time costs

[Stroam]

Something things like sanding, grinding, construction, digging, etc take time doing the same thing over and over. What is the most enjoyable way to represent this in game?

[redram]

I went for scaled down active, though to me there's a bit of a difference between activities that use tiered tools - digging, mining, wood chopping, etc - and activities that are not tiered.  Anything that's linked to tiered tools kind of needs to have time involved, so that better tools take less time.  To me that's a big part of what makes tiering up worth it.  Anything else, maybe optional.  I could also go with 'ignored only in case of finishes on blocks'.   The amount of blocks required to build things, I just don't think it's a good idea to make the player spend a ton of time on polishing stone or sanding.  Unless hardcore materials is what the mod is going for.

[Stroam]

I argue that an additional time cost in polishing or sanding makes that material have a higher value to the player. It's rare someone enjoys spending extra time polishing, sanding, waxing, so when it is done it adds value.

[tony Liberatto]

I agree with @redram I would go so far as to say that the speed difference of higher tier tools should be increased. cutting down a tree with a stone axe takes a looooong time.

For decorative blocks, there is a problem as far as player perception goes. Whenever we add more work for the player, I.e. longer time to obtain resources or materials, we also need to increase the reward. Example, Game developer or Mod changes how long does it take to break an ore block, that ore block must yield more ore, otherwise the change will be met with resistance from the players. If it is a mod people will just not install it.
I am the first to ask for realism, but if all a mod does is to make it take longer to do something without any benefit, it will not be welcomed by the players.
One of the issues I see specifically with the polished stone is that it is a decoration block akin to the stone brick. There is actually not much difference in the texture and they can be interchangeable, but right now with your mod we can make stone bricks with one click, but to make polished stone it takes time and it is cumbersome, sometimes we have to shift position and try more than one time to make it work.
Since those blocks are not available in survival and the player only has access to them thanks to your mod. It would make more sense to have them take the same amount of time to be crafted, even if using different methods. 

Please observe that I am not against the time you impose for polishing stones, just on the fact that one block is instant and the other not. I think you should make both take time, or be instant.

[redram]

7 hours ago, Stroam said:

I argue that an additional time cost in polishing or sanding makes that material have a higher value to the player. It's rare someone enjoys spending extra time polishing, sanding, waxing, so when it is done it adds value.

And that's fine since this is apparently regarding your mod (I've never tried your mod, but based on what Tony says apparently this is how it works) then I definitely would not be using that mod if that's how it works (though to be fair, I rarely use mods anyway).  It might be ok in a SMP environment, where I could just buy the blocks from someone else maybe.  But I have no interest in grinding out cosmetic blocks myself.  I could see them having another cost involved though.

[Stroam]

@redram It's more about finding the right balance between my philosophy and the thoughts of the community since I don't know how often Tyron even reads the forums.
@tony Liberatto obviously you don't want everything instant or the game would be over in an instant so there is a balance between time investment and payoff. You mention that if something takes longer the pay needs to be greater but you never mention a benchmark in which to measure from. Obviously, that makes a great deal of difference.