Feedback regarding decay

[EliasTheCrimson 348]

I have noticed a lot of items rapidly decaying despite being stored in containers + houses. For instance, I lost about 20% of my gathered boat components overnight.

[Artillery 6]

Woaaah decayy is fast now.

Slow it down albit for on players and in houses/on deed sutffs

[Ivan Simconia 82]

Ivan, not in the pile even after taking things out of the pile, closing the pile and re-opening?

It was a cart.

The chest and it's items have disappeared no way it was pushed out of my house.  I took everything mobile out of the house, moved my bed, walked around inside and out dropping other stuff, hoping to raise a pile, logged off and on.. there is no pile and no items

[Guest Siege]

Hmm, now I'm afraid to check on my tools. Chest is still there, so my hopes are high.

[Guest fogshark]

decay is awesome! keep this up

actually, how about some crazy decay on scale armour, just enough that people get it out of their chests for imping.

[Angelsilver 3]

Woaaah decayy is fast now.

Slow it down albit for on players and in houses/on deed sutffs

seems that again a change was made without testing. I understand this may be difficult to test on a test server, but many people will lose much before it gets balanced in game. Balance should be tweaked over time on the test server. I am sure you could get volunteers to perform certain tasks on a test server to give some form of referance data.

[Guest systemparadox]

Why on earth wasn't this added more slowly? If anyone wasn't online the day that the update was added or the day after, they've probably lost everything. You really should have started with outside items first and worked up if there was still a problem.

And for goodness sake *PLEASE* slow it down a bit: case in point: I lit my 14ql oven just over 24 hours ago and cooked with it. Today I log in to find it's got 88dmg. IT'S IN A HOUSE DAMMIT! LEAVE IT ALONE.

Would somebody care to explain how I'm supposed to store things now? Pottery bowls, unless left in inventory, seem to decay overnight. Pottery jars aren't doing too well either. I'm starting to think that the raw unfired versions are currently lasting longer than their fired counterparts!

And honestly I think that increasing the decay on farmed items was a *BIG* mistake. Why? Because if the items decay to fast to store them, all that I can do is keep farming them, which means *even more* items.

[Guest Beast]

I think the best thing to do is make a line of code which checks if there has been any interaction with one of these items in an x time,if no, the decay starts raising and raising untill the item disappears or untill someone interacts with it again.

[Ecrir 887]

I think the best thing to do is make a line of code which checks if there has been any interaction with one of these items in an x time,if no, the decay starts raising and raising untill the item disappears or untill someone interacts with it again.

I don't think that's a good idea. Say a person likes to do several things (he doesn't like to specialize to much, kinda like a jack of all trades). So he does carpentry and woodcutting and coal making and shipbuilding for a while, then 1-2 months later he wants to do mining and smithing thing again, but his tools and other stuff that belong to that, has decayed since he hasn't used them in a while. That's just bad, sure, he could use them every now and then to prevent decay but that's not a good system  :-\

[Dashiva 13]

I think the best thing to do is make a line of code which checks if there has been any interaction with one of these items in an x time,if no, the decay starts raising and raising untill the item disappears or untill someone interacts with it again.

I don't think that's a good idea. Say a person likes to do several things (he doesn't like to specialize to much, kinda like a jack of all trades). So he does carpentry and woodcutting and coal making and shipbuilding for a while, then 1-2 months later he wants to do mining and smithing thing again, but his tools and other stuff that belong to that, has decayed since he hasn't used them in a while. That's just bad, sure, he could use them every now and then to prevent decay but that's not a good system  :-\

This is actually pretty close to what happens now. Here are some excepts from IRC:

<Rolf> a lot of items havent been "stamped" recently

<Rolf> so when i increase the decay rate they try to catch up and are destroyed

<Rolf> new ones are stamped at creation

<Rolf> so they wont instadecay like that

<thorgot> ok, so this was just catching up

<Rolf> yes

<Dashiva> Suggestion for later changes: Stamp all items beforehand. Trash will stay a bit longer, but at least we won't lose our precious

<Rolf> yes it would have been a wise move

<gaeron> but stuff touched in last few days should be fine right?

<Rolf> depends on ql gaeron

<Rolf> it's ql*hours for those items

<Rolf> *2 if inside and *2 if deeded

<Rolf> and also if in container it is *2 iirc

<Dashiva> This is how many hours per decay tick?

<Rolf> for the items on the list, that is

<Rolf> yes dashiva

<Rolf> also it is a bit random when it comes to polling

<Rolf> so it might skip one time just to double the decay next time

<Rolf> to save cpu and database action

<Dashiva> Well, that's two days, times eight, so over two weeks for a 50 QL items. That's not so bad.

<Rolf> something like that yes dashiva

[Ecrir 887]

I think the best thing to do is make a line of code which checks if there has been any interaction with one of these items in an x time,if no, the decay starts raising and raising untill the item disappears or untill someone interacts with it again.

I don't think that's a good idea. Say a person likes to do several things (he doesn't like to specialize to much, kinda like a jack of all trades). So he does carpentry and woodcutting and coal making and shipbuilding for a while, then 1-2 months later he wants to do mining and smithing thing again, but his tools and other stuff that belong to that, has decayed since he hasn't used them in a while. That's just bad, sure, he could use them every now and then to prevent decay but that's not a good system  :-\

This is actually pretty close to what happens now. Here are some excepts from IRC:

true that it's pretty close, but in that example rolf says it takes x hours for an item to get one decay tick (may skip one and then do two the next time, etc), but what beast suggested was having the decay rate increase if an item hasn't been hused for a while, which is pretty much making it worse then it's now.

[Vion 0]

I think we've overdone the decay for usable scrap items (wood and rags). Because the ql is so low on these, keeping any kind of quantity on hand is now difficult. Scrap wood I created yesterday is now at 99% decay.

In short, if I happen to go a couple days without needing to do any carpentry, it seems kind of silly that I should have to go out and cut down a tree if I want to do a little cooking, especially if 3 or 4 days ago I created a substantial amount of firewood.

And, with respect to rags, the problem which the decay increase fixes is, in fact, largely fixed by making combined rag piles usable for first aid. Is there really a need for a double fix now, when we will need to do much more cotton work in order to have a rag supply?

[Gavin 971]

I think that the decay on stuff like Logs ores felled trees butchered products lowql lumps scraps and such is great! but i think the decay on alot of items is far overdone

I have a huge stock of 100+ 70ql shields made for the town. And today near all of them had 2dmg on them, After 2-3 damage ticks they wont be 70ql anymore and will need further imping, I'd fully understand this on sub 20ql shields or so, but 70 ??

Also my lumps are decaying really fast, Despite them being on deed, in a forge, in a house.. Hopefully this isnt forever

Also a suggestion: Allow backbacks and pelts to fit in a altar. Would help sacrifice stuff we dont need as opposed to letting it decay on the floor. As theres no other way than to let it be currently.

[Shaduecaster 0]

As far as pottery goes... people use pottery to increase storage (i.e. pottery bowls inside of barrels).  All that will happen is people will replace bowls with satchels which will retain same amount of items on the server... results in the same lag on the server. 

This may be reduces slightly due to the fact that satchels can hold twice as much as pottery bowls however... only benifit i can see from the decay on pottery.

[SwedishPhoenix 12]

I think we've overdone the decay for usable scrap items (wood and rags). Because the ql is so low on these, keeping any kind of quantity on hand is now difficult. Scrap wood I created yesterday is now at 99% decay.

In short, if I happen to go a couple days without needing to do any carpentry, it seems kind of silly that I should have to go out and cut down a tree if I want to do a little cooking, especially if 3 or 4 days ago I created a substantial amount of firewood.

And, with respect to rags, the problem which the decay increase fixes is, in fact, largely fixed by making combined rag piles usable for first aid. Is there really a need for a double fix now, when we will need to do much more cotton work in order to have a rag supply?

[thorgot 465]

I definitely second the "stockpile" idea. We should be able to create a stockpile object out of any object. Adding an object of the same time to the stockpile creates a stockpile with the averaged quality, much like combining items together does. I should be able to click on my potato/brick/cotton and get a "create stockpile" option that creates a weight-based (for things like cotton) stockpile. Then I should be able to open it like a container and drag a single item or stack of items into it, and it will average the quality just like it would if I would have combined two items and increase the total weight of the stockpile by the added amount.

As long as the database knows the weight of 1 unit of each item, it can deduct the correct amount when "withdrawing" from the stockpile. Withdrawing should either provide a number prompt or simply give the stockpile right click options like winching a catapult (Withdraw 1 Item, Withdraw 10 items).

Then give a stockpile a max unit total of maybe 100, since a pile of items is 100.

Suddenly a pile of 100 wemp seeds or 100 planks has become 1 item in the database. That's a nice 100:1 ratio. A lot of players have stacks of 100 items laying around such as seeds, cotton, rope, bricks, planks. You could limit the stockpile creation option only to relevant (logical) items and trouble items. It would make no sense to make a stockpile out of clay bowls, for instance, but a good idea for seeds.

You could also limit it by making the stockpiles only creatable inside a specific new building type. Perhaps add a "Silo" or "Storehouse" building that you would have to plan that allows for the creation of stockpiles inside of it once it's finished. There would need to be a resolution for stockpiles that existed after a building has fallen down as well, maybe have a decay on the entire pile if it's outside of one of these buildings, which affects the quality of the item withdrawn directly as if it had the damage on it.

[Guest Serpardum]

My recent expereince.  The other day we went and dug up half a ton of clay (literally, 500k) for building our tower.  Some stuff had ot be done before hand, so left the clay in container for about 4 hours.  came back half was dacayed to about 50 damage.  Okay, that's not going to last long.  Never did get to use any of that clay we spent a wurm day digging up.

Today I log in, go into my house go tolight my oven to make sure it's stamped.  Look in the large barrel inside my house where I keep my stacks of 20K wood scraps, it's empty.  It all rotted away.  So I run to my forge and look on the ground, the pile of wood scraps I have there are fine, not in barrel or anything on the floor. 

Light the forge, get the tools I'm making for an order out of a large chest.  The carving knives that I had made yesterday and had been imping, 3 of htem had ~20 damage already. 

This is.. insane.  The clay resource is so far away from me it takes me about 10 minutes to get there and 10 minutes to get back.  I can't go there every time I want clay to add to the tower, I'll spend al my time traveling.

Something is broken about things in containers rotting slower, it seems some are rotting faster.  Please do something.

[Guest Poonager]

WOAH!!!  :o :o

Slow down the decay a bit, Rolf. It's crazy, like for rags and such, which means I'll have to make em EVERY DAY (which is not that fun  )

[Ecrir 887]

it seems the decay is way to high, a bit lower would be nice. I think the decay of things like clay and mortar shouldn't even have been changed from what they were, those things already decayed quite fast. Don't really see the use of making things that already decay fast, decay even faster.

[einnel 13]

Took a peek back at my old house the other day (My smithy, that is. The living house was made out of wood and was completely gone ).

The stone walls of the building were still intact, the furniture inside it as well. I looked inside my low ql stone coffin and, to my surprise, more than 100kg of iron lumps (ql 1-30) were still there... after 6 months, off-deed. Im guessing the stone house must've been mostly responsible, but still....

On a sidenote, every wall and every statue outside had decayed away . It looked a bit weird.

[Guest Beast]

Unused stuff lying around is trash IMO.

update to my suggestion:

If nobody has interacted after an x time and if the item isn't ondeed, in inventory or in a house the decay starts raising till it poofs, else decay stays normal, Of course this suggestion doesn't apply to statues, walls and other similar things, as they are often used untill the owner quits wurm.

[Guest garthnar]

I really dont like this idea, the reason behind all these tennons and cotton etc is because you just need so damn much to make a decent boat/ship. what about when you make 100 tennons they become a single item of "100 tennons" so they are still 100, just 1 physical item?

[Miggy 5]

Just struck me, this new update actually makes my highql logs last longer than they used to do! Before I would be lucky if a 90ql log lasted 3 days in a house on-deed without taking damage, thereby ruining its perfect 90ql status. Now it takes 45 days before it takes 1 damage! Hurrah!

[Artillery 6]

The decay for better ql items is reasonable now, and Is lovely for my ore.

However the decay on scraps of wood and rags is quite high now. Which is good, but most people use them for firewood.

So hears my suggestion: Items outside of any protection form. Lying abouts outside. decay faster....

This should apply to seeds, meat, scraps, and veggies, if in a house, or storage place, they should decay slower, allowing us to stockpile like we used to.

[flyingmonkey 1]

I have an idea that after ql*3 hours i add 1 damage to these types of items. If an item still has 1 damage after another ql*3 hours they are destroyed. So if that one damage is repaired in that time the counter is reset.