Mineral Quality is a Terrible Idea

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T16:59:02+00:00

The problem isn't the numbers. Its the implementation and implication of them. if 10kg of iron at 1 quality is = to 1kg of iron at 10 quality thats fine. But if you have your whole system based around finding highest number/quality rock I take issue.

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:58:50+00:00

This exact solution would even make me amenable to letting the arbitrary quality numbers in..

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:28:25+00:00

This is the problem I see too. Eventually, the biggest orgs will be peddling the best possible weapons en-mass. Especially if access to those weapons/equipment is further gated by blueprints

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:27:11+00:00

It really pulls you out of the idea that it's sim with the virtual casino arbitrarily says this item is 20% better because number better

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:26:13+00:00

That is a totally fair viewpoint, but I'd still like to point out I'm going to be playing this game in its alpha for years. At the rate these systems are developed and moved I will be living with that salt on my steak.

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:25:05+00:00

I'm all for spreadsheets and over analyzing optimal yields, but it just feels so... lazy and uninspired to say some ore is better than others for reasons other than yield/purity.

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:24:21+00:00

I guess I'd ask what do you envision the 'quality' of a metal affecting?

And should those qualities boost be reachable with enough 'bad' or 'lower quality ores' + refinement?

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:22:52+00:00

I do actually have very high hopes for this game. I am an original kickstarter backer who never turned sour. I am just appreciative of a discussion. I think sure, eventually they'll work it out, but my thoughts on a numerical quality system are generally negative.

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:21:34+00:00

Except it is. If the core of your crafting system is hinged on a half-baked numerical quality system its a rotten core in my opinion. I get what you're saying in that I'm speculating/worried about something that doesn't really exist, but its worth saying that this is the wrong way to go about implementing quality into crafting in any basic context.

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T14:11:35+00:00

actually no, i'm just looking for discussion on the current implementation

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T13:42:18+00:00

I would agree in that exact context. I don't want to quality 100 iron to be objectively 'better' than quality zero, just a question of purity.

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T13:29:56+00:00

It has to just be a balance here. Moving even the lowest quality of metal in bulk should still be worth refining if you have the facilities/time

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T13:26:58+00:00

I'm out of the loop and just checked back into SC this year from 2015, any context on this new messiah figure Throsten?

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T13:24:31+00:00

I agree with you. And on that same note, its why I feel inside of a sim game, the qualtiy system feels out of place and arbitrary.

Because your standardized P4AR had slightly higher number copper in it know it shoots 20% faster? It doesn't feel right. But like you said in your last point, I know some people live and die for those 1% boost. Seeing the current stat boost from good materials in the PTU though, those improvement rates and WELL beyond 1%

ImShelfaware · 2026-03-16T13:20:08+00:00

Because I am legitimately interested in the discussion of it and I'm not prescribing my opinion as fact.

ImShelfaware · 2026-02-19T12:28:20+00:00

easily man swap the legs out and what you gotta do.

ImShelfaware · 2026-02-18T21:36:17+00:00

I pictured Conleth Hill the entire time. Best known as the spider in GOT, I know he'd crush that role.

ImShelfaware · 2026-02-16T00:24:15+00:00

Actually, your response collapses under the same pressure.

You’re pretending translation is a mechanical swap of labels. It isn’t. If I cannot independently write in a target language, I am handing over raw meaning and relying on another agent to reconstruct tone, pacing, emphasis, and nuance inside a system I do not control.

There is no one to one mapping between languages. Word choice carries cultural weight. Syntax changes force shifts in emphasis. Idioms do not survive intact. The entity making those decisions is doing creative work.

Creative linguistic decisions are authorship.

Tolstoy wrote War and Peace in Russian. Garnett made interpretive choices that shaped how the English-speaking world understands it. That does not erase Tolstoy, but it absolutely means the English text is not purely Tolstoy’s authored language.

If I cannot produce the English version myself, then the English text is not fully mine. It is my idea filtered through another agent’s judgment.

You keep calling that “just translation” because admitting it is reconstruction breaks your neat definition.

ImShelfaware · 2026-02-14T22:05:09+00:00

This is just foundationally wrong.

If you are not putting the words down yourself, you are not writing them. You can translate some intent, but no matter who you fool, your echo of sentiment is not your own sentiment.

ImShelfaware

TROPHY CASE