, like a real life lumber company doing selective cutting of trees.