Lighting Options and Sapien productivity modifiers

Suggestions
#1

I’ve had this idea buzzing around in my head for awhile now, but what if Sapiens had modifiers applied to their circumstances when crafting, or performing any other “in place” activity. The primary two I can think of to start with would be - “Indoors”, and “In Darkness”. When a Sapien is indoors, this gives them a minor productivity boost (I.E. speeds up crafting or research) given that they are protected somewhat from the elements. At the same time, the “In Darkness” debuff is applied when a Sapien is attempting to perform these actions while in darkness (Maybe this has varying degrees - so being inside on an overcast night is the most severe, while being outside on a full moon is the least severe). While active this debuff slows down crafting (or research) time since the Sapien is having trouble seeing. This feature thus encourages players to construct their crafting locations outdoors (such as near a campfire or torches) in the early game, in order to not suffer from these debuffs. (Torches and campfires probably shouldn’t be placed indoors however, given the fire hazard they pose).

Later in the game however, perhaps players could “research” two separate kinds of candles, which are far safer for indoor usage, and allow players to gain the “Indoors” buff for their Sapiens even at night-time, thus increasing overall productivity. I had two kinds of candles in mind that could be researched and used; earned at different points in the research tree. The first kind of candle is a “fat based” one used from the burning of hunted animal fats, while the other would be pitch based candles (requiring collected resin from trees and charcoal). In either case, a small bowl (clay or stone I guess) is needed to melt and mix the ingredients over a campfire in order to actually form candles. Once placed, a candle can be lit for a certain amount of time; after it burns out a Sapien can collect another freely, and place it back where the original once was (Maybe with a little hologram effect similar to when an object is being built showing where the candle is supposed to be before being replaced). I’m not sure how long candles burn for in real life, but I think it’d be fair if these candles could burn through a full night in game, as needing more than one per night might make it feel excessive.

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#2

http://www.hollowtop.com/spt_html/lighting.htm

The pithy center of the soft rush was once dipped in tallow and sold commercially as cheap rush-light candles.

A one foot length will burn for 10 -20 minutes.

Using a foot-long rush dipped in fat, you can have a 15-minute candle. To last 7 hours, you would need 28 feet of rush, just for one candle. Modern methods last longer with less material (I read that a 12 oz. candle can burn up to 80 hours or so), but it really depends on how primitive your sapiens are as to whether you could make more efficient candles or not. Admittedly, I didn’t dive very deep into researching this, so I could be wrong.
I do agree that having to renew a candle more than once or twice a day could be overbearing, and think that it could be good to take some liberties in that area.
Depending on the material of your building (thatch, stone, brick, etc.), torches could be acceptable in it.

Time and brightness are not the only environmental factors that would probably affect productivity, for example; temperature, precipitation, and other weather-related things would also have to affect your sapiens production rate and happiness. But I agree with you that it could be a really cool feature.

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#3

I gotta say this idea would be pretty nice! Although I gotta agree that some liberties should be taken with how long candles last. Additionally other light sources would be neat like oil lamps in the later stages of the game.

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#4

Huh - that got me thinking, I bet you could actually make some very simple oil lamps using like a bowl and a wick of some kind so long as you had a suitable oil source. :thinking: Maybe some oils could bubble to the surface in deserts like in the olden days, while others could be harvested from plants or animals.

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