Should crafters be able to use the Way while crafting?

[valeria]

I can't remember where the inability of crafters to use the Way while crafting came up recently, but it's always really bothered me. I'm a merchant guild fangirl, so maybe this has just affected me disproportionately, but the periods of enforced incommunicado really really suck, especially if I'm working a skill with very long crafting times (like brew for some reason).

It doesn't even make sense. I can concentrate enough in the game to hold long, involved in-person conversations, or I can craft while I have listen or scan active, but the mere act of sending a thought to kicks me out and makes me start the whole crafting process over? I can concentrate enough in really life to hold long phone conversations while I'm sewing or cooking or making jewelry, but my Zalanthan can't do the equivalent? And it's not that you fail at the craft, or have a higher chance of fucking up: you have to start all over.

You already spend most of your time in a back room, but you also have long enforced idle periods where you've already rped your process and can't do anything but look at the psi you've queued up and just wait for the craft to go through. This is one of the things that can make crafters, especially GMH crafters or people who are crafting-dependent, a real drag to play.

(Edit because phone.)

[Delirium]

Theoretically it should depend on the craft, but if it needs to be a binary y/n situation I vote yes. No reason you can way while walking but can't while sewing a skirt.

[roobee]

Waying takes more concentration from what I've heard.

[nauta]

Yes!

Anything that brings more people into the interaction pool!

A few thoughts:

o If we are worried about people spam crafting and selling things off and getting stupidly rich: just put the delay on the sell/barter command instead?  Otherwise, what harm is there to a spam crafter?

o We should encourage crafting: it gives hunters/gatherers things to do and it circulates role-play props (food spices, perfumes, incense, soaps) among the PC population.

[Phoenix]

Please yes.

[evilcabbage]

these polls are ridiculous in their saturation of the gdb.

but i voted yes.

[manipura]

I've always thought that maybe you aren't able to contact someone while you're crafting, but if you already have that connection established, I don't see why you can't concentrate enough to continue Waying.
I have also thought that ceasing contact with someone shouldn't break your crafting attempt.  I am literally ending the thing that might be pulling my attention away from my craft, and that makes me stop working?

I think maybe, like Delerium said, it should depend on the craft.  Some of them are more tedious and involved than others.
And noting that...I think it would have to be specific on the actual craft, not the skill.  Leatherworking is cutting some leather into a few long strips, and it's also making a detailed jacket with pockets and sleeves.  One arguably takes more concentration than the other, should one allow you to Way while the other doesn't?

If we're getting that detailed and realistic though...I might argue that if you're Waying someone, an item would have a -longer- delay time, taking into consideration the fact that your focus is split between your conversation and your work.  One hundred percent concentration is not going to be on both at the same time, so something has to give.

I don't know anything about coding though, so I have no idea if any of this would be a coding nightmare or a walk in the park.

It's frustrating and a tweak to it would make Way interaction easier for crafters, but honestly I've always been met with understanding from other players when they've had to wait an extra couple minutes for my replies when I've explained to them that I'm working on something else.  It's nice when there are quirks and limitations of the code and your fellow players just roll with it like that.

Edit: I didn't actually vote because I don't really think it's a yes or no answer.  And while I'm -leaning- toward BUTTONS...I worry that it doesn't accurately represent my thoughts...which I rambled above anyhow.

[valeria]

I think that if actively waying made a craft take longer, that would be a fine solution. Not contacting new people? Also fine. I'm not particularly invested in it taking any form, I'm just irked with the way it works now.

As far as votes go, I suppose "yes" is change it somehow and "no" is leave it as is. I didn't really want to go into granularity with the buttons. I'm jumping on the poll train because voting is fun (in case the small caps and BUTTONS response didn't make that clear) and people tend to post more to disagree with something than agree with it.

[BadSkeelz]

I voted no for realism. Waying is the zalanthan equivalent of texting. It's distracting.

I'd allow waying and crafting together only if it raised your fail chance significantly. And then people would twink with it.

[Drayab]

I voted yes for playability.

[CodeMaster]

It's distracting but how many crafts are the mental equivalent of solving a partial differential?

If some dude can sneak and hide around while contacting whoever he wants, I should be able to sand some wood and do something similar.

[BadSkeelz]

It's distracting but how many crafts are the mental equivalent of solving a partial differential?

If some dude can sneak and hide around while contacting whoever he wants, I should be able to sand some wood and do something similar.

I've screwed up fairly simple tasks in real life, just by being distracted.

Fwiw I don't particularly think you should be able sneak or ride and way either.

[evilcabbage]

fwiw, if i'm mid type and i start talking to people, my fingers start doing weird things.

like typing what i'm saying.

or not functioning properly.

sometimes i'll be playing a game, and i'll think the controls are from another game, and it takes me a minute to reconfigure.

try holding a conversation while you're doing something as complicated as actually forging a sword. it's not easy.

now, taking the mental focus to project your thoughts from your mind to another mind? that must be even crazier hard.

[solera]

I have an ooc superstition that low stun affects failure. I can't shake it off.

[Vwest]

It doesn't.

Would like to be able to Way while crafting, too. Those brew timers are murder.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

I voted "No", just to stick it to them crafters! Myeh!

But seriously, considering that crafting in Arm is basically a mundane form of Conjuration magick, I just don't see how a tiny inconvenience like this even needs addressed. Waying takes so much concentration that you can literally pass out from it. Even a casual conversation is enough to drop you to half stun or less, which really is a considerable amount of fatigue if you actually took the time to RP it. (I don't either, but it is what it is.) Needless to say, you're not doing fine embroidery while under that much stress. And the average craft timer (as far as I've noticed) is around about a minute. Maybe 1:30-2:00 for really long ones? That's nothing, considering that the item you're pulling out of your ass would (in most cases) take a real person days to make. Just feels like a non-issue to me.

[valeria]

fwiw, if i'm mid type and i start talking to people, my fingers start doing weird things.

...

try holding a conversation while you're doing something as complicated as actually forging a sword. it's not easy.

now, taking the mental focus to project your thoughts from your mind to another mind? that must be even crazier hard.

I'd argue that crafting+waying isn't the same as typing+talking.  Those both require the language processing center of the brain, so it's easier to get your wires crossed.

I used to do complicated embroidery while talking on the phone all the time.  Not all the time anymore, since I mostly write instead of sew, but back in the day it was all the time.  I still sometimes make some pretty kickass pieces of jewelry while holding conversations.  I can definitely talk while cooking.  I basically have to, it's when Zoltan sees that I'm chained to something and comes to bother me.  Can I do it as fast and efficiently as if I wasn't talking?  Probably not.  But it still gets done.

[Vox]

I voted BUTTONS!!! because caps and exclamation points.

But Badskeelz has it right:

I voted no for realism. Waying is the zalanthan equivalent of texting. It's distracting.

[Barsook]

I voted yes for playability.

But at the same time:

I voted no for realism. Waying is the zalanthan equivalent of texting. It's distracting.

[Vwest]

If the Way is Zalanthan texting, then I do an obscene amount of sexting.