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OMG YES

9 (81.8%)

No...

2 (18.2%)

Total Members Voted: 9

[Kestrel_6]

Monkeyfacedprickleback: you are on the Ground Team in Sky Searcher. So be sure to post.

[Monkeyfacedprickleback]

bump for update?

[slay_mithos]

It's such a shame this went dormant, I would have loved to play with an elaborate game like this one.

[10ebbor10]

It's such a shame this went dormant, I would have loved to play with an elaborate game like this one.

I'm pretty sure it's dead, and not dormant.

[Neyvn]

I want to get back into this, but the amount of numbers is too high. Let me put it this way, 2.0 was 10 times harder to run. Help me figure out a way to change the way that things work in the way of the number side of things and I might be able to work on it again...

[slay_mithos]

Firstly, maybe simplifying the actions could help.

I mean, reading all the turns, we quickly see that you put great work into changing actions depending on the context, mostly in favor of the players.
You could make them waste their day in trying to do the job, and getting angry not being able to do it in the end. It's a dwarf's own fault for not being able to check if he has enough material for what he wants to work on. Kind of like when in a mood, they just stand there, waiting for the materials.

You could make it a little more flexible by allowing a sub command like some have posted ("if not possible, then gather wood").

It would really make it easier for you.

Secondly, rolls themselves and modifiers, while being impressive and good for completion, cost a lot of rolls and interpreting the results. I don't know precisely how to simplify this point, but it seems a lot of work for not that much difference in the end, maybe limiting the number of them could be of some help.

As for the stocks, it would be good not to show the counts unless a player spent a day (no matter when in the week, to simplify a little) or more in updating stockpiles. The more to be counted, the higher the chances of non accurate count, but keep it simple.
This point will not really simplify your job, but at least make the players aware of their own stocks. In any situation, a whole group wouldn't be aware of the stocks unless someone effectively counts every in and out at least.

Not sure what else could be simplified, I am not really used to this kind of game, even though I always wanted to try one with a good build and GM, so my advices could not be the best out there.

(And yes, I said dormant as in "sleeping for eternity" there, as most players seemed to detach and Neyvn had schedule issues too)

[ansontan2000]

You actually are really freaking detailed Nevyn. Perhaps you can reduce the detail a little to reduce your workload?
I'm still eager to continue.

[IronyOwl]

The main thing is rolling a d6 per skill level and then comparing it to an arbitrary number that you sometimes have to decide on the spot and then counting how often that happens is completely excessive in complexity. That's really got to come down to a single roll if you want to be able to handle seven potentially unique actions for each of your definitely unique eight players.

I mean, even rolling once for each of us each day is [7*8] = 56 rolls per turn. Rolling a handful of dice, counting them up like that, and keeping track of a running number for each of those is just insane.

[slay_mithos]

Well, it's just 7 times what other games do, but doing a one day per turn, or one roll per turn would end up doing stupid things (digging 1 square in a whole week for a skilled miner, only having drawback on a task but no chance to advance...).

You also forgot that some actions have multiple rolls: quality/quantity modifiers, drawback on critical failure and certainly others.
 
The most work is more interpreting the results than just rolling the dices themselves.

Anyway, being the GM has always been the hardest part, you need to adapt the results to the situation, to double check you didn't make any mistake, to make a short text for the events that just happened...
It's amazing that they still wish to do that much work so that some other people can play by just saying "I want to try doing this" and eagerly await for the result and the possibly fun situation that inevitably occur.

[10ebbor10]

My current Rtd tends to have a lot of rolls and it helps not to do the entire thing in one stretch( I' m working on a turn as I speak).  Also usefull are consequent and simple rolls. (20 times the same roll is easier then 10 rolls with different modifiers).

You could try to set up some selfmodifying excel sheets, though that 'll probably take a lot of time initially.

[Neyvn]

You could try to set up some selfmodifying excel sheets, though that 'll probably take a lot of time initially.

If I knew how, I would have done it ages ago...

[slay_mithos]

In theory, I could make an excell that would cover the rolls and you would only need to make a change in the sheet to have all rolls redone, but there are a certain number of drawbacks:

1. You use 1 D6 per skill level, meaning it could go to a crazy amount for a legendary +5, so you need to take this into account.
2. There are a number of other rolls related to the actions, meaning again some more lines.

In the end, you would end up having a huge sheet making hundreds of rolls and giving you back way more numbers than what you need.

Of course, if I go crazy with macros and stuff, it could do just what you need, but that would mean a lot of input from you.

If you go that way, it's way easier to directly program a little thing that would do all of this + keep the track of everything (inventory, experience etc), but that would really feel like trying to make a Dwarf Fortress, with far less quality and stuff, ending taking far too much time for the limited time gain in the end.

Plus, if I was a GM, I would not enjoy having more than half of my job done directly by a computer, that would kill the thrill and fun of doing it in the first place. (personal opinion, can very well be entirely wrong)

The function is RAND, more specifically the one taking a min and a max (got the frensh version and the functions are named differently, sorry).

EDIT: if you want, I made a fast example of random function for your usage in a google doc, just pm me a google mail (gmail) to share it to.

[Hastur]

I offered my system and even explained it. it takes me like 20 minutes to do a turn... (dungeon keeper the rpg, and that other older fortress mode one.) thats not very much I think.
 if anyone wants to use it go ahead, but you'll have to search for it.

[IronyOwl]

Do note that Hastur's system is arguably simpler than you'd want for crafting in a DF game. I can't seem to find the exact explanation, but if I recall correctly you basically either failed, hit the DR and produced a static amount of value, or surpassed the DR by some amount and got a +50% bonus.

Also, are you sure combat turns only took 20 minutes? I seem to recall specific body part damage and other such complexities, and having to roll several rounds per turn to keep things moving at a nice pace.

[Hastur]

yeah combat is easy too. uses the same kind of rolls, the only thing that slows it down is waiting for peoples actions. (or in the case of my game for the GM to feel like gming.) I could show the rolls and formula.
Iroryowls basically got it, but i think simpler is better. i remember in some other games it took a turn to cut ddown the tree a turn to make planks a turn to make sockets or sprockets or something and a turn to make furniture, in order to finally have half a workshop. The way i do things you gather about 16 wood per shift, and a shift makes 1 furniture and you get 3 shifts per turn. it gets results quicker than nearly a weeks of actions.
I guess i could show my rolls or something so everybody can see whats ticking in my game? (i was writing up a turn right now...) whatever though its none of my business anyway.

EDIT: oh yeah you said several combat roll per turn to keep things going fast enough, thats totally true, but you can use an indipendant system for combat if you like.