Reap what you Sow first impression

[MondayNight]

I never was into vegetables farming via plots aside minimal decorative purposes. Yet in late-game I still did some Advanced Farms for their aesthetics as base decorations. With this new tedious-front change to veggie farms I can pretty certainly say I won't ever bother with this aspect as is not my cup of tea. Efficiency-wise this new farming veggie system is very poor (more-so than old farms it seems), a time sink; but probably passive base-sitting players will have an activity to their liking. Gorge-type farming worked good in Gorge because of that game mode's objective and short time-limit. In base game I reckon not so much.

As for nerfs, what can be said?! Happened. The tiny "Try-Hards" vocal minority advocated for them for quite some time now - and got their ways. Certainly being vocal and close to devs pays off as shown. And am sure even more nerfs are on the proverbial pipe in future. How that will impact player-base on long run remains to be seen. For certain will invalidate old farms (Bunnymen, mass plants production rates - grass, twigs, reeds in current update). And promote even more the new farms: Kelp Fronds, Stone Fruit Bushes, and Lureplants (possibly the new "meta") - that may be also nerfed in future. Interesting developments to say at most.

[Russian_Philin]

42 minutes ago, Notecja said:

Looks like stuff from Oxygen Not Included. Maybe is a work of the same people.

I do not deny that it may be so. New people could also be brought into the team to speed up the process of implementing updates and releasing animated short films.

[BeeClops]

here is my 2c:

It looks pretty nice as far as aesthetics, but to my main point: farming looks complicated, especially for newer players, and quite time consuming. I'm having a hard time thinking it can be a viable/efficient food option, i can only see me using it for spices and decoration. I wish it would feel worth it, at least for early game, i think it suits an early game food source nicely.

This is taking the bunnymen nerf into consideration as well, which i don't mind and don't love, i agree it was quite overpowered, but i'm sad that I'm used to rely on bunnymen for my meat farm and use a bunch of houndiuses there, which seem like a waste now tbh.

Wicker nerf: mixed feelings, i think her role as a support character on public servers is diminished big time, and even tho i don't usually use books for my grass and twigs farm, i can totally see this messing up megabases and it taking too much time to get those basic materials. Which i think should become trivial to get in endgame. I understand the nerf in terms of food, and maaybe the recipe, but all 3 is just too much.

Birdcage nerf/buff: i like it, i like that i don't need to cook mm anymore, and can always use bundles if you wanna stack fresh eggs.

 

 

 

[Owlrust]

In my opinion, on the subject of Wickerbutt's nerf the way I see it is this: If you needed to swap to another character just to amass resources in bulk in order to build the things you need/want to, then either there's a problem with game mechanics or individual characters; that said it's way easier to put Wickerbooty on a slightly lower playing field than to level the ground entirely. It's not really hard to envision a scenario where if only her recipe was changed and nothing else, many people would complain about her still needing a nerf. Same could apply to Wolfsquad as well in my opinion; people talk about how he essentially cuts fights in half and much more, but if he were changed to be not as strong "woah there, let's not get hasty now, he was fine as is".

Personally I kinda see this as an opportunity to broaden the perspective on what can make her even better character come refresh time, not limiting her to merely a support/gatherer role. All in all though, this is just my opinion.

[Cheggf]

17 minutes ago, Owlrus said:

If you needed to swap to another character just to amass resources in bulk in order to build the things you need/want to, then either there's a problem with game mechanics or individual characters

I see no issue with Wickerbottom being particularly good at amassing megabase levels of resources, Wolfgang being particularly good at fighting and running, or Maxwell being particularly good at amassing megabase levels of different resources. Powerful characters with powerful drawbacks are so much more interesting than Winona. The only issue I see with Wickerbottom and Wolfgang is they don't really have much in the way of downsides, but this nerf adds no downside, it just lessens an upside.

17 minutes ago, Owlrus said:

Personally I kinda see this as an opportunity to broaden the perspective on what can make her even better character come refresh time, not limiting her to merely a support/gatherer role.

Why nerf now and refresh later? Both could be done at the same time.

[DaZoul]

9 hours ago, Russian_Philin said:

I'm very happy with this update, I'll be honest with you.
I like almost everything except one thing and that is the visual part...
Why these sprites have become so clean, neat and ordinary... I mean, seriously... Where did the strokes and angularity of the style go? ,_,
(Note: I didn't want to write this, because I respect and appreciate the work of developers, because they inspire me to create arts and follow this world, especially lore, but don't get me wrong, it looks a little different from all the previous concepts of the game.)

HA! It seems you just can't handle 2% OF THE CHONKY POTATO'S POWER!! HAHAAA!

[000080]

(Don’t touch my Wickerbottom!)

No, really.. It pains me to see Wicker getting a huge nerf, reed trap will now be deemed useless. The elegant and very efficient ways people came up with of farming these, along with grass and twigs, for it to be no more. :c

While I do like that every type of crop gets their own unique stalks, leaves and so on, I’d hoped for solely new additions.. I'd hoped that Klei, instead of dragging out the progress by making farming more tedious, would’ve added more to late-game. Like time-triggered events or even a new shard for that matter (heh). It would be rewarding for those who work towards late-game, and also mitigate that repetitiveness that might come along with it.

Most likely someone has to be dedicated solely to the farming task, since it will be more difficult to amass large quantities of specific seeds. Which will be even less prioritized if theres only few players around.

In what way will these crop farms be rewarding in the long-run? Food is just a means, to helps one’s stats and maybe giving an effect that lasts for a few minutes. For novelty, yes. But when that fad is gone..?

Will probably stick to kelp/stone fruit/berry bushes etc. for a reliant source of veg and fruit - if these beta mechanics ever come to fruition (yes, pun intended). It simply feels not worth the hassle.

(And don’t get me started on that caged bird, yikes)

[ArubaroBeefalo]

4 hours ago, 00008b said:

reed trap will now be deemed useless

did you tried it? i dont think it will be useless just for needing to read it few times to make it grow

[bruhmoment23]

26 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

did you tried it? i dont think it will be useless just for needing to read it few times to make it grow

One of the best setpieces stinky because i can't make it regrow instantly with one book, bad update 0/10

[viberr]

23 minutes ago, bruhmoment23 said:

One of the best setpieces stinky because i can't make it grow instantly with one book, bad update 0/10

oh my god @bruhmoment23you made scott hansen sad how dare you. apologize right now for being so rude

[minespatch]

48 minutes ago, bruhmoment23 said:

One of the best setpieces stinky

[ZG17]

On 11/27/2020 at 3:33 PM, CameoAppearance said:

She was in a pretty good place before this.

In my opinion, Wickerbottom is SUPER powerful as well as wendy(spider&hound reaper) and wigfrid (helmet maker) before this nerf. The ability of Applied Horticulture enable her to create a tremendous number of resource which is far more powerful than other characters. Thus, Applied Horticulture deserve a nerf but this one is too much.

The most wired thing is they not only nerf the effect of Applied Horticulture but also increased the cost of it.

Maybe we can expect a rework for our old lady?

[Zeklo]

Hopefully now that people are actually learning the system we'll see them appreciate how its incredibly better than what we had. Both on how much more you get in return and just gameplay in general. 

Was basically like calling combat useless because you never learned the kiting patterns.

[MondayNight]

1 hour ago, Zeklo said:

Hopefully now that people are actually learning the system we'll see them appreciate how its incredibly better than what we had. Both on how much more you get in return and just gameplay in general. 

Was basically like calling combat useless because you never learned the kiting patterns.

Not even close, my sturdy farmer lad. Over-complicated is.. over-complicated. Art for update - as nearly always - is indeed top quality for the most, there are interesting aspects to it in general, but that doesn't excuse the clutter of too many factors one needs to keep in check to hit top quantity of product - efficiency at higher involvement costs. And of course, if one goes at this new farming system similarly to the old one's function - aka plant random seeds randomly and forget about them, passive crop growing - one gets only "rot" and flies; as in the thing you glossed over when pointed previously. Thus no, is not "incredibly better" in general. For people into Gorge-like game-play centered around farming and keeping track of multiple factors, probably is a treat. For people such as myself that don't care about elaborate plot-farm mechanics and just want a valid "set-and-forget" approach, new current plot-farm system is sub-par. Mostly because you get punished for such approach ("rot" and flies, once more). Plus keep another thing to mind: if forumers, that usually are informed advanced players actively seeking understanding and data, are divided on this issue... imagine when update hits live servers how bulk player-base, namely newbies/noobs/casuals, will receive it; how this populace will react to an over-complicated system with so many indices that they won't probably even get right its complete magnitude, not to mention being marginally efficient at it - assuming they will even attempt to wrap their heads around it. As a mainly pub-dweller (Survival vanilla dedicated servers akin KLei Official ones) I can attest: bar... is very low. Time will tell. In the meanwhile I for one am pessimistically reserved even after studying its ins-and-outs.

[Zeklo]

3 hours ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

Not even close, my sturdy farmer lad. Over-complicated is.. over-complicated. 

It's intimidating. It's not complicated. Plants have 6 needs. The more you meet the quicker they grow, and more seeds they drop (and produce if you get giant crops). 5 of the 6 can be automated, the 6th can be ignored in spring or simply not a hassle unless you plant 9 super thirsty plants.

3 hours ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

And of course, if one goes at this new farming system similarly to the old one's function - aka plant random seeds randomly and forget about them, passive crop growing - one gets only "rot" and flies; as in the thing you glossed over when pointed previously. Thus no, is not "incredibly better" in general. 

Of course going to a brand new system with the old mindset isn't going to work. If you get even 2/6 of the needs (season & family) your plant will grow in decent amount of time. Heck, ignoring all 6 is still a net-gain compared to what we had because it's cheaper. Instead of getting 1 crop in 4 days, you'd get 9 in 7 days. That's still a gain.
EDIT: Actually I'm mistaken, since the plot-maker makes 4 tiles. So that's 36 crops in 7 days.

3 hours ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

Plus keep another thing to mind: if forumers, that usually are informed advanced players actively seeking understanding and data, are divided on this issue... imagine when update hits live servers how bulk player-base, namely newbies/noobs/casuals, will receive it; how this populace will react to an over-complicated system with so many indices that they won't probably even get right its complete magnitude, not to mention being marginally efficient at it - assuming they will even attempt to wrap their heads around it. As a mainly pub-dweller (Survival vanilla dedicated servers akin KLei Official ones) I can attest: bar... is very low. Time will tell. In the meanwhile I for one am pessimistically reserved even after studying its ins-and-outs.

Most 'noobs', 'casuals'  or new players barely are able to make it past winter. Even less a year. Even less take on the impressive bosses. The ones that do either learn, or they don't. That's all. It's the same in regards to this. The only real issue I see with pubs is the Lord of the Fruitflies, since afaik it spawns every 20 days if there's a harvest of 10 or more.

The divide for forumers seems less of "this is bad for what it is" and more "this is bad because its different". Which I'm sure is why Klei is skeptical about touching core systems or reworking the big three.

[Pikapikap]

1 minute ago, Zeklo said:

Klei is skeptical about touching core systems or reworking the big three.

I am very happy that they have taken the first step, which makes me look forward to the future of DST even more

[Ohan]

4 hours ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

pessimistically reserved

nice to see some things never change 

Quote

namely newbies/noobs/casuals, will receive it; how this populace will react to an over-complicated system with so many indices that they won't probably even get right its complete magnitude, not to mention being marginally efficient at it - assuming they will even attempt to wrap their heads around it.

Its not rocket science, literally. We're not talking about Oxygen Not Included . I suggest you consider the facts of the new system as they are instead of imagining how a hypothetical "other" who couldnt possibly be as capable as you are would perceive them. 

Quote

For people such as myself that don't care about elaborate plot-farm mechanics and just want a valid "set-and-forget" approach

Nothing has changed in that regard you can still do that. The new system rewards you for putting in extra effort, if you choose to not put in extra effort the yield is equal or greater (crop seed) in comparison to the old system. 

[bagherthegamer]

I think this update hits most of the marks just right. The reason why so many people hated on it was more because klei completley changed a whole aspect of the game so sudenly that some of us(and i dont blame them) got super confused with all of this. Plus, it might seem hard but after you play around for awhile and learn the new concepts farming is gonna be even easier than before. I swear 90% of the people who complain havent even played the update yet. 

Btw the wicker nerf isnt so much of a nerf and its more like a need to make more of it thingy. The book isnt super hard to make and you can use each one 5 times. 50 crops for each AH book. 20 seeds 20 poop and 8 papyrus for 200 crops. Not so hard and not so easy. I like it. And at the very least if youre not gonna use the AH book, that dosent mean wickerbottom is a bad charecter.