Group training seminars

[dseguin]

Summary

None

Purpose of change

Fixes #51532

Describe the solution

A new 'C' menu option was added to initiate a training seminar. The player selects a skill to teach, then selects which of their followers they want to participate in the seminar.

• A skill can only be selected if the player's practical level is >0.
• A follower can only be selected if their theoretical skill is less than the player's selected skill's level

Also, dialogue options were added to the NPC talk screen for asking the NPC to host a training seminar, as well as for one-on-one training from the player.

The start_training() function was refactored into start_training_gen(), which accepts one teacher Character and an arbitrary vector of student Characters. This allows one character to train any number of other characters. A new activity ACT_TRAIN_TEACHER was added as well to force the teacher to spend the required time teaching the session.

TODO:

• Create generic routine to handle training an array of Characters
• Add conversation logic for initiating a group training seminar (npctalk.cpp)
• Add conversation dialog tree for new training options (various json)
• Do not allow student ACT_TRAIN activities to complete without the teacher's ACT_TRAIN_TEACHER activity
• Adjust training time to reflect reality (roughly 1 hour or more)
• Add ability to teach proficiencies, martial arts, and spells This would make the menus more cluttered. For now, just add the infrastructure to process these kinds of training.
• Thorough testing

Describe alternatives you've considered

Testing

Player teaching seminar:

1. Spawn and recruit a group of NPCs
2. Start a training seminar through the C menu
3. Depending on the player's and the NPCs' skill levels, the seminar should take upwards of 1 hour

NPC teaching seminar:

1. Talk to an NPC friend
2. Ask the NPC to host a training seminar
3. Select a number of participating students (including/excluding you)

Additional context

[actual-nh]

Ping: @eltank?

[PatrikLundell]

If you're going to have one NPC train another you'd have to make sure the one you're not talking to when setting the situation up "knows" about it and so won't continue with a current activity (can either be to break the activity off or not be available for the task while active) and won't be available for a new one (and won't follow the PC around while engaged in a training session).

[eltank]

I personally think that this "near-instantaneous training" is not realistic and should either be removed from the game or replaced with a "training seminar" that takes at least 1h and can have multiple participants.
The current "training" is also practically useless at higher levels (say, above 4) due to how little skill xp it gives vs how much is needed to level up.

My solution to teaching NPCs skills is #51628 (letting them work on practice recipes).

[dseguin]

I agree that it's not completely realistic. Do you think it would be reasonable to have both crafting practice as well as group training? As in, you could instruct NPCs to craft items or participate in a training seminar?

[eltank]

I agree that it's not completely realistic. Do you think it would be reasonable to have both crafting practice as well as group training? As in, you could instruct NPCs to craft items or participate in a training seminar?

Both of those options sound realistic to me. But if practice via crafting addresses the problem more efficiently it might not be worth the effort of coding seminars. OTOH if it turns out to be easy to code, then why not.

[dseguin]

Good point. I'll refocus this PR on group training like you described.

[dseguin]

Ping: @eltank
If possible, could you tell me what you think of the updated solution? (Screenshots in PR description)

[PatrikLundell]

I believe training sessions ought to take time rather than being instantaneous with spamming blocked by a "memory" of having trained someone. If seminars (or, for that matter one on one training) takes time there's no need for a timeout timer.
If instantaneous training remains (due to implementation difficulties), the timeout would probably have to remain until that's been sorted out.

The snipped of changed code seems to imply there's a check for if the player has been asked to train ("player_character"), but it really should be a check for the teacher having been asked to train, regardless of whether the teacher is the (current) player character or not.

[dseguin]

I'm sorry, I don't really understand. Are you saying that training is currently instantaneous? That shouldn't be the case. I'm using the same mechanism as receiving training from an NPC, so it's handled through an activity. It takes roughly 50-100 turns depending on the skill requirements. (see talk_function::start_training_gen())

Yeah, currently the asked_to_train effect is checked on the player because only the player can teach a seminar through the C menu. I found that it's a bit awkward to add another submenu to the C menu to cycle through and select an NPC as the teacher. I think that option would work better in the specific NPCs dialogue tree (same place as the current training option).

[PatrikLundell]

Training currently is very quick, although it might not be instantaneous. 50-100 seconds is extremely fast, whereas I'd expect a "real" training session to be somewhere around 45-60 minutes, based on how long individual lessons tend to be currently.

I thought there was a reason for the specification of the player character, but I don't think it hurts to check. Also, if it's reasonably easy to implement, having the function just take a character would make it possible to reuse it later on when/if the UI issues have been sorted out.

[dseguin]

Yes I agree, eltank mentioned earlier that he wanted training activities to take >1h. I've added it to the TODO checklist above.

Also, if it's reasonably easy to implement, having the function just take a character would make it possible to reuse it later on

That's how I implemented it:

Cataclysm-DDA/src/npctalk_funcs.cpp

Lines 1012 to 1013 in 69caaef

	void talk_function::start_training_gen( Character &teacher, std::vector<Character *> &students,
	teach_domain &d )