Farms not needed at all

[LtShinySides]

This. I understand pausing the honey production in winter, but slowing it down etc is not going to work. Neither will adding aggro to bees, people will just put the bee boxes farther away from their bases. Honey is such a good deal that people will jump through hurdles to get a reliable production of it going, be it building as many bee boxes as possible or building it in a secluded place as long as it gives HONEY.

That is an excellent point. It looks like this is going to be tricky to solve.

[Kevin]

Oh you guys. You just can't help yourself but hoard, can you?From looking at the numbers, I think that an individual box produces at too great a rate. If I bring it down too much you'll just grind for it, but I think it does need some balance. Maybe honey itself is just too tempting at the moment, and needs a little nerf. I think the fact that everyone seems so honey obsessed means that it is too good in relation to other foods.Or maybe poor wilson should go into sugar shock if all you do is eat honey ham all dang day. Don't make me add a nutrition system!

[Kevin]

Actually, come to think - the problem is that honey is the major solution for both sanity and health. It should probably be only one of these things.

[RetroGamer2000]

Good for you!You can survive just by eating berries all the time.>Farms are fun and convenient though.

Reminds of how i play! XD

[Silvi]

Actually, come to think - the problem is that honey is the major solution for both sanity and health. It should probably be only one of these things.

There's an idea - a good one. Honey is just used in too many good things and along with monster meat it creates nuggets, which pretty much ends up the only thing I could eat if I were cheap.Less bee boxes just means people will jump to next world after getting the beeswax (I would probably do that, since I jump to world 3-4 right off the bat anyway).

[Palpetinus]

Oh you guys. You just can't help yourself but hoard, can you?From looking at the numbers, I think that an individual box produces at too great a rate. If I bring it down too much you'll just grind for it, but I think it does need some balance. Maybe honey itself is just too tempting at the moment, and needs a little nerf. I think the fact that everyone seems so honey obsessed means that it is too good in relation to other foods.Or maybe poor wilson should go into sugar shock if all you do is eat honey ham all dang day. Don't make me add a nutrition system!

Maybe when we build another box next to a box, the bees start to battle eachother, because every hive wants to claim their terretory?Which results in no honey at all.

[Silvi]

Maybe when we build another box next to a box, the bees start to battle eachother, because every hive wants to claim their terretory?Which results in no honey at all.

You can build boxes spread apart around the base tho, so that's no problem.

[Kevin]

Maybe when we build another box next to a box, the bees start to battle eachother, because every hive wants to claim their terretory?Which results in no honey at all.

Now that is some good thinking. Perhaps bees from different hives should target and kill each other. At the very least, it will make people spread their beeboxes out.

[Silvi]

Now that is some good thinking. Perhaps bees from different hives should target and kill each other. At the very least, it will make people spread their beeboxes out.

I'm not sure if that's not just adding busywork to it. Instead we could have beeboxes spawn killer bees that do not drop stings every once in a while.

[sirmentlegen]

Well with honey it is ether useless and not worth the time or OP.Although honey does not compare to a nice piece of meat.

[Palpetinus]

I'm not sure if that's not just adding busywork to it. Instead we could have beeboxes spawn killer bees that do not drop stings every once in a while.

Yeah, too much busywork. Busywork that consumes time in which i could be farming meat.

[helointernet]

It is true that africanized bees will invade and take over non-africanized hives.

[Silvi]

Yeah, too much busywork. Busywork that consumes time in which i could be farming honey.

Nah, I'd just leave the farms alone and run off to explore, then return and farm honey in 2-3 spots. Making me spread the beeboxes around isn't going to stop me from having a couple of them. There is no drawback to having multiple beeboxes and I think that's the main problem. There's no danger in keeping bees near your base and honey is just so delicious.

[Palpetinus]

Nah, I'd just leave the farms alone and run off to explore, then return and farm honey in 2-3 spots. Making me spread the beeboxes around isn't going to stop me from having a couple of them. There is no drawback to having multiple beeboxes and I think that's the main problem. There's no danger in keeping bees near your base and honey is just so delicious.

It's still a better solution than anything else. Nerf honey? More boxes=more honey.Nerf the boxes? Same thing.It's not hard to make more boxes.

[Kevin]

Hmmm. So the problem is that honey is super valuable, and that it is relatively easy to set up a self-sustaining honey farm, that provides for two of your three major needs in the game.Making honey itself do less is probably a good idea. I'm thinking that it's healing role could be downplayed, in favour of just plain meat.Slowing production is probably a good balancing step, but it doesn't solve the problem because people will just grind. Again, if honey were less attractive, there would be less of a reason to grind for it...Perhaps the problem is the self-sustaining nature of it. Maybe the beebox should stop working after a while, making honey finite to the world. It isn't neccessary (you can eat other things), but you can ration it out for special occasions. There will always be more comb though the teleportato, if you really want more.Or... as a compromise... maybe the box's production rate should diminish if you harvest it too often. Maybe harvesting should trigger an increasing die-off of bees, which in turn slows production as they regenerate. Currently the optimal strategy is to always harvest honey as soon as it appears. That's not an interesting decision... there should be some strategy involved in planning your harvest.Anyway, just bouncing around ideas.

[Silvi]

I like the idea of beeboxes needing susistance or maintenance and making the output depend on how many times it was harvested. Making honey finite would make so many people rage though...And btw honeyprovides for ALL the meters in the game - health, hunger and sanity. All hail honey?

[sirmentlegen]

Perhaps the problem is the self-sustaining nature of it. Maybe the beebox should stop working after a while, making honey finite to the world. It isn't neccessary (you can eat other things), but you can ration it out for special occasions. There will always be more comb though the teleportato, if you really want more.

Making honey finite is a bad idea just like making pigs finite was.

[helointernet]

I'm a big fan of finite resources. The game becomes more of an economic challenge when you have to manage finite (or at least diminishing) resources. I like both ideas, but as much as I like the idea of finite honey, I know a lot of other players will rage hard if the resource becomes finite.Also, now that I think about it: the idea of having to manage/upkeep a honey farm may be seen as a sort of micro-management time sink if not implemented properly.

Edited February 19, 2013 by helointernet

[Palpetinus]

In reallife you give the bees sugar when you take the honey (how many knew that? ), or else they would get pissed and/or would die.So maybe we will have to give them berries once in a while, or they would die? [MENTION=8]Kevin[/MENTION] Don't make it finite, please. I like honey as a solid, reliable food source.

[Silvi]

In reallife you give the bees sugar when you take the honey (how many knew that? ), or else they would get pissed and/or would die.So maybe we will have to give them berries once in a while, or they would die? [MENTION=8]Kevin[/MENTION] Don't make it finite, please. I like honey as a solid, reliable food source.

I knew there was some pasty thing you feed bees, didn't know what it had in it. Sugar huh.Berries are easy to come by though. Maybe we could use something like the reeds from the swamp biome to make sugar? (different kinds of reeds or the same kind, doesn't really matter. I mean it is a game)....yeah probably too complicated a method and all of this just to make honey harder to get.

[Capp]

I think that honey should just be less useful in general. Right now it makes the best sanity restorer (4 honey) and is a key ingredient to honey ham (2 meat 2 honey). It is easy to farm up and generates quickly.I think the taffy recipe should be changed to include other ingredients, maybe it can still have 1 or 2 honey as part of it, but make it rely on other sources.Other solutions include:When harvesting honey, bees come out as killer bees and have increased move speed for a time. Slower production rate = more grinding = less funDecrease the power of the beekeeper helmet. The helmet mitigates almost 100% of the damage you would take from harvesting bees and wears out slowly.Increase spoilage rate of honey/ decrease healing rate.Chance to spawn a queen bee that is pretty pissed off when you attack a hive. Bees in bee boxes mate and produce a queen bee after 14 days or something.I do agree that making honey finite is a bad idea, especially for sandbox players who want to play for 300 days without teleporting. I think a couple of these in conjunction would work, i dont think there is one single answer though, and it may take constant tweaking.

[pacovf]

And btw honeyprovides for ALL the meters in the game - health, hunger and sanity. All hail honey?

Not to mention that it spoils veeeeeery slowly.

[Silvi]

Not to mention that it spoils veeeeeery slowly.

yes, that too. Though in real life honey also spoils very slow, so if it was fast in game I woudln't know what to think about it.

[InSpace]

Make honey really weak so that it's meant to be a crockpot material, for the candy and the honeyd meat etc

[Palpetinus]

I think that honey should just be less useful in general. Right now it makes the best sanity restorer (4 honey) and is a key ingredient to honey ham (2 meat 2 honey). It is easy to farm up and generates quickly.I think the taffy recipe should be changed to include other ingredients, maybe it can still have 1 or 2 honey as part of it, but make it rely on other sources.Other solutions include:When harvesting honey, bees come out as killer bees and have increased move speed for a time. Slower production rate = more grinding = less funDecrease the power of the beekeeper helmet. The helmet mitigates almost 100% of the damage you would take from harvesting bees and wears out slowly.Increase spoilage rate of honey/ decrease healing rate.Chance to spawn a queen bee that is pretty pissed off when you attack a hive. Bees in bee boxes mate and produce a queen bee after 14 days or something.I do agree that making honey finite is a bad idea, especially for sandbox players who want to play for 300 days without teleporting. I think a couple of these in conjunction would work, i dont think there is one single answer though, and it may take constant tweaking.

The beekeeper helmet is not a problem, i never wear it and it still deals almost no damage (with the football helmet). But if they would deal damage, you would just have to kite them.I am still sticking with my "terretory" idea. Kevin approves, too :DMaybe decrease the maximum quanitity and add my terretory thing? You would have to travel constantly between the hives to get any high ammount of honey.

yes, that too. Though in real life honey also spoils very slow, so if it was fast in game I woudln't know what to think about it.

In Reallife, honey doesn't spoil at all. It's too sweet for the bacteria.