Built structures degradation

[Vaelin]

As of now, the structures in farms and handcarts are somehow permanent with little to low upkeep. Stuff like planks, timbers, etc are usually not much in demand unless there's someone who needed structures or handcarts made.
In order to give those builders and woodworkers more insentive to specialize and keep the economy going. I propose the following.
Structures can get damaged, maybe by weather, the normal wear and tear, etc which needs repairs and replacement parts.
Applying tarr or paint over structures to keep them from getting wood rot etc. Maybe getting resin helps too? I'm not really versed in this thing, but can be a good thing for woodcutters to do.
A totally unrelated one though and would be tasty... getting maple syrup, not sure which profession should be needed for this.

There are just rough ideas. maybe the coding problems would be difficult and be near impossible to do. However, there are just rough ideas.
Anyone else wish to chime in?

Thanks.

[merin]

I think this should apply to literally every craft: weapons need sharpening, leather stitching wears out, clothes get destroyed in combat/too messy with blood/weather stains/etcetera, molds get worn out because you know liquid hot metal, bows get warped and need their staves replaced, fishing poles break...etcetera.

The way it is now, some of these crafts are a one and done for a character. if they have nice clothes they're happy with they never need a tailor again.

[Rokal]

I'd only be fine on a personal level with this if the rate at which filth accumlates was decreased in turn, as i've stated in another topic the filth accumilation is incredibly quick, piled with the need for maitenence on my structures for my chars farm, it'd start adding up to a lot of time spent just maintaining the farm.

I see the merit of it, but farmers already got a lot of stuff to maintain.

[Taliaferro]

I wouldn't mind having to maintain structures, if it were quite occasional. It'd be a good chance to get some construction skill, if that's what you're aiming at. And presumably, if this were implemented, in the fullness of time, the higher your construction skill, the more durable your structures would be, which would give you an incentive to either keep working on that construction skill, or seek out skilled builders to build your stuff, and pay them appropriately.

For the most part, though, I feel like the game's pretty close to the sweet spot with regard to what you have to repair and maintain and how often you have to do it.

Specifically with regard to clothes, I think it'd be pretty annoying to have to mend your clothes or have them mended all the time. Sure, realistically, if you wear fancy (or not so fancy) togs into battle and heavy labor constantly, they'll get tattered and worn and threadbare and sun-bleached and so on and so on, but most of our characters fight more than anybody has ever done in any real-life setting, and I feel like that's one piece of realism that could be abstracted out without any loss.

Just my opinion! I admit it would give tailors more stuff to do, which would be cool. And I'm not opposed to some of the other ideas. Bows warping/breaking? Absolutely. I'm surprised they don't degrade already, like other weapons. Fishing poles? Sure. Other stuff? Maybe!

[Dennis]

my only complaint is that as a person who frequently goes on hiatus, the need to think about potential damage to structures or need to replace structures on return is a headache. it's already a time sink when you are a higher level farmer.

Maintenance costs are nice but how can we do it so there's a smaller downtime cost?

[Vaelin]

What about this. every week, each structure will roll for a percentage damage from 0-2, fine quality structures getting extra rerolls. This will only really affect the animals for example when the quality goes below 50%... damaged, I think?

That's the best I can think of for this for now.

[Rias]

More occasional upkeep in general is planned, but yes specifically for farm structures and fences and such - it's been discussed a number of times and there have been some good ideas for it.

For people taking extended breaks, maybe it'd get to a certain point but not go beyond if they haven't logged in somewhat recently. Though I also don't want to take away from the farm access/community aspect of people taking care of others' farms while they're away.

[nobody]

For people taking extended breaks, maybe it'd get to a certain point but not go beyond if they haven't logged in somewhat recently. Though I also don't want to take away from the farm access/community aspect of people taking care of others' farms while they're away.

A good intermediate solution might be to pause decay (and production and mob-scripts) when a farm's rent is unpaid. I find myself now wondering how many animal mobs are on unrented farmland checking for food every hour that cannot have shown up.

[Rias]

I find myself now wondering how many animal mobs are on unrented farmland checking for food every hour that cannot have shown up.

Hang on, let me just check something real quick ...

...

Yeah, no. Of course the system doesn't bother with all that farm-animal-related stuff if that farmland's rent is past due and not being utilized. To process all those long-abandoned farms and associated massive hordes of farm animals and structures would be silly, putting unnecessary burden on the server.

*cough*

But you know, if you think of any other similar situations that could potentially be optimized, why don't you bring them up too, just in case.