Hi y’all,

I’m currently in the design phase for my next game project and was wondering how to implement a specific feature. Namely, in this new game I want the player to gradually accrue employees they can put on certain tasks to speed up progress. They’ll start out with just the main character and their grandmother, though. But, I figured that -especially in the late game- there would be periods of time where the player doesn’t have much to do but wait for the next employee to be finished. So I’d like to implement a button that skips time until the next employee becomes available, but can’t figure out how to do it.

So far I’ve got the idea to just keep track of every active task, sort them by time left whenever the signal that a new task is added is received, then calculate when the first-most task is set to be completed, skip time to that point and decrease every active task by that duration of time. Would this theoretically work? I feel like it’s missing something but I don’t have a computer available right this moment to test it out.

    nikoyishi Sounds about right to me. Although personally I would just collect and sort all tasks when the "Time Skip" button is pressed and not all the time in the background, to keep it simple.

        Toxe Yeah that makes sense, could probably just give each active task a boolean saying so. Now to figure out if I want to let the player skip time only when all employees are busy, or just when at least one is…

          nikoyishi So I’d like to implement a button that skips time until the next employee becomes available, but can’t figure out how to do it.

          You can go the opposite way — try to speed up time all the time. And when a worker is available, it will be a signal to stop or slow down the time. And the button will simply disable the constant acceleration.

              Tomcat That could definitely work too, thanks for the suggestion! I’ll have to mess around with it and see what works best for the vibe ✨ I’m going for.

                  nikoyishi I’ll have to mess around with it and see what works best for the vibe ✨ I’m going for.

                  It will be interesting to see what solution you make. My project will have similar problems.

                      Tomcat Good to know I'm not the only one tackling this! For right now I'm thinking of making it a one-time skip when pressed by default, and allowing the player to change it to a toggle that skips every time everyone is busy in the options menu. I also want to do the standard paused, 1x, 2x and 3x speed controls to allow the player some more freedom. Playing with the idea of not making it a 'true' skip but changing the game speed to something high like 25x with an ease-in and -out instead, so it's not as jarring to a player.

                          nikoyishi Good to know I'm not the only one tackling this!

                          If you're interested, I've covered the project here and some elements from here.

                          The idea is similar — characters do their own things and don't need constant manual control.

                          I also want to do the standard paused, 1x, 2x and 3x speed controls to allow the player some more freedom.

                          It's very similar to the controls in The Sims — there are 3 speeds there too. Or rather 4 modes: 4th — mode is the big, 3rd speed until the end of a given character's task.

                              Tomcat You're right, it is very similar to that, that must be where I got the idea from. I was an avid Sims player up until a few years ago! Thank you as well for the links, I've skimmed over them and they look very interesting - I'll make sure to read them thoroughly this evening 🙂

                                  nikoyishi I was an avid Sims player up until a few years ago!

                                  A stingy tear of nostalgia. 😿

                                  In Sims 3, I really missed the Business from Sims 2. In 3 you can only fire employees, but you can't hire. This was one of the reasons to think about creating an alternative. So you project could potentially be very interesting.

                                      Tomcat I hope this doesn't disappoint, but other than the speed controls and skill development, I don't think my game will be very similar to the Sims at all. I personally like to play very management-heavy games that punish idle players. So my idea for this project is to create a farm/ranch simulator with a heavy focus on horses and some other animals, rpg elements, social interactions and some incremental stuff as well, all the things I would want as a player, basically. I'm actually still finishing up my first and second game so development of this one will have to wait for a while - but (in the interest of not bumping this thread any more) if you, or anyone else, would like to talk about my project (and their own!) feel free to add me on discord! (I'm just 'nikoyishi' on there)

                                          nikoyishi So my idea for this project is to create a farm/ranch simulator

                                          The farm (small village) is one of the games I'm going to do as part of the project, to practice skills and techniques. So if you need help, you can count on me.

                                          with a heavy focus on horses and some other animals

                                          Horses are quite difficult to implement. Behavior and care. I speak from experience — I had to care for a horse.

                                          rpg elements, social interactions

                                          This is exactly what I want to implement in my project.

                                          if you, or anyone else, would like to talk about my project (and their own!) feel free to add me on discord! (I'm just 'nikoyishi' on there)

                                          I'm allergic to Discord. You can join Mastodon.

                                          Will your characters grow? Will there be a character generator? How are the seasons supposed to change? You can create a thread on your project here. #Projects