Improve the Farm plot mechanic

[gghhrr]

I've been playing DS & DST for years and always feel down for farm plot that little yield and less caring needed

since the fishing simulator had been implemented in RoT

I enjoy the contents after I've learnt and get used to it, even feel I'm already super skilled on sailing and fishing

that makes me think would we have much more realistic farming simulator?

 

look at the farm plot we have now,  they yield only one crop after days without giving care

or giving few manure and they pop out a crop in 1 second

to farm many crops and sustain a group of people, we need to build tons of farm plots ( I will not be talking Wickerbottom or Wormwood here )

and the farm plot is rarely used by players for food sustaining, even they are actually the only farming way in this Survival Game

most players more often use some tricky build to farm pigs and bunnymen to sustain entire server

 

here is my thoughts after combining some mechanics that is already in-game:

1. a) we should be able to watering farm plots everyday or every few days to speed up the crop grow

      - if we don't water crops, they still grow but taking a bit longer time ( which stay the same as now )

      - fertilizer like manure can be used once per crop life stage to get extra speed up instead of instant growth 

   b). empty bucket to support 1.(a)

       - craft at science machine with woods and rope

       - can be filled in water ( works like the oar, you can equip bucket and interact with sea or pond and get a bucket of water )

       - equip bucket of water allow you watering crop in farm plot ( each bucket should be able to water few farm plots before it need refill )

2. farm plot yield 1~3 of same crops per harvest

      - the main reason farm plot is down because they yield only one crop which is less efficiency to sustain food for groups or personal

      - number of crops harvested should be like 1 crop(100%), second(50%), third(25%)

      - for any fertilizer use to grow crop ( a fourth crop yield increase at 10% )

      - (optional) Wormwood player have 25% chance to find one seed on harvesting and 10% chance to find 1 same type of seed as crop harvest

3. make a utility difference between Farm Plot and Improved Farm Plot

     - Improved Farm Plot have 80% chance to keep crop watered( the effect won't happen again until player water the crop at third time )

     - the crows might steal your crop after it fully growth

        - a crop stolen from Farm plot happen at 20% per day if it's not harvested, Improved Farm plots at 10%

        - a scarecrow protect farms in 6 tiles won't be stolen

4. an unknown random seed grow into a mandrake at 0.01%

    - when the chance is triggered, the seed grows extra slow. Without giving care, it will be fully grown in 30-45 days

    - a fully and healthy care will take 15 days to grow it

    - it always yield only one mandrake on harvest, using fertilizer only speed up and no extra harvest

[Karitha]

Add seasonal crops, multiplantable farmland, more plants, farming suprises and this would be a god tier update.

[Kur0u]

https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Sprinkler

This is really all we need for a better farming experience. Place your farms around it, fuel it and let the magic happens. Also, SEEDS, yes plural, plant seeds and you may wield crops, not ONE crop. Plants would only grow if they have a sprinkler to water it, or rain. Compost wrap from Wormwood could advance one tier from growing crops and manure would only re-fertilize the farmland.

Your ideas are too complicated in my opinion, we already have enough to deal with the game, tending to farms only divert it from the main goal.

[gghhrr]

2 hours ago, Kuro_kira said:

https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Sprinkler

This is really all we need for a better farming experience. Place your farms around it, fuel it and let the magic happens. Also, SEEDS, yes plural, plant seeds and you may wield crops, not ONE crop. Plants would only grow if they have a sprinkler to water it, or rain. Compost wrap from Wormwood could advance one tier from growing crops and manure would only re-fertilize the farmland.

Your ideas are too complicated in my opinion, we already have enough to deal with the game, tending to farms only divert it from the main goal.

maybe my idea is complicated because I borrow the concept from sea fishing stuff

everything stay same as now, but we add more interactions with crops, and extra potential reward from interactions

and exactly I wish to buff farm plots because they are most forgotten and underwhelming

secondly, Wurt would become more playable character to inexperienced player if they can get more reward from farm plot

 

 

the main reason player build farm plot is just for dragonfruit

I once tried to farm dragonpie with 15 improved farm plot by myself while taming one beefalo (non-Wickerbottom)

and I can barely keep me and my beefalo belly full

the most boring thing in entire proccess is actually harvesting

I take 1 full second to harvest one crop and repeat and repeat again, and it is really unsatisfying

 

sprinkle, yea, and I did suggest sprinkle as replacement of boat's flingo before fire pump is implemented

in the end, we get fire pump that works on boat with small radius only

looks like they don't wanna risk or just copy idea from Hamlet

it might be interesting if we get sprinkle stuff so our farm must be located near water

[Terra B Welch]

Why am I reminded of Legion's farming mechanics in this suggestion?

 

[Notecja]

I don't want it to become too complicated.

1. right now new players are struggling to get enough manure and other stuff to make few farmplots - which I guess is intended to be not too easy, but too many extra mechanics will make it too overwhelming - your example with advanced fishing is completely optional and in game we still have the basic one. Is not farming game, farming is just a side of survival.
2. So far in DS/DST in some point most players are concentrated about different things than only farming - spelunking, fighting, building traps, gathering resources, boating.... Farming anyway can't be too much time consuming. If every time people would lost crops they didn't water or cared for second, because they were away doing more funny/stupid/essential things, then even less people would be interested in farming (except Wormwood I guess, but not every server has a Wormwood or farming-dedicated player).

I don't mind some more difference between crops, I have enough carrots from salad bushes. It would be great, if harvesting animation would be shorter. A chance to get one or two more fruit from one crop? Is almost like getting more seeds from feeding birb, which was already mentioned somewhere and sounded great. But I don't want any mechanic similar to disease, because I can travel around world for 3/4 of game year and last thing I want to see is a withered 95% of my plants in base.

[xhyom]

Some micromanagement like fertilizing BEFORE planting as a downside, maybe watering. Changes to the caged bird could make it too

More crops and seeds per farmplot would be more than enough to make it a reliable source of food

7 minutes ago, Notecja said:

I don't want it to become too complicated.

1. right now new players are struggling to get enough manure and other stuff to make few farmplots - which I guess is intended to be not too easy, but too many extra mechanics will make it too overwhelming - your example with advanced fishing is completely optional and in game we still have the basic one. Is not farming game, farming is just a side of survival.
2. So far in DS/DST in some point most players are concentrated about different things than only farming - spelunking, fighting, building traps, gathering resources, boating.... Farming anyway can't be too much time consuming. If every time people would lost crops they didn't water or cared for second, because they were away doing more funny/stupid/essential things, then even less people would be interested in farming (except Wormwood I guess, but not every server has a Wormwood or farming-dedicated player).
 

I don't think there's a problem on farms being more time consuming if it was a reliable source of food. It's already niche, making it reliable could just add a new playstyle even for a small part of the community, i don't mind, probably will not use it anyway but the more options the better 

[Notecja]

30 minutes ago, xhyom said:

I don't think there's a problem on farms being more time consuming if it was a reliable source of food. It's already niche, making it reliable could just add a new playstyle even for a small part of the community, i don't mind, probably will not use it anyway but the more options the better 

As I said before - when after travel I'm back to my base, I prefer to see all of my crops fine and not withered/not eaten by bugs and ready for harvest. If they would wither because I had no time to water them every day, then I don't want that mechanic because it wouldn't be reliable food source for me.

If I want to play crops and farm game, then I would play Stardew Valley or something like this.

[xhyom]

13 minutes ago, Notecja said:

As I said before - when after travel I'm back to my base, I prefer to see all of my crops fine and not withered/not eaten and ready for harvest. If they would wither because I had no time to water them every day, then I don't want that mechanic because it wouldn't be reliable food source for me.

If I want to play crops and farm game, then I would play Stardew Valley or something like this.

You know you can just dig some bushes if what you really wants is a filler for crockpot, it's about a different source of food, not a complement for your playstyle

[Notecja]

5 minutes ago, xhyom said:

You know you can just dig some bushes if what you really whats is a filler for crockpot, it's about a different source of food, not a complement for your playstyle

That's an example. I used my playstyle, because I know that one very well and is one of many examples and different needs. And I said, "Yes to make them a bit more different, but not too complicated". Already it requires a lot of work - in collecting resources, keeping farms fertilized... Only collecting crops can take a whole day and is just boring. Being forced to do extra activities around farming would keep away core of the game.

49 minutes ago, xhyom said:

don't think there's a problem on farms being more time consuming if it was a reliable source of food

The problem is they are time consuming. Even halving animation for collecting crops and making bird to give more seeds would really help.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 hour ago, Notecja said:

The problem is they are time consuming. Even halving animation for collecting crops and making bird to give more seeds would really help.

with this i can be happy, simple (any hard change or complicate thing) and will cut a lot of the time used to take care of the farms