Decay and Life on a Real Ranch

fragilityh14 · 2018-04-23 15:18:48

The general discussion about decay, villages "decaying from under you", etc, reminds me about a piece where an author (who is kind of a dandy) recounts the one day he spent on a working ranch as a younger man,

"We went to the tractor because we had to do something in the fields but it turned out that something was wrong with it. It needed some wheel adjustment, a carburetor cleaning, a blade sharpening, and several other things. That took more than an hour, and I don’t recall what we did with the tractor other than ride around in it, but then we had to stop because another task called on our labors.

A fence needed repairing, so we did that. Then a water well was clogged so we unclogged it. Then the chicken coop had some issue that needed fixing.

After a while I realized that nearly everything was broken. This is pretty much what we did with our mornings, just going from place to place tightening, hammering, wiring, pounding, unclogging, and so on. Fixing things is what you do. Initially I was alarmed: when do we actually do things, as versus fix things, so that we can start doing what we are supposed to do. I gradually learned that fixing is a massive part of what constitutes your actual work."

the rest is here: https://fee.org/articles/my-short-life-on-a-real-ranch/

Anyway, the point is, everything decaying around you all the time is realistic. It's amazing anything works as well as it does. Life is fixing things. There is an often unnoticed army of workers (primarily men) that fix things all the time. in real life, your house does actually decay from under you if you don't maintain it.

That said, at what point the game becomes too tedious is a different question entirely.

I should add, I visited a nearby ghost town (Elberton, WA) to see the daffodils yesterday. It was been abandoned for roughly an "epoch" and much of the land was given to the county and it's a park now. Many of the buildings have fallen over or are otherwise beyond repair, an area that was cleared of timber is reforesting, and the only clear evidence of some homestead sites is the daffodils. However, there are vast wild orchards, and someone resettling the area would have a massive advantage in terms of food availability compared to the original settlers.

Nimue · 2018-04-23 15:34:27

ok but this is a simulation that one minute equals one year, so one should guess that are many actions implicit on every actual action, our house is decaying bellow our feet, yes, but at a rate that we can fix it and do other stuff too, you dont go to the park just to come back home to a house in ruins, im not against the decay system but it need several changes before its playable, remebering that this is a game, and the mainly objective is to be fun, balancing realism and functionality.

stickyflypaper · 2018-04-23 15:56:42

They weren't also at the same time trying to grow food and eat every minute so they don't starve to death.

Xuhybrid · 2018-04-23 20:36:03

One problem i have with this. If it takes 1 minute to fix something in game, would it have taken 1 year in real time? Or 1 hour? Anyway, the real problem isn't the decay as such. It's the lack of repairs.

YAHG · 2018-04-23 20:39:25

stickyflypaper wrote:

They weren't also at the same time trying to grow food and eat every minute so they don't starve to death.

Um... yes we are?

stickyflypaper · 2018-04-25 17:02:19

YAHG wrote:

stickyflypaper wrote:
They weren't also at the same time trying to grow food and eat every minute so they don't starve to death.
Um... yes we are?

The difference is that because everything in the game is crammed into one hour, with each minute being a year, it is very difficult to manage every little thing. I feel like the timing for things in game (resources regrowing, etc.) needs more adjustments.

YAHG · 2018-04-25 18:03:24

Sok <3

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2018-04-23 15:18:48

Decay and Life on a Real Ranch

#2 2018-04-23 15:34:27

Re: Decay and Life on a Real Ranch

#3 2018-04-23 15:56:42

Re: Decay and Life on a Real Ranch

#4 2018-04-23 20:36:03

Re: Decay and Life on a Real Ranch

#5 2018-04-23 20:39:25

Re: Decay and Life on a Real Ranch

#6 2018-04-25 17:02:19

Re: Decay and Life on a Real Ranch

#7 2018-04-25 18:03:24

Re: Decay and Life on a Real Ranch

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