Training Comes at a Cost

Started by UnassumingWhiteGuy, August 15, 2014, 05:41:25 PM

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UnassumingWhiteGuy

I've seen the training suggestion pop up a couple of times, and I think an interesting way to balance it would be to accompany the training with some sort of penalty. For example, to train people in shooting, build shooting ranges, but have the targets cost wood to build and break after overuse, meaning that maintaining a well-trained army would take a lot of resources.

With melee, you could set up a sparring chamber and have the loser become incapacitated, or have just have the training cost actual hit points, forcing them to heal after, meaning that constantly training your people would leave you vulnerable if you got raided mid-session.

For other skills, what if there was a teaching system where someone ranked "Master" or higher in a skill could impart their knowledge to others by building a classroom (or maybe having specialized equipment for teaching each skill, all of which would be grouped into an "educational" building category), but only up to two-thirds their skill level (or some other threshold; just an arbitrary limit I selected)? Depending on how hopelessly inept the student is at the beginning, there could be a chance that the educational equipment could break, meaning that training could be potentially costly.

ApexPredator

I like the idea of being able to train or something like have a really talented colonist be able to write a training manual or something. Say they spend all day every day for a few weeks producing a cook book that other colonist can read that will increase their traits. That way you get more benefit from highly trained colonist and make colonies' foundation a little more stable.

UnassumingWhiteGuy

I really like that! Maybe there could be a library structure dedicated to housing the books that masters of certain crafts write. And the book can get them up to a certain point, a teacher can get them a bit higher, and only experience can make them really good at it.

ApexPredator

If Tynan does not want colonists learning skills quickly or "overnight" maybe after a book/manual is created and someone reads it they have a modifier that increases their learning when doing that task for a period of time or till they hit a certain level. Like if a Level 7 cook makes a "basic cook book" and a level one reads it they will have a 20-50% buff on cooking until they reach level 6. These books/manuals could also be a valued target for raiders to burn/steal during raids.

Rahjital

I'm not sure if having to pay for training like that would be useful at all. You can currently train shooting skill by hunting, which is fairly fast if you equip the hunter with a pistol and also produces meat needed for fine meals while being absolutely free. Melee can be trained in a similar way on incapacitated animals and raiders who you don't want to capture (due to missing a leg or similar serious wounds).

I would love seeing shooting/melee targets and possibly dummies for doctor practice and such, but apart from the initial cost, it should be free. Training already needs a hefty amount of time that could be spent being productive.

rtiger

Well, you could build a wall, draft a colonist, force fire on the wall, while having another colonist fix it (improving construction)


Rahjital

That's a good point; you can also simply build an extra sleeping spot and have the colonist shoot at that. Ther shooting skill will improve slower because they aren't shooting at a live target, but on the other hand, they won't need to run back and forth to drag the dead animals to stockpiles.