Artisan Archive
Thread: Who would like resource depleted email notification
The "only loading in proximity" excuse for not notifing owners is bunk. If that is the case, then why do harvesters mail you when they are below capacity. Do they load, email you, then un-load?? Why to factories notify you when their production ends?? I truely believe there is absolutly no technical reason why they couldn't notify you of resource outage. True, you can look at your survey tool to check, but it always seems that resources run out in the middle of the night. Not everyone is checking their dang survey tools constantly. Second, many players have havestors on different planets. Your tool is only going to show you whats on the planet you are currently on.
I think its a crappy dev excuse for lack of foresight.
as for the email notifications, power, maint issue its this simple:
you have 10 lots, so everyone has an extra db with lot info. contents
include x y planet coords,
two digit number representing harvester/building type so it can calculate
power&maint cost,
est Maint inside
est Power inside
resource mining/item making (if applicable)
time since last calculation
then noone would lose there harvesters by deleting the waypoint accidentally. ALSO you can look to see when anything is almost out of power, or maint. maybe you dont get an email when the resources just move, but if the resource is completely depleted it can check really easily and email those needed about shifts. or when your factory is done
The only pitfall i see about this one is the power not being correct if the resource shift, our your factory is not working. But put estimated on there so it is more of a guide line, not the actually truth.
Now i know we are having DB issues, but this would take up 50 extra slots per person at the max. And think of how much easier it would be for everyone. to cut down on the use of it, add a recalculate button so it doesnt keep track of everything in real time, but only recomputes the values when you want it to.
I'd like to be able to opt in for the following fro both harvesters and Factories.
1) Total maintaince at 1 hour
2) power at 1 hour
3) Unit turned off
3) reasource depletaed
DrunkenRedneck wrote:
I'd like to be able to opt in for the following fro both harvesters and Factories.
1) Total maintaince at 1 hour
2) power at 1 hour
3) Unit turned off
4) reasource depletaed
I'd settle just for the resource depletion email, since it already tells youhow longyour power/maintenance will last.
Once you get richer, you can just put in an abundance of maintenance/power, so there's always enough left in each harvester.
It seems like factories already work this way... but I think factories are in use much less often (and not 24/7 like harvesters), so it doesn't hit the database too hard.
CheeseBurgerAnimal
Don't be a jack ass! No one said it was a profession.And why do you need to be a master arttisan to survey. Dabbling is the nice thing about this game. A lot of people don't like having to waist time surveying, so why not let anyone that wants to survey... survey?
You don't need to be a master artisan to survey, you can do it at novice artisan. You just won't be the best at it, since your survey range will be limited to 64m. But any novice in a profession will be worse than a master in the same profession.
skorj wrote:
CheeseBurgerAnimal
Don't be a jack ass! No one said it was a profession.And why do you need to be a master arttisan to survey. Dabbling is the nice thing about this game. A lot of people don't like having to waist time surveying, so why not let anyone that wants to survey... survey?
When you load up your client. Your character has 10 lots that probably point to an index in the database and not structure information about your lots.
I would imagine that when a cell is loaded the information about that cell is loaded. And when a player comes withing range of certain things within that cel those objects are loaded.
This would indicate 2 things.
1 the complete details of any object are not known until you load it.. So things like maint/power and the resource you are currently mining are not know until the object is loaded.
(I would imagine the ranger creature find works the same way, you cant find unspawned lairs)
2 The database must know the coordinates of different objects contained within a cel.
So, I would imagine that only coordinates and an object index are stored in the cel information. Thus the server would not know if an object being loaded is a house or a harvester until it actually did the load.
Thus this wouldnt work for the following reasons:
1) You dont know if an object is a house or harvester
2) You dont know what it is mining
It may not help everyone, but it will probably help a few people, so here's the system my crafter has started using. 
When I place a harvester, I re-name the waypoint in my datapad. I've started using a short-hand system since waypoint names are limited in character size. For example:
"Tomlin M-Chem Quasituniocot"
The first word is my character's first name. Since I name the waypoints for all of my structures with this system, then all of the waypoints are listed together in the datapad when I sort it alphabetically, because they all start with the word "Tomlin".
The second phrase is shorthand for what size and type of harvester it is. "M" for medium and "Chem" for chemical. Personal harvesters would be "S" for small, and heavy harvesters would be "H" for heavy. The second half of the phrase denotes the type of resource, which really just lets me know at a glance which survey tool to use to check for availability.
The last word is obviously the name of the specific resource, Quasituniocot. I don't know about you guys, but I have trouble remembering the names of these randomly generated resources, especially when they tend to have the same basic word structures. By including the exact name of the resource (or as close as I can get with those rediculously long names), I know exactly what to look for.
By naming the waypoints for all of my harvesters (or harvester groups, in the case of several at one location) with this system, it'sa simple matter for me to do a quick check when I first log on. I just open my datapad to the waypoint page, and activate all of the harvester waypoints to make them appear as a list on the HUD, off to the edge of my screen. With the list right there on the edge of my screen, I can just open the various survey tools (my survey tool window is re-sized to about 25% of the screen), and scroll down the list to check for the specific resource names. If the resources are still on the list, then my harvester is still harvesting, so I don't need to run out and check it unless I need to put in maintenance or power.
If the resource has rotated out, then I need to go check on the harvester. However, before I re-deed the structure, I first open the resource list to see if there's anything else that I could harvest. If you're strapped for cash as a beginner, then you may not be able to afford to re-deed harvesters all the time. Also, it may just be easier to leave the harvester in place and mine another useful resource in the area.
Now, if you're not an artisan and you can't use survey tools... well, I can't really help you with that. I suppose you could still keep a list of waypoints, and just ask a friend or a local artisan to check their survey tools for you. I'm sure there are plenty of newbie artisans who are literally poor as dirt and would be more than happy to help you out for a small tip! 
As far as the e-mail thing goes, well, it would certainly be useful, but I'd rather have them spending developement and coding time on more pressing issues.