A problem I'm currently having with a project of mine is deciding how to handle repetitive, but important, in-game tasks.
As an example (Though there will be many other instances of this), earlier in the game, the player must smelt and shape iron without modern tools. After iron ore has been smelted, it must be shaped into tools, this requires manual labor.
So how are some ways I could handle the shaping process (A repetitive, time consuming, task)?
Having the player sit in a GUI until the shaping process is complete is obviously not a great idea.
I don't want to make the process instant and simply rely on the speed of the smelting process to cull production, as the player could just utilize a huge number of furnaces to bypass that.
For other reasons, it would be incredibly difficult and time consuming to create a short mini-game for each of these situations.
Is there an easy way to solve this?