Allowing Research to Occur in 0.25-Hour Increments


UpUpAway95

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10 hours ago, codfish107 said:

I totally agree and wish for 1/4 hour increments as well, but i think it's probably a balancing decision made by Hinterland.

Apart from the sleep time interval, I concur that the player should be able to select (15) minute time increments while playing.

Granular time management will need to be designed to assure it does not become too busy, (we might not want reading to become an egg timer).
The player also has so many activities, such as mending and crafting, that require light, for this reason, artificial light is extremely valuable.

The cooking fire provides:

  • Warmth benefit
  • Protection from predators
  • Potable water production
  • Cooking surfaces
  • Artificial source of light

Hinterland's game balance will hopefully allow players the freedom to optimize the use of artificial light while keeping it simple and fun. :coffee: 

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I would not like research to be too conveniant in terms of time management. The way it currently is implemented implies that in order to read a book effectively you need to make sure you are well supplied in the first place and kind of forces you to get your priorities straight. It´s not like you are not getting little value in return (The ice fishing book is pretty much a free level 2 skill!) hence this should come at a cost. I would even say that research should be even less convenient to conduct but that is another topic to discuss about!

Sincerely

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1 hour ago, TerribleSurvivor said:

I would not like research to be too conveniant in terms of time management. The way it currently is implemented implies that in order to read a book effectively you need to make sure you are well supplied in the first place and kind of forces you to get your priorities straight. It´s not like you are not getting little value in return (The ice fishing book is pretty much a free level 2 skill!) hence this should come at a cost. I would even say that research should be even less convenient to conduct but that is another topic to discuss about!

Sincerely

If people feel it's such a "cheat" that the devs have to insert mechanics that sabotage the players into burning their dinner to get through a book to stop packing around a useless bunch of weight, then they should probably just remove it entirely from the game.  I personally would prefer they match the cooking times with the activities they designate can be done on the road in front of a fire.  The same sort of nonsense applies to the harvesting of clothing, the breaking down of adjacent boxes and crates for wood... all of which generally locks the player into a screen that takes considerably longer than cooking dinner.  Even simply passing the time has to be "canceled" manually in order to save dinner from burning.  Why not allow the player to pass time in 0.25 hour increments around a campfire since they allow us to craft at a workbench in less than hour increments?  As it is, the only thing a player can reliably do while cooking dinner is watch dinner cook by clicking on the cooking item and passing the time until ready.

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2 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

As it is, the only thing a player can reliably do while cooking dinner is watch dinner cook by clicking on the cooking item and passing the time until ready.

Yes. But it's better than it was before when you didn't even have the option. 

It would be nice if you could read or harvest items or mend items in smaller increments to fit your cooking time, but if something is cooking for 45 minutes, you've generally got time to spend an hour-and-a-bit doing something else before it burns, anyway.

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24 minutes ago, Pillock said:

Yes. But it's better than it was before when you didn't even have the option. 

It would be nice if you could read or harvest items or mend items in smaller increments to fit your cooking time, but if something is cooking for 45 minutes, you've generally got time to spend an hour-and-a-bit doing something else before it burns, anyway.

I don't know what it was like before since I only bought the game after the Redux update.  I think that, in general principle, if part of the "game" is time management, then the game should allow the player to manage their time effectively.  As you said, one of the precious resources in this game is artificial light, which generally means fire.  Honestly, I can't think of a reason why the devs have set activities like research in hour increments when they have shown that they can allow smaller increments working at a workbench.  If they feel that a valid mechanic (i.e. research) is so OP that it is a "cheat" within their own game, there are other ways they can balance that out... make the books even harder to find or reduce their impact on skill ups by requiring more in-game hours to get through each book.  I also think it would be cool if the game would actually show you a screen time relating to the skill you're researching whenever you're reading a book rather than the just passing time screen.

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13 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I'll rephrase this suggestion:  Since it seems to take, on  average, 45 minutes to cook a fish, why can't I fish in 0.25 hour increments so that I'm not wasting 15 minutes of fire perpetually overcooking them as I continue to fish?

Ah, you can do this! 

You can cancel the fishing action. This means that you can put a fish on the stove to cook (say 45 minutes), then start fishing for 1 hour; when the accelerated time progress bar reaches 3/4 full, thats 45 minutes and you cancel the rest of the hour to tend to your cooking. 

Maybe they could implement that for other time-accelerated tasks like reading or mending?

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2 minutes ago, Pillock said:

Ah, you can do this! 

You can cancel the fishing action. This means that you can put a fish on the stove to cook (say 45 minutes), then start fishing for 1 hour; when the accelerated time progress bar reaches 3/4 full, thats 45 minutes and you cancel the rest of the hour to tend to your cooking. 

Maybe they could implement that for other time-accelerated tasks like reading or mending?

That would be an improvement, although I still don't understand why they can't just let me set a time to start with that jives more closely with whatever I'm cooking.

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This has been suggested before, and I still think it's a good idea. Although to avoid having to click through multiple 15 minute increments if I want to read for several hours, I would prefer to have it synergize with cooking.  Currently you can click an item to "pass time until ready".  Well if you have one or more books in your inventory, my suggestion is "read until ready".  Click that, select the book you want to research, and you read until the food is ready.  Whether that's 10 minutes, a half hour, 45 minutes for a big fish, whatever.

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1 hour ago, ajb1978 said:

to avoid having to click through multiple 15 minute increments

The "cook until ready idea" is great and it might add to the existing cooking system.

Another good option, often discussed and not yet available, is reading and crafting with the ability to quit.
Start cooking, then read, craft items, ice fish, or mend clothes, but with the option to quit, (HDT has done this with ice fishing and it is nice).

This increases continuity throughout the game and lets the player estimate time based on the circular progress meter.
Still very easy to be distracted and burn food as intended, but the player is in control and may choose when to take the risk. :coffee:

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3 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

This has been suggested before, and I still think it's a good idea. Although to avoid having to click through multiple 15 minute increments if I want to read for several hours, I would prefer to have it synergize with cooking.  Currently you can click an item to "pass time until ready".  Well if you have one or more books in your inventory, my suggestion is "read until ready".  Click that, select the book you want to research, and you read until the food is ready.  Whether that's 10 minutes, a half hour, 45 minutes for a big fish, whatever.

I like this idea a lot!  Whatever they do, be it adding an "until ready" or an option to quit  or smaller time increments overall, I think it should at least be consistent so that the options are at least somewhat consistent.

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