Crate Balancing

Continuing the discussion from [Dev Blog] Desktop Tuesday, Alpha 11:

I would agree that right now, crates seem much, much better than stockpiles, to the point where I’d never use stockpiles. Some nerfing is in order. Either level-gate them, as @Yosmo78 asks, or reduce their capacity, or some of both.

Also saw this on the blog post comments:

Which I also agree with. Moving items one by one is too slow, but 8 is too fast, at least to start off with.

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Thanks for approving my comment! :slight_smile: I agree with need of nerfing crates. Only reason to leave them as they are right now is if TR will add some even better containers, like chests etc.

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Well if they start off with either 2 or 4, a level 1 weaver can craft a cloth sack, bumping it up by 2 items, then a level 3 can craft one bumping it up by 4, then maybe a level 5 up by by 6 items - In the end, you’ll have 8-10 backpack slots, more than enough for what we’d be building now.

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You are spot on. This is how it should work imo :smiley:

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Alright, lets say a standard worker starts with a backpack containing 4 item slots.
At level 1, a Weaver can create an expansion that allows for a total of 6 items, adding 2 to the max total.
At level 3, he can now add 4 more slots, for a total of 10 items.
Finally, at level 6, he can add one last expansion of 6 slots, for a grand total of 16 items to be carried.

Of course, we’d probably have to do more than add a level gate. Suppose a Weaver needs sturdier cloth, for example, to craft the second expansion at level 3. Perhaps for the third and final expansion a level 4 Blacksmith would need to create an expansion out of some type of ingots, like a chainmail sack or something.

This is to prevent workers carrying too many items too early in the game. Of course, it would have to be tweaked, perhaps lower the level requirements for the Blacksmith or something. Then again, what’s to prevent someone from crafting the expansions out of order?

We also have to take into consideration the fact that Workers will rarely need to carry around 16 items, especially considering what’s in the game is mostly early-game stuff. Once the game gets into mid- or late-game I could see 16 item backpacks being useful, but for right now I think they’d slightly overpowered.

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I think 8 is probably the ultimate limit of the number of items a worker should be able to carry around without additional skill. Remember that trappers have a backpack upgrade that increases their backpack size by 8.

In the long run, radiant needs to balance for both craftable backpacks and skills.

Hmm, I suppose backpacks will be something that workers can carry in their second hand slot? Get some use out of that empty slot!

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Crates should be able to store only one category of items at a time - i.e, only Wood, or Stone, or Plants… and possibly be able to store only a limited subset of categories. In my personal opinion which I assert to be true and objectively correct, no Tools, nothing from the Construction category, nothing from the Weapons & Armour category. Basically, just materials. And probably Small Crates at first level and Large at third.

And yes, 4 items for the basic backpack, 8 for the upgrade would be better - having them carry more than a small crate worth of items is pretty overpowered. Or perhaps have them move items one by one at first, with a 4-item backpack from the Weaver. I don’t think having multiple upgrades would be a good idea, unless it’s different items so you don’t end up with useless older items laying around - such as carrying a single item at first, then 4 with either the Upgraded Worker Outfit or a backpack, then 8 with both.

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I really like this idea.

It’d actually give you a reason to build a ton of crates. It would also give you a reason to make stockpiles. With the current setup, I’d likely build 2-3 crates and not bother with stockpiles.

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I agree. Perhaps leaving crates for food would open up the way to other storage items like barrels for food, or weapon and armor racks.

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Mmm. Barrels. Time to try and make some square barrels… Oh wait, that’s just a crate :stuck_out_tongue:

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[quote=“Tuhalu, post:10, topic:14048”]
Time to try and make some square barrels… Oh wait, that’s just a crate :stuck_out_tongue:
[/quote]I’m sure that barrels will be quite easy to distinguish from crates.

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What about assigning “size” to items, such as constructed items?

Raw material, food, plants 1 space
Crafted item 2-10+ space with added requirement of Large crate only (Not unheard of having crates of window frame)

And also require greater control of what goes in to a crate would be nice, like being able to assign “wood only” crates.
Edit: forgot that stockpile already have this ability already, since I’ve only been using the category checkoff.

Also this would be getting the “mechanics” into the game and get it right before expanding upon the storage system.

This is already happening. They have stockpile capabilities, which means you can store by category. Wood is a category in normal stockpiles.

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LAMO 104hr into the game and didn’t even try to use this option before! Only ever needed the category check box up till now.