On farming & difficulty.

[asveron]

TLDR:

-Low tier ingredients should be easy to farm, and cost a lot of water.

-High tier ingredients should be hard to farm and cost less water so it supports a higher duplicant count.

-Difficulty should be linked to plant parameters rather than stress levels.

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A lot of us have been suggesting increased stress to lower tier food. While that might work in some scenarios, stress really just slows down duplicant progress. Without the urgency to rush out sleet wheat or algae distilleries, stress doesn't really make the game more challenging.

I believe that higher tier ingredients should be much harder to farm and require less water. We have a limited amount of water in ONI and it doesn't seem like there's an obvious ways to introduce more water gaining mechanics. We are currently punished by having better plants since they require water and limits duplicant count. As we progress, we should be able to support more duplicants to feel like our base is expanding. Therefore, by having fragile plants cost less water, players are rewarded by setting up systems to hold these plants.

On the note of difficulty, I noticed that starvation is a much bigger threat than stress. With massage tables, stress will always just slow down progress rather than lead to interesting scenarios. When my farms are halted, I'm under a lot more pressure than when duplicants gain stress. Plant parameters are much more rewarding as a difficulty parameter for us veteran ONI engineers.

Bonus! What would be an interesting plant for you to grow?
I would love:

Bipolar Beets: Requires 2 seasons to fully grow. A hot season, and a cold season.

or:

Rainbow Raisins: Requires to be in 4 layers of atmosphere. Hydrogen, Oxygen, Natural Gas, Chlorine. 4 tiles tall. Randomly consumes gas when growing.