MOP (Manager of Overflow Prevention)

[spamwise]

I'd like there to be some options (policy settings) that could be used to prevent/limit the pains of overflow.

Yes, a battleminer should be logging in and managing their resources, but let's say they can't get at the site (maybe they're on a vacation without internet access ... maybe their home network crashed and their work firewall prevents them from logging in ... maybe the game itself goes down for like 5 days ... whatever the case).

Here's what I envision:
Overflow gets calculated. Before throwing away the items, you try to use them up.

You'd be able to set whether or not your MOP (Manager of Overflow Prevention) has the right to spend COAL which isn't already at risk of overflow (but not bring you below firepower) in this process.

BXT/ALU
- build warehouse (requires coal)
PIRN/STEEL
- build cannon (requires coal)
Sand/Glass
- construct outpost
- deploy agent
URO
- Fuel reactor
DIAMOND
- rename land to existing name
FOOD
- shorten vassalage
- lengthen "masterhood"
- change government twice (requires 2 food)
AID
- use aid
COAL
- allow for use in building

The following have no obvious default behavior (your MOP can't wage war):
- ICBM
- Diamond Drill
- EUR
- COAL (if you aren't overflowing other building materials)
- AID (if you are over the AID limit)
- FOOD (if you are neither master nor vassal and have only 1)

Another option would be to allow your MOP to engage in trade with Ramul, offering only what would overflow and seeking an item you have selected. (I'd say MVO, but sometimes you need to set that to other values.)

So, the settings would be:
Preference <drop down box>:
- Spend first, then trade
- Trade first, then spend
- Spend only
- Trade only
- Disable MOP
Allow MOP to spend additional COAL: <Yes> or <No>
Item sought in trade Ramul: <item drop down>

[Rasteroid]

Woo.. advisory AI, to play the game for you.

In a parallel universe where I currently had more time, I might consider doing a simplified version of that. I probably wouldn't be letting it take trades for you though.

The thing is, I like Pollution. I'm not giving people an arbitrary setting that basically lets them opt out of it, unfortunate server downtime notwithstanding. The only time I might permit it is in some kind of restricted vacation mode, which couldn't be disabled for at least 2 days. But even then I would certainly turn it off for idle players, because I want their neighbors to have to work them over for the objects, or suffer them overflowing and spilling all over.

Battleminers since the dawn of time have been bugging me for ways to avoid overflow. It used to be applied all the time; You could never go over your storage limit in objects, imagine that!

[spamwise]

Yes, I recall the "dark days" before weather was invented.

Actually, I really was most interested in an option to spend URO in my reactor before overflowing it. I figured that would only appeal to URO miners, so I tried to broaden it (to increase other's support for the idea.)

The trading caviat was an afterthought, as I tried to address items that can't be spent with minimal intervention. I didn't really expect that one to fly.

I was hoping for global apeal, but I guess I'll just have to restate my wishes from a very limited perspective.

I think that when someone with a Reactor that is not filled to capacity is about to overflow URO they should fill the reactor. Hell, give me the polution in addition, I don't care. I just don't want to wind up spending coal down the line when I can't get to the site in time to pump it up. (I realise server crashes are the exception, but I actually will be going on a short vacation soon and I worry about filling the reactor to 100. What if I get nailed by the lose half leak. Then I won't make it out of the vacation with enough energy.)

[Lynx Shaman]

I'd be happy if you refined and manufactured before overflow hit. It's a pain to lose the thing you were trying to save up the round it would have been made.

[Rasteroid]

Turns out, either way makes you unhappy some of the time. And some people are unhappy all of the time.

[Rycchus]

lynxshaman said:

I'd be happy if you refined and manufactured before overflow hit. It's a pain to lose the thing you were trying to save up the round it would have been made.

This either means you refine/manufacture before production, or means you produce before overflow. Surely it would be more of a pain to produce something right after you need it, or to lose it seconds after making it!

[Lazy LynxShaman]

Be less likely to get overflow if it reduced the items in your inventory.

[spamwise]

Well, I came back from vacation and found I had spent coal (though, I think some may have been due to war.) Then that pesky DDD went poof. So, it will be a while before I've got a reactor to fill, but I still think some sort of vacation assistant would be nice.

[Rasteroid]

I added an option in policies to disable mining. MOP is redundant.

[spamwise]

Ok, the original MOP may be redundant (actually, the first MOP suggestion was essentally AI to play the game for us), but I'm still looking for a reactor filling advisor. Before that DDD went off, I had every possible building and was pumping out URO like nobody's business. There should be no reason that my Reactor would be empty upon my return from vacation.

It will be a while before I'm back up at that strength and it will be a while before my next vacation, so it's not a major concern, and I know you don't want to code AI for us or eliminate overflow, but I'd still be interested in some sort of setting/possibility to "automatically" fill the Reactor. (What if my Reactor Filling Assistant checked each cycle to see if I have enough Reactor power to cover my expenses. If I didn't, and I had him enabled, he'd spend a URO. I'd be willing for the activation of this assistant to cost 1 reactor fuel. Or maybe he checks once a day and forecasts 4 times power need and if that's above reactor level, pump it up.) I don't know. I guess I'm just rambling.

[Rycchus]

Could be a random event?
But I think this is too automatic (lol) for the gameplay - it discourages people from logging on as frequently as possible!

[Jemaat]

A fully supplied reactor can run two refines and a greenhouse for six days. Throw in a solar panel and/or a windmill if you're using the factory consistently or if you fear a leak and most times you'll be set. If you plan to be away for between one and two weeks then disable mining, it will automatically re-enable after a week's idling and you have the same situation.

More than two weeks and you're pretty well screwed, nifty features can only go so far.

[Rasteroid]

Right. If BM were ever to go commercial, with people paying, I would make a vacation mode where your mine and map tile are simply removed from the board, then placed back when you return.

[jc]

The only trouble then would be where they reappear, but I guess being relocated is a small price to pay for lasting through a vacation XD

[Rasteroid]

Yeah.. and I'd impose some kind of penalty for being whisked in and out of the temporal rift.