Fruit Trees

[TinnedEpic]

I want to discuss fruit trees as a seasonal food option.

 

Where do we find fruit trees?

I was thinking fruit trees could be found in the residential areas of Muldraugh (and later other towns/cities like west point). Fruit Trees wouldn't be found in the wild or rural areas, simply because they are not native to the area, instead they could be found in backyards of some houses (though would be very uncommon as not to provide an overbearing food supply).

 

How would they work?

Fruit trees could come into season respective to when they would naturally bloom. Most fruit trees bloom/fruit in the spring or summer. Thus for a reasonable time each year, fruit trees would be able to provide food that the player could potentially harvest. Furthermore only fruit trees adapted to the climate of muldraugh would be growing in peoples backyard. Banana Palms would not be able to bare fruit in such a climate as their native to the tropics, but apples would be a perfect choice.

 

Could they be farmed?

No, Fruit trees would remain stationary trees (that can be cut down like any other tree) that provide fruit for a short time each year. This forces the player to visit the inner city and face the hordes in order to exploit this valuable food source. Keeping the player coming back to the cities long after they have picked the place clean and quickly in order to beat NPC's to the fruit. In fact it may be a disadvantage to players on the farms as they may not be able to collect this fruit as regularly and thus be unable to exploit this as a viable food option in the summer/spring months (and unable to collect it before NPC's due to traveling distance).

Reason I say no to farming is that fruit trees can take years to mature before they are ready to bare fruit, so it would be impractical in the short and mid term as a farming option.

 

How much food can a Fruit Tree Provide?

Fruit Trees can provide a lot of fruit in the spring and summer months, I would suggest up to 5-25 individual pieces of fruit (depending on the tree and it's size). They would however ONLY provide fruit in the spring and summer months. Perhaps autumn if the in particular fruit calls for it. This means that fruit trees can only sustain you for a few months before you must find another food source.

 

I did some searching, I couldn't find any topic relating to fruit trees (of course I couldn't gain access to the old forum). Though I am reluctant to believe I am the first to think of this, and as such if this topic has been brought up before or confirmed/denied by the devs I apologize now.

 

I'd love to hear some thoughts.

[Suomiboi]

Yes, I like the idea. First though needs to be known what kind of fruit trees grow or are grown in the muldraugh area and if it is actually that common to find those trees in the suburbs or wherever. I wouldn't be surprised if the area had apple, cherry and plum trees and such. Everything else in your suggestion seems legit to me and I support this 100%.

 

With this comes to mind that berries should be somewhat seasonal too. It would make the exploit much harder and require you to again loot loot more, which is one of the main points of this game afterall.

[TinnedEpic]

Indeed, more research needs to be done into those. Though I am fairly confident apples would be a yes and bananas would be a no. peaches even could be a possibility though I can't be 100% sure. I wouldn't expect them to be common at all, far from it. Perhaps maybe 2-3 houses at best across muldraugh might have fruit trees in their backyard.

 

Berries as far as I know season in the autumn, but this is based off something I heard while listening to David Attenborough talk about the grizzly bear. In fact a wide variety of different foods could become available at different times of year. Seasonal food opportunities, the thought has occurred to me .

[kinyoshi]

Ha would be funny if you take over an area in the winter-time and chop down all of the trees not realizing they were all apple trees. 

[Rathlord]

They'd get apples and berries mainly. We also get muscedines, which are basically wild grapes. You can find those in the woods all over. KY is a bit north for peaches but its still possible there could be some. Muscedines should be findable in the woods as well as the town.

[PK'EZ-54]

Bacon trees are best trees.

[TinnedEpic]

Lol forget PZ who has a PHD in genetic splicing and coding? We need to make bacon trees happen!