QoL improvements for traders

[citizen2608]

The idea of this thread is to have a place for people to suggest ideas that might improve their experience playing as a trader. And maybe we can figure out how to implement some of those ideas. I think if we can come up with a sensible and acceptable list of improvements, as well as some or all of the implementation work - then we have a better chance of getting somewhere.

Here are some things I would like to suggest :

1) Reduce the length of the "Destroy structure" number challenge from 6 to 3 digits.
Why : Because there is no CSR replacement of lost/deleted items, there shouldn't be any motivation to make accidentally destroying a harvester so difficult.
How : It looks like line 80 in this file is the place (thanks MrScott!) :\src\server\zone\objects\player\sessions\DestroyStructureSessionImplementation.cpp

2) Increase the range of structure factory hopper access.
Why : Because of the large size of the structure factory, the hopper cannot be accessed from all sides as with other factories.
How : Something to do with the structure footprint? Not sure.

3) Standardize the display of decimal precision, i.e always show 12.34 rather than 12 in some places and 12.3 in others.
Why : Because it's inconsistent, illogical, and annoying.
How : Dont know if server side or client side. Could be a big change.

4) More Recycler output types.
Add : Inert Gas, Reactive Gas, Carbonate Ore, Polymer, Fiberplast.
Why : Why not? Why do the benefits of recycling resources not apply to these very commonly used resources?
How : We can probably copy what other servers have done.

5) Interplanetary Survey Droid to report destination planet.
Change : "Droid sent, ETA for the report is 29 minutes" to "Droid sent to Lok, ETA for the report is 29 minutes".
Why : Because the process of sending survey droids requires doing the same action 13 times and the UI design is 20+ yrs old, it's easy to lose track of what planets you have already sent droids to.
How : /src/server/zone/objects/player/sessions/InterplanetarySurveyDroidSessionImplementation.cpp

6) More colour options for Toolchests.
Why : These are often used for storage by traders but there are no color options like other furniture items have.
How : Not sure if its impossible to "attach" a palette to an item that never had one. Presumably it's not.

7) Alternative crafting station appearances and dimensions.
Why : Another increase in variety would be nice. And they're some of the oldest art assets and show their age.
How : The same way the alternative appearances were added to other crafted items. Easy

Any thoughts? More suggestions would be great, as well as any implementation tips.

 

[Cavadus]

It'd be nice if the components used in crafting a crafting station did literally anything.

Would be cool if, for instance, adding droid storage compartments increased the input hopper size by something like +10 for each one, maybe control units add a small bonus to assembly, and the micro sensor suites could be a bonus to experimentation?

 

[citizen2608]

That would be cool. However, I think if we limit ourselves to suggesting relatively small changes to existing code - and if we can make some progress on the implementation - then we can present everything to the dev team as a relatively easy change with a good chance of success.

Adding completely new features and functionality is another level of time investment that probably won't have a good chance of success. Not unless we figure out how to implement them ourselves.

Do you know if the crafting station ratings work on other EMU servers? Or was a change made here for some specific reason? If they're broken everywhere it could be a big thing to fix, and if they are deliberately broken here then we'd have to learn the reason why and argue against it.

 

[Demi]

I’m gonna speak on this from the perspective of Demi the player. I love this initiative, Rolly. I know the answers to about half of these off the top of my head, but will reserve comment due to not having spoke to the boss about any of it. More to follow…. +1

 

[Rini]

I would appreciate the true black being added to tailor instead of just color kits. It is silly I have to make an item then recolor it with a kit at master tailor.

Also can we please address the 0-2 sockets as master tailor. I played tailor from live launch until a bit after NGE. As master WITHOUT any tapes I made 3-4 sockets on every item. Can we please make it that way here, at Master Tailor every item I make should have 3 to 4 sockets automatically.

 

[Cavadus]

Would adding the "operate machinery" option to harvesters' initial numerical radial menu be a possibility?

 

[Cavadus]

Was also thinking it would be nice if everyone could see the smuggler slice info on items rather than just smugglers.

 

[Cavadus]

Another thought I had was making the maintenance and power droids a little easier to use with harvs.

Right now if you assign a droid and pull up the harvester that droid does not get unassigned from that harvester. IDK how anyone else feels about it but I would get a ton more mileage out of these droids if harvesters which were re-deeded were automatically unassigned from the droid. That way you pull up the harvs, droid(s) is unassigned, and the next time you plant a batch of harvs you can just quickly reassign the droid to whichever harvs you just put down.

Additionally, I think the cap of harvs a maintenance and/or power droid can be assigned to should be raised to the potential cap of harvs an individual toon can put down: 10.

This way a player can plop down potentially max harvs, just do all of the droid assignments on the spot, and only need one each maintenance and power droid.

This would make these droids far more useful, IMO, and maybe even create a market for them.

 

[Cavadus]

Piggybacking on my last post, would be nice if the mat reqs for survey droids was simplified.

 

[cdent]

I would like to see some of the /harvester commands get finished out/updated/adjusted. It would be nice to have commands to run that would:
1) start/stop the harvester
2) empty the harvester

Also animations that would make it easier to tell if a harvester were running would be nice for the non-metal grabbing harvesters.

 

[Cavadus]

After talking with Rolly a bit and looking at the code it would appear that the easiest approach would be simply increase the quantity of harvs the structure maintenance modules and power core units can service.

Right now a quality 15 level 3 structure maintenance module can service 10 harvs. Not sure what the exact numbers are for power core units in the gonk droid.

But just increasing the ceiling to 40 or 50 would allow DEs to make a gonk droid that could service a crafter's entire fleet of harvs and actually make these droids super valuable.

 

[Belwar]

So maybe I'm just being picky here, but it would be a lot EASIER if 1 Armor / Clothing Dye Kit would color an entire piece instead of needing to do 2 or 3 "zones" using 2-3 kits...What I'm actually asking for though, now that I've thought a minute, is for the Armor and Clothing and Furniture Kits to be able to have multiple uses (like the Vehicle Kits...like 5-7 uses each before used up)

Also, shouldn't a master Tailor be able to dye BLACK instead of it being only available in an additional kit?? (Same goes for any profession that has the option to color stuff...why is solid black/white not included with skill?)